From: dking@raul.nas.nasa.gov (Dan King)
Subject: Re: The Constitution
Organization: Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Facility NASA
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 23:38:20 GMT
Reply-To: dking@raul.nas.nasa.gov (Dan King)


In article <1992Apr15.011837.6584@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> mal11@po.CWRU.Edu (Matthew A. Lewis) writes:

>The Constitution guarantees life, liberty and the pursuit
>of happiness.

No it doesn't.  There is no such clause in the constitution.  Perhaps
you are confused.  The Declaration of Independence does say that.

>Now the real question is:

>are these 3 words in this order because they sound real SPIFFY together
>or is that the order of priority???

Doesn't really matter since the Declaration of Independence is not
law.

>Is the Constitution guarantees life, then isn't potential human life
>guaranteed?

Luckily it does no such thing or we would be in all kinds of trouble
every time we as men ejaculate or women menstruate.  (We'll least most
of you all would.  Me, I no longer kill off potential human life every
time I ejaculate.)


>MaThiEu a. LeWis   "Achtung ya'll........it's good to be down in America

The rest really doesn't have anything to do with abortion but came
up during a discussion of the drug war.

This brings up and interesting Constitutional question.  Perhaps
someone more familiar with Constitutional law could help me.  (I don't
mean more familiar than MaThiEu who has no clue what is said in the
Constitution, but someone more familiar than myself.)

Below is the fifth amendment.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury,
except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia,
when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any
person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of
life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a
witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for
public use without just compensation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

This amendment specifys specific rights we have.  I was under the
impression that this amendment guarantees us the right not to be
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
This would make some of the tactics of the drug warriors illegal.
However, on closer examination of this amendment, the question of
punctuation came up.  Notice the comma before the mentioned rights.
All of the rights appear to be separated by semicolons.  It would
seem this amendment could be correctly interpreted to guarantee
the following rights:

1 No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise
  infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury,
  except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia,
  when in actual service in time of war or public danger.
2 nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put
  in jeopardy of life or limb.
3 Not shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against
  himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without
  due process of law.
4 Nor shall private property be taken for public use without just
  compensation.

Reading it this way, their is no Constitutional guarantee to life,
liberty or property.  These rights are only guaranteed in the case
of a criminal case.

Has this punctuation been addressed by Constitutional Scholars?

Dan King
Newsgroups: alt.abortion.inequity