Lost Rights

This excerpt from Reader Mail #6 has been discussed elsewhere, so I'm republishing it and updating it as its own post.

Someone asked:

What rights have been lost?

My answer is "all of them".

1. You have lost your right to trial by jury. The Supreme Court has ruled that attorneys may not remind juries of their jury nullification privilege. When a judge gives instructions to a jury, they are specifically *BARRED* from practicing jury nullification. This was not done by passing a law; it was merely a court ruling. Further, biased jury selection methods repeal trial by jury. Knowledgeable and smart jurors are usually excluded in favor of jurors who will blindly follow the judge's orders. Originally, a jury was supposed to be 12 jurors drawn at random *WITH NO EXCEPTIONS*.
   
2. The right to a free press was lost with concentration of newspaper ownership. Fortunately, the Internet is correcting this problem.
3. Most people are denied the ability to think independently and freely. All mainstream information sources uniformly recite pro-State propaganda.
   
4. The right to bear arms has been lost. With taxation, regulation, and registration requirements, your right to own a gun has been pretty severely restricted. In many cities and states, it's illegal to own a gun if you aren't a policeman.
   
5. The right to work and keep the fruits of your labor has been lost, via the income tax. In other words, everyone is a slave.
   
6. The right to fair money has been lost by the Federal Reserve, fiat money, and The Compound Interest Paradox. People can't easily boycott the Federal Reserve and use sound money instead. Extensive taxes and regulations prevent people from using gold or silver as money. Pro-State trolls say "The market has discredited gold and silver as money." That is false. Government violence prevents people from using sound money.
   
7. The right of free speech has been mostly repealed, with restrictions on peaceful protesters. Protesting is a waste of time.
   
8. The right to a speedy trial has been repealed, with long drawn-out trials.
9. The right to a fair trial has been repealed via mandatory sentencing laws and excessive use of plea bargaining. For example, you may be faced with 30 years in jail if convicted, and offered a plea bargain for 1 year in jail. The incentive is to accept the plea bargain, even if you're innocent. A criminal trial is biased in favor of the government, giving people an incentive to plea bargain.
10. The right to a fair trial has been repealed by judges withholding information from juries. For example, suppose you face a sentence of 30 years in jail for a minor offense; you are not allowed to tell the jury that you will spend 30 years in jail if convicted, because that could affect their decision. As another example, suppose someone was recently robbed and is prosecuted for possession of a gun. When defending yourself, you are barred from telling the jury that you were recently robbed.
    
11. The right to own property has been repealed. You must pay property taxes (rent) or you lose your property. Further, zoning and environmental restrictions limit what you can do with your property. Nobody has full allodial title to their property.
    
12. The right to educate your children has been repealed with mandatory public schooling laws. State regulation of schools restricts the quality of schools; competition is limited. State schools are guaranteed funding via taxes. Even if you send your child to a private school or home-school, you're still forced to support corrupt State schools/brainwashing centers. In some states, homeschooling is forbidden or severely regulated. With declining real incomes, both parents are forced to work in most families, making homeschooling impossible. Someone can't profitably start a non-corrupt school, because of extensive regulations.
    
13. Common law has been repealed. You can only argue contract law or criminal/military law.
14. When corporations were given the right of property ownership, that eliminated the ability to hold people accountable for their actions. Further, tort reform has limited the liability of corporate management when they do bad things. The original authors of the US Constitution were very hostile to corporations; most of the colonies were British-owned corporations. There was no amendment or law that gave corporations the right of property ownership; it was merely a Supreme Court decision.
15. The right to purchase health care was repealed, with the AMA and government licensing requirements for doctors. The supply of doctors is limited. The number of slots in certified medical schools is intentionally kept low. That's the reason healthcare is expensive. Mainstream media sources never give the correct explanation. Artificially restricting the supply of doctors increases prices. Before mandatory government licensing of doctors, typical health care costs were less than a weeks' salary per year.
    
16. The right to representation by an attorney has been repealed. The American Bar Association and the government restrict the supply of attorneys. This guarantees that lawyers are expensive and only available to the wealthy. A law license guarantees someone a high-paying job. Whenever a non-attorney tries to give cheap/free legal advice, they are prosecuted for "practicing law without a license". Further, attorneys will refuse to give controversial defenses, lest they lose their law license. A lawyer who argues a jury nullification defense will lose his law license. A law license is expensive and a guarantee of a high-paying job, so lawyers can be forced to follow orders.
    
17. You don't have the right of protection against self-incrimination. You are required to report all economic activity to the IRS so you can be taxed. If you are fraudulently accused of a crime, your friends could be coerced into accepting a plea bargain and testifying against you.
    
18. The protection against unreasonable search and seizure has been repealed.
19. The right of habeas corpus has been repealed.
20. The ban on cruel and unusual punishment has been repealed.
21. The restriction of "no standing armies in cities" has been repealed. Increased militarization of local police makes them more military than civilian. The militarization of police is paid by wealth stolen via taxes. People are forced to pay for the police that oppress them. Effectively, this repeals the ban on being forced to quarter troops.
    
22. Licensing requirements for many professions restrict the supply, driving up prices. I already mentioned doctors and lawyers, but it also applies to plumbers, electricians, accountants, and many others. In *ALMOST EVERY* industry, there are government licensing requirements that restrict supply and drive up prices.