Originally Posted by
FlyJSH
At what point does trimming ones liberty become loss of liberty? What about the pursuit of happiness? And don't forget
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
IF he or his wife have done something illegal, I'll be the first to vote to lock them up. If Colgan wants to fire him for the beard, that is THIER right since (a) it probably violates the company's uniform and (b) by preventing a good seal on the O2 mask, it could endanger the aircraft and passengers.
First off let's get a few things defined...
The ACLU lawyer was refering to the Fifth Amendment (due process) which does not mention the "pursuit of happiness" - to even mention this relates is not logical... I don't want to get too technical here but there are two types of due process... procedural and substansive... neither have anything to do with the "pursuit of happiness"... I could give you multiple examples in history of breaches of liberty (i.e the entire Lincoln admin.), this is not one of them. The Fifth Amendment also pertains to government bodies acting in such a manner....
there is an exemption for cases of Public Danger .
As far as the First Amendment goes
It has nothing to do with this context at all. No one is telling him he can't practice Islam with his wife.
The Government put this guy on a watch list... they didn't charge him with a crime and then not give him due process... they just put him on a watch list for whatever reason (Public Danger). His employer made the decision to deal with his employment is a particular manner.
When I was refering to limited liberty.... a better term would be "liberty with responsibility" ... we all are not free to do whatever we want. Would you use the "pursuit of happiness" term with a coke dealer... obviously not. If you read the entire context of the Declaration as well as the Constitution.. you'll see the limited liberty. Around the same time we were, the French were having a revolution... they were an example of liberty without responsibility.