Rand Paul on the Life at Conception Act

[GunnyFreedom]

It's simple folks. Allow the states to decide these matters and be done with it.

That's what Ron and Rand's bill actually does. It's just kinda sneaky about it.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Well...there's the 14th amendment.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Yes, even there it specifically talks about the State depriving....

If a state were to say "You can't kill someone without cause unless he is black" then that state would be denying equal protection of the law.

Agreed. Equal protection being about the only thing I don't hate in the 14th

Without it, some jackass State probably would have tried to implement your hypothetical example above. Not now, probably, but back when the 14th was ratified, yeah, it probably would have happened.

But that doesn't mean a state must have a murder law.

Correct. You can't really say that a state could legalize murder, because murder by definition is "unlawful homicide." But a State could eliminate the crime of murder and legalize homicide without cause.

Probably wouldn't be a very popular State after that mind you, but it is Constitutional that a State could choose to not have a murder statute.

This is a federal murder law though. It applies if the murder takes place under the "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the U.S." (See: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1111) And that jurisdiction includes among other places, the high seas,

It seems to me that State jurisdiction could be extended to the boundaries of US Territorial Waters, or to the extent of the Continental Shelf and be done with that Federal claim. I admit that I find it hard to understand how Washington would claim jurisdiction say 500 miles out in the middle of the ocean, but I do know that if and American is murdered in the dead middle of the ocean they do indeed claim jurisdiction.

places where states do not have jurisdiction, federal lands (forts, arsenals etc.) and places containing key containing deposits of (bat) guano. (I kid you not. See: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/7)

LMAO that's insane!

 

[ProvincialPeasant]

It's funny how you all think the life of the unborn is negotiable but will refuse to vote for Rand, Amash, etc. over the most ridiculously purist causes. It betrays the fact that many Ron Paul supporters don't understand liberty and the only grasp they have of the abortion issue is the one they transplanted from their times as college liberals.

 

[jmdrake]

I address you respectfully and get that, wow. You’re young, full of yourself, and not half as wise as you think you are. I can tell you haven’t observed the politics of abortion, or even politics itself, very long. You’re in for a surprise. We're done.

Oh I'm sure your older and wiser than me. So please explain how what someone says in a robocall about a bill says more about what the bill can do than the text of the bill itself? Do you really think that if Ron's bill had passed it would have a different effect than Rand's simply because Ron (supposedly) used different rhetoric to support it?