CDR: Re: Freedom of Association in US

[Jim Choate]

On Mon, 25 Sep 2000, Steven Furlong wrote:

> Jim Choate wrote:
> > First there is no 'freedom of association' in the Constitution.
> 
> Assuming that you're talking about the US Constitution, shall we start
> with the 9th Amendment?

But not one of those documents is IN the Constitution. So you'll have to
fight (not that I agree with this aspect) to get them accepted. After all
there is nothing to keep one from using the 'Communist Manifesto' for a
reference document with respect to unalienable rights.

What the Constitution DOES say is that with respect to inter-state
commerce the federals can regulate it. 'Commerce' has two definitions. The
first is the commenest which is transfer of goods and services. The
second, less well known, is the interactions of individuals. So it is
clear the federals have a direct stipulation to regulate inter-state
commerce and that included person-to-person interactions. So much for
inter-state freedom to associate.

Now what about intra-state? There is nothing in the Constitution that
prevents the application of this basic federal principle to the states
within their boundaries. So, per the 10th the question of whether an
individual had free association within the state would be guided by the
state Constitution.

It should be obvious that there is no fundamental 'right to associate'.
People have a right to be left alone. People have a right to protect
themselves so they have a right to keep you and your burglar budies (for
example) apart so long as there is a reasonable snowballs chance in hell
of you burglarizing anyone. You don't have a 'freedom to associate' that
would let you stroll into a prison and have exchanges with one or more
prisoners unsupervised.

The best one can hope for is that in the pursuit of happiness people must
associate with other people. Within the bounds of the inter-state commerce
clause and the 1st and 4th Amendment the federal goverment can't regulate
your behaviour.

You can associate with anyone provided there isn't reasonable cause to
keep you apart. Under our Constitution the only reasonable cause
acceptable is that the association will cause a crime to be commited (and 
people squeeze that baby for all it's worth).

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