> The Declaration of Independence has no legal significance.
No disagreement there; I only brought it up as something that "might indicate" what the framers were thinking when they failed to grant any rights in the Constitution.
On the rest, I'm no constitutional scholar; you may well be right on how this was viewed then.
No disagreement there; I only brought it up as something that "might indicate" what the framers were thinking when they failed to grant any rights in the Constitution.
On the rest, I'm no constitutional scholar; you may well be right on how this was viewed then.