"Muh Rights!"

What exactly are your individual rights? What are they not?

Anyone who has spent even a minuscule amount of time on social media will have heard someone speak or write about the subject of rights. One will most likely have also heard someone respond in a sarcastic tone of “MuH RiGhTs!” to someone attempting to defend their rights in a civil debate. Naturally, one will also hear politicians speak of rights during their campaigns for office, when they are pushing to create new legislation, vetoing a bill, signing an executive order, or discussing a court ruling. What is clear from a long examination of these discussions of rights in public and private conversations is that many individuals have a different perception of what rights are and are not. The purpose of this article is to define our rights and to help settle this confusion.

It is said that people have this or that right. One might call it a “natural right,” an “inalienable right,” a “negative right,” a “positive right,” a “civil right,” and even a “human right.” However, depending on an individual’s political, economic, religious, and ideological philosophy, their definition of what rights people have a right to can vary greatly. Their views of rights can also conflict with one another. So, how are all these various rights defined?

1. Natural Rights

A natural right is a fundamental and inherent entitlement that exists by virtue of natural law, independent of any specific culture, tradition, rules, or government. These rights are considered universal and inalienable, meaning they cannot be repealed by human laws, although one can forfeit their enjoyment through their actions. Natural rights are often associated with the concept of natural law and have been historically considered as essential to human existence and societal functioning. Three commonly recognized natural rights are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In various documents that go back for thousands of years, many of these natural rights have been described, discussed, and listed. Most notably among the founding documents in American history they are mentioned in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. However, there is not one long list of these natural rights contained in our founding documents. This is clear from the wording found in the Ninth Amendment: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”¹ Clearly, individuals have a plethora of natural rights. The following list of natural rights was published in W. Cleon Skousen’s book, Five Thousand Leap:

The right of self-government.

The right to bear arms for self-defense.

The right to own, develop, and dispose of property.

The right to make personal choices.

The right of free conscience.

The right to choose a profession.

The right to choose a mate.

The right to beget one’s kind.

The right to assemble.

The right to petition.

The right to free speech.

The right to enjoy the fruits of one’s labors.

The right to improve one’s position through barter and sale.

The right to contrive and invent.

The right to explore the natural resources of the earth.

The right to privacy.

The right to provide personal security.

The right to provide nature’s necessities—air, food, water, clothing, and shelter.

The right to a fair trial.

The right of free association.

The right to contract.²

2. Inalienable Rights

Inalienable rights are rights that are inherent to every individual and cannot be taken away or transferred. These rights are considered natural and are not dependent on any government or legal system. Inalienable rights are often contrasted with legal rights, civil rights, or civil law, which are granted or protected by laws and can be modified or revoked by a governing body. The concept of inalienable rights is rooted in the belief that these rights are inherent to human nature and should be protected by governments.

3. Negative Rights

Negative rights are defined as rights that protect individuals from the actions or interventions of others, usually in the form of abuse or coercion. These rights impose a “negative” duty on others, which means they require others to refrain from certain actions or behaviors. Negative rights focus on the protection of individual freedom and liberty by prohibiting specific actions, rather than requiring positive actions or the provision of certain goods and services. In summary, negative rights protect individuals from harm and interference by others, while not imposing any obligation on others to provide assistance or resources.

4. Positive Rights

Positive rights are rights that impose a positive duty on others, typically the government or society, to provide or act in a certain way to fulfill certain needs or entitlements. They are often associated with the provision of basic necessities, such as healthcare, education, and social security. In contrast to negative rights, which focus on freedom from interference or coercion, positive rights require active assistance or support from others. The acknowledgment of positive rights through legal rights or civil law, gives governments the power to infringe upon the natural rights of individuals, particularly the right to private property through varying degrees of taxation. This distinction between negative and positive rights is often debated in political and legal philosophy, as is the case here with the U.N.’s declaration of universal human rights.

5. Civil Rights vs. Civil Liberties

Civil rights refer to non-political rights of a citizen, ensuring full and equal citizenship for people who have historically faced discrimination. These rights guarantee personal liberty and protection from unlawful discrimination based on certain characteristics, such as race, color, national origin, disability, age, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity). Civil rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution and federal laws, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Civil liberties are constitutionally protected freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. They are the hallmark of liberal, democratic “free” societies and typically include the rights to freedom of thought, expression, and action, as well as the protection of these rights from government interference or restriction. Examples of civil liberties include freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. In the United States, the Bill of Rights guarantees a variety of civil liberties.

6. Human Rights

The U.N. has combined the various terms above to create their definition of human rights:

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more.  Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.³

In the end, all individuals have natural, inalienable, and negative rights. Government’s sole duty is to secure these rights from infringement. This is expressly stated in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.⁴

Rights are moral concepts that establish how we as individuals interact with one another. This means that there are right and wrong actions that individuals can commit in society. When wrong actions are committed, they violate an individual’s natural rights, and an infringement has occurred. Both individuals, groups of people, and governments can and do violate the natural rights of individuals. The latter often violates the natural rights of others by passing and enforcing civil laws (legal or constitutional rights) which restrain, license, or put financial conditions (taxes and fees) on their citizens. These rights given by a government can be changed or removed on the State’s whim. However, the rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence are inherent and above civil law. These natural rights do not come from the government. It was for this reason that after “a long train of abuses and usurpations” of these natural rights that many British subjects in the American colonies declared their independence from the Crown to reestablish their rights and freedoms.⁵ When the colonists broke their bonds with their former government, they did not lose their natural rights, they simply reestablished a new government to secure their natural rights from further infringement.

1. “Constitution of the United States: Bill of Rights,” The Avalon Project (Yale Law School: Lillian Goldman Law Library, 2019), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rights1.asp.

2. Willard Cleon Skousen, The Five Thousand Year Leap: 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World, Internet Archive (Franklin, TN : American Documents Publishing, L.L.C., 2009), 95, https://archive.org/details/fivethousandyear0000skou/page/94/mode/2up?.

3. United Nations, “Human Rights,” United Nations (United Nations, 2023), https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/human-rights.

4. Charles C. Tansill, “Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776,” The Avalon Project (Yale Law School: Lillian Goldman Law Library, 2019), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/declare.asp.

5. Ibid.