Rights You Can’t Give Away
At First Things, Texas A&M political scientist, James R. Rogers, distinguishes between alienable and inalienable rights. “[A]n inalienable right cannot be given away by the person who has it,” Rogers writes. Rogers explains the practical role that inalienable rights play in preserving democratic rule, and not just when governments attempt to “grab power from their citizens without their consent…inalienable rights inure against the possibility that people in some situations can be induced to give those rights away.”