I am conflicted about a petition happening over here to keep abortion protesters at a distance from clinic doors. On the one hand, I support the right to protest & the free expression of views in public places. On the other, this gets close to forcing people to listen.
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Association refers to the ability to choose one’s associates, so - of necessity - includes the right to say ‘I choose [not] to listen to you’ or ‘I choose to spend time in [x] company but not [y] company.’
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I see.
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They’re both negative rights, too, in the formulation popularised by Isaiah Berlin (traditionally, negative rights have primacy in any legal rights scheme). ECHR jurisprudence tends to balance them, SCOTUS jurisprudence ranks them (so, in the US, speech wins).
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It's the kind of thing that leads to retaliation. You have the right to yell at me when I'm trying to have a medical procedure? OK, I'll come and yell at you when you're trying to enter your place of worship. It mostly relies on people not being complete arseholes.
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Precisely. I think, on balance, association wins in this case, but it’s generally extremely hard to get right when two negative rights come into conflict.
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This was a very informative exchange thank you
@_HelenDale. -
You’re most welcome.
End of conversation
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