Contemporary Constitutional Actions

Nicole Davoren
Period 6 Civics
1.The Natural Rights Philosophy was first formed by John Locke. He believed that if you are born a human being, then you automatically have the right to life, liberty, and property, and the government is there to protect these rights. A recent event unfolded that has shown how our government will investigate when any of these rights are broken. On Friday February 6th, a doctors license was revoked. His patent, a teenager, was planning on having an abortion, gave birth to a live baby, and immediately the baby was killed when clinic staffers put it in to a plastic bag and threw it in the trash. “ A fetus born alive cannot be put to death even if its mother intended to have an abortion” says police. It is rare for a baby born at 23 weeks, such as this one, to live. However, the staff violated the natural rights philosophy when they did noting to help the baby live and put it to its death.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/06/florida.abortion/index.html

2.Classical Republicanism is the theory where the role of the citizen is to show civic virtue to benefit the common good, and the government and its people act on the good of the community, rather their individual interests. One example of Classical Republicanism today is how some Stop and Shops and Shop Rite pharmacy's in Connecticut are giving away free medication to the public. “All you need is a doctor's prescription, no insurance is necessary. Stop and Shop started offering the free drugs in January during the height of the cold and flu season” says the article. This shows Classical Republicanism because the stores are putting aside their want to make money, and promoting the common good by helping them to stay healthy and get medication, when they other wise couldn't afford them.
Source: http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/news_wtnh_cromwell_health_free_antibiotics_200902052330_rev1

3.President Obama's actions have shown us that he is a Federalist. According to the West's American Government textbook Federalists are “those who favor a strong central government and the new Constitution.” An example of how Obama shows that he is a Federalist, is his proposed economic stimulus plan. This plan is Federalist, because it the central government will delegate where and what the money will be put into, and it will be shared throughout the entire country. “At its core, the legislation is designed to ease the worst economic recession in generations, and combines hundreds of billions of dollars in spending to boost consumption by the public sector, along with tax cuts designed to increase consumer spending.” says the article. If Obama was Anti Federalist, he would leave the choice of stimulating the economy to the separate states.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090207/ap_on_go_co/congress_stimulus