Apparently sensitivity is the new arbiter of Constitutional rights. The opponents of the Burlington Coat Factory Mosque claim they aren't religious bigots who oppose religious freedom and private property rights. They're just sensitive to the feelings of an abstraction known as the 9/11 families, who allegedly are offended by the proposed building of a Muslim community center near Ground Zero. As a New York gubernatorial candidate put it, "it's not about religious freedom, it's about ideology." (I paraphrase). This was in the context of proposing to seize the land where the Cordoba Institute wants to build its community center using eminent domain. This is quite a contortion on how Constitutional rights are usually protected by our courts. Normally the courts enforce the free exercise of religion and private property rights against those who are offended by them.
Allowing for sensitivity to be the arbiter of constitutional rights means shredding the Constitution. If I'm offended by you carrying a gun in a bar in Arizona, can I now tell you to go elsewhere? If I don't like what you write, can I now tell you to print it elsewhere? Likewise with due process, equal protection, universal suffrage etc etc. If you don't understand the fundamental fact that the Bill of Rights protects the minority from what offends the majority then you don't understand our Constitution. You know nothing about the Know Nothings, as has been said. I don't buy for one minute that this is not about Constitutional freedoms and is really all about people's feelings. The fascist overtones to this whole debate are disturbing.
