Harmeet Dhillon: "That's not how [the] Constitution works."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Aaron Rupar
‪@atrupar.com‬

Dhillon: "The AR-15 and other semi-automatic rifles are the most popular rifles in the US. Millions of Americans enjoy them. So the standard that CA & VA is adopting here is that if you live in these 2 states, you have fewer rights than people in adjoining states. That's not how [the] Constitution works."



10:59 AM · Jul 2, 2026

Dhillon: "The AR-15 and other semi-automatic rifles are the most popular rifles in the US. Millions of Americans enjoy them. So the standard that CA & VA is adopting here is that if you live in these 2 states, you have fewer rights than people in adjoining states. That's not how Constitution works"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-07-02T14:59:27.902Z

[Midnight Writer]

1. But for abortion rights, we will go state by state, so women in one state will have less rights than women in another.

And for voting rights, we'll let each state set their own standards, so people in one state may have less rights than people in another state.

And for speech rights, we have declared money to be a form of protected speech, so people with lots of money have more speech rights than people with little money.

As for Medicaid and SNAP, we will let each state make their own rules so that people in one state may get less return on their taxes than people in another state.

Is that how the Constitution is supposed to work?

[Stacey Grove]

2. Of the four things you mentioned,

only the right of free speech is enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

[Igel]

3. Yeah, actually.

Elections are up to the states; there is no actual election for a federal position--we vote for state reps to the EC, not for the president. We vote for state reps to the House and Senate. Unlike Germany, for instance, where the states are administrative divisions and all power flows down from the central government, we're a bunch of states that together form a federal government. Not as loose as during the Confederation, but certainly flipped from how European countries are constituted. The good news is that if you don't like how your state does things, there are 49 others that might suit you better.

Speech has never and can never be equitable. I live in a city, I can stand and rant on the street corner and maybe reach thousands of people. I live in a rural area, I can stand on a street corner and maybe see 5 people all day. Free press? That's fine if you own a press. You don't own a press? Maybe you can borrow somebody else's, but that depends on the 'somebody else'. If you have money you can pay to use the other guy's--but then we're back to that apparently novel idea that money is somehow speech, as though that wasn't true all along. Got no press and no money, you get to find a street corner.

Even things that are 'equal' aren't. Take the SALT deduction. To really make use of it you have to have enough stuff to itemize. High state income taxes, fees, high property taxes. Texas property values are way lower than in some places in NY and California or Washington (state), we have no income tax, so SALT doesn't really help us. It does benefit people with a lot of property wealth in high-income tax blue states, however. Social Security? Purchasing power parity differences between states means that the same $ amount is worth more in some states than others. As for Medicaid and SNAP, most of the recipients don't pay much in federal income tax anyway--payroll tax, sure, but not "income tax". It's really around the 50th percentile that the household income tax stops being real close to zero.

Still, the Constitution tries to make some things clearly matters of rights that the state cannot violate or abridge because the state just protects and enables the rights to be enjoyed, the state doesn't grant them. It doesn't mention some other possible rights, and whether they were included in the 'other' category back in the late 1780s or not, ask a disinterested historian. (Oh--and good luck finding one of those these days.)