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   Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 25-May-2026 02:24:27 JST Evan Prodromou

   Thanks to everyone who responded or replied.

   My feeling is that universal rights systems are usually best. They avoid having some people or groups fall between the cracks -- when some enumerated set of ethnic groups or religious practices are protected, but edge cases and novel situations are not.

   And consequences of human rights might not be full explored until long after they are codified. So, better they should be broad and universal.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 25-May-2026 02:27:28 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     There are a few downsides to universal rights systems, which is that some rights are hard to extrapolate from universal principles. The rights of Indigenous people in Canada, for example, are hard to derive from rights that an immigrant settler like me. Expressing Indigenous rights in treaty and law makes them more straightforward and explicit.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 25-May-2026 02:31:22 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     The other downside is that the application of rights regimes is not always well agreed, and can be reversed by later courts. Abortion rights in the USA is the great example here. I think there was a good reason to pass the Freedom of Choice Act before Dobbs; I think it's even more urgent to do so now.

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Choice_Act

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 25-May-2026 02:32:28 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     So: usually universal, with laws to back up or extend if needed.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 25-May-2026 03:40:46 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • Geoff Coffey

     @gwcoffey yes, extremely tenuous!

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     Geoff Coffey (gwcoffey@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 25-May-2026 03:40:47 JST Geoff Coffey

     in reply to

     @evan An aside, but it never ceases to amaze me how totally essentially all modern notions of domestic federal welfare power rest on the Interstate Commerce Clause. A result it clearly wasn't actually intended to produce.

     To be clear, I fully support the Freedom of Choice Act (and fair labor standards, and medical leave, and occupational safety standards, and union rights, and civil rights, and disability protections, and on and on…). It just shows how out of date our constitution is.