Selective Freedom

"You can't get a little bit pregnant, son."
--Lou Mannheim (Wall Street)

The First Amendment enumerates some of many natural rights of the individual: a person's right to free worship, speech, and assembly.  The amendment reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

But there are many other natural rights as well--which can be generally captured under the domain of property rights. All of these rights are 'natural' in that they are endowed by our Creator (or as a function of our humanity). They are inalienable.

They are also inseparable.

Some people demonstrate affinitity for only a subset of natural rights. For example, there are those who stand up in support freedom of speech while at the same time disdaining an individual's freedom of association, self-defense, or property ownership.

But natural rights are not like produce, where people can pick and choose what they like while tossing the rest back on the pile. Each right, such as speech, is but one dimension of holistic liberty.

People are not free if they can legally express their views, while being penalized by law for choosing to associate with a particular individuals, or for wanting to keep the spoils of their labor.

Selective freedom is an illusion of despotism and its proponents.