Special rights is a term originally used by libertarians to refer to laws granting rights to one or more groups which are not extended to other groups. Ideas of special rights are controversial, as they clash with the principle of equality before the law.
Potential examples of special rights include affirmative action policies or hate crime legislation with regard to ethnic, religious or sexual minorities, or the state recognition of marriage as a group with different taxation than those who are non-married.
Concepts of special rights are closely aligned with notions of group rights and identity politics.
Read more about Special Rights: Other Uses, Legal Argument, Libertarianism On Rights and Special Rights, Definition of Minorities
Famous quotes containing the words special and/or rights:
“The books may say that nine-month-olds crawl, say their first words, and are afraid of strangers. Your exuberantly concrete and special nine-month-old hasn’t read them. She may be walking already, not saying a word and smiling gleefully at every stranger she sees. . . . You can support her best by helping her learn what she’s trying to learn, not what the books say a typical child ought to be learning.”
—Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)
“... the constructive power of an image is not measured in terms of its truth, but of the love it inspires.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 15 (1962)