Part 38: Declaration of Sentient Rights
jng2058 posted:
Proposal: Declaration of Sentient Rights
That the Republic shall now and forever forward grant equal rights in all respect to all citizens, including those from liberated worlds, regardless of species or planetary origin. Further that liberated citizens are not individually responsible for acts committed by the government that they were oppressed by, though they remain responsible for acts they themselves committed and/or ordered.
Freedom does not exist where it is not universal.
This proposal is entirely consistent with established Republican legal principles from the wars that unified Earth, and in fact was almost certainly constitutionally adopted no later than our transition to Federation, if not earlier.