Potential examples of special rights include affirmative action policies or hate crime legislation with regard to ethnic, religious or sexual minorities or state recognition of marriage as a group with different taxation from those who are not married.
[citation needed] More recently, social conservatives have used the term to more narrowly refer to measures that extend existing rights for heterosexual couples to gays and lesbians, such as in the case of same sex marriage, or that include sexual orientation as a civil rights minority group.
[5] The basis behind the argument of the term is based on whether it should be considered just and legal for a law to treat various parties unequally.
In some cases, such as those with social implications, the universal definition of rights also often conflict with other, often more regional or local, laws that require certain public standards or behavior based on cultural norms.
[7] In The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, Eric Mack states: A too-ready acceptance of alleged rights leads to an oppressive list of enforceable obligations.