Jane Galt has a terrific post up at the moment. She tackles the court rulings on abortion, sodomy and (potentially) gay marriage.
I'm more of a believer in "freedom from" than "rights to". My beliefs, as many of you will have guessed, run towards the 'fist/face' definition of rights. Furthermore, I think rights reside in individuals, not groups. Once you start using the constitution to entitle either individuals or groups to things it seems whatever you are promising might have to be obtained at the expense of another's property or liberty. Unelected justices should not have the power to make these choices on their own. I concede that this is a "slippery slope" argument, but, to acknowledge Justice Frankfurter and Eugene Volokh, we have empowered the court to make both the 'sound decision' now and the 'sound distinction' later. One of those should belong to another branch of government.
It's a very good read. As her posts usually are!
Posted by Sheila O'Malley at July 1, 2003 11:19 AM | TrackBackAllow me to introduce myself. I am "Mindles (sic) Hedonist Dreck". I am Jane's co-blogger. I used to run my own site (www.morethanzerosum.com) which pre-dates Jane, but I teamed up with her for a variety of reasons. My pseudonym comes from an angry commenter who objected to my characterization of a student activist.
It was my post. The author's name is in large print at the top of each post. I'm glad you liked it and felt it lived up to Jane's standards...
Cheers.
Posted by: "Mindles H. Dreck" at July 2, 2003 08:25 AM