Rights

Justice Kennedy is no genius, but in Lawrence v. Texas he did make some interesting conceptual moves:

• He cited and relied on the often-derided “mystery passage” from Planned Parenthood v. Casey: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the

More tolerance: in Virginia, the Boy Scouts are going to get rid of Robert E. Lee. America’s history must be abolished, because her great men aren’t good enough for us any more. Since this is America, outside the big cities, and in the South, the event is played down—it’s just the “right thing … More ...

Thomas Sowell makes some useful points regarding the feminist claim that women’s changing economic position is explained by male repression. He had earlier made similar points in connection with blacks. The line of thought certainly seems plausible—while the free market isn’t perfect, it’s not adapted for arbitrary repression in any normal sense.

A conflict of liberal absolutes: Minneapolis Library workers sue over porn. Under liberalism, patrons have an absolute and unquestionable right to view whatever materials they wish. The alternative, since it’s a public library, is state censorship by the very institution charged to make information publicly available. On the other hand, female workers also have … More ...

Victimology is as American as leprechauns: Historian challenges ‘No Irish need apply’ myth. There’s no evidence such signs ever existed, although Teddy Kennedy claims to have seen them in shop windows as a boy. Boston was more than a third Irish then. Maybe they were souvenir shops?

Amnesty International made its name working for “prisoners of conscience,” defined as “people imprisoned solely because of their political or religious beliefs, gender, or their racial or ethnic origin, who have neither used nor advocated violence.” Like most bureaucratic and public policy organizations they’ve suffered mission creep, and most recently have hired a full-time lobbyist… More ...

What are “human rights?” Libya must be the expert, since they’ve just been elected to head the UN rights watchdog committee. One pointer for the rest of us, who aren’t experts, is that they mean an end to the freedom of religious institutions to run their own affairs. For example, across the Atlantic they … More ...

The Catholic bishops are challenging a New York law that requires Catholic institutions to include contraceptives in employee medical coverage. The law, which we’ve mentioned before, is a violation of the most basic respect for the religious convictions of others. However, a similar challenge was rejected not long ago in California, and it’s … More ...

The abolition of common sense, chapter whatever: Scottish schools warned as detentions risk breaching pupils’ human rights. The issue is that the European Convention on Human Rights says that “No one shall be deprived of his liberty save in the following cases and in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law … the detention … More ...

According to ACLU attorney Jayashri Srikantiah, “The government’s [post-9/11] activities target the most vulnerable group: immigrants, especially Muslims.” Why do people and organizations who say such things get any respect? Cantor Fitzgerald employees were vulnerable when someone decided to injure them, and the ones who were at their desks September 11 died. Does the … More ...