The Supreme Court's Libertarian Moment? - Ilya Shapiro (Senior Fellow, Cato Institute), Huffington Post:
July 2, 2103 - "The casual observer of the Supreme Court must have been quite confused last week. First, the Court punted on an affirmative action case, making it harder to use race in college admissions decisions without prohibiting the practice altogether. It then won plaudits from conservatives by striking down key parts of the Voting Rights Act -- but disappointed many of them the very next day by gutting the Defense of Marriage Act.
"What is going on?...
The theme of last week's cases was captured by President Obama's reaction to the same-sex marriage rulings: 'We are all equal under the law'.... If we're all equal, then we shouldn't be judged by skin color or sexual orientation, and the machinery of democracy shouldn't be gummed up by outdated racial classifications.
"In other words, the Supreme Court is increasingly embracing the Constitution's structural and rights-based protections for individual freedom and self-governance. Not in every case, not always with one voice, and not without fits and starts, but as a whole the justices are moving in a libertarian direction.
It's therefore no coincidence that the Cato Institute is the only organization to have filed briefs supporting the winning side in each of the three big cases (or that we went 15-3 on the year). Even beyond racial preferences and gay rights, this Court is coming to be defined by what Justice Kennedy has called 'equal liberty'."
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilya-shapiro/the-supreme-courts-libert_b_3536534.html
'via Blog this'
July 2, 2103 - "The casual observer of the Supreme Court must have been quite confused last week. First, the Court punted on an affirmative action case, making it harder to use race in college admissions decisions without prohibiting the practice altogether. It then won plaudits from conservatives by striking down key parts of the Voting Rights Act -- but disappointed many of them the very next day by gutting the Defense of Marriage Act.
"What is going on?...
The theme of last week's cases was captured by President Obama's reaction to the same-sex marriage rulings: 'We are all equal under the law'.... If we're all equal, then we shouldn't be judged by skin color or sexual orientation, and the machinery of democracy shouldn't be gummed up by outdated racial classifications.
"In other words, the Supreme Court is increasingly embracing the Constitution's structural and rights-based protections for individual freedom and self-governance. Not in every case, not always with one voice, and not without fits and starts, but as a whole the justices are moving in a libertarian direction.
It's therefore no coincidence that the Cato Institute is the only organization to have filed briefs supporting the winning side in each of the three big cases (or that we went 15-3 on the year). Even beyond racial preferences and gay rights, this Court is coming to be defined by what Justice Kennedy has called 'equal liberty'."
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilya-shapiro/the-supreme-courts-libert_b_3536534.html
'via Blog this'
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