‘These Ideas Haunt You’: At Conference, Scholars Link Lawyering With Jewishness - Yair Rosenberg, Tablet:
April 10, 2014 - "Randy Barnett, a professor of legal theory at Georgetown and director of its Center for the Constitution, is known for many things, but being Jewish is not one of them. He has been called a 'rock star' in the libertarian world, and in 2012, the New York Times dubbed him the “godfather” of the constitutional challenge to President Obama’s health care reform....
"Barnett’s ... center-right libertarian philosophy ... is largely at odds with the prevailing liberal outlook of most American Jews.... Yet for the Chicago native and former prosecutor, these positions are a natural outgrowth of his Jewish upbringing.
"Barnett’s father, a strongly identified Jewish atheist, took the lesson of the Holocaust to be that individual rights needed to be protected against the tyranny of the majority, which could easily turn against despised groups like the Jews. For him and his son, the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution made the United States a 'promised land' for Jews, who were protected by its curtailment of state power.
"Today, Barnett sees his libertarian advocacy ... as an effort to 'preserve the form of government that made the U.S. a haven for me and for my family,' especially 'as the world is now shrinking for Jews' with the rise of global anti-Semitism. What we have in America, he cautioned ... 'is not to be taken for granted'.”
Read more: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/169161/jewish-lawyers-on-jewish-law
April 10, 2014 - "Randy Barnett, a professor of legal theory at Georgetown and director of its Center for the Constitution, is known for many things, but being Jewish is not one of them. He has been called a 'rock star' in the libertarian world, and in 2012, the New York Times dubbed him the “godfather” of the constitutional challenge to President Obama’s health care reform....
"Barnett’s ... center-right libertarian philosophy ... is largely at odds with the prevailing liberal outlook of most American Jews.... Yet for the Chicago native and former prosecutor, these positions are a natural outgrowth of his Jewish upbringing.
"Barnett’s father, a strongly identified Jewish atheist, took the lesson of the Holocaust to be that individual rights needed to be protected against the tyranny of the majority, which could easily turn against despised groups like the Jews. For him and his son, the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution made the United States a 'promised land' for Jews, who were protected by its curtailment of state power.
"Today, Barnett sees his libertarian advocacy ... as an effort to 'preserve the form of government that made the U.S. a haven for me and for my family,' especially 'as the world is now shrinking for Jews' with the rise of global anti-Semitism. What we have in America, he cautioned ... 'is not to be taken for granted'.”
Read more: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/169161/jewish-lawyers-on-jewish-law
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