Jeffrey Miron responds to my essay, and I respond to his, Richman’s, and Kuznicki’s responses.
Archive | Civil Rights
More on Libertarianism and Antidiscrimination Laws
Sheldon Richman responds to my Cato Unbound essay here, criticizing my position as being insufficiently libertarian, although he otherwise shares many of my underlying premises. And Jason Kuznicki responds to my essay here, supporting Title II from a Hayekian perspective, while, unlike me, expressing no noticeable qualms about the vast expansion of the antidiscrimination edifice […]
Essay on Libertarianism and Antidiscrimination Law
I’ve written an essay for Cato Unbound, which the editors have titled “Context Matters: A Better Libertarian Approach to Antidiscrimination Law.” Over the next few days, Sheldon Richman of the Foundation for Economic Education, Jason Kuznicki of Cato, and Jeff Miron of Harvard will write comments, and then we’ll have some back and forth. Should […]
Some Strange Consequences of Public Accommodations Laws
All the discussion of Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act has obscured the fact that public accommodations laws, especially at the state and local level, have expanded way, way, beyond their original purpose of ensuring that previously excluded minorities are served in restaurants, hotels, and the like. This has happened more via aggressive […]
Public Opinion, Anti-Discrimination Law, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964
One of the most common rationales for anti-discrimination law is that it is needed to protect unpopular minority groups against exclusion from jobs and other opportunities. This conventional wisdom has a significant weakness: If the group in question really is unpopular with the majority, a democratic government is highly unlikely to enact antidiscrimination laws protecting […]
“Activist Government” and the Rights of Minorities
I want to analyze two positions that I’ve seen liberals take on the role of government in promoting civil rights and antidiscrimination norms. One position is as follows: We liberals believe in government activism to solve important social problems, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act was an important example of where this philosophy had extremely […]
So a Libertarian and a Liberal Walk into a Bar
Let’s say a liberal and a libertarian are having drinks at a bar, and discussing public policy. The liberal asks the libertarian what he thinks of anti-discrimination laws that apply to private parties. The libertarian says that he wants to put the issue of race to one side, because of its special history in the […]
The “Racist” Charge
One thing that’s been especially appalling about the Rand Paul controversy is how quick many liberal commentators (including people who frequent the comments section on this blog), have been to accuse not just Paul of racism, but also anyone who takes the libertarian position on antidiscrimination laws, i.e.., that the government itself may not discriminate, […]
Advice to Rand Paul re: Civil Rights Act of 1964
By Randy Barnett on May 21, 2010 2:24 pm in Civil Rights, Constitutional History, Fourteenth Amendment, Originalism
Read David Bernstein’s excellent blog post. Unfortunately, because the title of David’s post referred to Bruce Bartlett and not Rand Paul, some seeking a “libertarian” take on this issue may overlook his analysis. To David’s libertarian analysis I would add the following considerations pertaining to the original meaning of the Constitution: (1) The problem of […]
Bruce Bartlett’s Attack on Libertarianism
Bruce Bartlett, an economist whose work I’ve enjoyed reading over the years, and author of a book on the history of the Democratic Party and race, uses the occasion of Rand Paul’s controversial remarks about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to launch a weirdly ahistorical attack on libertarianism: As we know from history, the […]
Freedom is not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America’s Struggle over Black Family Life–from LBJ to Obama
I interviewed Brown University history professor James T. Patterson about his book examining the tragic rise of illegitimacy rates, and the American political elite’s refusal to address the problem for decades. MP3, 50 minutes. During the course of our discussion, I mentioned my own writing about successful early intervention programs for at-risk children; that writing is […]
Enough with the Ridiculous Hyperbole!
One of the fun, albeit somewhat disheartening, things about having written a book about the encroachment of antidiscrimination laws on all aspects of civil society is watching hypotheticals your critics dismissed as “absurd” or “ridiculous hyperbole” turn into real cases. For example, while the Boy Scouts of America were sued for refusing to allow homosexual […]
The story of the armed community organizers
A few weeks ago, I linked to a picture of civil rights activist John Salter being attacked by a mob during a lunch counter sit-in during the 1960s. I also linked to a newspaper op-ed in which Salter explained how he and other civil rights workers used firearms for protection from Klansmen and other terrorists—when […]
How the right to arms saved the non-violent civil rights protesters
Over at The Faculty Lounge, there are some pictures of sit-ins from the early 1960s. Regarding a 1963 sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi, TFL writes: “By one account, members of the all-White Jackson police force stood guard outside, while several FBI agents (the guys in back wearing shades) ‘observed’ from inside. That White guy at the […]
Roscoe Pound on the Second Amendment
“In the urban industrial society of today a general right to bear efficient arms so as to be enabled to resist oppression by the government would mean that gangs could exercise an extra-legal rule which would defeat the whole Bill of Rights.” Roscoe Pound, The Development of Constitutional Guarantees of Liberty 91 (1957). Although Pound […]