Commenting on University of St. Thomas law professor Robert Delahunty’s recent op-ed, my colleague Richard Painter shares some thoughts on the subject of limiting the freedom of some people so that others may live in a world unstained by that particular freedom: Let’s put aside for the moment the fact that I don’t see such a tradeoff with abolition of slavery because […]
Archive | Slavery
Lincoln on “Liberty” and Slavery
Apropos the claim that slaveholders lost “freedom” when slavery was abolished, Eugene reminds me of what Abraham Lincoln said in his Address at a Sanitary Fair, in Baltimore, on April 18, 1864: The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one. We all declare […]
Slaveholders Lost Freedom Because of Emancipation, Argues Con Law Prof
University of St. Thomas Law Professor Robert Delahunty argues in this morning’s Minneapolis Star Tribune that “whenever the law expands the freedoms of one person or group, it necessarily contracts those of another.” Thus, he asserts that if gay couples are granted the freedom to marry, gay-marriage opponents will lose the freedom to live in a world without gay marriage […]