Read through this thread for comments by (or in response to) one "SPD." You will be enlightened.
Freedom of association is a deeply underrated concept.
(This is as good a time as any to mention the clever sophistry Joe Wright's law professor threw out a couple weeks ago. Even after the dogged effort to find/assert ambiguity in a situation where I'd be surprised to hear that even 18th century readers found ambiguity, it still relies on resolving that ambiguity in a hypertechnical way rather than erring on the side of either liberty or common sense. Even at that, it's a useful primer on the limits of relying solely on textual interpretation of the U.S. constitution. If you're interested in a better approach, this book might interest you.)
In any case, back to freedom of association. I used to be able to make a compelling argument in favor of its primacy. I don't mean argument as in "win your forensic league," I mean argument as in a cross between explaining why others believe what they believe and explaining to some extent what I myself believe. At some point years ago the question came up how it could be possible for one genuinely to believe in states' rights and freedom of association and not just be using both as a pretext for racism. I ended up making just that case and being told by at least one very intelligent apolitical person that what I wrote seemed convincing.
(All that said, we're almost certainly better off that civil rights laws passed. We've progressed far enough that it would be hard to take anyone seriously who claimed we'd be better off without them. That said, I'd have been much more sympathetic to the states' right argument than it's comfortable to admit. My position would have probably been a lot like my current position on gay marriage.)
Oh, since you read this far, and since he happened to include an e-mail address on all his comments: The Yahoo! Profile.
I don't think I've ever seen anyone use Superman for his profile pic. The line from the Godfather is pretty common, though; I'm in a fantasy football league where the top two teams are mine and one named "Take the Cannoli."
Posted by Matt Bruce at October 31, 2005 03:25 PM