Why the 14th amendment failed: the Slaughter-House cases, which relegated civil rights to the state governments, and made equal protection an empty law, applying to only federal rights, opening the door to Jim Crow. It's a fascinating example of the problem with a pragmatic Supreme Court. In that particular case, allowing the state to protect public health was the right short-term policy outcome- Cholera is bad. But the legal implications of the reasoning used to get to that answer were terrible. The problem is that our legislature is so unresponsive, that the court becomes reluctant to create obvious problems and injustices, because it knows the legislature will not correct them. The solution in the long run was the creation of the USDA, not freeing the states to discriminate. (reached though this fascinating response to the latest round of the banal game of 'ask doctrinaire libertarians about the civil rights act')
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04:01:06 PM,
Friday 20 May 2011
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