Posted in libertarianism, tagged anti-discrimination, civil liberties, discrimination, first amendment, free speech, freedom, freedom of expression, laws, race, volokh on April 10, 2008 | No Comments »
Eugene Volokh writes about a hypothetical scenario involving a mixed-race couple in the photography incident:
The desire to prevent race discrimination should no more dissolve your right to be free from being compelled to speak (here, to create an artistic work) than it should dissolve the right to express bigoted views, to choose members of a racist [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, tagged anti-discrimination, anti-discrimination laws, civil liberties, civil rights, discrimination, first amendment, freedom, freedom of expression, laws, photography, right to associate, volokh on April 9, 2008 | No Comments »
In America, you have freedom of expression and freedom of association, except when you don’t. Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, one does not really have the right to decide who one hires, or rents out one’s apartment to, allows inside one’s restaurant, or does business with. If you refuse to deal with someone commercially because [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, tagged censorship, child abuse, civil liberties, civil liberty, explicit content, first amendment, freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, internet pornography, intolerance, karen fletcher, liberty, moral police, nanny-state, obscenity, obscenity case, offended feelings, pittsburgh, police state, policies, pornography on February 8, 2008 | 3 Comments »
A hundred years ago, you could be arrested if your drawing, writing or other form of creative expression was considered obscene by the authorities. Artistic freedom was not as important as preserving public morality. And the idea that a century on, pornography could be displayed and sold in perfectly legal shops was unthinkable.
For good or [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, news and links, tagged civil liberties, freedom, government, laws, liberty, mississippi law, nanny-state, obese, obesity, regulations, restaurants on February 7, 2008 | No Comments »
Everyone has a small part of himself that wishes to control the lives of others but only the government has the power to do it legally.
A large Mississippi lawmaker proposed a bill that would ban restaurants from serving obese customers. Thankfully no one, including the lawmaker, expects the bill to pass.
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, news and links, tagged anti-discrimination, civil liberties, civil rights, discrimination, freedom, gays, jason dixon, liberty on February 3, 2008 | No Comments »
I stumbled upon this excellent article by Jason Dixon on anti-discrimination laws which parallel my thoughts on the subject. While Jason’s article focusses on sexual-orientation, it could apply equally well to any other protected characteristic such as race, gender or age.
It is not a comfortable position to defend the rights of bigots who do not [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, news and links, politics, tagged academic freedom, brandeis, civil liberties, freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, hindley, offended feelings, political correctness, racism, volokh on January 24, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Eugene Volokh has a great post about the Hindley affair. Yet another example of political correctness taken too far in America.
Someone once said that the greatest American ideal isn’t democracy or mobility or justice or equality, but freedom. Apropos of nothing, I remember the song -
“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, politics, tagged anti-discrimination, civil liberties, civil rights, civil rights act, david bernstein, discrimination, fair housing act, freedom, liberty, offended feelings, property rights, right to associate, ron paul, volokh on December 17, 2007 | 6 Comments »
Rights and “Rights”
John and Terry Hoffius own an apartment building in Jackson, Michigan. In the summer of 1993, they had a vacancy and advertised it. They were contacted by a couple, Kristal McCready and Keith Kerr, who expressed interest in renting it. When asked if they were married, McCready and Kerr replied in the negative. [...]
Read Full Post »
