Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Rule of Law?

The lead sentence of an AP report reads:
In an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy.
The AP claims that the ACLU picked its side of a legal argument "in an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig." Regardless of the ACLU's true motivation in this case, the reporter's sentence pretty well summarizes the liberal view of law: it exists for only the purpose of pursuing temporary personal or political agendas. Contrast this with a conservative viewpoint, as propounded by the Constitution Center:
The Framers considered the rule of law essential to the safekeeping of social order and civil liberties. The rule of law holds that if our relationships with each other and with the state are governed by a set of rules, rather than by a group of individuals, we are less likely to fall victim to authoritarian rule. The rule of law calls for both individuals and the government to submit to the law's supremacy. By precluding both the individual and the state from transcending the supreme law of the land, the Framers constructed another protective layer over individual rights and liberties
Hat tip: BotW.

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