The pseudonym "Philo Vaihinger" has been abandoned. All posts have been and are written by me, Joseph Auclair.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

The right has its own styles of constitutional disobedience founded in its own constitutional lies


Yes, actually, more than one style, depending on who you ask and which lies you pick.

This fellow defends libertarian lies.

Richard Epstein has published a massive scholarly tome laying out the case for enforcing the Constitution in a way that recognizes its foundation in the principles of individual rights and limited government.

But that’s not obedience, either.

Today’s libertarian reading rests on such absurdities as the substantive due process of the Lochner era and the CATO reading of the privileges or immunities clause of the 14th Amendment as imposing relevant portions of the Bill of Rights and constitutional protections on the states.

It's not fidelity to the constitution and it's not honest constitutionalism.

And it forgets such signal historical facts as that the states reserved to themselves powers no one intended to deny them, subject to whatever restrictions might exist in their own constitutions, such as the power to establish religion.

And that barely scratches the surface.

Everyone lies, right and left.

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