The Empty Idea of Equality Meets the Unbearable Fullness of Religion
In: Journal of Law, Religion and StateAdjunct Professor, School of Law, University of Notre Dame, Australia, Sydney, rex.ahdar@otago.ac.nz
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The essay argues that religion is a much “fuller” concept than equality, as substantial and weighty as equality is derivative and hollow. The empty, tautological, misleading, but rhetorically powerful nature of equality was compellingly demonstrated by Peter Westen, a generation ago. It is ironic that, despite the manifest inadequacy of equality as an independent good, in the increasingly strident clashes between religionists and those asserting claims based on equal treatment, or freedom from discrimination, the former tend to lose on the whole. All rights are said to be on the same level. As the courts repeatedly pronounce, there is no hierarchy. But the empirical experience of the Kulturkampf belies that assertion. This essay seeks to return the contest to a more even playing field by demystifying some of the ascendant-like claims of equality in contemporary rights disputes.
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26
Western, supra note 15, 1165. The fuller argument is in Westen, “Meaning of Equality in Law, Science Math and Morals”, supra note 12.
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29
See Steven D. Smith, “The Red Herring of ‘Marriage Equality’”, Public Discourse, March 27, 2013: http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/03/7912/and Lawrence Alexander, “Judicial Activism: Clearing the Air and the Head” in Luis Coutinho et al. (eds.), Judicial Activism (2015), 15, 19. Professor Alexander (ibid.) contends: “It surely takes a good deal of judicial immodesty to say that a legislature that adheres to a traditional and widely-held definition of marriage violates the vague and quite contestable standard of ‘equality.’” My own views are similar: Ahdar, “Finding true essence of marriage”, Dominion-Post, April 8, 2013: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/8521106/Finding-true-essence-of-marriage.
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95
Smith, supra note 91, 203. The parenthetical examples are mine.
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The Empty Idea of Equality Meets the Unbearable Fullness of Religion
In: Journal of Law, Religion and StateAdjunct Professor, School of Law, University of Notre Dame, Australia, Sydney, rex.ahdar@otago.ac.nz
Search for other papers by Rex Ahdar in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The essay argues that religion is a much “fuller” concept than equality, as substantial and weighty as equality is derivative and hollow. The empty, tautological, misleading, but rhetorically powerful nature of equality was compellingly demonstrated by Peter Westen, a generation ago. It is ironic that, despite the manifest inadequacy of equality as an independent good, in the increasingly strident clashes between religionists and those asserting claims based on equal treatment, or freedom from discrimination, the former tend to lose on the whole. All rights are said to be on the same level. As the courts repeatedly pronounce, there is no hierarchy. But the empirical experience of the Kulturkampf belies that assertion. This essay seeks to return the contest to a more even playing field by demystifying some of the ascendant-like claims of equality in contemporary rights disputes.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 508 | 44 | 0 |
| Full Text Views | 243 | 7 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 42 | 7 | 0 |