After roughly 10 years of interacting online with my blogfather
Timothy Sandefur I finally got to meet him in person yesterday when he
spoke at The Constitution Center. The video is here. If you watch it carefully enough, you can see me in the front row.
Mr. Sandefur’s book, The Conscience of the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty, was the subject of the discussion.
This
was a wonderful debate about first principles, the notion of what has
been termed "liberal democracy." Small d "democracy" means majority
rules. Small l "liberal" means certain rights that are antecedent to
majority rule.
Majority rules? Sometimes yes; sometimes no. How do we best protect liberty rights, when the majority might wish, via the democratic process, to put limits on such?
It's
not always easy to draw the line. Sandefur's theory seeks to validate
the primacy of liberty against the democrats of both the Left and the
Right.
1 comment:
I do not know what Mr. Sandefur means by "liberty," or if it means the same thing it meant to the Founders.
First Principles indeed.
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