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What Liberals Want
The Weekly Standard ^ | 19.04.2005 12:00:00 AM | John Hinderaker

Posted on 04/19/2005 5:18:27 AM PDT by Leifur

A progressive conference on the Constitution sheds light on the real stakes involved with the judiciary.

LAST WEEKEND, Yale's chapter of the American Constitutional Society sponsored a conference at Yale Law School titled "The Constitution in 2020." The stated purpose of the conference, at which some of America's best-known liberal law professors appeared, was to work toward a "progressive" consensus as to what the Constitution should provide for by the year 2020, and a strategy for how liberal lawyers and judges might bring such a constitutional regime into being.

The conference web site describes the event as follows:

It is time for progressives to set a constitutional agenda for the 21st Century. In 1987-88, the Reagan Justice Department produced a white paper known as "The Constitution in 2000" which, by taking a long view rather than focusing on the immediate issues of the day, was immensely successful in influencing the Constitution under which we now live. If progressives are to rehabilitate that Constitution, they must now, more than ever, articulate constitutional ideals capable of inspiring the next generation.

The conference organizers' reference to the Justice Department's 1988 report seems a bit odd, in that the stated purpose of that report was not to lay out a conservative agenda, but rather to identify key issues likely to arise over the following 12 years, and to "set forth the background and the likely parameters of the debate in as neutral and balanced a manner as possible." Moreover, the organizers' conviction that the Reagan Justice Department's report, whatever its purpose, was "immensely successful" in influencing constitutional jurisprudence in a conservative direction also seems dubious. To the extent that the issues identified by the 1988 report have been resolved, they have largely been resolved in favor of liberal positions.

None of this, however, discouraged the conference participants from staking out bold new constitutional ground. The tone was set in the "opening dialogue" between professors Bruce Ackerman and Cass Sunstein. Power Line sent one of our East Coast correspondents to sit in on the discussion. The conversation left no doubt about the "rights" that, according to these eminent liberals, should be constitutionally enshrined by the year 2020.

The touchstone is Franklin Roosevelt's "Second Bill of Rights," which would recognize a right to "a useful and remunerative job"; sufficient earnings to provide "adequate" food, clothing, and recreation; a "decent" home; a "good education"; and "adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health."

The essence of the progressive constitutional project is to recognize "positive" rights, not just "negative" rights, so that citizens are not only guaranteed freedom from specified forms of government interference, but also are guaranteed the receipt of specified economic benefits. The bottom line is that Congress would no longer have the discretion to decline to enact liberal policies. The triumph of the left would be constitutionally mandated. The following excerpts from the discussion, as recorded by our correspondent, illustrate its tone and content:

From Sunstein:

* With growth and change, political rights enshrined in Constitution are inadequate.

* Need economic bill of rights. Ingredients of Second Bill of Rights--Only with these rights will we have security.

* Long tradition of American political thought--states owe to every citizen a degree of subsistence. Second Bill of Rights made possible by attack on distinction between negative and positive rights. Effort to separate them is unfit for the American legal framework.

* Roosevelt . . . did not favor return to narrowly construed judgments of those who drafted the Constitution.

* By 2020, it's going to be about time for the Second Bill of Rights to be reclaimed. . . . Beauty of Roosevelt's Second Bill of Rights is its concreteness--right to education, etc.

From Ackerman:

* Task of every generation is to create institutional structures which express fundamental liberal commitments.

* [We need to] add "citizenship agenda" to Roosevelt's vision.

* Economic citizenship--stakeholder society in which every young adult gets a form of citizenship inheritance of $80,000, funded by a wealth tax . . .

* Vision here is a citizenship agenda . . . preliminary to rehabilitation of privileges of 14th Amendment which have never been redeemed.

* Idea of a national citizenship is powerful and underdeveloped legal resource . . . .concept that national citizenship has privileges--we need to make this a reality--cure disenfranchisement for felons.

SUNSTEIN AND ACKERMAN disagreed on some points, such as, for example, a constitutional right to housing. Ackerman said:

Well, public housing has failed. It's a mistake to declare the right to a home. Better way to do it is special purpose monies. Wallet of the future is a set of different monies--patriot dollars, health dollars--each with a different distributional value.

Ackerman concluded by

articulating his key area of agreement with Sunstein:

We share the thought that the progressive vision of frameworks centers on the economy--needs to be constitutionalized in frameworks to make real the notion of a common citizenship.

ON THE SECOND DAY of the conference, a panel on "social and economic inequality" continued to sound the theme that the Constitution should require the enactment of liberal legislation. Participant Robin West said:

* Equal Protection clause is inconsistent with state that does little or nothing about social and economic inequalities. Implies the existence of positive welfare rights--education, police protection, healthcare, childcare, etc.

* 14th Amendment delegitimizes social and economic inequality.

* We need to develop argument that Constitution requires this type of legislative response (protect vs. winner take all economy).

The left makes no secret of its intentions where the Constitution is concerned. It wants to change it, in ways that have nothing to do with what the document actually says. It wants the Constitution to enshrine its own policy preferences--thus freeing it from the tiresome necessity of winning elections. And how will the Constitution be changed? Through a constitutional convention, or a vote of two-thirds of the state legislatures? Of course not. The whole problem, from the liberal perspective, is that they can't get democratically elected bodies to enact their agenda. As one of the Yale conference participants said: "We don't have much choice other than to believe deeply in the courts--where else do we turn?" The new, improved Constitution will come about through judicial re-interpretation. It only awaits, perhaps, the election of the next Democratic president.

IF THE IDEA OF A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to government-funded child care, "adequate" recreation, and $80,000 in cash seems outlandish, remember that these concepts are no more eccentric than the idea of a right to abortion was, prior to Roe v. Wade. As a law school exercise in 1973, my class was charged with trying to formulate an argument for a constitutional right to abortion. We were stumped. None of us could think of one. A few months later, the "right" to abortion was born.

So Republicans are right to put top priority on the president's ability to get a vote on his judicial nominations. Liberal interest groups have flatly declared their intention to filibuster any nominee to the Supreme Court whom they regard as conservative. The stakes couldn't be higher.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
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We here in my country are going over some changes in the Constitution, and all kinds of groups want to put "rights" to this and that, and we the right winged are fighting it, and hopefully we will vin it. But it is so strange, that the US, wich I and many of my right winged Icelandic compatriots beliewed to be the libertarian dream world is so socialistic, at least that such ideas can get that much prominence in it.
1 posted on 04/19/2005 5:18:27 AM PDT by Leifur
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To: Leifur

We're still on the winning side of the war for liberty. It is a long hard fight but we haven't given up. Don't let our liberal media mislead you!

Good luck!


2 posted on 04/19/2005 5:21:08 AM PDT by Conspiracy Guy (Ask about free shipping !)
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To: Leifur
"...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government..."

Thomas Jefferson
Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776

Each day, the above words have more and more meaning (do to Judicial activism).
3 posted on 04/19/2005 5:36:55 AM PDT by Condor51 (Leftists are moral and intellectual parasites - Standing Wolf)
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To: Leifur
This liberal "utopia" already exists, The Nordic countries(Sweeden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland) are already there. I also believe that there was an article posted here a few days ago that stated that the quality of economic development had severely dropped latley. We have got to get people off the government teat and the government off the peoples teat.
4 posted on 04/19/2005 5:41:48 AM PDT by aliquando (A Scout is T, L, H, F, C, K, O, C, T, B, C, and R.)
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To: Leifur
But it is so strange, that the US...is so socialistic.

I like to believe that is isn't the USA but is the liberal-Marks-Stalin-Leninists elitists that live here because of our freedoms. They seek to enslave us.

It is the everlasting battle of Capitalism against Socialism, Freedom against Slavery.

5 posted on 04/19/2005 5:47:41 AM PDT by jrushing (Democrats=National Socialist Workers Party)
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To: Leifur

This is what liberals do when they have no power: engage in intellectual masturbation. Let them go on with their wishful thinking, it distracts them from actually doing anything of substance.


6 posted on 04/19/2005 6:01:13 AM PDT by EricT. (Join the Soylent Green Party...We recycle dead environmentalists.)
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To: Leifur
It is time for progressives to set a constitutional agenda for the 21st Century.

If there was ever any doubt that Liberalism is a mental disease this post should end that doubt.

The American Constitution, while not perfect, is the most perfect political document devised by man, and yet Liberals insist on replacing it with a Socialist agenda that would destroy the very concept of government by the people.

The fact that we have a Judiciary who looks kindly upon this kind of Socialist babble, and talks of incorporating it into our laws, is scary but understandable. It is a consequence of being among the power elite.

What Socialist dogma cannot tolerate is the light of day. This kind of conference at Yale Law School should be disseminated to the general public, so they can see for themselves what those in the legal industry are preparing to do.

This proposed attack upon the Constitution should be a talking point for those questioning House members when election time rolls around. Where our elected officials stand on issues pertaining to the Judiciary, and the Constitution, should be more important than how much pork he's feeding his district.

7 posted on 04/19/2005 6:05:03 AM PDT by Noachian (To Control the Judiciary The People Must First Control The Congress)
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Comment #8 Removed by Moderator

To: jrushing

Well stated.


9 posted on 04/19/2005 6:08:20 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: Leifur

The left will never understand that their "rights" aren't rights, but privileges, and privileges are "granted" through your own hard work and self-sufficiency. Oh, never mind. It's the hard work and self-sufficiency they so want to avoid.

For the side that's supposed to be so intellectual, the left has all the deductive reasoning powers of a stump, though I might be dissing all the stumps out there.


10 posted on 04/19/2005 6:27:54 AM PDT by AmericanChef
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To: Noachian
It is time for progressives to set a constitutional agenda for the 21st Century.

These bums are still liars and cowards. They are not "progressives," they are communists. Their refusal to even truthfully identify themselves shows the bankruptcy of their ideas and the cowardice of their assertions.

11 posted on 04/19/2005 6:28:10 AM PDT by pabianice
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To: Leifur

So in other words...Liberals want the US to become a third world nation.


12 posted on 04/19/2005 6:33:25 AM PDT by jetson (throne)
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To: organdonor

Are you kidding? Twice in the first paragraph, once in the fourth, once in the fifth, once in the third-to-last, and once in the last. Also, there are numerous instances of "progressive", which is fuzzy-media speak for "socialist", "left-wing", or "liberal".


13 posted on 04/19/2005 6:51:40 AM PDT by Little Pig (Is it time for "Cowboys and Muslims" yet?)
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To: AmericanChef
The essence of the progressive constitutional project is to recognize "positive" rights, not just "negative" rights, so that citizens are not only guaranteed freedom from specified forms of government interference, but also are guaranteed the receipt of specified economic benefits. The bottom line is that Congress would no longer have the discretion to decline to enact liberal policies. The triumph of the left would be constitutionally mandated. The following excerpts from the discussion, as recorded by our correspondent, illustrate its tone and content:

The essence of our Bill of Rights is that none of the rights that are enshrined in that wonderful paper requires (compels) work/effort on the part of others.

I have the right to Freedom of Speech, but no one is compelled to pay me for what I say, no one is compelled to listen to me, etc.

But if the liberals come up with a new right - a right to housing ... then someone has to pay for it. And does that right mean the right to a single room condo, or a 3 bedroom home, or an elaborate mansion, all paid for by taxing others.

Our rights are God-given .... but not to be extracted from others by assuming that they can be enslaved so that their work makes others comfortable.

It is time for revolution when liberals decide that they want to saddle the remainder of humanit so that the can ride us!

Mike

14 posted on 04/19/2005 6:51:45 AM PDT by Vineyard
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To: organdonor
In the first quote from Ackerman:

"Task of every generation is to create institutional structures which express fundamental liberal commitments"

16 posted on 04/19/2005 7:19:11 AM PDT by Little Pig (Is it time for "Cowboys and Muslims" yet?)
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: Leifur
Cass Sunstein, for those who don't remember, is the law professor at the University of Chicago who several years ago wrote Republic.com, a book which recommended that all websites be required to provide links to other websites which contain opposing points of view. For example, Free Republic, under his scheme, would be required by law to link to Michael Moore. And yes, the title of the book was selected to convey his deep uneasyness with and desire to control this very website.

He is a limp wristed liberal regulator and nanny-stater par excellence, but, it seems to me, despite the fact that he's a relatively young man, something of a political dinosaur. Let's hope I'm right, anyway.

18 posted on 04/19/2005 7:30:23 AM PDT by beckett
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To: organdonor

By your definition, maybe it would be a good idea, but Ackerman then goes on to define what he means by "liberal", and it is the same worn-out socialist crap we see so often.


19 posted on 04/19/2005 7:31:47 AM PDT by Little Pig (Is it time for "Cowboys and Muslims" yet?)
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To: EricT.

> This is what liberals do when they have no power...

You are correct, sir. What liberals *really* want is power; they yearn for it, they yearn to exercise it, to wallow in it, they yearn to keep it and never lose it again. Thus the liberals' plan for a 2020 Constitution, which you so aptly call mental masturbation. It is how they intend to enshrine themselves by making the people forever dependent on the government for these so-called "freedoms." If people have no need for the government, they will have no need for liberals...which is why they are so adamantly opposed to privatizing Social Security, their crown jewel.


20 posted on 04/19/2005 8:37:07 AM PDT by cloud8
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