Sunday, July 10, 2005

No wonder why Bork hates the Declaration:

(Hat Tip: Kip Esquire)

Bork's latest from Opinion Journal:

Contrast Tocqueville with Justices Harry Blackmun and Anthony Kennedy. Justice Blackmun wanted to create a constitutional right to homosexual sodomy because of the asserted " 'moral fact' that a person belongs to himself and not others nor to society as a whole." Justice Kennedy, writing for six justices, did invent that right, declaring that "at the heart of [constitutional] liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." Neither of these vaporings has the remotest basis in the actual Constitution, and neither has any definable meaning other than that a common morality may not be sustained by law if a majority of justices prefer that each individual follow his own desires.


We can debate whether Blackmun's and Kennedy's dicta "has the remotest basis in the actual Constitution," but it seems unquestionable that their sentiments are in accord with the plain meaning of the text of the Declaration of Independence which states that individuals have an unalienable right to liberty and to purse happiness.

Bork, to his credit, is honest enough to realize this (although he doesn't mention it in his article). See Chapter 3 in Slouching Towards Gomorrah where Bork states that these principles in the Declaration are “hardly useful, indeed may be pernicious, if taken, as they commonly are, as a guide to action, governmental or private.” They are also as Bork notes, "what America said it was about from the beginning.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

John,

I think what Mr. Bork and judges of his ilk are all about is simply this.

"The Constitution was written by and for people like me- white, Christian, straight men. The due process clause exists so that people like me can decide who to let into my club.