Abstract: Introduction Our nation is increasingly beset with pluralism anxiety. Commentary from both the right (1) and the left (2) has expressed the fear that we are fracturing into fiefs that not speak with each other. That fear has a basis in fact, as the nation confronts kinds of people (introduced to the country through immigration) or newly visible people (introduced to the country by social movements). We are, for instance, arguably the most religiously diverse country in world history. (3) The visibility of women, sexual minorities, and individuals with disabilities has skyrocketed. The U.S. Census Bureau now acknowledges sixty-three possible racial identities. (4) No end lies in sight. This pluralism anxiety has transformed civil rights. As the number of groups in the public limelight has increased, so has anxiety about the group-based identity politics on which civil rights have historically been based. Many Americans view civil rights as an endless parade of groups clamoring for state and social solicitude. Even traditional liberals decry the nation's balkanization, calling us back to the ideals of integration and assimilation. (5) The jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court reflects this pluralism anxiety. Over the past decades, the Court has systematically denied protection to new groups, (6) curtailed it for already covered groups, (7) and limited Congress's capacity to protect groups through civil rights legislation. (8) The Court has repeatedly justified these limitations by adverting to pluralism anxiety. These cases signal the end of equality doctrine as we have known it. The end of traditional equality jurisprudence, however, should not be conflated with the end of protection for subordinated groups. Squeezing law is often like squeezing a balloon. The contents not escape, but erupt in another area, in a dynamic that Professor Louis Henkin once dubbed constitutional displacement. (9) The Court's commitment to civil rights has not been pressed out, but rather over to collateral doctrines. Most notably, the Court has moved away from group-based equality claims under the guarantees of the Fifth (10) and Fourteenth Amendments (11) to individual liberty claims under the due process guarantees of the Fifth (12 )and Fourteenth Amendments. (13) This move reflects what academic commentary has long apprehended--that equality and liberty claims are often intertwined. (14) Professor Laurence Tribe uses the phrase legal double helix (15) to describe this Substantive Due Process-Equal Protection synthesis. (16) Following Tribe's convention, I refer to such hybrid equality/liberty claims as claims. (17) Based on whether the liberty or the equality dimension of the hybrid claim is ascendant, I call it the or equality-based dignity claim. The introduction of a third overarching term like that acknowledges the links between liberty and equality is overdue. Too much emphasis has been placed on the formal distinction between the equality claims made under the equal protection guarantees and the liberty claims made under the due process or other guarantees. In practice, the Court does not abide by this distinction. The Court has long used the Due Process Clauses to further equality concerns, such as those relating to indigent individuals, (18) national origin minorities, (19) racial minorities, (20) religious minorities, (21) sexual minorities, (22) and women. (23) Conversely, the Court has used the equal protection guarantees to protect certain liberties, such as the right to travel, (24) the right to vote, (25 )and the right to access the courts. (26) We need to look past doctrinal categories to see that the rights secured within those categories are often hybrid rights. This Article focuses particularly on the liberty-based dignity claim, because I believe it offers a way for the Court to do equality in an era of increasing pluralism anxiety. …
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 20
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