Meditations of a Militant Moderate Cool Views on Hot Topics

by Schuck, Peter H.

• ISBN13: 9780742539600
• ISBN10: 0742539601
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-31
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

Vital center. Radical middle. Amid the red state/blue state divide, is there now space for an iconoclastic militant moderate? In this unusual and remarkably readable collection of short essays on a wide variety of hot-button public issues--race, affirmative action, surrogate motherhood, diversity, immigration, compensation of 9/11 victims, exclusion of gays from the Boy Scouts and the military, the 2004 election, the rule of law in developing countries, the invasion of Iraq, and many more--Yale Law School professor Peter Schuck reveals the distinctive sensibility and policy orientation of a militant moderate: pragmatic, reformist, non-ideological, empirically-minded, and skeptical of many liberal and conservative pieties.

Author Biography

Peter H. Schuck is Simeon E. Baldwin Professor of Law at Yale Law School

Table of Contents

Preface: What Is a Militant Moderate?	ix
PART I CIVIL RIGHTS AND WRONGS	1	(50)
Affirmative Action I: Don't Mend It or End It---Bend It	4	(7)
Affirmative Action II: The Supreme Court Botches the Job	11	(7)
Affirmative Action III: Racial Preferences in Supreme Court Nominations	18	(5)
Groups and Equal Protection: The Flawed Theory of Owen Fiss	23	(10)
Race Matters: The Incoherence of Cornel West	33	(10)
Slavery Reparations: A Misguided Movement	43	(5)
Housing Integration: Use Vouchers, Not Courts	48	(3)
PART II THE CULTURE WARS	51	(28)
The Pledge of Allegiance: A Noncoercive Endorsement of Religion	54	(4)
School Vouchers: A Compelling Case for Choice	58	(4)
Military Recruitment on Campus: The Solomon Amendment	62	(5)
Expressive Groups: Political Parties and Gays in the Boy Scouts	67	(4)
Professors and Profession: An Odd Couple	71	(5)
Tax Day: Deficit Reduction Made Easy	76	(3)
PART III THE RULE OF LAW	79	(54)
Class Actions: Analyzing the Issues	82	(4)
Punitive Damages: Lawless (In)justice	86	(4)
Lying: Law's Ambivalence	90	(4)
Civil Juries: Here to Stay	94	(9)
Impact Litigation: Courts and Institutional Reform	103	(11)
Gun Control: Keeping Tort Law in Its Place	114	(5)
Tort Reform: A Mixed Bag	119	(3)
Surrogate Motherhood: Reflections on Baby M	122	(11)
PART IV DEALING WITH TERRORISM AND VICTIMS	133	(28)
Preemptive Strikes: Revising the UN Charter	136	(4)
Profiling: The Uses of Stereotypes	140	(5)
Compensating Victims: Some Hard Questions	145	(10)
The 9/11 Compensation Fund: A Bad Precedent	155	(4)
Adjudicating Terrorism: A Hybrid Model Court	159	(2)
PART V A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS	161	(18)
Immigration, Diversity, and Nationhood: The Formula Still Works	164	(5)
Refugees: Protecting More by Sharing the Burden	169	(1)
Reforming the 1996 Immigration Reform: Advice to President Bush	170	(2)
Citizenship after 9/11: Continuity and Change	172	(4)
Immigrant Voting: Wrong Response to a Genuine Need	176	(3)
PART VI DEVELOPING GIANTS	179	(16)
China: Forward and Backward	181	(5)
India: What the Raj Wrought	186	(9)
PART VII THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM	195	(26)
Rethinking Liberalism: A Paradox Unresolved	198	(2)
Diversity: Society's Teacher	200	(4)
Punctilios for a Diverse Society: Candor and Thicker Skins	204	(5)
Civility: A Sometime Virtue	209	(5)
The 2004 Elections: A Militant Moderate's Interpretation	214	(7)
Credits	221	(4)
Index	225	(6)
About the Author	231