Balkinization: Hints that the "Culture Wars" Might Dampen (But Don't Count On It)

Hints that the "Culture Wars" Might Dampen (But Don't Count On It)

Brian Tamanaha

The popular term "culture wars" is a misnomer. There have always been clashes among cultural views. What characterizes the contemporary situation is that these contesting cultural views have aggressively taken their battles into the legal arena, seeking to use the law as a weapon against opponents.

"Legal wars over culture" is less concise, but better fits the situation. Such legal battles have also occurred in the past, to be sure, but not to the same extent and in the same unrelenting ways that we see today. Abortion, creationism, gay rights, and the availability of contraception, among other issues, are being played out in courts and legislatures and administrative agencies around the country.

Now there are a few signs that the combatants involved are having second thoughts about these activities out of recognition that their efforts may in the end hurt their ideals or their causes.

David Kuo, the conservative evangelical who made a splash before the election by exposing the cynical manipulation of evangelical voters by the Bush Administration, recently wrote an editorial expressing this growing sentiment among evangelicals:

John W. Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, the conservative Christian organization that gained notoriety during the 1990s when it represented Paula Jones in her sexual harassment suit against Bill Clinton, wrote this after the elections: “Modern Christianity, having lost sight of Christ’s teachings, has been co-opted by legalism, materialism and politics. Simply put, it has lost its spirituality.”

He went on, “Whereas Christianity was once synonymous with charity, compassion and love for one’s neighbor, today it is more often equated with partisan politics, anti-homosexual rhetoric and affluent mega-churches.”

Mr. Whitehead is hardly alone. Just before the elections, Gordon MacDonald, an evangelical leader, wrote that he was concerned that some evangelical personalities had been seduced and used by the White House. He worried that the movement might “fragment because it is more identified by a political agenda that seems to be failing and less identified by a commitment to Jesus and his kingdom.”

Kuo recognizes that the committed activists will not go away:

There are those who find the moral force of issues like abortion and gay marriage equal to that of the abolition of slavery — worth pursuing no matter what the risks of politics are for the soul. But the advocates working these special interests may, I think, be far fewer in coming years than in years past. Gay marriage was a less mobilizing force in 2006 than it was in 2004. In Arizona the ballot measure to outlaw it was defeated. The South Dakota abortion ban failed.

Kuo's sentiments might presage a dampening of the aggressive legal activities of these groups, but there are reasons to think otherwise. Without questioning their genuine commitment to their causes, it also matters that many of these advocates have made a career of pursuing them. These causes are good for fundraising and for legal business. The November issue of the ABA Journal profiles James Bopp, who is earning national fame, and a lot of clients, by bringing legal challenges around the country to judicial ethics rules that restrict judges from expressing their personal views on matters like abortion.

The other reason to to be pessimistic is that a battle cannot end unless all of the combatants are willing to stand down. The same issue of the ABA Journal profiles gay marriage advocates in an article entitled "Same-Sex-Marriage Advocates Vow to Fight on, Despite a Summer of Rulings Against Their Cause." Things have not been going well lately in court. But even significant past court victories (in Hawaii and Massachusetts) had counter-productive consequences, prompting a number of state statutory and constitutional bans of gay marriage. Undaunted by these checkered results, gay marriage advocates are moving foward with a full slate of litigation and legislative proposals.

The Fall issue of the Harvard Law Bulletin has an article entitled "The Coming Wave," which covers the increasing numbers of law students and young lawyers eager to get into this line of work:

There are also growing numbers of 'cause lawyers' supported by well-funded organizations across the political spectrum, and new 'hybrid' firms that do some paid work in order to subsidize their predominantly pro bono caseloads.

All of the lawyers engaged in these activities are sincerely motivated by their causes. Many make personal sacrifices to pursue these causes. Many of these causes are important. Many of these causes I personally support. But as a society and legal culture we must contemplate the adverse consequences for the law of these rampant political battles--battles that include rigorously screening the ideological profiles of judges. Preserving the integrity of our legal system should be a matter of concern for liberals and conservatives alike.

As argued in detail here, if these battles continue, the law will come to look less like a public resource that reflects and represents the common good, and more like tool or weapon for particular interests. We have already traveled a long way down this path.

Posted 11:41 AM by Brian Tamanaha [link]

Comments:

You seem to presuppose that law was ever other than a tool of the privileged, but there's a sizable number of folks who would dispute that presupposition and who would in turn add that the "cause law" you describe is only the inevitable result of the system that exists. In cynical moments that would be my stance.

In contrast with the ugly thing that law is, and has always been, there is an ideal of what law could or should be. Scott's post, following yours, is a good example. Justice. Liberty. Freedom. These things can be part of law, we would even like to think they are part of some "Natural Law." But if that were the case then the horrors of totalitarian systems throughout history could not have happened. So we see the beauty and good that can be built of law is, sadly, entirely optional.

Law is a tool. All tools are potential weapons, in the hands of those with the will to use them thus. It's not about the tool, but the wielders. Luckily we have folks like you who would show us the beautiful things we can make with these tools, rather than just hitting each other over the head with them.

Peace.

# posted by

Robert Link : 3:05 PM

Is this part of "full-employment" act for lawyers? Not enough "legal" work of the real kind, so now we get to swamp courts with "cultural lawsuits?"

Maybe I'm hopelessly simplistic, but I thought the purpose of the courts was to administer justice, not arbitrate cultural and social values. I thought we, as individuals, get to choose those for ourselves, without coercion or "imposition?" Yes, the Republicans have been on warpath to legislate cultural values, but for the most part, blissfully, they have failed (inclusive marriage and a religious administrative slant obvious exceptions).

"Values" encompass a wide spectrum of issues, of which only a few are the purview of government. My understanding of the Englightenment ideals is that government concerns only those issues pertaining to the "common and individual justice," in primarily addressing social and individual harms, not to adjudicate what we think, so, and say in everyday life.

Yes, that is a decidedly liberal view, but wasn't that the view of our Founders?

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نقدم في شركة المهندس خدمة تنظيف المنازل من الخدمات الشاملة لدى شركتنا حيث يعمل فريق العمل على تنظيف المنزل بالكامل كما نقدم ايضا خدمة
شركة تنظيف منازل وبيوت بالطائف حيث يتم تقسيم مهام التنظيف على الفريق حيث يبدا الفريف بتنظيف الحوائط من الاتربة وتلميعها وغسيلها جيدا وبعد ذلك يتم تنظيف كما نقدم شركة تنظيف بالطائف
باستخدام افضل انواع المنظفات الي تعمل علي ازالة البقع الغرف سواء غرفة اطفال او غرف نوم حيت تم ازالة الاتربة كما نقدم ايضا خدمة شركة تنظيف بالاحساء
وتلميع الزجاج والاخشاب بملمعات خاصة تعيد للاخشاب بريقها وبعد ذلك يتم تنظيف المجالس بالبخار وازالة اى بقع منها بمنظفات خاصة لا تسبب اى بهتان او انكماش للالوان وبعد ذلك يتم تنظيف السجاد والموكيت كما نقدم
شركة تنظيف خزانات بالطائف باستخدام اجود مواد الي تعقيم الخزانات فالخزان امر مهم تنظيفه في المنزل بجميع انواعه لان العاملين على دراية بانواع السجاد والموكيت وكيفية تنظيفه وعدم الاضرار باوباره والوانه وبعد ذلك تتم نظافة الحمامات من تنظيف احواض وحوائط وتلميع ارضيات والتخلص من اى انسداد فى البلوعات والقضاء علي جميع مشاكل انسداد المجاري بالمنزل
– شركة كسف تسربات المياه بالطائف شركة المهندس هل تبحث عن أفضل شركة كشف تسربات بالدمام؛نحن الشركة التى تبحث عنها ؛نحن نكتشف جميع أنواع التسربات المختلفه سواء (تسربات المياه أو الكهرباء أو الغاز ) كما نقدم
شركة كشف تسربات المياه بالطائف ؛فنحن نوفر عليك المشكلات الخطيرة التى يمكن التعرض لها بسبب أشكال التسربات المختلفه والتى تسبب لك ارتفاع فى استهلاك فواتير المياه والكهرباء بشكل مبالغ فيه ؛لذلك من الأن لا داعى للقلق فقد ابتكرت الشركة أفضل الأساليب المتميزة التى تساعد فى التخلص من التسربات والبحث عن أسبابها الرئيسية من أجل تفادى كافه هذه المشكلات
شركة تسليك مجارى خبراء والاحساء والجبيل والخبر - وبجميع انحاءالمملكة العربية السعودية نحن هل تبحثون عن أفضل شركات تسليك المجارى ؛هل تريد ون التخلص من كافه المشكلات المتعلقه بالصحية ومشكلات التنظيف التى تسببها المجارى من روائح وقازورات ؛ هل ليس لديك الوقت الكافى للبحث كثيرا عن
شركة تسليك مجاري بالطائف وتحاول الوصول الى حلول من شركات متميزة وذات كفاءة عاليه وخبرة محترفه ؛نحن الشركة المتميزه التى تساعدك على ذلك
•

# posted by

Unknown : 4:35 AM

شركة المهندس افضل شركة مكافحة النمل الابيض بالطائف وايضا افضل
شركة مكافحة حشرات بالطائف , والنمل الأبيض حشرة مضرة وليست بالحشرة السهله ولكنها تعيش تحت المنزل وتأكل من جدرانه لذلك يجب التخلص منها والعمل على ابادتها نهائيا عن طريق كما نقدم
, ويحارب النمل الابيض بطريقتين قبل البناء وبعد البناء , ويفضل رش المبيدات الخاصة بالنمل قبل البناء ليتم رش كامل المساحة والعمل على التخلص نهائيا على النمل الابيض ,وتقدم
شركة رش مبيدات بالطائف عروض مميزة عن باقي الشركات في العقود السنوية التي تمنحك الثقة بنا والاطمئنان على منزلك من الحشرات عامة .
• مكافحة الفئران بالطائف أمر مهم ويجب من التخلص من الفئران في منازلنا من خلال شركتنا التي تخلصك من أي شئ يزعجك لذلك نحن افضل شركة مكافحة الفئران بالطائف وبعض مدن المنطقة المجاوره
هل تبحث عن افضل الشركات التى تقوم باعمال” نقل الاثاث الى الطائف“؟ نقدم خدمة شركة المهندس افضل شركة نقل اثاث
شركة نقل اثاث وعفش بالطائف هل انت من سكان الطائف وتبحث عن افضل الشركات بسبب ما تتعرض اليه من تلف فى الاثاث اثناء النقل ؟ فلا داعى للقلق او التردد بشان النقل على الاطلاق فنحن فى انتظارك الان للقيام باعمال النقل على اكمل وجه بالاعتماد على افضل “السيارات المغلقه المخصصه فى اعمال النقل” والمعروفه باسم الكونتر فهى عباره عن “سيارات مغلقه للحمايه الاثاث

# posted by

Unknown : 4:35 AM