Tag Archives: voting rights

Words Fail–Edition Number Zillion…

Every day, it seems, Americans are waking up to new expressions of punitive hatefulness erupting in state legislative chambers, mostly but certainly not exclusively in the South.

From The New Civil Rights Movement, we learn that

Led by Republican Speaker Tim Moore (photo), Republican House lawmakers in North Carolina have just passed a sweepingly broad anti-gay bill in a special session called just for this one bill. The bill will void all local nondiscrimination ordinances. It will also mandate that all public accommodations ordinances, all minimum wage ordinances, and all employment discrimination ordinances come only from the General Assembly – state lawmakers – effectively banning any localities from protecting citizens in any of these areas.

The bill, HB 2, passed by a huge margin, 83-24, after less than three hours of debate and just 30 minutes of public comment.

HB 2 now heads to the Senate, who will take it up immediately.

It is expected to pass and Governor Pat McCrory, who called for the bill, is fully expected to sign it.

So–as long as we are striking back at LGBT citizens who have had the nerve to demand equal treatment before the law and the right to use a gender-identity-appropriate bathroom–let’s also pile on and punish the working poor, minorities, women….It is really hard to fathom what could impel an elected official to vote for a measure this hateful.

It’s worth noting that this North Carolina eruption is yet another illustration of the growing divide between urban and rural Americans; this special legislative session is a response to the passage of a nondiscrimination measure in Charlotte. In North Carolina–like other states, including Indiana–rural areas wield disproportionate influence in the statehouse.

It may also be that these lawmakers feel free to act on their bigotries because they are confident they will not have to defend their votes in a democratic election. After all, it can’t be coincidental that North Carolina is the most gerrymandered state in the country, and is currently embroiled in litigation over that fact, and over the state’s other assaults on voting rights.

I refuse to believe that this measure is an accurate reflection of North Carolina voter sentiment. This despicable behavior is what you get when the legislators choose their voters, rather than the other way around.

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A Constitutional Ethic

At this point in the semester, my undergraduate class is encountering a concept called “the constitutional ethic.” (The term is an organizing theme of the textbook we are using, written by yours truly and colleague from Minnesota.)

So what do we mean by “constitutional ethic”? How does such an ethic differ from our usual understanding of ethical behaviors–i.e., honesty, truthfulness, adherence to the law? If the constitutional ethic is “over and above” personal ethics, in what way is it more or different? And how can I describe that difference in language that is accessible to undergraduates?

Here’s what I plan to explain to my class:

As we’ve been discussing, the Constitution is the basis of America’s legal system; as it has operated over the years, it has shaped a distinctive value system and legal culture, a framework within which we make policy and operate our common institutions. Elected and appointed officials take an oath to uphold that constitutional system, an oath that implicitly obliges them to understand its most basic and important characteristics. (For example, policymakers need to understand not just that we are a government of checks and balances, but why our system was constructed that way.)

At its most basic, adherence to the Constitutional Ethic requires public officials to act in ways that are consistent with these basic systemic structures, and to avoid acting in ways that would undermine them.

Some examples might “flesh out” the concept.

Respect for due process guarantees would seem to rule out drone strikes on persons–especially but not exclusively Americans–who have not been afforded legal process to determine guilt or innocence.

Respect for government’s obligation to treat citizens equally would seem to rule out efforts to marginalize GLBT people, or refuse them access to the institutional benefits enjoyed by heterosexual citizens.

Respect for one of our most fundamental rights–the right to vote, to participate equally in our democracy–imposes an ethical obligation to refrain from vote suppression tactics of the sort we saw during the last election.

Respect for the principle of free speech, protected by the First Amendment, imposes an ethical obligation to refrain from attempts to censor ideas of which we disapprove.

It really isn’t complicated. It’s just increasingly rare.

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