Courts Liberalism And Rights

Shows why the courts offer the best chance for achieving a broader set of rights for gays and lesbians

Presents the view that the courts offer the best chance for achieving a set of rights for gays and lesbians, particularly those courts whose judges draw on the expansive interpretation of liberalism. This book guides readers through a discussion of liberalism, court rulings on sodomy laws and same-sex marriage, and a look at the example of Canada.In the courts, the best chance for achieving a broad set of rights for gays and lesbians lies with judges who view liberalism as grounded in an expansion of rights rather than a constraint of government activity. At a time when most gay and lesbian politics focuses only on the issue of gay marriage, Courts, Liberalism, and Rights guides readers through a nuanced discussion of liberalism, court rulings on sodomy laws and same-sex marriage, and the comparative progress gays and lesbians have made via the courts in Canada. As debates continue about the ability of courts to affect social change, Jason Pierceson argues that this is possible. He claims that the greatest opportunity for reform via the judiciary exists when a judiciary with broad interpretive powers encounters a political culture that endorses a form of liberalism based on broadly conceived individual rights; not a negative set of rights to be held against the state, but a set of rights that recognizes the inherent dignity and worth of every individual.