Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Law, Philosophy of

  • AI, Intellectual Theft, and Lawsuits

    A year or two ago I was bumping along at about one thousand page views per diem when I experienced an unusual uptick in traffic. Inspection of the MavPhil traffic log suggested that my content was being stolen. But I didn't much care, and I still don't much care inasmuch as my content has very…

  • Judicial Terminology: Lustration

    Here: Lustration is the removal of public officials and judges who are associated with a tainted political regime. It has been used as a tool of transitional justice in newly independent and postconflict countries. Lustrating begins with vetting—a review of conduct and competency. Individuals associated with the discredited government, and credibly accused of corruption or…

  • The Destruction of Jurisprudence

    Victor Davis Hanson: Now we are left with a final toxic gift from this [Boomer] generation: the destruction of jurisprudence, a system designed not to easily protect the popular and admired but those often pilloried in the public square, the unorthodox, eccentric, and unliked. Even Trump’s antagonists know that had Donald Trump been a man…

  • Is Illegal Immigration a Crime?

    It is. Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats have been lying to us. Illegal immigrants are subject to criminal penalties. While improper entry is a crime, unlawful presence is not a crime. One can be unlawfully present in the U. S. without having entered improperly, and thus without having committed a crime.  If a foreign national enters the…

  • Frédéric Bastiat on the Law

    To gain historical perspective and philosophical insight as we slide into the abyss, you must read Bastiat among others. Our current situation is nothing new and what the Frenchman writes is directly relevant to our decline. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings at dusk. It's twilight time. Can we turn things around? I don't…

  • You may look away . . .

    . . . but it won't make the madness go away. Still, "Out of sight, out of mind" is a way to peace of mind. But is such peace worth wanting if its price is ignorance of imminent threats to your life, liberty, and well-being? Can you afford to ignore the sheer suicidal insanity of…

  • The Manipulative Rhetoric of Garrett Epps

    Keith Burgess-Jackson on a law professor gone amok: Two years ago this past month, law professor Garrett Epps published a short essay entitled “Common-Good Constitutionalism Is an Idea as Dangerous as They Come” in a high-brow literary magazine, The Atlantic. That he published his essay in this organ rather than, say, a law review suggests that…

  • Was Kyle Rittenhouse a Vigilante?

    I have been known to refer to David French as a useful idiot in the sense usually attributed to V. I. Lenin, but I won't repeat that legitimate charge here. I'll just say that French is exasperating in the Trump-hating pseudo-conservative style of David Brooks, George F. Will, Bill Kristol, Mona Charen and the rest…

  • Civil Liability for Gun Manufacturers?

    Of course not! Substack latest.

  • “Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse”

    AN EMINENTLY REASONABLE PRINCIPLE, but only if the law can be known by the average citizen who exercises appropriate diligence.  For that exercise of due diligence to be possible, however, laws must be relatively few in number, rational in content, and plainly stated.  If that were the case, then ignorance of the law would be…

  • The Trial of Kyle

    The Rittenhouse trial was not about the 17-year-old primarily, but about one's right to defend oneself with lethal force against a lethal threat. Hence the great significance of this case. An absolutely crucial moral and legal principle is at stake. The righteous Right won this time, but the fact that the pernicious Left tried to…

  • It Can’t be Legislated

    A law can be legislated, but respect for the rule of law cannot be legislated. In the absence of the latter, positive laws are but tools of the powerful.

  • Dura lex, sed lex

    "The law is hard, but the law is the law." Not to a leftist, however, for whom the law is but an expression of power. Power knows no moral constraint.

  • An Important Issue in Political Philosophy: Robert Barron versus George Will

    For many of us who reject leftism, and embrace a version of conservatism, there remains a choice between what I call American conservatism, which accepts key tenets of classical liberalism, and a more robust conservatism.  This more robust conservatism inclines toward the reactionary and anti-liberal. The difference emerges in an essay by Bishop Robert Barron…

  • Should Firearms Manufacturers be Civilly Liable for Gun Crimes?

    Joe Biden thinks so: Hold gun manufacturers accountable. In 2005, then-Senator Biden voted against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, but gun manufacturers successfully lobbied Congress to secure its passage. This law protects these manufacturers from being held civilly liable for their products – a protection granted to no other industry. Biden will…