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JohnBrownDiscussion 6 - 28 Feb 2012 - Main.DanielChung
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| | In class today, I was reminded of Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (available here for those who have not read it before: http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html), which I read at the beginning of last semester in conjunction with Walker v. City of Birmingham for the first assignment for Civil Procedure. In Walker, the Supreme Court upheld contempt charges against protesters who disregarded an injunction preventing them from gathering to march or conduct civil rights demonstrations without a permit. The protesters, believing that the injunction was unconstitutional, disregarded it so that they could hold long-planned demonstrations on Good Friday. The court's holding evinces the concern for stability and order that some were alluding to in class today. It suggested that individuals who seek to challenge a law they believe to be unjust must do through the procedure of the courts; challenging an unjust law by disobeying it is not socially acceptable.
King's letter takes a pointedly different view. I would encourage everyone to read it who has not already done so because I would do a disservice in trying to paraphrase, but the main premise is that there is a difference between unjust laws (any law that degrades human personality, any law that the numerical majority compels the minority to follow but does not follow itself, a law out of harmony with moral, natural, or eternal law, any law that is inflicted on a group denied political representation) and just laws (any law that uplifts human personality, that the majority follows, that is in harmony with moral, natural or eternal law). One has a "moral responsibility," King says, to disobey unjust laws. He further states that "one who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty...an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law." | | | Or is that just hopeful thinking, and the more likely course of events is that the world-changing ideas poured out into cyberspace will be drowned out by people trolling the internet for laughs?
-- KirillLevashov - 28 Feb 2012 | |
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> | I'm struggling to reconcile Brown's violent means and just ends. What are we, as aspiring creative lawyers, supposed to learn from Brown's actions? That violence is one of the tools we can (and/or should) use to do justice in the world? I think I agree that violence is sometimes necessary, but who gets to decide when violence is warranted? Brown seemed to have decided on his own. I don't think people should individually be able to play judge and executor--this seems antithetical to justice altogether.
-- DanielChung - 28 Feb 2012 |
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