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."

Both Dr. King and John Brown openly challenged the unjust law and accepted the penalty. Whether Brown did so "lovingly" is perhaps question I can't answer based on the limited reading that we had, but it seems a plausible inference given that he gave up that which was most dear to him (his children, followed by his life) for the principle that the law of slavery was wrong. Whether a purported social change agent operates from a place of love is, to me, the fundamental distinction between an abortion clinic bomber, those who fly airplanes into office buildings, and my neighbors in Southern Arizona who take potshots at the border crossers in the dessert in the name of defending this country against "illegals," and the John Browns and Dr. Kings. This is a troubling difference though, because the law doesn't appear to make room for such flimsy matters.

-- JessicaWirth - 28 Feb 2012,