Lest I Offend Thee

by Richard Butrick (May 2014)

The 1st Amendment (1791) contains a prohibition against any laws that restrict the free exercise of religion:

Reynolds v. United States (1878). The U.S. Court found that while laws cannot interfere with religious belief and opinions, laws can be made to regulate some religious practices, e.g., human sacrifices, and the Hindu practice of suttee. The Court stated that to rule otherwise, “would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect permit every citizen to become a law unto himself. Government would exist only in name under such circumstances.” [link]

defender of women’s rights and a fierce critic of the subjugation of women condoned and justified under the banner Islam. She also committed the unpardonable sin of saying that Islam was a death cult in an interview.

Now Brandeis, of course, can do whatever it wants with regard to offering honorary degrees. But the considerations that provoked Brandeis to retract their invitation and honorary degree do not pass the Kantian test of whether the basis is generalizeable. If X makes critical remarks of a religion then X should not be awarded an honorary degree?

promulgated by prominent Mullahs in the Ummah.

The attempt to make the right not to be offended into some sort of uber-value which trumps free speech is inherently not systematically enforceable as what is offensive varies from individual to individual and even, in time, in the same individual. The only reason it is not immediately ensnared in a miasma of conflicting designations is that, indeed, the PC world has elevated the feelings of a favored minority above those of the other segments of society. The minority de jour gets their way based on feelings. X is prohibited behavior if it makes Y feel bad and Y is a member of a preferred minority. Deep thinking from Brandeis.

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