Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2006
Abstract
Americans take seriously the difference between acts and ideas. We remain mystified, for example, by the to-do about the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The act-idea distinction is alive and well in our culture, and it remains largely intact in American law. No store owner puts up a sign saying, “You covet it, you bought it!” If you want to show your commitment to “manliness” by refusing to hire women, you’re out of luck. Don’t want to pay your taxes because you don’t like the Administration’s views? Move to Canada. We let the government erect at least rudimentary boundaries between our impermissible acts and the permissible ideas those acts communicate. Otherwise, we would be forced to choose between the First Amendment and a society of laws. We couldn’t have both.
Disciplines
Constitutional Law | Law | Privacy Law
Recommended Citation
Jamal Greene,
Lawrence and the Right to Metaprivacy,
115
Yale L. J. F.
25
(2006).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/4475