Robert Delahunty, who a decade ago provided the Bush Administration with a legal rationale for torture and detention without trial, added to his legacy on freedom this week with an op-ed in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Delahunty, a controversial law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minnesota, argued that the world has a finite supply of freedom, and thus if one group is to acquire more freedom, it must take that freedom away from others. For example, he argues, if the freedom to marry is broadened in Minnesota, then those who oppose expanded freedom lose the “freedom” to be free from others’ freedom.
And so, Delahunty implies, neoconservatives must increase their own freedom at everyone else’s expense — by passing constitutional amendments (such as one currently on the ballot in Minnesota) to deny freedom of religion and conserve freedom for the few who really deserve it.
