Word: libertarianism
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Moynihan charges that civil rights leaders lost the initiative for a program "going beyond the traditional and relatively easy issues of segregation and discrimination" -- and misses the point. Civil rights and the Federal government were natural allies; they were both ostensibly dedicated to the libertarian issues that were easy: the ones that could be passed upon by many members of Congress without offending their constituencies. The civil rights movement, like the Federal government, was simply incapable of addressing itself to the type of change necessary to ameliorate the conditions under which the black poor live...
Over many years one of the most important ways of coping with this difficult situation has been to try to fuzz it over. Under the guise of civil libertarian reasoning, welfare organizations, both national and local, have tried to "wish away" race as a category, and this has had the latent function of concealing the extent to which discrimination continues. One of the early civil-rights activities of the Kennedy administration was to try to reverse this trend so that at least the government could be informed about the extent to which Negroes were disadvantaged. Having this "color blind" point...
Emphatic Rejection. Black's theory appalled his longtime libertarian colleague, Justice William O. Douglas, who spoke for three other dissenters (Warren, Brennan, Fortas) in blasting the court for inviting the use of trespass laws as "a blunderbuss to suppress civil rights." Not only was trespass being wrongfully applied to public property, argued Douglas, but custodians of such property were being given "awesome power to decide whose ideas may be expressed." Douglas called the decision "a wonderful police-state doctrine" that will "only increase the forces of frustration which the conditions of secondclass citizenship are generating amongst...
...liberties-and blasting polemicists who accuse the court of "coddling criminals." A dangerous counterpuncher in any argument, Kamisar plays no favorites: he has fought American Law Institute conservatives who sought tough model rules of police questioning, while he "gags" at Supreme Court Justices who rewrite history to fit libertarian opinions...
...Rockefeller. He has conducted a disorganized, lackluster campaign, which admittedly lacks Rockefeller's financial resources. To his credit, O'Connor has taken a few more liberal stands that Rockefeller (e.g., stronger support of the Civilian Review Board for New York City), but this is counterbalanced by an anti-civil libertarian record in the State Senate during the 1950's and an undistinguished performance as Queens County District Attorney and New York City Council President...