The Forgotten Founding Document: Considering the Ends of the Law

Authors

A. Scott Loveless

Abstract

On the difficult moral issues confronting the judiciary today, a long overlooked bit of guidance is provided in the Declaration of Independence, natural law. This paper discusses the moral foundations of the Constitution and their relation to positive law, primarily addressing "same-sex marriage" in the context of Proposition 8 in California, but broadly applicable to other moral/legal conflicts such as abortion and the display of religious texts on public grounds, such as the Ten Commandments. It also challenges the judicial activism evident in many such cases as a judicial violation of the requirements of substantive due process.

Rights

© 2013 BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School

Recommended Citation

A. Scott Loveless, The Forgotten Founding Document: Considering the Ends of the Law, 27 BYU J. Pub. L. 365 (2013).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/jpl/vol27/iss2/5

Link to SSRN

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1288663