Asking the Nearest Hippie

It is an honor to be asked to contribute to this Symposium in honor of Margaret Jane Radin. It is particularly exciting to be able to engage with her scholarship during the summer of 2015 (the time this essay was written) when so many compelling legal issues are coming to a head: same sex marriage and the recognition of dignity as a constitutional value, pragmatic treatment of controversial regulation such as the Affordable Care Act, the death penalty under scrutiny as two justices unequivocally reaffirm its unconstitutionality, voting rights protections roll back, police brutality against African-American citizens as a daily occurrence, and affirmative action policies pushed out by color blind ideals. The times feel tumultuous, especially when continued military force, terroristic violence, and nuclear proliferation are thrown into the mix. Justice Scalia’s anachronistic reference to hippies in his Obergefell dissent brings to mind the summer of 1967 (the Summer of Love), which set the stage for the clamorous election of 1968.

Is the present summer similarly portentous?