Practical Equality: Forging Justice in a Divided Nation

by Robert L. Tsai

Overview

A path-breaking account of how Americans have used innovative legal measures to overcome injustice—and an indispensable guide to pursuing equality in our time.

Equality is easy to grasp in theory but often hard to achieve in reality. In this accessible and wide-ranging work, American University law professor Robert L. Tsai offers a stirring account of how legal ideas that aren’t necessarily about equality at all—ensuring fair play, behaving reasonably, avoiding cruelty, and protecting free speech—have often been used to overcome resistance to justice and remain vital today.

Practical Equality is an original and compelling book on the intersection of law and society. Tsai, a leading expert on constitutional law who has written widely in the popular press, traces challenges to equality throughout American history: from the oppression of emancipated slaves after the Civil War to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II to President Trump’s ban on Muslim travelers. He applies lessons from these and other past struggles to such pressing contemporary issues as the rights of sexual minorities and the homeless, racism in the criminal justice system, police brutality, voting restrictions, oppressive measures against migrants, and more.

Deeply researched and well argued, Practical Equality offers a sense of optimism and a guide to pursuing equality for activists, lawyers, public officials, and concerned citizens.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393652024
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/19/2019
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Robert L. Tsai is Professor of Law and Law Alumni Scholar at Boston University. He is the author, most recently, of Practical Equality, and his essays have appeared in the New York Review of Books, Politico, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Slate. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, DC.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Practical Equality 13

Chapter 2 Fair Play 51

Chapter 3 The Rule of Reason 93

Chapter 4 No Cruelty 137

Chapter 5 Free Speech 181

Conclusion 229

Acknowledgments 233

Notes 235

Index 263

Editorial Reviews

"Despite raging controversies, it still remains possible for the Supreme Court to bring Americans together rather than drive them further apart. Robert Tsai brilliantly describes great Court decisions of the past which engaged in such bridge-building exercises, setting precedents for future Justices to follow if they hope to sustain broad public support."

Bruce Ackerman

"How do you fight for social change during periods of reaction or when structures of injustice are deeply entrenched? Robert Tsai’s Practical Equality beautifully wrestles with this dilemma and with the everyday political challenge of defending the principle of equality under less than ideal circumstances. The result is a work of striking political and legal imagination, an essential book with critical insights for activists, scholars, and lawyers."

Aziz Rana

"Recognizing that the efforts to achieve full equality in an imperfect and often deeply flawed society are invariably met with severe resistance, Robert Tsai urges that those striving for equality must be strategic, determined, resilient, and often patient in order to achieve their goals. The struggle is worth it, but as history teaches, the battle cannot be won in a day. Tsai offers important lessons from history about how to move forward."

Geoffrey Stone

"Tsai's clear writing and questioning approach make this ultimately both accessible and engaging…Deeply thought-provoking as the topic of egalitarianism remains highly contested in today’s political discourse."

Booklist

"Egalitarians take notice! Our interpretations of the Constitution’s guarantee of equality are losing ground on every front. Robert Tsai develops his argument via a great array of well-told historical and contemporary cases, and he is deeply alive to the perils as well as the promise of his proposal."

William E. Forbath

2018-10-28

A timely review of America's pursuit of equality and pragmatic solutions to better achieve it.

Tsai (Law/American Univ.; America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions of Power and Community, 2014, etc.) argues that to overcome injustice and inequality, we must be open to "second-best solutions" and "workable alternatives" as a matter of constitutional duty to seek common ground. This approach, writes the author, "practical egalitarianism…entails creating a long-term backup plan to deal with recurring situations where we struggle to enforce equality's demands. Practical egalitarians take seriously the basic idea of civic equality for all." Yet "equality," a loaded word with substantial variations in meaning and emphasis, can be tough to pin down. The author clearly understands this conundrum and addresses the issue with appropriate nuance and respect for diverse ideologies, and he argues that gradual and incremental developments can be just as important as massive legal battles, particularly in the advancement of fairness and free speech. Tsai examines how Americans have wrestled with equality throughout history, from slavery to the most recent ban on Muslim travelers, and the lessons we can draw from these struggles. Much of the book offers practical advice for spreading equality in the legal system, but he mostly avoids legalese, delivering his ideas in vivid prose: "Instead of flying higher and higher into theory in a quest for gorgeously rendered concepts that can solve all of our problems at once, our goal should be to immerse ourselves in the squalor of human existence." Like a battle "waged on multiple fronts," equality's advocates must be prepared to "initiate fresh lines of attack." The author's intended audience, however, is not entirely clear. The premise inherent in the subtitle will likely find currency among general readers, but the book seems best tailored for policymakers, scholars, jurists, and activists.

A well-reasoned treatise on the history of equality in America and how best to secure it in the future.

Kirkus Reviews

"Provocative and sensible.… Robert L. Tsai shows us that in the never-ending struggle for equality, progress is sometimes more effectively achieved indirectly."

David Cole

"Appalled by inequality, our minds turn immediately to its opposite. Sidestepping that impulse, as Tsai advocates, requires giving up a satisfying rhetorical clarity, but it may bring us closer to our moral common sense."

New Yorker - Joshua Rothman