The Legislative Process and the Rule of Law: Attempts to Legislate Taste in Moral and Political Beliefs

Authors

Samuel D. Estep, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

In a nutshell, the topic of this paper is "Comstockery and the Bowdlerizing of Ideas." The thesis here asserted is that the Rule of Law is violated when legislatures succumb to modern attempts by the often pathologically-motivated zealot legally to freeze current tastes in moral and political beliefs. The relationship between taste statutes and the seemingly esoteric topic, "The Legislative Process and the Rule of Law," is based on the premise that the maximum possible degree of intellectual freedom for each individual is an essential ingredient in the legal system of a civilized society.

Recommended Citation

Samuel D. Estep, The Legislative Process and the Rule of Law: Attempts to Legislate Taste in Moral and Political Beliefs, 59 Mich. L. Rev. 575 (1961).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol59/iss4/8