Dissenting Voices in American Society: The Role of Judges, Lawyers, and Citizens

Dissenting Voices in American Society: The Role of Judges, Lawyers, and Citizens explores the status of dissent in the work and lives of judges, lawyers, and citizens, and in our institutions and culture. It brings together under the lens of critical examination dissenting voices that are usually treated separately: the protester, the academic critic, the intellectual, and the dissenting judge. It examines the forms of dissent that institutions make possible and those that are discouraged or domesticated. This book also describes the kinds of stories that dissenting voices try to tell and the narrative tropes on which those stories depend. This book is the product of an integrated series of symposia at the University of Alabama School of Law. These symposia bring leading scholars into colloquy with faculty at the law school on subjects at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary inquiry in law.

1. The ethics of an alternative: counterfactuals and the tone of dissent Ravit Reichman; 2. The role of counterfactual imagination in the legal system: misplaced judgment or inevitable dissent? Suzette M. Malveaux; 3. American animus: dissent and disapproval in Bowers v. Hardwick, Romer v. Evans, and Lawrence v. Texas Susanna Lee; 4. Animus-supported argument vs. animus-supported standing: a comment on Susanna Lee's American animus Heather Elliott; 5. Dissent and authenticity in the history of American racial politics Kenneth W. Mack; 6. Comment on Kenneth Mack, 'dissent and authenticity in the history of American politics' Tony A. Freyer; 7. Dissent in the legal academy and the temptations of power: the difficulty of dissent Richard H. Pildes; 8. Why dissent isn't free: a commentary on Pildes' the difficulty of dissent Bryan K. Fair; 9. Why societies don't need dissent (as such) Mark Tushnet; 10. Questioning the value of dissent and free speech more generally: American skepticism of government and the protection of low-value speech Ronald J. Krotoszynski.