Human Rights in the Constitutional Law of the United States

In the period since the end of the Second World War, there has emerged what never before existed: a truly global morality. Some of that morality - the morality of human rights - has become entrenched in the constitutional law of the United States. This book explicates the morality of human rights and elaborates three internationally recognized human rights that are embedded in US constitutional law: the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment; the right to moral equality; and the right to religious and moral freedom. The implications of one or more of these rights for three great constitutional controversies - capital punishment, same-sex marriage and abortion - are discussed in-depth. Along the way, Michael J. Perry addresses the question of the proper role of the Supreme Court of the United States in adjudicating these controversies.

Part I. The Morality of Human Rights: 1. The internationalization of human rights; 2. What is a 'human right'?; 3. The normative ground of human rights; Part II. The Constitutional Morality of the United States: 4. Capital punishment; 5. The question of judicial deference; 6. The right to moral equality; 7. The right to religious and moral freedom; 8. Same-sex marriage; 9. Abortion.