“What Skrmetti Should Have Said”
Civitas Outlook has published my new essay, titled What Skrmetti Should Have Said. It begins:
I often ask students two questions inspired by Justice Antonin Scalia: identify a decision where you disagree with the outcome, but agree with the reasoning, and identify a decision where you agree with the outcome, but disagree with the reasoning. These questions serve as a gut-check to ensure that their reasoning does not simply follow their policy preferences. Students generally answer the first question with ease. Justice Scalia, for example, often cited his vote to protect a protester’s First Amendment right to burn an American flag. But students have a much tougher time with the second question. Usually, if they agree with the bottom line of an opinion, they find a way to accept the reasoning, even if not perfectly.
For me, United States v. Skrmetti falls into the second category. The Court, by a 6-3 vote, held that Tennessee can ban doctors from “transitioning” minors to the opposite sex. This holding would have seemed so obvious only a generation ago. Yet, in a short span, elite opinion shifted such that lower c
Article from Reason.com
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