Law, including constitutional law, is shaped far more by social forces than are social forces shaped by the law. The best and clearest thinking about constitutional law and the fundamental issues of jurisprudence can be found in the writings of Judge Richard A. Posner. The performing of an abortion is morally dubious conduct, and we need to worry whether the acceptance of morally dubious conduct will increase the likelihood that we will come to accept morally wrong conduct. The costs of prohibiting abortion in the first several months of pregnancy are significant, and outweigh the benefits of prohibition. In the later months of pregnancy, the benefits of prohibiting abortion probably outweigh its costs.
Life is a process that begins at conception and ends with death and decay.
In each case we need to consider whether the substantial costs associated with making distinctions based on the color of one's skin are outweighed by the benefits realized in the program. The biggest cost of affirmative action programs is their tendency to reinforce racial identity and to cause political constituencies to mobilize along the politically de-stabilizing lines of race and ethnicity. In general, the law should neither prohibit nor encourage affirmative action programs in the private sector based on race. A person in a persistent vegetative state has no meaningful life, and if the people closest to the patient want to hasten his or her death, they should be allowed to do so. Assimilation has proven to be a good thing and we should encourage it.