Practical Equality: Forging Justice in a Divided Nation (Paperback)
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Description
“A work of striking political and legal imagination.” —Aziz Rana, author of The Two Faces of American Freedom
Robert L. Tsai offers a stirring account of how legal ideas that aren’t necessarily about equality have often been used to overcome resistance to justice and remain vital today. From the oppression of emancipated slaves after the Civil War, to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, to President Trump’s ban on Muslim travelers, Tsai applies lessons from past struggles to pressing contemporary issues.
About the Author
Robert L. Tsai is a professor at American University. He is the author of America’s Forgotten Constitutions and his essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the Boston Review, and Slate. He lives in Washington, DC, with his family.
Praise For…
Provocative and sensible.… Robert L. Tsai shows us that in the never-ending struggle for equality, progress is sometimes more effectively achieved indirectly.
— David Cole, national legal director, ACLU
Robert L. Tsai brilliantly describes great court decisions of the past that engaged in such bridge-building exercises, setting precedents for future justices to follow if they hope to sustain broad public support.
— Bruce Ackerman, author of We the People
Appalled by inequality, our minds turn immediately to its opposite. Sidestepping that impulse, as Tsai advocates, requires giving up a satisfying rhetorical clarity, but it may bring us closer to our moral common sense.
— Joshua Rothman
Robert L. Tsai develops his argument via a great array of well-told historical and contemporary cases, and he is deeply alive to the perils as well as the promise of his proposal.
— William E. Forbath, coauthor of The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution
