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Conscientious Objection and Equality Laws: Why the Content of the Conscience Matters

Nehushtan, Yossi

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Abstract

By enacting equality laws the liberal state decides the limits of liberal tolerance by relying on content-based rather than content-neutral considerations. Equality laws are not and cannot be neutral. They reflect a content-based moral decision about the importance and weight of the principle of equality vis-à-vis other rights or interests. This leads to the following conclusions: First, since equality laws in liberal democracies reflect moral-liberal values, conscientious objections to equality laws rely, almost by definition, on unjustly intolerant, anti-liberal and morally repugnant values. Secondly, we should not shy away from explicitly relying on moral-liberal views when deciding whether it is justified to grant exemptions from equality laws. Thirdly, conscientious objections to equality laws should normally not be tolerated or accommodated by the state, because conscientious objections that rely on what is rightly perceived by the legislature as unjustly intolerant, anti-liberal and morally repugnant values should not be tolerated in a tolerant-liberal democracy.

Acceptance Date Nov 26, 2018
Publication Date Jun 1, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Law and Philosophy
Print ISSN 0167-5249
Publisher Springer Verlag
Pages 227-266
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10982-019-09347-5
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s10982-019-09347-5

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