liquid

I was watching a program the other day on the litigation-society the US has become. And indeed, some of the suits being put forward seemed totally bizarre.

However, I was struck by the fact that the powerful legal process in the US has by and large been a great boon to us infidels.

Much of the advancement we (well, Americans anyway) have made in promoting and, most importantly, defending secularism has come through legal cases run by the ACLU and others. The judicial system is represents a chance to uphold rights that we simply would be denied if it were left to the legislature. Almost all the movement we have made is through the bench and not through votes.

I feel this has implications, consequences and some sort of underlying lesson, but I haven't really got my head round it yet.

Anyone else noticed this and got opinions on it?

Writer@Large

I'm not sure you'd find many people willing to defend the sue-happy culture we've developed here in America, but I do agree that the unfettered right to bring claims before the court have been good for the atheist/secular/humanist cause. Of course, the fact that we're so often *right* in these cases is somewhat depressing, since in a better place we'd have no need to complain about the tramplng of our civil rights, because there's be nothing to complain about.

--W@L

[ May 05, 2002: Message edited by: Spider@Large ]</p>

Toto

Most of the complaints about litigation come from businesses and their allies, who are upset that consumers have rights, and workers have rights. Those lawsuits eat away at the profit margin!

Very often, when you find someone complaining about a frivolous lawsuit, a closer look at the facts shows that the lawsuit isn't really that frivolous, and some key elements were omitted from the narrative to make it look worse than it is.

You can find some extreme examples, but by and large our legal system is a large part of what makes this country great.