It is well known that moral does not necessarily mean legal and vice versa. Plenty of our laws do not mean that they are moral or even based on morality. The definition of what is moral and immoral is complicated and not clean cut. Every culture may have a different set of morals than the other. With America being a country composed of various different cultures and races, it would be wrong to say that our entire legal system is built upon morality. Morality in part, does play a role in our legal system but not a large one.
I wouldn't go as far as to say that morality is inessential in law or that it is completely dangerous to subject legal decisions to morality. In my opinion, morality can be used as a base to a decision or part of a decision depending completely on what law is in question. There are many cases where morality should not be used at all such as cases dealing with religion or education. Those two subjects can be seen differently in the eyes of morality by different people. Regardless, it is a case by case basis on which morality plays a part in legal decisions.
Morality is a controversial and difficult topic to discuss when dealing with the law. I believe that it is definitely easier for judges to make decisions on cases that do not have a moral aspect involved. However, it is completely up to the judge or judges making the ruling to decide on whether morality needs to take a part or just the black letter of the law.
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I really liked how you mentioned America being a melting pot of cultures and religions because I feel this plays a crucial part in understanding how complicating morality in law can be. There is no one set of morals that every American is required to follow. I agree that it is easier for judges to make rulings that do not discuss morality but the main reason we have judges is to make these hard, gray-area decisions. That is why Supreme Court judges receive a high salary. It is their job to make decisions on morality and justice.
ReplyDeleteI think that while morality should play a role in a judge's decision making to some extent, their main job is to interpret the law, and by doing so, even without including their own moral beliefs, the base morality of the law should come out on its own. For this reason I think that while the judges are guided by some sense of morality, they actually need to remove their own morality and base their answers on the law's own moral basis and not their own.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that today we live in society where morals our not at issue sometimes. We also do have issues that involve morals. This is why judges and elected leaders are given so much responsibility. We elect and appoint these leaders to uphold our morals and make decisions that would reflect the best interest of the people.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that morality should not play a key role in a judge's decision. Taking in consideration, Supreme Court decisions affect every citizen of the United States. Therefore, a group of nine judges cannot depict the meaning of what is and what is not moral for the whole country. Decisions should be based primarily on the law and how it should be interpreted.
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