-Some people object to this way of talking about "liberty." They object
- because
-their focus when considering the constraints that exist at any
- particular
-moment are constraints imposed exclusively by the government. For
-instance, if a storm destroys a bridge, these people think it is meaningless
-to say that one's liberty has been restrained. A bridge has washed out, and
-it's harder to get from one place to another. To talk about this as a loss of
-freedom, they say, is to confuse the stuff of politics with the vagaries of
- ordinary
-life.
-I don't mean to deny the value in this narrower view, which depends
-upon the context of the inquiry. I do, however, mean to argue against any
-insistence that this narrower view is the only proper view of liberty. As I
-argued in Code, we come from a long tradition of political thought with a
-broader focus than the narrow question of what the government did when.
-John Stuart Mill defended freedom of speech, for example, from the
-tyranny of narrow minds, not from the fear of government prosecution;
-John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (Indiana: Hackett Publishing Co., 1978), 19.
-John R. Commons famously defended the economic freedom of labor
-from constraints imposed by the market; John R. Commons, "The Right
-to Work," in Malcom Rutherford and Warren J. Samuels, eds., John R.
-Commons: Selected Essays (London: Routledge: 1997), 62. The Americans
-with Disabilities Act increases the liberty of people with physical
- disabilities
-by changing the architecture of certain public places, thereby making
-access to those places easier; 42 United States Code, section 12101 (2000).
-Each of these interventions to change existing conditions changes the
-liberty of a particular group. The effect of those interventions should be
-accounted for in order to understand the effective liberty that each of these
-groups might face.
-</para></footnote>
+Some people object to this way of talking about "liberty." They object
+because their focus when considering the constraints that exist at any
+particular moment are constraints imposed exclusively by the
+government. For instance, if a storm destroys a bridge, these people
+think it is meaningless to say that one's liberty has been
+restrained. A bridge has washed out, and it's harder to get from one
+place to another. To talk about this as a loss of freedom, they say,
+is to confuse the stuff of politics with the vagaries of ordinary
+life. I don't mean to deny the value in this narrower view, which
+depends upon the context of the inquiry. I do, however, mean to argue
+against any insistence that this narrower view is the only proper view
+of liberty. As I argued in Code, we come from a long tradition of
+political thought with a broader focus than the narrow question of
+what the government did when. John Stuart Mill defended freedom of
+speech, for example, from the tyranny of narrow minds, not from the
+fear of government prosecution; John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (Indiana:
+Hackett Publishing Co., 1978), 19. John R. Commons famously defended
+the economic freedom of labor from constraints imposed by the market;
+John R. Commons, "The Right to Work," in Malcom Rutherford and Warren
+J. Samuels, eds., John R. Commons: Selected Essays (London:
+Routledge: 1997), 62. The Americans with Disabilities Act increases
+the liberty of people with physical disabilities by changing the
+architecture of certain public places, thereby making access to those
+places easier; 42 United States Code, section 12101 (2000). Each of
+these interventions to change existing conditions changes the liberty
+of a particular group. The effect of those interventions should be
+accounted for in order to understand the effective liberty that each
+of these groups might face. </para></footnote>