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1 " It is important to acknowledge, however, that, in practice, people’s judgments about the authority of the executive are greatly and even decisively affected by their approval or disapproval of the incumbent president. Under a Republican president, Democrats do not approve of the idea of a discretion-wielding chief executive, enabled by deferential courts. Under a Democratic president, Republicans tend to have, and even to voice, the same cautions and concerns. "
― Cass R. Sunstein , How Change Happens
2 " In 1960, just 5 percent of Republicans and 4 percent of Democrats said that they would feel “displeased” if their son or daughter married outside their political party.8 By 2010, those numbers had reached 49 percent and 33 percent.9 Interestingly, comparable increases cannot be found in the relevant period in the United Kingdom.10 "
3 " In political, moral, and legal theory, many of the largest debates pit consequentialists against deontologists. Recall that consequentialists believe that the rightness of actions turns on their consequences, which are to be measured, aggregated, and ranked. (Utilitarianism is a species of consequentialism.) By contrast, deontologists believe that some actions are wrong even if they have good consequences. Many deontologists think that it is wrong to torture people or to kill them even if the consequences of doing so would be good. Many deontologists also think that you should not throw someone in the way of a speeding train even if that action would save lives on balance; that you should not torture someone even if doing so would produce information that would save lives; that slavery is a moral wrong regardless of the outcome of any utilitarian calculus; that the protection of free speech does not depend on any such calculus; that the strongest arguments for and against capital punishment turn on what is right, independent of the consequences of capital punishment. "
4 " The disagreements between deontologists and consequentialists bear directly on many issues in law and policy. Consequentialists believe that constitutional rights, including the right to free speech, must be defended and interpreted by reference to the consequences; deontologists disagree. Consequentialists are favorably disposed to cost-benefit analysis in regulatory policy, but that form of analysis has been vigorously challenged on broadly deontological grounds. Consequentialists favor theories of punishment that are based on deterrence, and they firmly reject retributivism, which some deontologists endorse. "
5 " But it is true that in its usual forms, consequentialism seems to conflict with some of our deepest intuitions, certainly in new or unfamiliar situations.2 For example, human beings appear to be intuitive retributivists; they want wrongdoers to suffer. With respect to punishment, efforts to encourage people to think in consequentialist terms do not fare at all well.3 "
