Legal debate

Overview

• Debates between judges. These debates, as well, will often occur face to face during judicial conferences, but they find their most prominent voice in written opinions. Splintered U.S. Supreme Court decisions present a prominent example. Antonin Scalia's dissents with the majority epitomize the nature of judicial legal debate—a debate that often centers around the proper means of interpreting federal statutes or the Constitution.
• Debate between politicians. An example of this debate is that between the President of the United States and the United States Congress over the ability of the executive power to issue clandestine wiretaps without seeking a warrant. The legal debate at issue is the scope of executive power vis-a-vis the other branches of government.
• General debate within society. Societies always debate the legal order. The process of electing politicians and lobbying is a form of legal debate: the majority tends to become part of a coalition that agrees on the laws that will be implemented.

  Contemporary issues in legal debates

• The balance between state power and civil liberties
• The proper breadth of civil liberties relative to social norms and moral expectations

• The right to privacy, including the right to have an abortion
• The balance between civil rights and the need for greater security after September 11, 2001
• The proper method of interpreting the Constitution
• Affirmative Action
• Welfare reform#
• The right to a child