What Are Freedoms For Author:John H. Garvey What Are Freedoms For? casts doubt on the idea that freedoms are bilateral rights that allow us to make contradictory choices: to speak or to remain silent, to believe in God or to disbelieve, to abort or to give birth to a child. Garvey argues that the goodness of childbearing does not entail the goodness of abortion; and if freedom foll... more »ows from the good, then freedom to do the first does not entail the freedom to do the second. Each action must have its own justification. Garvey holds that if the law is to protect freedoms, it is permissible—indeed it is necessary—to make judgments about the goodness and badness of actions. The author's keen insights into important rights issues, communicated with verve and a variety of both real and hypothetical cases, will be of interest to all who care about the meaning of freedoms. "In this bold and personal evaluation of the prevailing ideology in American law, [Garvey] argues that the very purpose of freedoms is to allow us to take a stand on either side of the test issues...Garvey shows his skill as a jurist by examining the issues involved in a range of case studies covering freedom of associations and male friendships, free exercise and the split-level characteristic of the treatment of believers and non-believers, and commercial advertising and the regulation of the marketplace of ideas, to conclude that in applying the Constitution the courts of the United States consistently held that there is no general right to freedom, only particular freedoms...What Are Freedoms For? is a most constructive exercise in positive jurisprudence. Being entertaining, sage and accessible, it is well worth a read."« less