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Ignite Seattle This One's For You

Tue, 01/19/2010 - 03:19 — microveldt

Ok - So this afternoon fueled by a tasty lunch of shrimp and grits and Hoppin' John, mimosas and some good company, I proposed a talk for the next Ignite Seattle in which I promised to Re-factor American Equal Protection Law. Holy hubris, Batman!

As part of the proposal I had to list my blog or website - ouch! I mean I am so busy scoping and implementing Plone websites for work at Groundwire that this sad little website gets short shrift. All the more so since my attention-span is now reduced to 140 characters thanks to twitter. (Genius idea, twitter-lite or twee in which we are all constrained to 70 characters, oh, you think it's not coming, do you use a twin blade or triple blade razor, mes amis?)

So Ignite Seattle - these are the paragraphs for you; the first two paragraphs simply established that on occasion I drink and when I do I think I'm "humorously insightful." Here's the dealio: I posit that the way we should interpret the totally un-enforceable and un-litigated Constitutional principle of the "pursuit of happiness" is to insure maximum latitude to people's plans and projects.

Huh? Wha? What are the core principles I am advocating to replace our current set and why? Here's a handy-dandy table:

Current Principle Kelley's Principle What's the Payoff?
discrete & insular minorities anyone claiming to incur harm caused by critical disjuncture between law and how they experience normal life legal reasoning that comports with a basic shared sense of contemporary reality
an inchoate sense of discrimination a finding that one's previously excluded experience should be incorporated into a system of standardized contract legal clarity, enforceability, the sense that what unites us is far greater than what divides us, an increased legitimacy of law derived from its enhanced capacity to keep pace with experience

Q: What's a discrete and insular minority, what does it do, and am I in one?
A: A "discrete and insular minority" is what triggers the "heightened scrutiny" of the court in assessing the states interest in regulating legislation or administrative actions that impact on that class of people. The government must adhere to a higher standard when administering its laws as they relate to discrete and insular minorities. It must show a compelling state interest in denying benefit not just a rational relationship between the law and the goal it seeks to further.

Fine, that's its effect but WHAT IS IT?