Posted by Eugene Volokh:
What Inconsistency?
[1]Clayton Cramer disagrees with [2]Eric Muller's position on the
religious book in the school library, but then goes on to say:
Professor Muller's liberalism is really shining! Here's [3]another
book that he wants not available: Michelle Malkin's In Defense of
Internment, which is offered for sale at the Manzanar book store.
Muller compares Malkin's book to David Irving's work; this is
absurd. Malkin isn't denying that the internment happened; she is
making an argument that it made sense under the circumstances. You
can disagree with her argument without calling her a liar.
I take it that Cramer is suggesting that Muller is somehow being
untrue to his own "liberal" principles, but I don't quite see why. It
seems quite reasonable to argue that the Manzanar book store, like
other specialty government-run bookstores at historical sites, should
only carry generally accurate history books.
The bookstore must necessarily choose which books to carry: Presumably
it doesn't carry every book ever written about the Japanese
internment, but only those that it thinks are helpful to casual lay
readers. And many of these readers are likely to read one book on the
subject, rather than reading several to decide for themselves which
are right and which are wrong. If Muller is right that Malkin's book
is highly inaccurate -- even if it isn't as inaccurate as books that
deny that the Holocaust took place -- then why should the government
propagate such inaccurate views?
Now there may well be some liberals who have articulated hardline
views that any refusal by the government to carry a book, in any
government-run bookstore or library, is a First Amendment violation
(or is otherwise inappropriate). But I have no reason to think that
Muller is one of them. What reason is there to condemn him for any
supposed inconsistency with his "liberalism"?
References
1.
http://www.claytoncramer.com/weblog/2005_04_10_archive.html#111334280704108535
2. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_04_10-2005_04_16.shtml#1113326389
3. http://www.isthatlegal.org/archive/2005/04/is_there_a_davi.html
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