Choose one essay topic from the two below. Essays should be typed, approximately five pages long, double-spaced, with one inch margins all around, and use 12 pt font (Times New Roman preferred). Do NOT exceed six pages (although you may include references on a 7th page). Please do not Papers must be written in grammatical, standard English and all quotations must be indicated with quotation marks and some form of citation.

Select one essay question.

1. Protecting liberty and upholding morality are often mutually exclusive goals for the state. In Reynolds v. U.S., a challenge to a federal prohibition against polygamy illustrated the legal friction between liberty and morality. The court ruled against Reynolds, thereby upholding the law against polygamy. Using the readings from the section on morality to support your argument, make a normative case to either defend or challenge the court’s decision. Your thesis should be focus on the tension and balance between liberty and morality, not on legal technicalities.

OR

2. Laws based entirely in moral reasoning, which prohibit activities that do not threaten anyone’s physical or economic well-being, have taken a beating in recent years. Using reasoning from a broad range of our readings, make an argument for or against laws based in community morality. Do you agree with Patrick Devlin that “that there are certain standards of behaviour or moral principles which society requires to be observed”? Or do you agree with John Stuart Mill that “there is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence”?