Social Injustice

THE website for the Center for a Just Society, a new social-conservative group in Washington, has a lot of the items you would expect to see: denunciations of embryonic-stem-cell research; calls for an end to the filibustering of Bush’s judicial nominees. The quality of the writing at ajustsociety.org is a cut above what you would find from most social-conservative organizations, and the range of issues is slightly wider. The Center attempts to bring “Judeo-Christian perspectives” to bear on topics that social conservatives have traditionally ignored. Thus it makes a moral case for Social Security reform. What most sets the Center’s website apart from the sites of other conservative organizations, however, is what it has to say about tort reform. Or, rather, “tort ‘reform.'”

In one of the statements on its website, the Center writes: “[T]here is a widespread effort underway to take away our right to a trial by jury. Those pushing this wrong-headed agenda claim that it will reduce the costs of healthcare and eliminate ‘frivolous lawsuits.’ . . . [T]ruth be told, the agenda behind the agenda [emphasis in original] has less to do with lowering the cost of healthcare and eliminating frivolous suits and more to do with immunizing wrongdoers from the consequences of their behavior.”

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Featured Tags

THE website for the Center for a Just Society, a new social-conservative group in Washington, has a lot of the items you would expect to see: denunciations of embryonic-stem-cell research; calls for an end to the filibustering of Bush’s judicial nominees. The quality of the writing at ajustsociety.org is a cut above what you would find from most social-conservative organizations, and the range of issues is slightly wider. The Center attempts to bring “Judeo-Christian perspectives” to bear on topics that social conservatives have traditionally ignored. Thus it makes a moral case for Social Security reform. What most sets the Center’s website apart from the sites of other conservative organizations, however, is what it has to say about tort reform. Or, rather, “tort ‘reform.'”

In one of the statements on its website, the Center writes: “[T]here is a widespread effort underway to take away our right to a trial by jury. Those pushing this wrong-headed agenda claim that it will reduce the costs of healthcare and eliminate ‘frivolous lawsuits.’ . . . [T]ruth be told, the agenda behind the agenda [emphasis in original] has less to do with lowering the cost of healthcare and eliminating frivolous suits and more to do with immunizing wrongdoers from the consequences of their behavior.”