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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (112225)	5/29/2009 6:07:43 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541735

I'm saying it doesn't make a difference in this case. Hmmmm. They aren't being treated differently because of an immutable difference, they have a probably or mostly immutable difference that causes the identical treatment to impact them differently. So, if a group of people confined by the government were fed only bread, which would condemn those with celiac disease or diabetes to sicken and die or starve, you would judge that they were given equal protection under the law and merely treated unfairly, unreasonably, or unintelligently? No merely about it. In many cases "unfairly, unreasonably, and unintelligently" can be a bigger issue than "equally", and beyond that they would be receiving abusive treatment in this case. They are forcibly confined and made dependent, which unless its a punishment for a fairly severe crime is itself an abuse; and even if its a just punishment for a crime creates an obligation to treat the prisoner in such a way that doesn't cause him or her to sicken and die, or starve and die (unless you consider such to be a form of execution, and to be a just punishment for very severe crimes, but I wouldn't consider such a form of execution to be just, and in any case considering the idea is more of a distraction from the point than it is useful analysis of the point). The violation here would be a violation of that obligation, and the violation of the more vague obligation to treat people decently, not an equal treatment issue, but not a "mere" anything, as those issues are serious ones.