Malevolent Legalities

Kevin S. Jobe is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley.

Part I: "Prudent Evil" Edwards v. Aguillard (1987): Humpty Dumpty Had a Fall St. Mary's Honor Ct (1993): "Injustice is the Game" Romer v. Evans (1996): "The Law Killeth, but the Spirit Giveth Life" Part II: A "Regime of Static Law" Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board (2000): "Preventing Progress" 5Abbott v. Perez (2018): Severing the Memory of Discrimination 6Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard (2023): "Colorblindness by Legal Fiat" Conclusion: 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023): the Specters of Scalia

Kevin Jobe philosophically advances judicial skepticism to show how the US Supreme Court's use of textualism and originalism is performative discrimination. Jobe's brilliant analyses uncover the racial injustice in recent "colorblind" rulings by the Court. Malevolent Legalities unmasks the juridical foundations of current backlash against social progress toward equality. This is a must read for scholars of politics and jurisprudence, Left and Right. -- Naomi Zack, Lehman College, CUNY The "Rule of Law" is the proposition that no one and no law is above the law. This regime, or ideology, has created a system of legality to which we submit in the belief of the original proposition. However, as we are all too painfully aware, our histories are entangled with what Jobe calls "malevolent" legalities. This is a most important contribution to what we can call the aporia of law: law is unlawful itself and law is what creates the order in which we live. -- Eduardo Mendieta, Pennsylvania State University