Language Rights

Extract

Many liberals endorse an ideal of neutrality for the state when it comes to its relations with people of distinct identities. One model in the United States has been a certain understanding of the First Amendment, with its careful balancing of free exercise, on the one hand, and nonestablishment, on the other. In recent work I have defended such a liberal conception, which I call “neutrality as equal respect.” The basic idea is simple: state acts shouldn't disadvantage individuals because of their identities. This notion of neutrality might help flesh out what happens when we try to generalize the First Amendment paradigm from religious groups to identity groups more generally. One obvious test for such an analysis is to ask what help it offers us in thinking about how liberal states should treat language minorities.