## Metadata - Author: [[Robert Tsai]] - Full Title: Practical Equality - Category: #books ## Highlights - Tragic precedents, in law as in life, have four salient characteristics. First, they reject a person’s grievance in extremely broad terms, often going out of their way to insulate a particular institution or practice. Second, they read like apologias for injustice because they fashion elaborate excuses for perpetrators or severely understate the harms to human beings. Third, they create significant obstacles to the pursuit of justice and stoke further violations of constitutional norms. Fourth, they are deeply demoralizing for those who love justice. ([Location 471](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07DP6TQLT&location=471)) - Unlike the law of equality, fair play trains our attention on the risk of discrimination rather than proof that it has actually occurred. The realistic possibility that a law or policy could be become a “convenient tool for ‘harsh and discriminatory enforcement’” is enough. Evidence of past abuse helps illustrate a potential for future abuse, but is unnecessary. ([Location 1100](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07DP6TQLT&location=1100)) - Whatever the approach to implementing the principle of fair play, the basic insight holds: it’s possible for people with different conceptions of morality or equality or autonomy to reach agreement on fairness grounds because the rationale papers over these differences. ([Location 1142](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07DP6TQLT&location=1142))