U.S. Department of Justice (Roman Babakin/Shutterstock.com).Trump and the Habits of the Conservative Heart
The White House, Washington, D.C. (Lux Blue/Shutterstock.com).Law and Norms: The Case of Kevin Durant and the NBA
CUNY staff members protesting on July 28, 2016 on campus in New York City. (Credit: Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/Alamy Live News).
Conservatives and some other stripes of political thinkers have placed great emphasis on the importance of norms in a society. It is not just the law that matters. It is the norms that operate in conjunction with the law. The same thing, of course, happens in other areas. Recently, the Golden State Warriors became NBA champions and by some measures they may have been the best team of all time. But I regard the team as having been formed in an illegitimate way, through the inappropriate actions of Kevin Durant, even though his actions were perfectly in accord with NBA rules. At…
