At Law & Liberty, Elizabeth Amato (Gardner-Webb University, Political Science): Vindicating Jaffa and Property Rights (reviewing [harshly] Edward Erler, Property and the Pursuit of Happiness (Rowman & Littlefield 2019)). From the introduction:
In Property and the Pursuit of Happiness, Edward Erler argues that Kelo v. City of New London is a bad ruling. This is not an especially challenging argument to make. Within some constitutional scholarly circles, it’s not even a controversial claim. What distinguishes Erler’s argument is its grandiose and labyrinthine arguments all for the sake of saying that Kelo is a bad ruling.
The destination Erler aims for throughout the book is that Kelo is a bad ruling that effectively undermines private property. By undermining private property, the decision also wrecked the basis for the pursuit of happiness. How property and happiness are linked is the burden of the book. Erler rests this argument on a reinterpretation of the American social contract that he ultimately grounds on the Declaration’s natural rights doctrine.
By linking happiness and property, Erler hopes to heighten the stakes. If property rights are allowed to slip, then others, including happiness, are endangered too. Kelo is the canary in the coal mine.
From later on:
Why Kelo is a bad ruling forms only part of Erler’s argument. Kelo’s threat becomes his vehicle for accomplishing the greater task of advancing Harry Jaffa’s later interpretation of the American founding (A New Birth of Freedom) against East Coast Straussians.
Before you pick up the book, make sure you’re already well versed in the Straussian camps. This book is not for uninitiated….
And in conclusion:
Despite Erler’s efforts to broaden property to include happiness, in the end, the book is still a polemic against government seizure of private property. Like the progressives with whom he disagrees, Erler prioritizes economic well-being as the foundation for happiness. Well before the Supreme Court mangled the 14th Amendment, Tocqueville observed that Americans require little encouragement to pursue comfort and material goods. Yet, Americans are restless, anxious, and always fearful of not having taken the shortest path to happiness. The deep weakness of the Declaration’s pursuit of happiness is that it’s a lonely journey. What’s still missing in Lockestotle is how friendship contributes to happiness. Under Erler’s dispensation, it’s hard to see how personal relationships that promote virtue and seeking a friend’s good as your own can be considered items within the property right bucket. Friendship cannot be easily collapsed into property, which suggests that happiness is something greater than mere property. Property refers to what is one’s own and in particular to the self, whereas goods like friendship are joyful because they can be shared.
Posted at 6:05 AM