Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

Pity former Speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert. He is now the defendant in a lawsuit brought by one of the anonymous individuals who were apparently extorting money from him. The extortionist wants $1.8 million. Lest we forget, Hastert has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for having been too sneaky about withdrawing the funds he was using to pay this guy off. From an NBC report: When the FBI questioned Hastert about the money, he lied and said he just wanted to keep it in a safe place, prosecutors said. His lawyers later contacted agents and told them he was actually being extorted by an ex-student with a false claim of sexual abuse from decades ago. With recorders running, the agents had Hastert speak with Individual A and claim he was having trouble coming up with the next payment. They said the other man's tone and remarks were not consistent with an extortion plot. So the key legal distinction here is between "extortion" on...

Walter Block is one of my favorite free-market oriented scholars. He is the author, most notably, of a sparklingly iconoclastic book called Defending the Undefendable , the various  chapters of which say positive things about: pimps, drug pushers, drug addicts, blackmailers, ticket scalpers, and dishonest cops! The argument in favor of legalizing blackmail has been especially influential: not because there has been any groundswell of support for such a policy change but because the academic reception of that chapter has shown that Block hit a nerve, among free market advocates. Block's case for legalizing blackmail drew responses in particular from Robert Nozick, Richard Posner, Richard Epstein,  and James Lindgren, an honor role of libertarian theorists. Each gave his reasons why he was unpersuaded. Block has responded. Note that blackmail (for purposes of this debate) is different from extortion. Blackmail is the threat to do something you would otherwi...