Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

I'm continuing my list of most-important-decisions from the US Supreme Court, year by year. Today I'll cover the 80s. Again, each choice is extremely subjective. If you don't care about SCOTUS, you might at least enjoy the photo of Molly Ringwald. Proceeding.... 1980, Pruneyard Shopping v. Robins -- free speech, property rights, state sovereignty, shopping malls 1981, Minnesota v. Clover Leaf Creamery -- bottle bills survive constitutional challenge 1982, Arizona v. Maricopa Cnty Medl Society -- antitrust price fixing, physicians 1983, INS v. Chadha -- separation of powers, legislative veto 1984, Chevron v. NRDC -- deference to administrative discretion 1985, Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises -- "fair use" of copyrighted material 1986, Batson v. Kentucky -- jury composition, racial bias 1987, Edwards v. Aguillard -- creationism and establishment of religion 1988, Morrison v. Olson -- separation of powers & special prosecutors...

On a certain Facebook page, there is a debate underway over the ethics of shunning, that is, social ostracism independent of legal sanctions. The debate reminded me of a Cher song title, "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves." Shunning, after all, has at least three sorts of target: ethnic/racial minorities, those people who make despised lifestyle choices, and those who engage in genuinely anti-social behavior. Any society will have to find some means of deterrence of the third, called by our philosopher "thieves" for short. Shunning seems the most fittingly anarchistic way of dealing with such anti-social behavior. Applied to "gypsies" or "tramps," and the sort of target I take each term to represent, the practice is morally dubious at best.