Contested Images of Family Values: The Role of the State

Abstract

Throughout the I992 presidential election, the major United States political parties battled over a set of ideological issues loosely captured by the phrase The parties were divided between what I will call the moral standards view and the moral independence view. In debates about family values, those who hold a moral standards view emphasize the word values. They are concerned about the capacity of individuals and families to maintain norms that are broadly shared. They have an image of the state as an active enforcer of shared values. Those who hold a moral independence view emphasize the wordfamily. They have an image of the state as an entity that must be constrained, lest it unduly influence the formation of values. The Supreme Court has worried over the limits of the state's permissible involvement in setting or protecting family values, sometimes approving moral standard-setting,1 and sometimes requiring moral toleration.2 This essay argues that the United States constitutional system, as amended during Reconstruction,3 requires the tolerance generated by