For example, some things are immoral, but completely legal. You can probably find many of your own powerful examples, but we`ll only offer a few. First of all, if you don`t tip in a restaurant, it`s not illegal; But it seems like a crime, especially if the service is good. Another example: wealthy individuals and companies are often heavily criticized for using loopholes, offshore accounts and other tax avoidance schemes. Yet businesses rely more on state-funded resources than individuals to create wealth, including roads for transporting goods and services, energy and communication infrastructure, law enforcement, national defense, and bureaucracies that support state, domestic, and international trade. How many times have you heard someone say, “Well, it`s not illegal!” However, things get trickier as we delve deeper into the matter. Imagine walking along a country road and arriving at an abandoned intersection. The pedestrian sign indicates that you are not allowed to cross the street. You wait a very long time.
There are no cars or people in sight anywhere, so decide to cross the road even if you know it`s against the law. They did something illegal. But did you do anything immoral? Honest people should not obey immoral laws. What is moral and immoral may be a controversial topic, but there are general guidelines for deciding which laws and government actions are immoral. Lysander S. Spooner, one of the great American thinkers of the 19th century. We are concerned about bullying, and not only do we tell children not to bully, but we also reprimand children who monitor bullying. We tell our children to speak, to defend the weak, etc. Similarly, whistleblowing is encouraged by many national organizations, universities, and even the federal government. Another, perhaps more egregious, example of the Supreme Court`s humiliating treaties came during President Franklin Roosevelt`s New Deal, when the administration nationalized gold and made it a crime for every American to own gold. Not only has the possession of gold been made illegal, but it has also destroyed all “gold clauses” in private and government contracts. What will they do? Stand there, follow the traffic light law or jump across the street to save the child? Ignoring the traffic light would be illegal, but saving the child would clearly be morally right, wouldn`t it? So here we have an example of an illegal but morally just act.
Changes in the law based on changes in public morality work both ways; where cocaine has gone from legal and accepted to illegal and unacceptable, homosexuality, for example, has gone the other way. Homosexual behavior, punishable by death until the 19th century, was gradually decriminalized in Britain to reflect prevailing social attitudes, culminating in the legalization of gay marriage in 2014. But simply legalizing something — whether it`s a product, a service, or a behavior — because of a change in social attitude is far from easy. This is just one of the many mysteries about the relationship between the realms of legality and morality, but it indicates an important source of conflict and confusion. I can say that I disagree with the person in the clinical discussion who said that laws are the end of the story. There is more to it than that. For example, if the law says you have to extradite undocumented people to the authorities, then you would have a moral obligation to do so because that is the law. The mere fact that the law is the law creates this obligation, but we might agree that this obligation can be compensated in some cases if we believe that the law itself is immoral, or if we feel that our other moral obligations outweigh our moral obligation to obey the law. I am convinced that the same standards, guides, principles and sources (whatever they may be) are more likely than anyone else to give you the right solution to the many important questions we must answer as individuals and as a people.
Hold on to them and you probably won`t be deterred from the childish idea that choosing is the right way to distinguish good from evil. You will then also be in a much better position to use your voice intelligently to determine what we should do legally and what we should do illegally, based on something more substantial than current and popular emotions.
