Abstract
Dignity retains its ancient focus on rank and status. This Article, therefore, rejects the idea that we now live in the age of equal dignity, meaning equal rank and status for everyone. Rank underscores numbering, placement, and position in a predetermined hierarchy, and status underscores the power and privileges associated with each rank. Rank permits human beings to identify their preassigned location in the hierarchy, and status justifies assertions of rank since status governs the ancestral privileges, powers, and responsibilities attached to each rank. The Article relies on two constitutional cases, one before “dignity” and the other after. In 1986, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Bowers v. Hardwick that the Federal Constitution did not recognize a right to privacy preventing a state from criminalizing
Recommended Citation
Rudolph, Duane
(2025)
"Sexual Orientation, Rank, and Status,"
University of Memphis Law Review: Vol. 55:
Iss.
2, Article 7.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/um-law-review/vol55/iss2/7