A (Catholic) Response to the Sex-Education License Issue

I thank Rob for his posting on this issue posed by the Markel article on “sex-ed license” education. I would very much like to respond to this important post of Rob’s in greater, detailed explanation. However, I find myself out on one of the

Massachusetts

islands for the week covering a parish for an ailing pastor, and I find that my internet time is quite brief. So, I shall pose a question to Rob—not so much to Rob, but to the issue he raises: “I’m not sure how to articulate all of my grounds of discomfort with this proposal…” What prevents the articulation? Let's consider Catholic teaching since we are involved in the project of developing Catholic Legal Theory.

I'll offer a preliminary shot at answering the question and situation that I have posed. Let me begin with a humble suggestion about how we should think of the matter about sex-education licensing: it is wrong; it is dangerous; moreover, what are the proponents thinking by offering this "solution"? I think in the long run that this solution to a real problem will compound the problem and will do little or nothing to solve it. I will add a follow-up to the Sunstein suggestion that “one of the government’s central roles is norm management.” Really? I am inclined to agree that the government can and does often find itself managing others' norms, but I must ask the fundamental question: how does the government develop principles essential to the norms it would like to manage; does it have any norms of its own; if so, how does it construct them; what is essential to the construction of its norms that will manage norms? I should very much like to return to this matter upon my return to the mainland during the weekend. But for the time being, let me say that I share Rob’s concerns. But I hasten to add that I think Catholic Legal Theory has a lot to say about this issue, and I would not want to restrict my understanding of the issue or my thoughts about solutions to those ideas that have demonstrated little if any sympathy to the Catholic intellectual tradition.   RJA sj