Last week, a federal judge in Washington issued a truly extraordinary opinion. Judge Janice Rogers Brown, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, went out of her way to challenge one of bedrock achievements of the 20th Century liberal legal establishment: the de-emphasis of economic rights, relative to other “fundamental rights,” as a matter of constitutional law. Judge Brown’s opinion already has sparked controversy, and it deserves closer scrutiny.

In Hettinga v. United States, dairy farm operators challenged the Milk Regulatory Equity Act of 2005, arguing that the law’s redistributive provisions—which operate to even prices out among milk sellers—unfairly singled the farmers out in violation of various constitutional rights.

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