Being complacent and short-sighted moderns, we tend to take the triumph of liberty for granted. Of course the side allied with liberty won the Civil War and the World Wars and the Cold War. After all, Providence or History would have it no other way.

And of course here at home—whatever our problems and challenges—America will remain the land of the free. Freedom seems straightforward and easy. Justice we know to be more problematic. When we pledge allegiance to one nation “with liberty and justice for all,” it occurs to some of us to question whether minorities enjoy full justice, and to others to ask whether the unborn do. And we’re all vaguely aware of those recent books by distinguished academics quarreling about the meaning of justice.