USC should follow the law if it expects students to do the same

--This blog post originally appeared as a letter to the editor in the Daily Gamecock on June 16, 2015

Last Tuesday, The Daily Gamecock reported that the USC administration is considering the adoption of a “social contract” in an effort to encourage students to “follow the laws of our land,” due to the recent trend by some students to break the laws of South Carolina. If the University expects students to follow the law, it should first do the same.

Perhaps some students have gathered from the university’s own example that disagreement with the law frees one from the duty to obey. Just last year, the university publicly refused to follow a South Carolina law requiring it to teach the principles of the U.S. Constitution because it viewed that law as “archaic,” and in need of “modernization.” This type of reasoning is flawed. Many people can identify some law they would prefer not to obey, and often for good reason. But as Dr. King reminded us more than 50 years ago in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, we all have both a moral and legal responsibility to obey “just laws” — a category he defined as any duly enacted law not “out of harmony with the moral law.”

The university appears to have lost touch with the philosophical tradition exemplified by Dr. King, choosing to disobey laws when it finds them inconvenient as opposed to unjust, and relying on voluntary “social contracts” as a basis for enforcing duties that exist independent of individual agreement. It should not be surprised when its students do the same thing.

The university’s new found enthusiasm for the laws of South Carolina ought to be applauded, but its message to students might have more resonance if the university would lead by example.