Achieving Our Country: Geographic Desegregation and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit
ACHIEVING OUR COUNTRY: GEOGRAPHIC DESEGREGATION AND THE LOW-INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDIT * J. WILLIAM CALLISON I. INTRODUCTION In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls challenged the view that “utilitarianism,” which he described as a structure that “would re- quire a lesser life prospect[] for some simply for the sake of greater advantage for others,” was the correct way to construct a just social order.1 Instead, Rawls established a construct based on a “veil of ig- * Partner, Faegre & Benson LLP, Denver Colorado; A.B., Oberlin College, 1977; J.D., University of Colorado School of Law, 1982; LL.M., Yale University, 2000. I dedicate this article to Owen M. Fiss. I thank Sheryll Cashin, Nestor Da- vidson, and Robert Ellickson for their wisdom and insights. I also thank Laurie Jaeckel and Sera Chong for their research assistance; and my wife, Maureen A. Sullivan, both for pushing me to get this article written and for her editorial assis- tance. 1 JOHN RAWLS, A THEORY OF JUSTICE 13 (rev. ed. 1999) (1971) [hereinafter RAWLS, THEORY]. Rawls stated that his aim was to work out a theory of justice that was an alternative to utilitarian thought. Id. at 20. John Stuart Mill defined utilitarianism as: The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in propor- tion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure. JOHN STUART MILL, UTILITARIANISM, LIBERTY, AND REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 6 (Ernest Rhys, ed., J.M.
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