The close second place victory of Rick Santorum in Iowa has elevated the latest choice of Republican for the anti-Romney candidate. Civil libertarians, of course, are well acquainted with Santorum who lost his Pennsylvania seat due to his extremist views. Santorum has outdone his opponents in appealing to evangelical voters by not just virtually promising to go to war upon being elected but is opposed to the Griswold decision.

Santorum believes that the states have a right to criminalize private conduct considered immoral, including the right to use contraceptives. He allows a strong view of states rights to negate the protections of the bill of rights — allowing the 10th Amendment to wipe out the first eight amendment that precede it.

Santorum insists that “[t]he state has a right to do that, I have never questioned that the state has a right to do that. It is not a constitutional right, the state has the right to pass whatever statues they have. That is the thing I have said about the activism of the supreme court, they are creating right, and they should be left up to the people to decide. You shouldn’t create constitutional rights when states do dumb things. . . Let the people decide if the states are doing dumb things get rid of the legislature and replace them as opposed to creating constitutional laws that have consequences that were before them.” But, of course, that is a virtual invitation to majoritarian terror. What is the majority likes such “dumb things” as prejudice against those with alternative lifestyles or moral viewpoints.