"Equality under the law means that all citizens are protected by the government from the initiation of force against themselves and their property. Equality of outcomes means that the government may actively use force to balance out differences between others.
Equality under the law means that men should be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Equality of outcomes means that skin color can be a prime factor in distinguishing between individuals.
Equality under the law is about equal rights, meaning the protections that ensure an individual’s liberty and security. Equality of outcomes perverts the notion of rights to give some citizens a claim on the rights of others.
Despite being backed by “good intentions”, equality of outcomes is as much a threat American liberty as enforced segregation or hereditary aristocracy. All of these ideas suffer from the same vice – they fail to administer identical standards of justice to all citizens.
Equality under the law does not endorse wide divergences in social conditions. It does not support a growing gap between rich and poor. In fact, valuing equality under the law is often one of the best means of closing such gaps, precisely because attempts to mandate equality of outcomes often end up being counter-productive and hurting the people they intend to help. The point, however, is that equality under the law is not designed to guarantee economic and political conditions but rather to protect economic and political freedoms. It recognizes that human beings are different and that objective standards must therefore allow for different results amongst them. Equality under the law ultimately means that all citizens are treated with respect and dignity as free individuals with equal rights."
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