(A version of this objection can be lodged by advocates of any type of doctrine of equality of outcome against any type of doctrine of equal opportunity for outcomes).
Assuming that all men are created equal and that this principle (from the Declaration of Independence) finds its way into constitutional law via the 14th and 15th Amendments as the doctrine of equal rights, an interpreter is still left with the task of defining equality in the context of some legal dispute.
The unwritten rule at work here, Burkett says, is that people with greater needs should receive more, and people with fewer needs should do more, which goes against the doctrine of equal pay for equal work and is a step back to the days when married men were paid more than single men because they had families to feed.
As I see it, Obergefell's chief jurisprudential achievement is to have wound the double helix of Due Process and Equal Protection into a doctrine of equal dignity – and to have located that doctrine in a tradition of constitutional interpretation as an exercise in public education.
During the tenure of Chief Justices Warren E. Burger and William H. Rehnquist, the court added considerably to the list of situations that might be adjudicated under the doctrine of equal protection, including sexual discrimination, the status and rights of aliens, voting, abortion, and access to the courts.
there is no doctrine of equal sovereignty.
The hitch is that such a practice-consequentialist approach is unlikely to support the Mohist doctrine of equal care for all.
This interpretation is tentative, because two passages, one badly corrupt, seem at odds with the doctrine of equal care as summarized here.
Alternatively, the Mohists could recast the doctrine of equal care as a doctrine about moral justification: Institutions and practices are to be justified on the grounds that they reflect equal concern for the welfare of all.
According to the later Mohist texts, where this doctrine of equal care but different treatment is presented explicitly, our treatment of others will be guided by standards of yi (righteousness), which probably articulate practices the Mohists think best promote the welfare of everyone in society.
