"No doubt a state possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm," Justice Scalia wrote, "but that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed".
While the distinction between equal treatment and treatment as equals is difficult to make out with precision, the main idea is fairly clear: treatment as equals requires that persons are not treated equally, but rather treated in accordance with what rights they possess, what legitimate claims they put forward, and, in general, with what they deserve.
"A state possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a June 2011 ruling, "but that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed".
"A state possesses no legitimate interest in protecting its citizens from the government of the United States," Judge Motz wrote.
The Palestinians have legitimate gripes.
"Some have legitimate value.
A ban treaty will close a legal gap with regard to nuclear weapons by making it unequivocal that no state has a legitimate claim to possess, build, test, deploy, use, or threaten to use them.
Governments are perhaps the most familiar example of an authoritative social actor, as, by most accounts, they generally possess a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force to compel obedience to their mandates in a given geographic area.
In fact, as Secretary of State John Kerry stressed when he signed the treaty, the pact not only does not restrict Americans, it specifically "recognizes the freedom of both individuals and states to obtain, possess and use arms for legitimate purposes".
