The Founding Fathers designed a framework enforced by equality and liberty to establish a just society. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” In the ideal world our founding fathers envisioned, liberty and equality would work together to create justice and happiness, but in reality, equality and liberty restrict each other. 

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The different types of liberties founded in our society defined by, “Equality and the American Democracy,” are: Political (“the idea that all citizens have equal rights of access to political institutions”), Social (“involves the quality of social relations and associated life”), Economical (related to a strong and large middle class), and Moral (“the idea that all human beings have the same fundamental worth”), inhibit each other from achieving full equality for all, creating injustices. 

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Full equality for economical liberty would result in taking away equality from moral liberty. To tax the rich more and the poor less would be treating them differently contrasting moral liberty. Libertarians would see this as unjust because it would be taking away personal freedom. On the other hand, giving full equality to moral liberty and ignoring economical liberty, would result in an oligarchy (proven by the article, “The Inescapeable Casino”) which is what the founding fathers were trying to avoid. Full equality and full liberty is not just, but a balance between the two creates room for justice. 

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The Dalai Lama defines justice as, “a universal principle of fairness based on our fundamental equality as human beings.” I want to define it as a balance between liberty and equality that is judged on our “fundamental equality as human beings” or using moral liberty as the main framework. Justice is recognizing that a strong middle class would benefit political, social, and economical liberties even if it impacts moral equality a little. It is taking a utalitarianistic approach to our liberties, supporting the most while sacrificing the few. 

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Justice is supporting political liberties for people of all races to give them a framework to strengthen other liberties even at the cost of social liberty. “During the civil rights movement,  African American activists had to set aside claim to be pursuing social equality in order to get whites to support a project of securing political equality.” Justice was served politically but not socially. As political equality settled, social equality rose as The Black Lives Matter campaign serving justice again but this time at the cost of economical liberty through riots.

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Justice may not look like justice to everyone because it is supporting the masses over the individual. Maintaining principles our founding father would be proud of requires sacrificing a few liberties to gain more equality in another liberty. Justice is the balance between Liberty and Equality.