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A Letter Concerning Toleration John Locke Analysis

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John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration discuss the separation of church and state, the rights of the government and citizens, and resistance of unjust governments. Based on these works, Locke would conclude that Davis is in the wrong, because he would find that her actions are unjust, that the court rightfully jailed her, and that her resistance of the government was unlawful. In deciding to support the court’s actions against Davis, Locke would first assert that Davis’s decision to deny same-sex couples marriage licenses was unjust, as she violated rights guaranteed to those couples. In A Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke goes so far as to say “The sum of all we drive at is, that every man may enjoy the same rights that are …show more content…

In A Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke claims that “It is the duty of the civil magistrate... to secure unto all the people in general, and to every one of his subjects in particular, the just possession of [civil interests],” and defines these interest as life, liberty, health, indolency of body, and property (26). Locke identifies the role of the government, and makes it clear that it is tasked with securing the rights of all its citizens. Locke further asserts that the government has the right to punish those who attempt to violate these rights. “No opinions contrary to human society, or to those moral rules which are necessary to the preservation of civil society are to be tolerated by the magistrate” (A Letter Concerning Toleration, 49). Locke believes that the government has the power to punish those whose actions are detrimental to the civil society the government is tasked to preserve. Given that Davis violates citizens’ rights, Locke would assert that her actions harm society, and that it is within the court’s power to punish

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