>Laws should apply equally to everyone. Two things stand out. First is the quote: >The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to

>Laws should apply equally to everyone. Two things stand out. First is the quote: >The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. Second, the law including power imbalances as a reason to treat people different is already considered equality under the law. Consider we already have laws that treat certain groups of people different because of power imbalances. For example consider minors entering into contracts and how the law enforces such contracts. The law also taxes people differently. Not just for income, but also family status. There are differences in how the law handles certain matters between two people when they are a spouse compared to when they are not (such as property transfers and social security). The law also discriminates plenty based on age. For example, some people are allowed to withdraw funds from their tax deferred accounts while others are not, all because of differences in age (or in rarer cases other special circumstances). If all of these are considered equal because the way the rules apply mean that you qualify when you are of the appropriate age/married/meet the specified life circumstances, then the purposed notion would also be equal as the law would equally apply to all when they are on the specific side of the power imbalance. To set the standard the law must be equal to everyone would require re-evaluating much of the existing law and would fundamentally change quite a few facets of society.