Explain the concepts of ordered liberty, popular sovereignty, and partus sequitur ventrem.

Ordered liberty is the concept that freedom may be limited by the need for order in society. Russel Kirk, an American political theorist, wrote in The American Causea chapter entitled “Ordered Liberty” in which he described it as a balance between justice, order, and freedom. In a government with ordered liberty, “interests are balanced and harmonized by good laws…. Our American polity is a regime of ordered liberty, designed to give justice and order...

Ordered liberty is the concept that freedom may be limited by the need for order in society. Russel Kirk, an American political theorist, wrote in The American Cause a chapter entitled “Ordered Liberty” in which he described it as a balance between justice, order, and freedom. In a government with ordered liberty, “interests are balanced and harmonized by good laws…. Our American polity is a regime of ordered liberty, designed to give justice and order and freedom all their due recognition and part.” This concept has been used in interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment, asking if the state's action is inconsistent with the concept of ordered liberty.

Popular sovereignty is the idea that the authority of a government comes from the consent of the people. Theoretically, the people have the final say in government decisions. However, this principle does not necessarily reflect a political reality. Historically, the principle of popular sovereignty was applied to justify the American Revolution. In the 1850s the principle was invoked by slavery proponents in the Bleeding Kansas conflict.  

The legal doctrine partus sequitur ventrem literally means “that which is brought forth follows the womb.” When the doctrine was first used in the British colonies, it was a departure from English common law that determined a child’s status according to the condition of the father. Partus established that a child’s status as a slave or free person depended upon the status of the mother. Labor shortages and the desire to maintain a large number of slaves are likely causes for this legal doctrine. An effect was to perpetuate the rape of slave women by white men who would not have to fear legal responsibility for their illegitimate mixed-race children. Partus helped maintain the system of African American slavery from one generation to the next.