This note corrects a serious misrepresentation of the views of Ronald Dwork
in on the subject of rights, in a recent paper by Richard Pildes. The note
makes it clear that Dworkin's theory of rights is based on a conception of
Limits on the kinds of reason that the state can appropriately invoke in or
der to justify its action. The idea of ''rights as trumps" is an expression
of this conception. ''Rights as trumps" does not, as Pildes believes, expr
ess an alternative view of rights (which Pildes argues against), in which r
ights protect certain key interests against any demands made in the name of
the general good.