The permissibility of blaming arbitrarily

Should equally blameworthy individuals be blamed equally by someone who has the standing to blame and the same relationship to each? Recently, it has been argued that the answer to this question is ‘yes,’ there is a condition on appropriate blaming that the blame is not meted out arbitrarily. The literature on standing has proceeded, taking this for granted. Here, however, I argue that this is a mistake. There is no prohibition on arbitrary blaming. Being liable to differential blame despite equal guilt is intuitively acceptable and ubiquitous. After providing an intuitive case (getting a speeding ticket), I defend the case against many different responses.