This brief essay responds to written works submitted as part of Stetson Law Review’s April 2018 symposium on the Author’s book, Animus: A Brief Introduction to Bias in the Law (2017). It considers critiques of the Supreme Court’s emerging equal protection “animus” doctrine, and one work that deals more generally with statutory equality rights. This essay finds much to admire in all of these works, including those that critique the animus concept. Nevertheless, this response concludes that animus, as a properly explained but also properly limited doctrine, can play a positive role in equal protection law. In particular, it argues that animus doctrine can provide the vehicle for a candid and direct response to many of the pathologies afflicting contemporary American politics and society. This Response also argues that it can play that role in a way that more tightly connects modern equal protection law to its historical aspirations. For these reasons, it is appropriate both to celebrate animus doctrine but also for scholars to continue studying it, to ensure that it remains confined to its proper sphere.