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Public Discourse

Who Knew Honesty Could Work? On Donald Trump and Barton Swaim

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In a political climate saturated with insincerity and cynicism, Donald Trump’s unfiltered candor—however abrasive—seems like a welcome relief. But the problems with our modern political climate begin with our own unrealistic expectation that politicians care about every facet of our daily lives.
Public Discourse

Pope Francis, the Zika Virus, and Contraception

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Moral reasons exist for the use of contraceptives to defend against sexual assault, thanks to the principle of double effect—but these reasons do not apply to using contraception because of the Zika virus.
Public Discourse

Presidential Elections, Party Establishments, and Demagogues

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The American Founders created a careful system to prevent the election of the power-hungry. Progressive-led changes to the electoral process in the twentieth century, however, make it all too easy for ambitious demagogues to seize control—as first Obama did, and now Trump is doing to far worse ends.
Public Discourse

The Collapse of Gender Sanity

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Physiology doesn’t lie: Women are less effective than men at meeting military objectives, and far more likely to be injured in combat. Let’s stop denying reality in a misguided effort toward “equality” and agree that women should not be drafted to combat roles.
Public Discourse

Scalia at St. Thomas: Closing Arguments

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A man of deep faith and scintillating reason, Justice Scalia had an extraordinary ability to notice obvious, important truths that many overlooked. His informal remarks a few months before his death give insight into his intellect and character.
Public Discourse

Newman and the Idea of the University, 2.0

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Universities are fundamentally different from businesses and cannot be run in the same way, and few executives understand the contemplative and investigative purposes of a Catholic university.
Public Discourse

Antonin Scalia: An American Originalist

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With the death of Antonin Gregory Scalia the nation has lost one of its greatest jurists and a man who embodied the principle of fidelity to the Constitution.
Public Discourse

The Fundamental Issue for Climate Science

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Today, we face a new epistemological crisis. In the realm of natural phenomena, our desire to know has outstripped our understanding of what it means to know. This has serious implications for assessing the data and statistical models presented by climate science.
Public Discourse

What Conservatives Can Learn from the Liberal Case against Assisted Suicide

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A new book written from a liberal humanist perspective provides insight for conservatives who want to make a more broadly compelling case against euthanasia. It also suggests a basis for an effective coalition between liberals and conservatives.
Public Discourse

From “Physician Knows Best” to the Cult of Autonomy: A Seismic Shift in Bioethics

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As American medical ethics shifted from a model of paternalistic beneficence to a model of patient autonomy, self-determination became enshrined as the paramount value—ironically to the detriment of our society’s most vulnerable members.
Public Discourse

A Catechesis for the Tolerant

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By arguing that religion is intolerant and should not be tolerated, a new book inadvertently demonstrates that liberalism grounded in personal autonomy is the least tolerant religion of all.
Public Discourse

Shakespeare’s Critique of the American Regime: A Response to John McGinnis

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Since understanding political life is essential to understanding human nature, and revealing human nature is the mark of a masterful poet, great poetry like that of Shakespeare necessarily reflects political principles.
Public Discourse

Margaret Sanger’s Eugenics Heyday in the Federal Government

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On both the state and federal level, long-acting reversible contraceptives are being pushed as a means to reduce the birth rate of the poor. These initiatives will have a disproportionate impact on the childbearing of racial minorities.
Public Discourse

“Medical Futility”: Help or Hobgoblin in End-of-Life Discussions?

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Because it is often used imprecisely, the term “futile” can cause confusion and exacerbate conflict in disagreements about end-of-life care. It is more helpful for patients, families, and physicians to discuss the benefits and burdens of medical procedures.
Public Discourse

European Resistance to Cultural Suicide

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Across Europe citizens are fighting back to protect faith, family, and freedom.
Public Discourse

50 Years of Sex Changes, Mental Disorders, and Too Many Suicides

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Early pioneers in gender-reassignment surgery and recent clinical studies agree that a majority of transgender people suffer from co-occurring psychological disorders, leading tragically high numbers to commit suicide. Outlawing psychotherapy for transgender people may be politically correct, but it shows a reckless disregard for human lives.
Public Discourse

What’s Wrong with the Humanities?

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The humanities are declining because too many humanities scholars are alienating students and the public with their opacity, triviality, and irrelevance.
Public Discourse

Science, Philosophy, and God

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An understanding of the transcendence of creation forms the essential foundation of natural science. But does that understanding require revelation?
Public Discourse

Justice Brandeis and the Birth of Liberal Judicial Activism

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The roots of today’s judicial activism stretch back one hundred years to the appointment of controversial Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, a champion of “sociological jurisprudence.”
Public Discourse

Corporate Personhood and Individual Rights: A Reply to S. Adam Seagrave

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The truth that human beings possess a natural personhood and natural rights is not incompatible with the idea of corporate personhood and rights that exist not by nature but by convention.
Public Discourse

Goodnight, Vienna: What’s Wrong with Saying That Corporations Are People

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Corporations, and civic associations in general, are necessary bulwarks between governmental power and individual citizens—but they’re not people. Now more than ever, we must recover a clear understanding of what it means to be a human person with inherent dignity and natural rights.
Public Discourse

Don’t Eliminate the Filibuster–Restore and Reform It

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With a simple change, the Senate can restore its republican bona fides, give minority points of view an audible voice, greatly reduce the number of filibusters, make incremental gains in the passage of bills important to the majority, and improve the quality of debate.
Public Discourse

The Living Constitution Revisited

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Justice William Brennan’s vision of a living constitution continues to dominate contemporary constitutional interpretation, in spite of its troubling inconsistencies.
Public Discourse

The UN’s Push for “Same-Sex Marriage”

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In direct opposition to international law, both the central UN bureaucracy and individual Member States are aggressively promoting same-sex marriage worldwide.