Laws that give municipal officials and their private contractors power to issue tickets via traffic cameras confer powers of both criminal and civil law while excusing them from the due process duties of both criminal and civil law.
Author: Adam J. MacLeod (Adam J. MacLeod)
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Banking on the Margins or the Core of Human Flourishing?
Samuel Gregg’s new book makes it clear that the fundamental purpose of finance, as of all civic practices and institutions, is the good of human beings.
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The Double Mommy Trap: Two Mothers and No Rights for Junior
The double maternity two-step is a forced march. The intended destination seems to be greater personal fulfillment for adults. But if we arrive there, what will be left of the rights of children?
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Texas Lawmen and the Lawless Court
The Governor and Attorney General of Texas should obey the law, not the Supreme Court’s ambiguous abstractions. They should continue to secure the fundamental liberty of vulnerable Texans and make the abortion industry assert its super-claim-rights in court.
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The Right to Be Differently Excellent: Why Christian Colleges Should Be Allowed to Be Christian
Vanderbilt is legally free to constitute itself as a non-religious university. The question is whether Gordon College will be left free to constitute itself as a Christian college. Will we have equal liberty, or only liberty for those who despise Christianity?
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Federal Courts, Government Agencies, and Transgender Bathroom Policy
A federal court has said a student’s subjective understanding alters the meaning of an unambiguous, federal law. And it alters the meaning of the law for everyone in the Gloucester County school district and, potentially, everyone who resides in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
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What’s Wrong With Rights?
Rights in the modern world are meaningless, existing only at the will of a sovereign lawmaker. A return to “perfectionist jurisprudence,” in which rights are derived from plural authorities, at least some of which are higher that the human sovereign, and constructed on genuine human goods, would restore the structural integrity and normative currency of human rights.
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A Catechesis for the Tolerant
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.
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Birth Certificates, Fatherhood, and Same-Sex Marriage: Sotomayor v. Sotomayor
Which Justice Sotomayor will show up in the next landmark family-law case: the Sotomayor who affirms the “precious” rights and duties of biological parents? Or the Sotomayor who insists on full "marriage equality"?
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Did The Supreme Court Take Tennessee Courts Out of the Marriage Business?
For a trial judge, the jurisdictional implications of the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision are not matters of idle speculation. They are pressing practical questions with grave consequences.
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The Ambiguous Quest for Marriage Equality
Do proponents of marriage equality want marriage equality or not? The rhetoric of marriage equality does not match the reality. Only if marriage is the union of a man and a woman does it make any sense to have paternity presumed without consent, incest and polygamy prohibited, and custody bestowed upon biological or presumed parents except for cause.
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There Is a Fundamental Right to Marriage, and We Must Preserve It
Whether or not Locke would approve of it, there is a fundamental marriage right. It is ancient, not recent, and it secures the integrity of the natural family. In fact, nothing is more fundamental to our legal edifice than the ancient liberty of the natural family.
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Modest Conscience Protections in Louisiana Elicit Hysteria
The Louisiana Marriage and Conscience Act is timely, necessary, and well-justified. If passed, it will help preserve the State of Louisiana’s commitment to freedoms of conscience, religion, and expression.
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Religious Freedom and Sexual Identity: A Proposal for Peace
If law can declare certain reasons for a private business owner to refuse service—such as sexual orientation—invalid, then it can also designate other reasons as valid—such as religious convictions about the nature of marriage.
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Yes, Tyranny is a Fitting Word
Why should a federal judge expect citizens, lawyers, and officials to obey her orders when she ignores the cases before her, and when she holds facts, law, and reason in such obvious contempt?
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Judicial Tyranny UnMoored
Judge Callie Granade ignored the case in front of her, then decided a hypothetical case involving facts that she made up, many of which directly contradicted the undisputed facts in the actual case before her.
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The Hidden Costs of Legalized Suicide: What We Can Learn from Brittany Maynard
We ought to demonstrate compassion for Brittany Maynard, but we must not allow our compassion to obscure the nature of her choice—or the consequences that legal acceptance of a legal right to kill has for those left behind.
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Gordon College and Pluralism in Higher Education
Requiring all colleges and universities to adopt the same practices and policies would destroy their institutional identities and prevent them from achieving their diverse missions.
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What’s at Stake at the Bakery: How Property Rights Got Sexy
State lawmakers should make it clear that religious and moral reasons are rational and legitimate, and that property owners may act or refrain from action in obedience to conscience.
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No Interest in Fathers
President Obama’s enthusiasm for emphasizing the importance of fatherhood is an encouraging development. Unfortunately, the president has undercut this message with his own policies.
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What Will Become of Equal Protection for Women?
Laws in Massachusetts and California requiring that sex-segregated facilities be open to both sexes will undermine equal protection for women.
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Principled Entitlement Reform: Private Ordering Needs Room to Grow
Private, not public, law enables healthy dependencies by carving out space for communities of people to deliberate together about what to do with the resources available to them.
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A Moral Foundation for Entitlement Reform
Entitlement reform cannot succeed by eliminating dependence. Instead we should aim to promote healthy dependencies.
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Euphemisms: The Modus Operandi of Death Rights Advocates
Death rights advocates can only win supporters by calling the act of killing something else.
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Marriage, Religious Liberty, and the Ban Myth
It’s a myth that marriage law “bans” same-sex relationships because it treats marriage as the union of a man and a woman.