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Adeline A. Allen

Adeline A. Allen is a contributing writer for Public Discourse, Professor of Law at Trinity Law School, and Associate Fellow at The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity. She was also a visiting fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Her scholarship focuses on the natural law foundations of contract law and the family, the view of the human person in bioethics, and the nature of contracting. Some of her scholarship and writings have been published on Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Public Discourse, First Things, Church Life Journal, World, and CiRCE Institute.
Girls running track

Common Sense Wins the Day in West Virginia v. B. P. J.

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The Court did not prescribe that states limit girls’ and women’s sports to the female sex. It merely held that states that did draw that line did not run afoul of Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause. For now, though, for girls like Adaleia Cross and for all friends of reason and common sense, the Supreme Court’s decision to call a spade a spade and sex sex is most welcome. 
people talking to each other

No Less a Talking Sheep 

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If reason and speech are constitutive of who are, it would not be surprising that less talking with one another would have to do with the dumbing down of ourselves, even a diminished humanity.
Shakespeare

The Bard for the Dance Between the Sexes 

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Marriage and family are among the basic goods of the good life, of flourishing, of delights. Shakespeare is cheering us on. May we take heart and enter the dance. 
SCOTUS

The Accused in This Republic 

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If evil deeds tend to tear us apart, our fidelity to the Constitution helps us to stand united. 
babies

A Baby Bazaar 

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As parents, may we each choose what is real, no matter the cost, that we may come to know real love and pour it out for our children.
child on a computer

(Toward) Three Cheers for the Supreme Court  

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Here’s to the good ruling protecting children from pornography. 

Pornographers Before the Supreme Court

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“I know it when I see it”—But could we keep at least the kids from seeing it and knowing it? 
ultrasound image

Screwtape on “My Embryo”

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We may not be privy to Screwtape’s letters on the understanding of the meaning of the possessive pronoun “my” in “my embryo,” but judging from jurisprudential trends, we would be able to hazard a very good guess.
Baby

Surrogacy, Love, and Flourishing

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Surrogacy is dehumanizing to both birth mother and child, because it reduces them to commodities. By design, it denies mother and child what they need to flourish as human beings.

Of The Diversity Delusion, Delivered

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Heather Mac Donald’s The Diversity Delusion is right on point, but it is also biting in tone, brimming with exasperation and anger. Mac Donald is at her finest when she offers an ode to the humanities, reminding the reader of the wonder and sublimity in Shakespeare and Bach, the truth and timelessness in Homer and Plato.