Checking the Court: What Can Be Done to Rein in the Supreme Court?
Michael Stokes Paulsen has identified six courses of action that might effectively curb the Supreme Court’s abuse of judicial authority.
Double Standards on Abortion and Animal Rights
Abortion rights dogma can obscure human reason and harden the human heart so much that the same person who feels empathy for animal suffering can lack compassion for unborn children who experience lethal violence and excruciating pain in abortion.
The Liberalism of the Founding Fathers Is Not to Blame for Our Current Problems
If today we see ill effects of individualism, it does not mean that we should blame them on the founders. Our problem is a cultural one, not some deep, all-encompassing flaw in our political system.
Giving Thanks for Eight Years of Public Discourse
This Thanksgiving season, Public Discourse will continue to commit itself to the peaceful and rational persuasion of our fellow man in the cause of the common good. Will you join us?
Universities and the Dangers of Docility
We need docile teachers and students, those unafraid of the fundamental questions and the highest things: those who want truth.
The Constitutional Power of the Electoral College
The framers of the Constitution designed the elector system to balance the need for the people to have a voice and the desire to have a refined, informed body actually choose the president in order to avoid the election of a demagogue or charlatan.
Reason and the Existence of God
Are traditional arguments for the existence of God at least suspect—if not false—in the light of what modern philosophy tells us about the limits of human understanding?
The Decline of Movement Conservatism and the Rise of the Alt-Right
Donald Trump’s election has made one thing clear: right-wing politics, conservatism, and the Republican Party are not interchangeable.
The Promise and Peril of Making America Great: On Trumpism and Hamiltonianism
Donald Trump’s approach to politics has real roots in American political history. Yet, as Alexander Hamilton warned, it is very dangerous to undermine a democratic people’s confidence in their own governing classes.
Common Core Catastrophe
It is time to refocus President Trump’s attention upon Common Core and persuade him to ignite a national movement to roll it back. Catholic education, in particular, is undermined by adopting these national standards.
Don’t Let Assisted Suicide Come to the Nation’s Capital
DC’s assisted suicide bill is the most expansive and dangerous our country has yet seen.
Make Religious Freedom Great Again
Donald Trump should commit to protecting the free exercise of religion for all Americans of all faiths.
Modern Virtue Ethics Isn’t Really Aristotelian
Jonathan Sanford argues that contemporary virtue ethicists ought to return to the work of Aristotle as a foundation for moral judgments.
Science: What Went Wrong?
Since the seventeenth century, Rousseau’s influence has changed the way scientists approach their discipline—ironically, given that he based his theories on emotion and conjecture rather than observation and data. A return to rigorous standards of inquiry, unbiased by personal agendas, would restore science to its former position of strength.
Tea Party Elegy
Our Constitution alone will not be adequate protection if we allow the left to sweep through our mainstream culture and our institutions.
What’s Religion Good For? Progressives Weigh In
The answer many progressives give to the question, “What’s religion good for?” is troubling in at least two ways. Not only does it conflict with traditional understandings of religious freedom, it also does harm to the integrity of religion itself.
Declaring Equality Without Supplying Its Ground: Danielle Allen’s Our Declaration
Our fundamental equality as rational created beings is the source of our inalienable rights. Failure to understand this makes it impossible to truly understand the Declaration or the principles of limited government.
Seeking Consensus: The Incoherence of a Singular Islam
Debates about whether Islam is inherently violent obscure more than they clarify because they misconceive the nature of religious authority in Islam. A lack of central authority lies at the heart of the difficulties facing Muslim reformers and explains why it is so difficult to disentangle violence from Islam.
Moderation and the Preservation of Democracy
Preserving democratic freedom requires prudence and true moderation that acknowledges the complex conditions on which freedom depends.
Abortion’s Miscarriage Problem
By acknowledging the tragic reality of miscarriage and supporting those who grieve, we can build a culture of life and encourage our society to recognize the humanity of the unborn child.
