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Pillar

Politics & Law

The third pillar of a decent society is a just system of politics and law. Such a government does not bind all persons, families, institutions of civil society, and actors in the marketplace to itself as subservient features of an all-pervading authority. Instead, it honors and protects the inherent equal dignity of all persons, safeguards the family as the primary school of virtue, and seeks justice through the rule of law.

Written Constitutions, Judicial Review, and the Limits of Constitutional Hope 

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American constitutionalism

Written Constitutions, Judicial Review, and the Limits of Constitutional Hope 

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From the covenants of seventeenth-century England and colonial America to the doctrine of judicial review developed by Madison, Hamilton, and Marshall, the visible institutions of modern constitutionalism owe more to Christian traditions of covenant, jurisdictional pluralism, and Augustinian anthropology than is commonly recognized. 
American constitutionalism

The Forgotten Foundations of Constitutional Law 

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Long before the separation of powers and judicial review were given written form, Greek philosophy, Roman law, Christian theology, and the medieval doctrine of paired jurisdictions laid the deeper architecture of constitutional government.  
John Adams

John Adams and the Structures of Liberty 

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As we approach the semiquincentennial, it is important to reflect on the spirit of 1776 and the principles of the Revolution that have shaped the American ethos. But it is also a time to reflect on how our various governmental structures uphold and preserve liberty. 
war

Pessimism Abroad 

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The broad acceptance by self-described conservatives of casual war, initiated without the approval of the clear constitutional authority of Congress, is in sharp contrast to the caution and prudence at the heart of the conservative disposition.
NC legislature

Imperfect Pro-Life Lawmaking in Post-Dobbs America 

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By re-energizing a state’s pro-life base and attracting enough swing voters to tip the scales, the movement can make real, even if “imperfect,” progress toward ending elective abortion in America.  
Church of the Assumption St. Paul MN

The Bookshelf: Why Catholics Should Celebrate America’s 250th Birthday  

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From the Gospel, to Acts, to the Church Fathers, to the doctrine of the two swords and the freedom of the Church, to the recognition in modern times of the freedom of conscience as an unalienable right at the foundation of a free society: the very ideas of human equality, freedom, and limited government would never have borne the fruit we see in American society without the Christian—and Catholic—intellectual tradition supplying the argument.
battlefield cemetery

War, Restraint, and the Christian Conscience 

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The church’s task is neither to baptize the sword nor to pretend the sword has no place in a fallen world. It is to stand beneath the cross, telling the truth. 
American revolution

Romans 13 and the American Revolution 

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As St. Augustine reminds us, “men build cities, and men destroy cities, but there is also the City of God, and that’s where we all belong.” Christians live in both. The task is not to sanctify our politics, but to order them rightly in light of that higher allegiance.
abortion pill

From Promised Autonomy to Delivered Harm: Structural Violence in the Era of Mail-Order Abortion Drugs 

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Government systems should be designed with care in mind, not weaponized to harm abortion-vulnerable women. 
MAGA rally

What’s Behind the Making of the MAGA New Right? 

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Field’s account is eye-opening. At the same time, as a professed “liberal,” she exhibits elements of excessive partisanship that weaken her argument. 
Pericles

Why the Left Must Recover a Sense of the Past 

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A left that developed a renewed appreciation for the past would have a rich political vision, deeper connection with popular traditions, and a more grounded set of values.
war

On Strategy, Speed, and Just War

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Life is such that doing right, attending to the very real and inescapable moral fabric of the universe, is not some hapless, wooly-headed foolishness. It is instead, or at least it can be, the most effective way of pursuing a just and decent order in a fragmented and fallen world.
Supreme Court of Canada

Who Best Protects Rights? 

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We tend to confuse the substantive protection of rights with the position that courts should always have the final word on what those rights are. But without slighting courts, we should also recognize the roles of the other two branches of government in defining rights. 
Church vs. state

What is Freedom of Religion? 

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We need philosophical arguments to counter the empty voluntarism of our time, and this is a challenge the Church should meet head-on.
Statue of liberty

The Founders’ Gift and Its New American Enemies 

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Religious freedom for everyone, everywhere? 
law and morality

The Moral Limits the State Cannot Create 

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The rule of law endures only where law acknowledges that the state is not the highest authority.
John Witherspoon

John Witherspoon and the Spirit of 1776 

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Few Christians in the eighteenth century wore as many vocational hats, and accomplished as much in so many different fields, as John Witherspoon. The question is whether all these hats held together. I think they did, perhaps just barely, but they did. And I think they tell us something important about the founding of this country and the spirit of 1776. 
The Parthenon

Who’s Afraid of Classicism?  

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Padilla Peralta wants something, but the way he’s attempting to get it could potentially cost him, and all of us in academia, what little we already have.
Supreme Court

Judicial Vacancies and the Wheel of Fortune 

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Once a judge is relying on the odds, he has relinquished his agency over the decision. It is no longer a function of rational deliberation but a function of Fortune’s wheel, whose spin the judge has no choice but to accept.
parent and child

Will Parental Rights Finally Receive Proper Constitutional Protection? 

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Mirabelli’s reaffirmation of parental rights as genuine constitutional rights is not hypocritical; nor does it open the door to judicial activism. On the contrary, it’s an important and much-needed corrective to erroneous and historically inaccurate interpretations of Pierce that read it so weakly and narrowly that they render it practically impotent as precedent.

After Easter: The Political Theology of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Messiah

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When we think of Jesus as providing a model for behavior for the religious, private, or civic realm but not for politics and government, we adopt a fragmentation utterly foreign to the New Testament.
Iran war

On the Killing of Enemy Sovereigns 

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This war does not appear to be genuinely defensive against an imminent threat; it is rather undertaken to prevent a threat that might, at some time in the future, materialize, and is therefore a “war of choice.” Natural law just war theory acknowledges no such category: justified warfare is always a matter of necessity. 
language

Language and the Politics of Power 

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Increasingly in our society and politics, the value of life has been subordinated to the aims and narratives of manipulative discourse. The Holy Father is right to warn us of this danger.
religion and politics

When Religion Becomes Obsolete, Politics Tries to Save Us 

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When politics becomes our highest love, it will also become our cruelest disappointment, leaving our homes colder, our holidays lonelier, and our common life harder to sustain. 

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