Pillar: Politics & Law

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.

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March 13, 2019March 12, 2019Bioethics, Transgender

Politicizing Pediatrics: How the AAP’s Transgender Guidelines Undermine Trust in Medical Authority

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The five-year-old boy who transitions to identify as a girl has taken a major step on a road that may lead to treatment with cross-sex hormones, castration, and infertility. Most five-year-old boys who say they are girls will not persist: fifteen years later, in the great majority of cases, that boy will say he is a man, not a woman. But the American Academy of Pediatrics is now on record prioritizing the opinion of a five-year-old over the considered judgment of the child’s parents.

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February 20, 2019February 17, 2019American Founding, Marriage, Natural Law, Politics

John Quincy Adams contra Patrick Deneen: Marriage, Family, and the Story of the American Founding

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Can we hold to the truths of the Declaration of Independence—that we are endowed by our Creator with natural rights and that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed—without undermining respect for those natural duties and natural relationships that do not depend on our consent?

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February 17, 2019March 20, 2019Abortion, Politics

It Is Never Necessary to Intentionally Kill a Fetal Human Being to Save a Woman’s Life: In Support of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

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The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act provides a scientifically sound, medically accurate, and respectful approach to ensure that the innocent human being who survives an attempted abortion will be treated with the same human dignity and respect that similarly aged human beings receive in the course of good neonatal medical care. It also ensures that human beings with disabilities are not targeted for intentional killing at the moment of birth.

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February 7, 2019February 9, 2019Abortion, Culture, History

The Conservative Disadvantage

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If the status quo is the end game for conservatives, then there can never be hope for a long-term political victory, only momentary setbacks to the progressive agenda. The victories of social progressivism have less to do with the ideology of the founding than the moral failure of men and women in every generation to stop evil from progressing.

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January 21, 2019January 26, 2019Philosophy, Politics

Yoram Hazony, “Conservative Democracy,” and the Classical Tradition of Reason and Liberty

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If we are to correct the wayward course of contemporary democratic societies, we must preserve what is true and good and mitigate what is false and harmful in both liberalism and nationalism. We would do well to embrace core principles of the Anglo-American constitutional tradition—principles grounded in and sustained by the virtue of prudence.

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January 16, 2019January 18, 2019Constitutional Law, Sexuality, Transgender

The Many Harms of Gender Identity Laws: A Mother of a Trans-Identifying Teen Speaks Out

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All people should be protected from harassment and harm, no matter how they identify. But we as a society must be allowed to reasonably act on the basis of sex when medical treatment, privacy, and safety are at stake. If “gender identity” becomes a protected class, women and children are the ones who will suffer most.

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January 10, 2019January 7, 2019Constitutional Law

The Virtues of Judicial Self-Restraint

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To faithfully apply the original public meaning of liberty protected by the Constitution—that is to say, to be a faithful originalist—one must acknowledge that both a contractarian view of individual liberty and a Whig view of the liberty to make laws were held by the founding generation.

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January 7, 2019January 7, 2019Book Reviews, Politics

Rewilding Civil Society

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In conservation biology, a complex ecosystem whose health was slowly compromised over time can be revivified through a cascade of positive changes set in motion by reintroducing one of that system’s previous components. That’s exactly what today’s civil society needs, and conservative policymakers can help. We mustn’t shy away from using policy to achieve important ends—not just freedom, but the lessons, beliefs, and norms that make a free society succeed.

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January 3, 2019January 3, 2019Culture, Economics, History, Philosophy, Politics

The Real Lesson of the Dust Bowl: Communities as Bulwarks Against Atomism and Statism

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The alternative to the ideology of radical self-sufficiency is not reliance on the state, but the kind of community-based brotherly love and mutual aid that could be found even during midwestern American farmers’ darkest days. In the end, neither individuals nor governments, but communities, are the real vehicles for peace, harmony, and human flourishing.

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January 2, 2019January 15, 2019Abortion, Constitutional Law, Human Dignity

The Supreme Court Should Protect Unborn Children with Down Syndrome

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This Friday, the Court will decide whether to review a case about an Indiana law that prohibits abortions performed solely because the unborn child has Down Syndrome or another disability. Regardless of our nation’s polarized views on the policy and politics of abortion, it is clear that our Constitution does not include a right to abort children merely because of disfavored characteristics.

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December 17, 2018December 17, 2018Religion, Religion and the Public Square

Church and State in a Time of Scandal

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In the midst of a Church sex abuse scandal, many serious questions arise about the Church’s relationship to civil authorities. Any question of the state’s role or the freedom of the Church is obviously secondary to the moral urgency of ensuring that children are kept safe. Now is the time for the Church to contend deeply and thoroughly with its sins and to build structures consistent with the call to holiness.

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December 15, 2018December 16, 2018Capital Punishment, Natural Law, Religion, Religion and the Public Square, Sunday Long Reads

Intentional Killing Is a Usurpation of God’s Lordship Over Life: A Reply to Edward Feser

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Public Discourse is launching two new features: short book notes and long form essays. They'll run occasionally, on Saturdays and Sundays. Today is our first longform essay. Enjoy.

Permission to own slaves and suppress false religions was taught by the Old Testament, never denounced by the New Testament, and accepted in word and deed for very long periods by popes, bishops, and saints. And yet the Church eventually repudiated such permission. So, too, with intentional killing in capital punishment. The fact that death is deserved and proportionate does not license the state or any human being to intend to impose it.