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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.

Without Virtue, Freedom Fails 

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(Re)Building the Kingdom: Secularism, Christianity, and Cultural Renewal

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A culture that substitutes lawn signs and slogans for moral substance can only be renewed by the rigor of Christian thought and the actions that flow from it.

The Accessible Federalist: Historical Documents and Human Nature

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Although The Federalist is indeed a historical document that emerged from and was directed to a particular time period with particular concerns, historical sensitivity itself should also lead one to view The Federalist as something more than this. Adapted from the introduction to The Accessible Federalist.

Harm, Neutrality, or Truth: What Is the Basis of Liberalism?

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Kevin Vallier’s recent book is a rich and rewarding attempt to reconcile people of faith with public reason liberalism.

Protecting Religious Liberty Safeguards All Children on the Playground Equally

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All children are equally valuable. Their bodies are equally deserving of protection, regardless of their religious status.

The Calvinist Roots of American Social Order: Calvin, Witherspoon, and Madison

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Witherspoon and Madison’s Calvinist theology and political philosophy imparted a firm belief that self-interest could be harnessed, ambition checked, and power balanced within government so that liberty and the common good were made secure.

The Cities of God and Man: Archbishop Chaput’s Advice for Catholics in an Apostate Age

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Archbishop Chaput has produced an able and perceptive response to some of the most urgent questions besetting American Catholics today.

Hard Texts and Interfaith Peace: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s Not in God’s Name

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In his new book, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks argues that the solution for religious violence must come from religion itself.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Libertarian Atheists

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Libertarians may miss certain cultural nuances that traditionalists are able to see, but the reverse is also true. In this moment of political transition, we should be grateful for minds that turn endlessly on the government-skeptical spit.

Commander in Chief: War, Foreign Affairs, and the Constitutional Power to Impeach a President

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The framers deliberately designed a strong presidency with the power to wage war with energy, secrecy, and dispatch. Impeachment, in turn, was designed to be a formidable congressional check on the formidable powers of the president—power counteracting power, ambition checking ambition.

The Constitutional Position and Powers of the Presidency: Executing Laws and Interpreting the Constitution

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The framers deliberately gave the president independence, unity, and vast powers. This is only a problem if the office is badly filled.

Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and “The Very Mercy of the Law”

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Both principle and prudence are necessary if “the very mercy of the law” is to be achieved.

Building Jerusalem: Christianity and the New Urbanism

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The New Urbanist movement attempts to address the problem of urban sprawl by promoting mixed-use, mixed population, walkable urban and town centers that draw people together. But how are these ideas related to Christian life?

Globalist Illusions and the Folly of Global Governance

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Global governance projects don’t just foster unaccountable bureaucracies and rule by experts. They are increasingly corrupting the idea of human rights.

Ten Years of International Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Laws: Lessons Learned

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When the state insists on governing us only in terms of who we think we are, surely the proper interpretation of such an insistence is that the state has reneged on the very reason for its existence: to govern us-as-us; to govern us as male and female.

To Win Back What We’ve Lost: How Defenders of Religious Freedom Are Fighting to Reclaim International Law

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Despite conceding crucial legal and political ground for decades to organizations such as Planned Parenthood, opportunities abound for defenders of religious freedom to gain that ground back.

Not Benedictine Enough: Rod Dreher’s Diagnosis and Prescription for American Christianity

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If the Benedict Option is just Christianity, it is neither inherently Benedictine nor is it optional. If it is a feeling and an intuition, it needs to be guided by careful thought.

Ruler and Guide: What John Marshall Can Teach Neil Gorsuch about the Constitution and the Natural Law

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Let us hope that, in his answers and in his future jurisprudence, Neil Gorsuch looks to the example of the Great Chief Justice and sees the Constitution as ruler, the natural law as guide.

Autonomy, Assisted Suicide, and Neil Gorsuch

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Neil Gorsuch’s book on assisted suicide highlights the danger of judges who rely on the legal and philosophical principle of radical autonomy to legislate from the bench.

Stare Decisis for Me, but Not for Thee

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Whenever a Republican president nominates a judge to the Supreme Court, progressives muse loudly about the importance of stare decisis, the principle governing the law of precedents. All they are worried about is the overturning of Roe v. Wade. In fact, stare decisis does not demand blind adherence to poorly reasoned rulings in the mold of Roe.

Neil Gorsuch, Natural Law, and the Limits of Judicial Power

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What does natural law say about the power of judges in constitutional systems of government?

Advice for Judge Gorsuch If Asked About Abortion

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The pro-choice worldview is a tangled mess of inconsistent ideas.

Natural Law, Social Justice, and the Crisis of Liberty in the West

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A reflection on our nature as “dependent, rational animals.”

A True Mensch: The Enduring Legacy of My Friend, Michael Novak

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In the field of religion and the American founding as well as many others, Michael Novak will be remembered as one of the most prolific and influential intellectuals of our time. But above all, Michael was a truly wonderful and compassionate human being.

Remembering Jane Roe and Mary Doe: The Courage of Norma McCorvey and Sandra Cano

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The shameful and irrational desire on the part of the Courts to reach decisions in Roe and Doe with no evidence—and without even knowing if the women in whose names the cases were brought actually wanted abortions—was later exposed by the courage of these two women.

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