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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.

War in Ukraine and “Reasonable Hope for Success”

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Public Discourse

Marriage, Self-Government, and Civility

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Those suing to overturn state marriage laws are not merely asking the Court to recognize a new right. They are asking the Court to declare that the Constitution removes this issue from democratic deliberation.
Public Discourse

Judicially Mandating Same-Sex Marriage Would Put the US at Odds with the Western World

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Fewer than 9 percent of the countries belonging to the United Nations have redefined marriage to include same-sex relationships—and only one of those did so via its judiciary. A judicial redefinition of marriage would make the United States an extreme outlier on the global stage.
Public Discourse

Just the Facts, Ma’am: Rebutting the False “Inevitability” Narrative

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More than fifty million people have, by their votes, demonstrated that they continue to understand the profound importance of marriage. They deserve better than to have the decision to protect or redefine marriage taken out of their hands by the Supreme Court.
Public Discourse

Justice Scalia’s Worst Opinion

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Antonin Scalia is one of the most brilliant, principled, sound, and thoughtful jurists ever to sit on the Supreme Court. But twenty-five years ago today, his legal skills utterly failed him.
Public Discourse

“Conservative” Judicial Activism for Gay Marriage: With Amici Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

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A group of distinguished conservative public servants, policy makers, and political operatives has signed an amicus brief saying the US Constitution requires the states to redefine marriage. They argue that this is the truly conservative position—but it takes quite a bit of logical contortion to accept their argument.
Public Discourse

Redefining Marriage Would Put Kids of Heterosexuals At Risk

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The metamorphosis of marriage from a gendered to a genderless institution would send the message that society no longer needs men to bond to women to form well-functioning families or to raise happy, well-adjusted children. That would be bad news for children of heterosexuals on the margins: the poor, the relatively uneducated, the irreligious, and others who are susceptible to cultural messages promoting casual or uncommitted sex.
Public Discourse

The Coming Combustion: Faith and Fear on the Streets of Cuba

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Cubans are ready for change—even if it comes by way of violence.
Public Discourse

Civil Courage and Transcendent Truth: The Enduring Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life left a vital legacy of civil courage rooted in transcendent truth. His death is an example of joyful hope amidst suffering.
Public Discourse

Now Is the Time to Talk About Religious Liberty

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Religious liberty is precisely what allows a pluralistic society to live together in peace.
Public Discourse

Passover, Abortion, and Rabbi Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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Justice Ginsburg praises the heroic women who defied Pharaoh’s authority to save the Hebrews’ baby boys from death. Apparently, she does not have an eye for contemporary parallels.
Public Discourse

The Perils of Political Propaganda: Mass Hysteria over Indiana

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It’s fine for people to express disagreement with the Indiana RFRA—if they know what’s in it. We must not allow ourselves to be manipulated by political propagandists into mob hysteria.
Public Discourse

Yes, Tyranny is a Fitting Word

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Why should a federal judge expect citizens, lawyers, and officials to obey her orders when she ignores the cases before her, and when she holds facts, law, and reason in such obvious contempt?
Public Discourse

Judicial Tyranny UnMoored

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Judge Callie Granade ignored the case in front of her, then decided a hypothetical case involving facts that she made up, many of which directly contradicted the undisputed facts in the actual case before her.
Public Discourse

The ACLU’s Betrayal of Civil Liberties

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The ACLU is trying to deprive other organizations of freedoms that it would insist upon for itself. Their work is not a defense of equality—it is an effort to impose a certain view of morality on the country by law.
Public Discourse

Preach from the Rooftops: Evangelium Vitae at Twenty

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We cannot address the unraveling of our culture without addressing the consequences of contraception and abortion. We must rightly understand the relationships between love, truth, freedom, and justice.
Public Discourse

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Are Not Like Race: Why ENDA is Bad Policy

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Sexual orientation and gender identity are conceptually different from race, and beliefs about marriage as the union of man and woman are conceptually and historically different from opposition to interracial marriage. Adapted from testimony delivered on Monday March 16 before the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
Public Discourse

Federal Court Precedent: A Defense of Judge Roy Moore and the Alabama Supreme Court

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The US Supreme Court has set a precedent upholding the right of states to define marriage as the union of husband and wife. All federal and state judges—including those in Alabama—are bound by that precedent.
Public Discourse

“A Rather Antinomian Christianity”: John Updike’s Religion

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John Updike believed in a strange sort of Christianity that rejected the strictures of traditional faith, choosing divine comfort while rejecting divine commands. In other words, it was gospel without law, grace without repentance, the love of God without the holiness of God.
Public Discourse

God, Reason, and Our Civilizational Crisis

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The way that a culture understands the nature of God shapes its conception of man, reason, and society. Though this presents enormous challenges for the Islamic world, it also has significant implications for the sustainability of Western civilization.
Public Discourse

The Rich Roots and Spoiled Fruits of Liberal Toleration

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After decades of efforts to be emancipated from religious influences, the toleration of political liberals is still only an impoverished relative of its classical cousin.
Public Discourse

The Shopkeeper’s Dilemma and Cooperation with Evil

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A shopkeeper who objects to sex-same weddings but who nevertheless provides services at such weddings generally acts in a morally permissible way if he acts to comply with a validly-enacted law, to preserve the goodwill of his business, and to make a just profit. Nevertheless, a law that in this way coerces a shopkeeper to cooperate with actions he reasonably believes immoral is gravely unjust.
Public Discourse

Lincoln’s Best Speech: A Sesquicentennial

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Lincoln’s second inaugural address, 150 years old today, is as pertinent as ever. It reminds us that we must resist the poisonous temptation to see those with whom we disagree as bitter enemies even as we vigorously defend the moral truths that ought to guide our public life.
Public Discourse

Canada’s Supreme Court Creates Right to Assisted Suicide, Leaves Details Up to Parliament

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Most Americans are probably not aware that the push to create a right to assisted suicide is an international effort. The Canadian Supreme Court has just ruled that parliament must enact laws allowing assisted suicide.
Public Discourse

President Obama’s Dishonest and Unconstitutional De-Authorization

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President Obama’s “authorization” request is designed to curtail existing legal authority to wage war on ISIL and to handcuff future presidents in the exercise of their constitutional authority as commander in chief.
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