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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.

Why Is School Choice So Controversial? 

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Public Discourse

Building a Culture of Religious Freedom

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If we want a culture of religious freedom, we need to begin it here, today, now. We live it by giving ourselves wholeheartedly to God with passion and joy, confidence and courage; and by holding nothing back. God will take care of the rest. Adapted from remarks delivered yesterday at the Napa Institute’s 2012 annual conference.
Public Discourse

The Economic Crisis and Europe’s Rule of Law Problem

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Close attention to particular decisions by European institutions and governments before and during the present economic crisis suggests that many have significantly infringed the rule of law.
Public Discourse

Religious Freedom’s Legal and Moral Basis

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The right to religious freedom was crucial to the Founders’ vision of America. Religious freedom is a right to be protected because it enables us to fulfill our human obligation to seek the truth. The second in a two-part series.
Public Discourse

Religious Freedom Under Fire

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The threats to religious freedom in our nation are real, and they’re serious. And things will get worse unless we defend our rights. The first in a two-part series.
Public Discourse

Marriage, Religious Liberty, and the “Grand Bargain”

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In the name of “marriage equality” and “non-discrimination,” liberty—especially religious liberty and the liberty of conscience—and genuine equality are undermined.
Public Discourse

Here’s Twenty Bucks: Don’t Have Babies

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Melinda Gates and the Family Planning Summit will waste 4.6 billion dollars on contraception for women in third world countries instead of addressing the educational and healthcare-related challenges pregnant mothers face.
Public Discourse

The White House and Sexualityism

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Against what social science tells us about human happiness, the government is promoting sexualityism—a commitment to uncommitted, unencumbered, inconsequential sex—as the answer.
Public Discourse

Will the Obamacare “Tax” Trump Religious Liberty?

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Though the Supreme Court has long been hostile to tax exemptions for religious reasons, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Establishment Clause should give religious organizations reasons to hope that they won’t be penalized by the Obamacare “tax.”
Public Discourse

In Defense of John Roberts

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The Supreme Court should be an apolitical institution dedicated to enforcing the minimal and clear requirements of the Constitution.
Public Discourse

Chief Justice Roberts and the Changing Conservative Legal Movement

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The clash between Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion and that of the joint dissenters is best seen as a clash between two visions of judicial restraint, and two eras of the conservative legal movement.
Public Discourse

HHS Mandate: Unjust (as well as Illegal)

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To recap two major problems with the HHS mandate: it restricts the natural right of religious freedom and imposes a false view of religion.
Public Discourse

Immigration: He Who Is Without Sin

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Those who complain about illegal immigration are still morally complicit in the problem: they gladly take advantage of cheaper prices made possible by undocumented workers.
Public Discourse

Religious Freedom: Why Now? Defending an Embattled Human Right

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Vigilance on behalf of religious liberty is a just response to what is highest and noblest in human experience—mankind’s relation to something higher and nobler than itself. Adapted from a monograph by the Witherspoon Institute’s Task Force on International Religious Freedom.
Public Discourse

Casey at Twenty: Lessons from a Judicial Disaster

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The lesson of Casey is that the nomination and confirmation of judges with a sound judicial philosophy is an essential foundation stone of a culture of life.
Public Discourse

Casey: Enduring, Entrenched, Intentionally Evil Egregious Error

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Casey is not a sound exposition of the Constitution, and its authority should be repudiated by all other actors in our constitutional system The second in a two-part series on the deadly significance of Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Public Discourse

Planned Parenthood v. Casey at Twenty: The Worst Constitutional Decision of All Time

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In its effects, methodology, substantive doctrine, conception of the judicial role and of judicial authority, and conception of what constitutes the rule of law, Casey is terribly significant and terribly wrong. The first in a two-part series on the deadly significance of Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Public Discourse

At the Door of the Temple: Religious Freedom and the New Orthodoxy

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The new orthodoxy of secularism fails to understand that the virtues generated by religious freedom underpin and encourage a healthy democracy.
Public Discourse

Religious Freedom: Use It or Lose It

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Recalling the history of Americans’ and their British ancestors’ dedication to religious freedom offers lessons for our own struggles that lie ahead.
Public Discourse

The Newest Front in the Battle over Marriage

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Same-sex marriage should not come in the back door, via an arguably collusive lawsuit in which no one charged with the responsibility of enforcing the law actually defends it.
Public Discourse

Religious Freedom Under Siege: The Bishops Respond

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The American Catholic bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom,” which begins tomorrow, continues a long tradition of defending religious freedom that began with Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher.
Public Discourse

Supreme Court Take Notice: Two Sociologists Shift the Ground of the Marriage Debate

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Judges and justices who reasoned in favor of same-sex marriage based on social scientists’ “no differences” thesis must now contend with better research: Heterosexual married couples offer the best family structure for children, according to a new, rigorously researched sociological study.
Public Discourse

Franciscan, Ave Maria, and Obamacare

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Two Catholic universities’ decisions to drop student health-care plans show Obamacare’s long-term goal: Force Americans to choose government-subsidized plans over no insurance at all.
Public Discourse

The Conflict Really Lies within New Atheism

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In his new book "Where the Conflict Really Lies," Alvin Plantinga levels a devastating critique against the “new atheism” espoused by thinkers such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.
Public Discourse

Taking (Conscience) Rights Seriously

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As a pluralistic liberal democracy, we should craft our laws so that individuals will never be unnecessarily coerced into violating their consciences.

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