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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.

The Constitution and Its Critics

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Public Discourse

Promote Democracy: Start at Home, but Don’t Stop at Home

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At a time when the Arab world is ripe for change, our next president must understand the strategic potential of American credibility, constitutionalism, and communication in the promotion of democracy abroad.
Public Discourse

Uphold Conscience Protection: Religious Freedom’s Contribution to the American Experience and Threats to its Survival

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Religious communities are an essential part of the fabric of America, even over and above the vital services they provide to weak and vulnerable members of our communities; we must protect their conscience rights against legal coercion.
Public Discourse

Defend Our Laws: Justice Matters

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In developing their positions on Supreme Court appointments and the Department of Justice, presidential candidates should 1) welcome the battle over the Supreme Court, 2) determine to fight hard for high-quality justices, 3) frame the argument for why abortion policy should be restored to the democratic processes, 4) support the Defense of Marriage Act, and 5) commit to select senior legal leaders who fully embrace their goals and priorities.
Public Discourse

Fix America’s Economy: Two Principles for Reform

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Candidates in the 2012 presidential race should champion two principles for reviving America’s economy: the Adam Smith principle for limiting government and the subsidiarity principle for regulating government intervention.
Public Discourse

Defend Marriage: Moms and Dads Matter

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Presidential candidates in the next election should uphold marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Public Discourse

Protect the Weak and Vulnerable: The Primacy of the Life Issue

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Public officials—especially the President—are obligated to protect the intrinsic equal dignity of all human beings, regardless not only of sex and race, but also without regard to age, size, condition of dependency, vulnerability, or the esteem of others. Abortion and embryo-destructive research are profound and lethal violations of this principle of equality to which the law (and the President) must respond.
Public Discourse

Liberty, Justice, and the Common Good: Political Principles for 2012 and Beyond

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Introducing a Public Discourse symposium on the 2012 election.
Public Discourse

Nation of Faith, Nation of Immigrants

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America’s laws and institutions come from a moral worldview shaped by Christian belief. They depend not on where her people came from, but on what they are willing to sacrifice to keep the experiment alive. Adapted from a keynote address delivered to the national gathering of CALL (Catholic Association of Latino Leaders).
Public Discourse

Perry, Prayer, and Politics

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Rick Perry’s prayer rally engendered accusations that he wrongly crossed the church-state divide. But great leaders in American history have long held that religion is a necessary basis for public morality.
Public Discourse

Pornography and National Security

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The frequency with which terrorists are found with pornography raises important questions about the possible effects of pornography on our national security.
Public Discourse

The Balanced Budget Amendment: What Would Hamilton Say?

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The balanced budget amendment would rob the federal government of an essential power.
Public Discourse

Overcoming the Obstacles to Faith-Based Approaches to Crime

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Prejudices of secular and religious groups alike stand in the way of successful crime reduction efforts.
Public Discourse

The Debt Ceiling and the Constitution

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The attempts by both the right and the left to politicize our Constitution must be firmly rejected for the sake of our nation’s health and prosperity.
Public Discourse

John Locke and the Inadequacies of Social Contract Theory

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John Locke is an illustration of how social contract theory distorts sound political reasoning.
Public Discourse

One Man, One Woman, and the Common Good: Marriage’s Public Purpose

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The state should uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, because the state’s interest in marriage is fundamentally about public, not private, purposes for marriage. Adapted from testimony delivered before the United States Senate.
Public Discourse

Is Sex Just Like Race?

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Race and sex play qualitatively different roles in our interactions with each other, making sex rationally relevant to our social and political policies in a way that race is not.
Public Discourse

That’s Entertainment: Free Speech and the Moral Regulation of the Arts

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A recent Supreme Court case reveals a division amongst conservatives over the moral foundations of the law.
Public Discourse

Islam Will Find Its Own Way to Freedom

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With extremism losing momentum, there is hope that the Muslim Middle East is beginning once again to embrace the liberalism of early 20th-century Islam.
Public Discourse

Let Freedom Ring: The Muslim Call for Religious Freedom

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As the call for freedom advances in Muslim-majority countries, we have good reason to be optimistic that religious freedom will increase as well.
Public Discourse

Religious Liberty and Development of Doctrine in Islam

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By the year 2020, the Islamic nations of the Mediterranean Basin will resound with positive cries for democracy, human rights, individual liberty, and the dignity of every man, woman, and child.
Public Discourse

Social Contracts, Human Flourishing, and the Economy

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Our current economic debates underscore the case for an approach to political economy that rejects social contract theory and embraces a robust conception of human flourishing.
Public Discourse

Offense and Criticism in the Marriage Debates

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To take offense does not free us from further argument or criticism. Instead, offense demands ongoing criticism between partners in ethical discourse as a recognition of their fundamental human equality.
Public Discourse

God and Terror

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Whether or not one likes religious actors, they are here to stay. The issue is not whether but when and how religious actors will enter public life and shape political outcomes. The third in a three-part series.
Public Discourse

God and Democratic Diplomacy

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We can no longer afford to hang on to secularization theories as we design policy for nations from Libya to Egypt, Iran to Pakistan, Nigeria to Indonesia, and the numerous other societies being reshaped by the partisans of God in the 21st century. The second in a three-part series.
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