Essays

January 10, 2022

Founder's Keepers: Arkes on The Role of Govenment in Defining our Culture

In 2006, Prof. Hadley Arkes makes some timeless remarks at The Federalist Society on what the proper role of government is when it comes to culture.

January 6, 2022

Founder's Keepers: Arkes on Mary Eberstadt's Review of Judge Robert Conrad's "John Fisher & Thomas More"

Prof. Hadley Arkes on a review that Mary Eberstadt wrote of Judge Conrad's book "John Fisher & Thomas More"

January 3, 2022

States, Courts, and Common-Good Conservatism

We must marry Antifederalist sympathies, which recognize the dangers of concentrating power, to a holistic conservative jurisprudence, says Holden Tanner.

December 17, 2021

And All the Students Said, “Amen”

By offering a voluntary prayer, the government introduces its students to religion in a way that is not coercive or intrusive. It is, rather, a traditional acknowledgement of religion, even if it simply constitutes a recognition of the theistic origins of our unalienable rights.

December 9, 2021

‘Dobbs’ and the Conservative Legal Movement

If ‘Dobbs’ is decided following the ‘neutral principles’ of constitutional interpretation, it would not mean the end of abortion, according to Gerald Bradley, or even the beginning of the end of it. ‘Dobbs’ would instead be the start of a whole new phase of the political struggle over abortion. Yet the Constitution requires more.

December 6, 2021

A Common Call to Prayer

Continuing our symposium on school prayer, JWI Affiliated Scholar Gunnar Gundersen makes the case for a common call to prayer in American public life and in its public education.

November 30, 2021

Common Good and Common Belief in the Common Law

With discussions about the common good reaching the public square, Timon Cline writes about how the common good can be determined by both judges and legislature.

November 23, 2021

Corporations, Churches, Persons, and the Natural Law

Robert Miller responds to Prof. Adam MacLeod and argues that corporations are not real things of the world, but rather the outgrowth of human beings who for legal purposes should be considered the only entities that be judged to be in accord with law and morality.