May 16, 2022
Common Good Constitutionalism: A Symposium
April 27, 2022
A Jurisprudential Red Pill: Part I
Evelyn Blacklock examines Prof. Adrian Vermeule's "Common Good Constitutionalism" and the alternative it offers to the status quo camps of jurisprudence.
May 12, 2022
A Jurisprudential Red Pill: Part II
Evelyn Blacklock continues her commentary on Vermeule's Common Good Constitutionalism, showing the strengths of the argument, while also demonstrating some needed nuances between the Classical and the Enlightenment perspectives of law.
May 16, 2022
Are We All Common Good Constitutionalists Now?
John Ehrett '21 analyzes the role Vermeule’s book plays
in calling for a return to better legal reasoning. Yet, even Vermeule's
solution may not address the root of the problem.
May 6, 2022
The Consummate Statecraft of Samuel Alito
April 20, 2022
The Conservative Legal Movement Sputters
Josh Hammer analyzes how liberal proceduralism is simply not enough for those in the conservative legal movement and points out a path forward for legal conservatives.
April 13, 2022
What the Hearings Missed
In the aftermath of Judge Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court, Hadley Arkes analyzes the Senate hearings. Despite some well-timed questions, Republicans ultimately missed their chance to put Judge Jackson on the record defending the right to kill unwanted children even after birth.
March 18, 2022
"It's Good (Not) to be the King": Qualified Praise for Michael McConnell
Anchoring Truths co-founder Garrett Snedeker offers two cheers for Prof. Michael McConnell's recent book on executive power under the Constitution.
March 8, 2022
Once More Unto the Breach: Arkes v. Whelan on the Overruling of Roe
In a response to Ed Whelan’s critique of “On Overturning Roe,” Prof. Arkes insists that the moral argument against Roe is the only logical one for judges who believe in the deep wrong of abortion. The pro-life cause rests on objective moral truths, not on value judgments, and as a result does not require judges (as Whelan claims) “to read their own moral convictions into the Constitution.”
February 25, 2022
Breaking the Sotomayor Mold
Kody Cooper argues that a new Supreme Court justice in the style of Sotomayor would fail to pass the "test of truth" when it comes to abortion, religious liberty, and takings. If the Senate Judiciary Committee cares about truth, it should therefore disavow the Sotomayor mold.
February 24, 2022
Justice Byron White and Abortion
Responding to Richard Doerflinger's critique of "Waiting for Dobbs," Prof. Arkes asserts that conservative justices could successfully outlaw most abortions by returning to Justice White’s standard: only abort to save the mother’s life. At the same time, however, White did the pro-life cause a lasting disservice by focusing not on the rights of unborn babies but on the abuse of "raw judicial power."
February 9, 2022
Waiting for Dobbs
Hadley Arkes recalls that day, back in 1986, when Justice Byron White, one of the original dissenters in Roe v. Wade, startled Justice John Paul Stevens by suggesting that he too could accept Roe and a “right to abortion” in some form. Stevens seemed genuinely baffled. What White was offering was an understanding that would keep Roe v. Wade as a shell, while the substance was removed. Professor Arkes tries to reconstruct that argument here as an anticipation of what might happen if the Supreme Court seeks to take “the low door under the whole” in the Dobbs case—sustaining the law in Mississippi while affecting not to overrule Roe v. Wade.
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.
Podcasts
May 13, 2022
"Moral Truth & Constitutional Conservatism" with Prof. Gerry Bradley, JWI Trustee & Senior Scholar
May 6, 2022
"M. Stanton Evans: Conservative Wit, Apostle of Freedom" with Author Steve Hayward
Author Steve Hayward joins Deputy Director Garrett Snedeker and JWI Intern Emeline McClellan to discuss his recent book, "Stan Evans: Conservative Wit, Apostle of Freedom."
April 22, 2022
"Building on the Right" with Matthew Peterson, President of New Founding
In this episode, Garrett Snedeker joins Matt Peterson, President of New Founding and founder of The American Mind, to discuss the reception of "A Better Originalism," statesmanship in American politics, and the need for new institutions.
March 18, 2022
"12 Angry Men & Natural Law" with Film Expert Onalee McGraw
Garrett Snedeker and film expert Onalee McGraw discuss the classic legal drama "12 Angry Men."
March 3, 2022
Podcast at First Things: Hadley Arkes and R. R. Reno discuss "On Overruling Roe"
Prof. Arkes discusses "On Overruling Roe" with First Things editor R.R. Reno.
