In the introductory paragraph to his dissenting opinion in Trump v. Barbara, Justice Samuel Alito rightly calls the decision one of the most important in the history of the Supreme Court, or, as James Wilson might have put it, Trump v. Barbara is a case of uncommon magnitude.1 Justice Alito then goes further to say …
Jesse Wegman’s The Lost Founder is an accessible and engaging introduction to the life of James Wilson. Wegman repeats much of what is said in previous biographies, including Burton Alva Konkle’s early biography of Wilson which has never been published. Wilson’s optimism about the future grandeur and growth of his adopted country, and his optimistic …
As we are about to celebrate Constitution Day in 2026, our latest guest on the Anchoring Truths Podcast says we no longer live under the Constitution as the people who wrote and ratified it understood it. That guest is Ilan Wurman, the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota. The topic …
Our latest Anchoring Truths Podcast returns to a topic discussed at the beginning of the summer which has only added resonance since: the true meaning of birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment. Our guest is a true giant of the American legal academy—Richard A. Epstein. Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU, Director of …
Since the 1980s, the American conservative legal movement has been increasingly dominated by originalism and textualism. The theories have taken many forms over the years, starting with a focus on interpreting law by finding the original intent of the lawmaker. Today, the most popular view seems to be that judges should interpret the law according …
In this keynote lecture for the Ben Franklin Fellowship’s Freedom 250 Symposium at the Victims of Communism Museum, Hadley Arkes recounts the historical evils of communist and authoritarian regimes; and the goodness of America’s opposition to them. Indeed, he says, many people once under communist regimes are alive and well today because of the policy …
As part of our ongoing series of episodes devoted to the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we’re delighted to bring you an episode devoted to the legal relevance of the Declaration’s most famous sentence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are …
We’re delighted to bring you an episode devoted to the legal relevance of the Declaration’s most famous sentence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. This video …
JWI Founder and Co-Director Hadley Arkes sits down with faculty at Wyoming Catholic College on their podcast The After Dinner Scholar to discuss the Natural Law philosophy of the Founding Fathers and the origin of theories of Natural Rights. Listen to Prof. Arkes as he explains first principles, and their place in the law and …
