Our latest Anchoring Truths Podcast episode focuses on a new book, Taking American Citizenship Seriously: The Recovery of the Fourteenth Amendment. Our guest is the book’s author, David R. Upham. With the book, Professor Upham delivers a comprehensive account of the original understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment. Drawing on a close textual analysis, Upham shows …
Francisco Suarez, James Madison, St. Thomas Aquinas (left to right) After Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule published his op-ed Beyond Originalism in 2020, the conservative legal movement engaged itself once more in a fierce debate about originalism, legal positivism, civil libertarianism, public space neutrality, and the limits of law. On one hand, post-war conservatives and …
This week’s Anchoring Truths Podcast is a roundtable discussion of the James Wilson Institute’s travels around the country to law school campuses from February-April. JWI Founder & Co-Director Hadley Arkes and Programs Director Daniel Osborne join host Garrett Snedeker to describe what they saw from law students at four different campuses during JWI’s law school …
I was alerted by one of our former Fellows, two days ago, to Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in Ellingburg v. U.S. on ex post facto laws. James Wilson and Oliver Ellsworth thought it too embarrassing to put those clauses on ex post facto laws in the text of the Constitution because every lawyer would know …
Join Natural Law Moment’s hosts Hadley Arkes and Gerry Bradley for a pointed discussion of the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary in American public life. Since the confirmation of three Supreme Court justices appointed by President Trump, progressives have publicly questioned the legitimacy of the Court, threatening to pack it beyond nine members. Yet …
Many critics of the Supreme Court argue that the justices have disingenuously reverse-engineered a method of constitutional interpretation that yields conservative results in cases like Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, and New York State Rifle and Pistol Assn. v. Bruen. But is this a fair critique of the Court? Or …
In light of the tragic killing of Charlie Kirk, the culture of American Campuses and Free Speech – which Kirk fought so hard for – are more relevant than ever. Profs. Hadley Arkes & Justin Dyer share a discussion of a new way to look at free speech, its purpose, and the best way to …
Professor Melissa Moschella of the University of Notre Dame joins us to discuss the contents of her recently published book titled, “Ethics, Politics, and Natural Law: Principles for Human Flourishing.” A rich yet cogent articulation of New Natural Law Theory (NNLT), Moschella’s work has been described as “the clearest, most readable exposition and defense of contemporary natural law theory yet to …
Join the Anchoring Truths Podcast for an in-depth dive into the career and jurisprudential mind of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The occasion for doing so is the publication in September of Justice Barrett’s new book, Listening to the Law. Anchoring Truths featured an exclusive review of the book by Michael A. Fragoso. Fragoso joins the …
