by Over the weekend I participated in some fascinating conversations at Marquette as part of a conference on social justice organized by Christopher Wolfe. With folks like Jean Bethke Elshtain, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and John Finnis in the lineup, I (wisely) did more listening than talking. I found Wolterstorff’s exploration of social justice to be especially interesting.
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LRE-ers and readers might be interested in this: Submissions and nominations of articles are now being accepted for the first annual Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize for Scholarship in Professional Responsibility.
Read the full postHuman Rights Campaign has launched a new website called “NOM Exposed” dedicated to uncovering the “truth, lies, and connections about the so-called National Organization for Marriage.” I’m all in favor of providing the public with information about important political issues, but one look at this website makes clear that the primary motivation is not to provide information, but to paint opponents of same-sex marriage in the most sinister light possible, a sort of public shaming targeting anyone with the gall to stake out a position in support of traditional marriage.
Read the full postThe same-sex marriage controversy in Iowa has spilled into the judicial retention system, where there is an active campaign to remove the supreme court justices who voted to strike down the state statute limiting marriage to a man and a woman.
Read the full postOne of the many ways the Constitution’s framers showed their collective wisdom was by embedding the rule of law into the very framework of our system of government. Judicial review of popularly enacted laws keeps the majority accountable to underlying constitutional principles. Of course, one person’s core constitutional safeguard is another’s judicial activism run amok. And so, in a range of hot-button “culture war” cases, lower courts have tried to steer clear of the dreaded “judicial activist” label by shifting their analysis from the constitutional principles themselves to the facts through which the principles may be invoked. At times these days, the rule of law looks more like the rule of facts.
Read the full postI was out of town last week, so I just now had the chance to sit down and read Perry v. Schwarzenegger. A few initial reactions: First, what were the Prop 8 proponents’ counsel thinking in only putting on two experts, neither of whom strike me as especially strong under Daubert/Kumho Tire? To be clear, I think David Blankenhorn is a very thoughtful writer and effective advocate, but that doesn’t make him a good choice as a testifying expert witness. More broadly, if constitutional litigation is a battle of public policy arguments (and I’m not saying it should be), this one was no contest.
Read the full postAre atheists obliged to explain the universe’s existence or else retreat to agnosticism?
Read the full postThis October, pro-life and pro-choice scholars will gather at Princeton for a conference designed to facilitate a public discourse of “open hearts, open minds, and fair-minded words.”
Read the full postI was disappointed by today’s ruling in CLS v. Martinez, a case that is an important entry in our legal system’s ongoing struggle to navigate through the tricky waters of associational freedom, government “speech,” and religious/moral pluralism. Four quick points about the reasoning employed by Justices Ginsburg (for the majority) and Stevens (concurring):
Read the full postOur own David Opderbeck has posted his new paper, A Critical Realist Theology of Law, Neurobiology, and the Soul. I have read the paper, and it is a wonderful example of a scholar speaking from within a religious tradition — not speaking at a feigned arms length as though a believer could approach his own faith as if it were some sort of zoological specimen. The double trick for David is doing so in a way that is accessible to those outside his tradition, due in significant part to the fact that he takes the object of inquiry (in this case neurobiology) seriously on its own terms. I’m sure he’d welcome comments.
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