The James Wilson Foundation on Natural Rights and the American Founding

In this piece, JWI Founder and Director Prof. Hadley Arkes touches upon the election debacle before turning his attention to former Vice President Joe Biden and his declaration that his administration will respect the claims of “science.” Arkes points out that while the Democratic Party claims to be the party of science, their leading figures […]

On October 20th, 2020, Joshua Craddock, JWI Fellow ’19 and Affiliated Scholar, was featured as a speaker on a webinar hosted by the Federalist Society at the University of Virginia School of Law. The webinar centered on Mr. Craddock’s recent article in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy titled, Protecting Prenatal Persons: Does […]

In this piece, JWI Founder and Director, Prof. Hadley Arkes addresses the recent Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Amy Coney Barrett. He points out that there were not always hearing for Supreme Court nominees in the past and elaborates that the hearings became far more frequent and contentious once the Supreme Court placed abortion laws […]

On October 16th, the American Enterprise Institute’s Center on Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies, in partnership with the James Wilson Institute, hosted a public webinar with Peter Wallison, Senior Fellow at AEI. Wallison was joined by JWI Founder and Director Hadley Arkes to discuss the basics of natural law, reflect on the coherence of originalism, […]

In this article, JWI Founder and Director, Prof. Hadley Arkes addresses the recent Bostock decision and its implications for the schools and families, who are just beginning to grapple with the brave new world of the transgendered after Justice Gorsuch’s opinion. Prof. Arkes points out that, despite what Gorsuch considered to be a very narrow ruling on […]

In this article, Prof. Hadley Arkes comments on President Trump’s recent announcement that he would enact a new Executive Order to enforce the Born-Alive Infants’ Protection Act, which had previously had its penalties stripped from it. Arkes was initially disappointed by the announcement, for Mr. Trump failed to make a connection between the Born-Alive and […]

In this article, Mark L. Movsesian reviews Louis Fisher’s new book: Reconsidering Judicial Finality: Why the Supreme Court Is Not the Last Word on the Constitution. Professor Movsesian writes about the author’s goal to demolish the “myth” of judicial supremacy. He agrees with Louis Fisher’s argument against judicial supremacy since the Supreme Court’s decision can […]

In his column for the Catholic Thing, Professor Arkes writes about the restriction of freedom to travel during the Covid-19 lockdown. Professor Arkes raises the question: Do we really need to declare a “right to travel,” or “to leave our houses”? Professor Arkes cleverly points out that we have those rights even though they are nowhere […]

Professor David Crawford Bostock Amicus Brief Co-Author Legal and Theological Scholar, Catholic University of America With commentary from JWI Director and Founder Professor Hadley Arkes On the eve of the start of the Supreme Court’s OT 2020, JWI had the pleasure of hosting a webinar with David Crawford of the John Paul II Institute who […]

The James Wilson Institute Managing Director Michael Maibach was recently featured in the documentary film Safeguard: An Electoral College Story.  This timely new documentary asks questions on many Americans’ minds right now: How does the Electoral College really work? What were the Founders trying to do in shaping it? And what would happen if we […]