The James Wilson Foundation on Natural Rights and the American Founding

JWI Founder and Director Hadley Arkes writes on the passing of one of his dearest friends, JWI Senior Scholar Michael Uhlmann. We come to our friends today with heart-breaking news, on the death of our beloved Michael Uhlmann yesterday in California. In my own case, I’ve lost one of my dearest, closest friends, and the […]

When the news came out that a panel of the 6th Circuit weighed in to help a governor find the limits to his authority under the Lockdown, it was suspected that one of our friends in that newly improved circuit would have a hand in it.  And sure enough, that hand was detected, but it […]

Lawyer and legal commentator Josh Hammer joined JWI Deputy Director Garrett Snedeker and intern Joe Egler for a podcast recording to discuss the future of originalism in the conservative legal movement, Prof. Adrian Vermeule’s “common good constitutionalism,” and judicial supremacy. Josh Hammer is a nationally syndicated columnist and Of Counsel with First Liberty Institute. A […]

In the latest installment of his biweekly column in The Catholic Thing, JWI founder and director Hadley Arkes considers how the courts will view abortion clinics as “essential services” that must remain open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Arkes questions whether people in authority, issuing edicts to shutter small businesses who have no other means […]

In his latest column for The Catholic Thing, JWI Founder and Director Hadley Arkes takes note of the curious way in which the commentators in the media have backed into a perspective of natural law in their uniform response to the COVID-19 virus. They take as a governing axiom, at every turn, the paramount importance […]

Josh Craddock, a 2019 James Wilson fellow and newly named Affiliated Scholar, works as a full-time associate for Latham & Watkins, LLP.  In the past, he worked as a summer associate at Latham & Watkins and at Bancroft PLLC, and clerked for Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. […]

First Liberty Institute and the James Wilson Institute are proud to announce that they will be co-sponsoring the James Wilson Fellowship in Washington, D.C., in August 2020. As the James Wilson Fellowship enters its seventh year, we believe this collaboration will strengthen the programs of both institutes. Fifteen highly accomplished young lawyers and law students […]

In a piece for The Catholic Thing, Prof. Hadley Arkes, JWI Founder and Director, explains the logic and the history of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, of which he was one of the original architects. The Act has been an ongoing project of Prof. Arkes’s since 1988. Prof. Arkes explains how an earlier form […]

In his latest column for The Catholic Thing, JWI Founder and Director Hadley Arkes addresses what he sees as a modern misunderstanding of the meaning of liberty in our law and civil society. Arkes claims that failing to use our ability to reason about the correct and incorrect uses of our liberty leads us into […]

The James Wilson Institute had the pleasure of hosting a panel discussion on the life and work of Senior Fellow Michael Uhlmann on the evening of Tuesday, February 18. Some notable quotes in remembrance of Uhlmann from the night are below. Justice Thomas: “But Mike Uhlmann was the first to broach that idea, and to […]

In January 2020, The James Wilson Institute and National Review Institute co-hosted Richard Brookhiser, senior fellow of the National Review Institute, to discuss his recent book, Give Me Liberty, a recounting of the history of American liberty as told through the lens of thirteen key documents in American history. He presented a more inspiring story of American nationalism […]