The James Wilson Foundation on Natural Rights and the American Founding

Hadley Arkes & Garrett Snedeker joined the In the Trenches Podcast to talk about the principles of the American Government that were before the Constitution and how those principles helped inform it. They discuss how Natural Law provides insights into issues such as Abortion and Free Speech.

Claremont Institute senior fellow Glenn Ellmers joined JWI Deputy Director Garrett Snedeker and JWI Intern Seth Root to discuss his forthcoming book, The Soul of Politics: Harry V. Jaffa and the Fight for America. In the podcast, we discussed Jaffa’s views on the moral roots of the American regime and Jaffa’s books, Crisis of the […]

In an essay for the 1776 Series at Real Clear Public Affairs, JWI Founder and Director Hadley Arkes discusses the moral axioms that pre-existed the Constitution as understood by President Abraham Lincoln. Prof. Arkes retells Lincoln’s teaching that the Constitution was made for the Union, and not the Union for the Constitution, which shows the […]

Anchoring Truths Contributing Editor and 2021 JWI Fellow Josh Hammer discusses the recently filed “Brief for the Petitioner” in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Hammer applauds the good work of Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch as she boldly asks the Court to overturn both Roe and Casey, criticizes the erroneous ideas on the Court […]

JWI Fellowship alumnus and associate professor of law at BYU Law School Bradley Rebeiro responded to Professor David Forte’s “Originalism and its Discontents” at JWI’s online journal Anchoring Truths. In a symposium in collaboration with Law & Liberty, Rebeiro utilizes the case study of slavery “to reconsider how we understand this tension between originalism and […]

Anchoring Truths contributing editor and JWI affiliated scholar Josh Hammer joined JWI Deputy Director Garrett Snedeker to discuss his new essay in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, entitled “Common Good Originalism: Our Tradition and our Path Forward.” In the podcast, we talked about the failures of the positivist originalist project, Hammer’s vision for an […]

JWI Founder and Director Hadley Arkes discusses the Court’s recent denial of a writ of certiorari in Gloucester County School Board v. Grimm. In choosing to remain silent on this issue by not hearing the case, the Court fails to create any resistance to the ever encroaching ideology of gender identity. After the disastrous Bostock […]

In an essay for First Things, JWI Trustee and Senior Scholar Gerry Bradley comments on the Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari in Gloucester County School Board v. Grimm. The case turns on whether Gavin Grimm, born a biological female, should be allowed to use the boy’s restroom, with the Fourth Circuit ruling in Grimm’s favor. […]

JWI Founder and Director Hadley Arkes debated University of Toledo Law School Professor Lee Strang on the question, “Should the Declaration inform the Constitution?”. Watch the full debate on the Federalist Society’s YouTube page here.

Associate Professor and Chair of History at Ave Maria University and Senior Affiliate for Legal Humanities at the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society at the University of Pennsylvania Michael D. Breidenbach joined JWI Deputy Director Garrett Snedeker to discuss Prof. Breidenbach’s new book Our Dear Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration […]