The James Wilson Foundation on Natural Rights and the American Founding

In an essay for First Things titled “The Unaccountable Silences of Bret Baier”, Professor Hadley Arkes criticizes the media for its silence on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.  After sketching the history of Born-Alive legislation in the United States, Professor Arkes skewers the media establishment for allowing the bills’ opponents to evade responsibility.   […]

 Richard Brookhiser In May 2019, JWI’s Deputy Director Garrett Snedeker and Intern Josh Hiero shared a discussion with Richard Brookhiser, author of the book John Marshall: The Man Who Made the Supreme Court (Basic Books, 2018). Brookhiser is an author and a senior editor of National Review. Below you may find: A link to Brookhiser’s book, […]

On May 3, 2019, Professor Daniel Mahoney of Assumption College delivered a lecture on the roles of relativism and morality in our political landscape. The lecture was titled “The New Religion of Humanity: Limitless Relativism and No Moral Ground for Political Life” and was held at Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center in Washington, D.C. The event was […]

In a piece titled “Eugenics and Other Evils” for Public Discourse, Prof. Justin Dyer, a JWI Affiliated Scholar, argues that the state has a compelling interest in preventing eugenics. Heightened in the context of abortion, eugenics presents a threat to human dignity and human equality. He reflects upon Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissent in Box vs. Planned […]

In an article for National Review titled “Tintoretto’s Symbolic Imagination,” Catesby Leigh reviews the enduring oeuvre of Venetian painter Jacopo Tintoretto.  Tracing Tintoretto’s impressive career, Leigh observes a trademark fusion of styles—his work portrays the human body with a Michelangelesque grandeur, each figure crafted against a backdrop of characteristically Titian strokes of vivid color.  Biblical […]

In an essay for Law & Liberty titled “Originalism and Sovereign Immunity”, Prof. Ilan Wurman dissects modern sovereign immunity jurisprudence with an eye toward the original principles invoked in Chisholm v. Georgia.  Wurman observes a gradual expansion of sovereign immunity rights engineered by the Supreme Court in cases like Seminole Tribe v. Florida, Alden v. […]

There are some words or phrases that are universally understood as off limits within the public sphere. In his editorial, “The Business That Dare Not Speak Its Name,” published in the Wall Street Journal, Professor Hadley Arkes echoes this notion in discussing the role of profane words in our society and how any exclusion of […]

Over the past year, the conservative legal movement has celebrated victories for religious freedom. However, in a recent piece for First Things, Professor Arkes expressed his concern that the conservative jurists on the Supreme Court might be falling into a kind of relativism in the way that they articulate their opinions. Take Masterpiece Cakeshop v. […]

On April 23, 2019, Prof. Arkes delivered a lecture to students and faculty at Christendom College in Front Royal, VA. The lecture, entitled “The Case for Natural Law,” was hosted by the Cincinnatus League (an Intercollegiate Studies Institute student group) and Christendom’s Political Science and Economics Department.

In a review for the Spring 2019 Claremont Review of Books, JWI Senior Scholar Professor David F. Forte hails Ronald R. Rotunda’s abridgment of Albert J. Beveridge’s seminal work, Life of John Marshall, as an impressive work. The book incorporates Rotunda’s own commentary, yet importantly retains the spirit and rhythm of Beveridge’s writing. Professor Forte […]