The James Wilson Foundation on Natural Rights and the American Founding

JWI Deputy Director Garrett Snedeker and affiliated scholar Josh Hammer published in Newsweek, arguing that the recent Supreme Court decision, Bostock V. Clayton County Georgia, shows just how mistaken a jurisprudence without natural law can be. They propose a restoration of what they call the “original understanding of constitutionality” as a conversation between all three […]

In First Things, Prof. Hadley Arkes reflects on the recent outcome in Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC which he warned about in The Catholic Thing a mere fifteen days ago. In the Harris case and its companion case Bostock v. Clayton County, Justice Neil Gorsuch concluded that the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s prohibition on […]

Shoshana Weissmann is the senior manager of digital media and a fellow at the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank. She oversees RSI’s social media, email marketing, and website while also working and writing on a variety of policy and regulatory subjects. She also likes SpongeBob.  Follow her on Twitter at @senatorshoshana  Jon Schweppe […]

In a recent article for The Catholic Thing, JWI founder and director Prof. Hadley Arkes warns conservatives to brace for a rough June, as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to announce its decision in Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC. The Harris case presents SCOTUS with the question of whether Title VII of the Civil Rights […]

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, scholars John Baker and Robert Miller discuss the prospect of state bankruptcies during the Covid-19 pandemic. They discuss state sovereignty with respect to the eleventh amendment and argue that allowing states to declare bankruptcy fundamentally contradicts American federalism. States have always struggled with debt and have […]

In a second response to the ongoing debate over originalism and the common good in The American Mind, James Wilson Institute affiliated attorney Gunnar Gundersen addresses the flurry of criticism he received on Twitter after he declared that “originalism has failed.” Responding to the defenders of originalism he calls the “originalist inquisition,” Gundersen expands his […]

James Wilson Institute director Prof. Hadley Arkes responds to a side conversation taking place in the broader discussion over Adrian Vermeule’s “common good constitutionalism” – the debate over one’s oath to the Constitution. Multiple commentators have argued that abandoning originalism leads judges to violate their oaths to uphold the Constitution. Prof. Arkes finds instead that […]

In an essay for a symposium in The American Mind responding to Harvard Law professor Adrian Vermeule’s call for a “Common Good Constitutionalism,” James Wilson Institute deputy director Garrett Snedeker sympathizes with Vermeule’s call for a “reading of the Constitution that references moral judgements” but cautions against replacing our constitutional deference toward judicial supremacy with […]

In an essay for Law & Liberty, James Wilson Institute friend Prof. Paul DeHart responds to Prof. F.H. Buckley’s attack on natural law as the foundation for conservative jurisprudence. In an earlier piece for Law & Liberty, Prof. Buckley accused natural lawyers of Pelagianism and argued that natural law theory fails to answer the Humian […]

In his latest essay for Starting Points, Professor Justin Dyer, a JWI affiliated scholar, attempts to make sense of the Covid-19 crisis and the constitutional debate it has generated. Dyer discusses the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence concerning the protection of public health and how the Court balances individual rights in times of public strife. He discusses […]