The James Wilson Foundation on Natural Rights and the American Founding

Our friends over at Real Clear Political Affairs have done an excellent job of collecting materials on the US Constitution. The links connect to some of the best resources on the important background to the Constitution and on how they apply today. Prof. Arkes’s essay, A Natural Law Manifesto, is on the list along with […]

We heartily recommend a new podcast series produced and narrated by JWI Affiliated Scholar, Prof. Justin Dyer: The 1787 Project. The podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Captivate.fm, and Listen Notes. We point you toward a September 14th, 2020 episode about judicial supremacy, which is the idea that the judiciary’s interpretation of the Constitution […]

Author and lawyer Ilya Shapiro joined JWI deputy director Garrett Snedeker and intern Spencer Reeves to discuss his new book, Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (Regnery). Shapiro’s book concerns the partisan battles over Supreme Court nominations that have become a focal point in judicial politics in the past few decades. […]

In this article, Gunnar Gundersen argues that a litmus test is needed for Supreme Court nominees to gauge their opposition to the decision found by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade and further established by Planned Parenthood v Casey. According to Gundersen, pro-life efforts are reaching a point of desperation as Republican-appointed justice after Republican-appointed justice fails […]

Early this spring, we selected a group of outstanding young lawyers and law students who comprised our seventh class of Fellows. From a field of fifty-five applicants (our most ever), we selected fifteen Fellows. Twelve Fellows were on their way to clerkships with judges, or coming out of clerkships; two are currently in practice, with one finishing his law degree. […]

In his column for the Catholic Thing, Professor Arkes discusses the bill named the “Born-Alive Infants Protection Act,” which argues that even an unborn baby marked for abortion has the right to be protected. He raises in this piece the matter of Bret Baier and the remarkable reluctance of Catholic figures in the media to […]

On September 3rd, James Wilson Institute founder and director Prof. Hadley Arkes joined the Issues, Etc. podcast produced by Lutheran Public Radio. Prof. Arkes discussed his recent essay in Public Discourse, the Democratic track record on Roe v. Wade in Senate, “liberal” abortion extremism, and a proposed political and judicial strategy for Pro-Life Republicans. Listen […]

In an essay for Public Discourse, Prof. Arkes responds to Sen. Hawley’s recent declaration that he will no longer vote to approve any judicial nominee who could not get clear on the reasoning in Roe v. Wade and affirm its wrongness. Prof. Arkes advises Hawley that employing a jujitsu of sorts, forcing Democratic senators to clarify their […]

Robert Reilly is a writer and senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. He has published on topics of US foreign policy and “war of ideas.” He walks us through his timely new book, America on Trial: A Defense of the Founding, which pushes back on recent theorists who have argued that the American […]

In his column for The Catholic Thing, Prof, Arkes honors his late friend Ralph McInerny by drawing on McInerny’s explanation of natural law as “something your grandmother would understand.” Rather than being an esoteric theory, natural law is fundamentally about common sense propositions that your grandmother would have instinctually apprehended and that only a professional […]