Can’t you feel it coming? The fuse is lit and the hypnotic hiss is curving toward the powder keg called “Armageddon.” There are no wise feet to stomp on the flame and no scissors to cut the line at the last second. The explosion could be unlike anything we have seen since the violence of […]
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Justice Anthony Kennedy has decided to step down from the United States Supreme Court. As the announcement rolled across social media, the reactions were animated. Progressives preferred expletive-laden diatribes, while conservatives sang hosannas. The emotional release is testament to the unique influence of Justice Kennedy and to the outsized role the Supreme Court has come […]
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Today the United States Supreme Court handed down an important decision that touches not only First Amendment issues of speech and religion, but it also delves, once again, into the bubbling culture war surrounding same-sex marriage. In a 7-2 decision, which is a large margin in such a politically charged case, the Court ruled that […]
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Sports Gambling is On the Way
16 May 2018
Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death continues to be prophetic. Back in the 1980s, the scribe argued America’s transition away from a print-based culture and toward an image-based culture was redefining our communication. Our modes of interaction, especially in news, politics, education, and religion, are more suited for amusement than argument, discernment, or reflection. In his […]
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SCOTUS Gets Religious Liberty Right–For Now
26 Jun 2017
The issue seems paltry at first glance. A preschool/daycare affiliated with a church applies for state funding to help with some playground improvements. The goal of the Missouri program is to put recycled tires to good use. Trinity Lutheran Church Child Learning Center’s application for the funding was judged to be fifth out of forty-four […]
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Many will write better and more personal things about Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court Justice who died today. I did not have him as a professor. I did not clerk for him. I encountered Scalia as a graduate student getting a first taste of constitutional law. Dr. John Maltese, my professor at the University of […]
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Supreme Court Sides With Hobby Lobby
30 Jun 2014
Today, the United States Supreme Court handed down a significant religious liberty decision. In Health and Human Services v. Hobby Lobby, the Court sided with Hobby Lobby, ruling, in essence, that the federal government cannot force closely held corporations to provide health plans that include contraceptives that might induce abortions. These health plans are required, […]
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Is Marriage a “Fundamental” Right?
27 Mar 2013
One of the matters lurking around the Supreme Court’s oral arguments this week is the degree to which marriage is a fundamental right. Gay marriage advocates argue that marriage’s fundamental nature demands that the state has an obligation to extend such a recognition to homosexual couples. Whenever a fundamental right is abridged, a strict scrutiny […]
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The Tyranny of Gay Marriage
26 Mar 2013
The Supreme Court’s latest attempt to destroy republican government comes, this week, under the guise of equality. Gay marriage advocates find themselves before the highest Court, seeking to use the bench to achieve what has eluded them politically. To be successful, they will encourage the Court to overturn the past and empower itself at the […]