Hadley Arkes

Only a day after the election, the Supreme Court heard oral argument on Gonzales v. Carhart , the case testing the federal ban on partial-birth abortion. On this argument”and this case”much will hinge. If the Supreme Court sustains the federal bill, the decision would mark, in effect, . . . . Continue Reading »

In the forthcoming January issue of First Things , I have an analysis of the oral arguments the Supreme Court heard on November 8 in Gonzales v. Carhart , the case testing the federal ban on partial-birth abortion. But perhaps it is also worth mentioning, here on the First Things website, the . . . . Continue Reading »

Both sides in the culture war over abortion have been readying themselves for the decision of the Supreme Court this fall on partial-birth abortion. Both sides expect a decision portentous and astounding”for people on both sides seriously expect the Court will use its decision to overturn Roe . . . . Continue Reading »

On Privacy [Remarks at the National Press Club, March 1, 2006] In the run-up to the hearings on Sam Alito, a reporter called from a paper in Sacramento to ask whether the pro-lifers were disturbed that both John Roberts and Sam Alito had accepted a constitutional right to privacy. I explained that . . . . Continue Reading »

O ut of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety (Henry IV, Part 1). The sense of relief, felt so deeply in the pro-life community on November 3, 2004, seems to have drifted away in the weeks and months since the presidential election. It is already easy to forget how great a threat the . . . . Continue Reading »

That redoubtable crew, the writers who brought forth the symposium “ The End of Democracy? The Judicial Usurpation of Politics” (FT, November 1996) , have apparently contributed to our raging economy. For the symposium has led to further rounds of meetings and essays, and now, We the People: . . . . Continue Reading »

There was some puzzlement among John Stuart Mill’s contemporaries that he should publish his tract On Liberty , with its deep concern for the tyranny of public opinion, when the press in England was the freest in the world and the public life of the country was vibrant with controversy in . . . . Continue Reading »

Wild Beasts and Idle Humors by Daniel Robinson Harvard University Press,311 pages, $29.95 Daniel Robinson, as I recall him, was a striking figure when he landed at Amherst in the late 1960s, and he was made all the more striking as he was viewed against the backdrop of this new setting. He was a . . . . Continue Reading »

We were taping, early in May, a program for public television dealing with “same-sex marriage.” Opposite me was a professor of law, openly gay, who had just written a book in favor of gay marriage. The question before us was whether the states would be obliged to honor the marriage of homosexual . . . . Continue Reading »

In this article, James Q. Wilson responds to Hadley Arkes comments in our previous issue . James Q. Wilson In his critique of my essay on abortion (“Abortion Facts and Feelings,” April) , Hadley Arkes takes me to task, not for my specific proposals, but for my basing these proposals on . . . . Continue Reading »