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Scalia and the Lure of the Natural Law

From Web Exclusives

Scenes from a dinner in Washington ten years ago: Irving Kristol: “What was in the Second Amendment, again?” Paul Cantor: “Irving, you don’t remember? You wrote it.”There has often been a faint recollection of the Second Amendment, because it had rarely been before the courts. The rights . . . . Continue Reading »

Abortion Politics 2008

From the December 2007 Print Edition

For reasons quite plausible, even to people on the pro-life side, Rudolph Giuliani persists in standing well ahead of the pack of the Republican candidates for president. He has sounded the traditional Republican themes: preserving the Bush tax cuts, seeking free-market solutions to problems such as . . . . Continue Reading »

Don’t Throw Us into That Briar Patch

From Web Exclusives

Within the camp of conservatives, the most cautious opponents of Roe v. Wade have stopped well short of arguing that the protections of the Constitution may actually extend to cover those "persons" in the womb. The conservative lawyers have been content to argue that the Constitution . . . . Continue Reading »

The Kennedy Court

From the January 2007 Print Edition

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 »

Arkes: The Commerce Clause Revisited

From Web Exclusives

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 »

This Heartbreaking Court

From the October 2006 Print Edition

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 »

HA: 3.7.06 On Privacy…

From Web Exclusives

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 »

Bush’s Second Chance

From the April 2005 Print Edition

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 »