SCOTUS Rules for Religious Schools

by Charles L. Glenn

We welcome the Supreme Court's explicit recognition that faith-based schools that retain a strong distinctive mission must not be punished for it. Continue Reading »

24 Jun 2022

Christianity Is Not Merely Another Identity

by Ismail Royer

Truth does not seek to “feel included” with falsehood. It does not seek to be “treated with respect,” as falsehood is respected. Continue Reading »

30 May 2022

Protecting Orthodox Jewish Schools

by Rabbi Moshe Hauer and Michael A. Helfand

For the third time in five years, the New York State Education Department is proposing new rules for evaluating nonpublic schools.  Continue Reading »

2 May 2022

Burying Barronelle Stutzman

by Steven D. Smith

The Court has declined to review Arlene’s Flowers despite hopes that the Trump-appointed justices would spur the Court to take on lingering First-Amendment questions. Continue Reading »

6 Jul 2021

Unalienable Rights and Foreign Policy

by Thomas F. Farr

A new commission should reaffirm the traditional place of human rights in American policy-making. Continue Reading »

9 Jul 2019

What Are We For?

by Cole S. Aronson

The Christian Colorado baker case may be decided by the answer to a deceptively simple question: What is society for? Continue Reading »

25 Jul 2017

Gorsuch and the Washington Script

by Mark Movsesian

A familiar Washington script exists for Republican Supreme Court nominations. Once the president announces his choice, Democrats and advocacy groups on the left start issuing dire warnings about the threat the nominee poses to the Constitution, the law, and the American way of life. The words are always the same: The nominee is “extreme,” “outside the mainstream,” “radical,” and “far-right wing.” Continue Reading »

3 Feb 2017

Free Exercise, Penance, and Delaware Court

by John M. Grondelski

Regular First Things readers know that the late Father Richard John Neuhaus never tired of arguing that the First Amendment contains not two religion clauses but one: “no establishment” and “free exercise” are not two free-floating provisions at occasional loggerheads with each other but . . . . Continue Reading »

9 Feb 2016

“For Freedom Set Free”

by Bianca Czaderna

As I took the plane to South Bend for this Fall's Center for Ethics and Culture conference, I wondered how exactly “freedom” would be spoken of.

7 Dec 2015

A Thanksgiving Meditation on Freedom and Its Enemies

by George Weigel

Shortly after jihadist murderers killed over 130 people in Paris, seven of the terrorists blowing themselves up in the process, President Obama spoke to the nation and described the massacres as “an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share.” No, Mr. President; with all . . . . Continue Reading »

25 Nov 2015