Will the Obamacare “Tax” Trump Religious Liberty?
Though the Supreme Court has long been hostile to tax exemptions for religious reasons, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Establishment Clause should give religious organizations reasons to...
View ArticleMarriage, Religious Liberty, and the "Grand Bargain"
In the name of “marriage equality” and “non-discrimination,” liberty—especially religious liberty and the liberty of conscience—and genuine equality are undermined.It was only yesterday, was it not,...
View ArticleAbortion, Conscience, and Health Care Provider Rights
A faulty understanding of conscience as an instrument of subjective preferences and feelings is fueling efforts to undermine conscience protection for doctors who oppose abortion and provision of...
View ArticleBuilding a Culture of Religious Freedom
If we want a culture of religious freedom, we need to begin it here, today, now. We live it by giving ourselves wholeheartedly to God with passion and joy, confidence and courage; and by holding...
View ArticleThe Religious Liberty Case Against Religious Liberty Litigation:...
Current lawsuits against the HHS contraceptive mandate may undermine religious liberty in the long run. Not all religious objectors to the mandate are likely to be exempted even if the lawsuits are...
View ArticleConscientious Abortions? We Don’t Need New Laws Protecting Abortionists
A recent argument that abortion providers deserve the same legal protection as pro-life medical providers is philosophically flawed and ignores legal and popular consensus on the evil of abortion.If we...
View ArticleAn Unrecognizable America
If the HHS mandate is enforced, our government may provoke a schism in the American Catholic Church and will reduce faithful Catholics to second-class citizenship.For more than a year, Americans have...
View ArticleBad Science and Failed Freedom Protections in the HHS Mandate
The latest proposed amendment to the HHS mandate still draws on empirically unsound data and violates religious freedom.The controversy over the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...
View ArticleDeciding Who Gets Religious Freedom: The Latest HHS "Accommodation"
In the latest proposed version of the HHS mandate, the government presumes to say which employers get religious freedom and how much they get, but all religious employers are obligated to live out...
View ArticleOur First Right: Religious Liberty
America’s founding documents assume an implicitly religious anthropology—an idea of human nature, nature’s God, and natural rights—that many of our leaders no longer share. Adapted from testimony...
View ArticleThe HHS Mandate and Legal Precedent
Contrary to what Obama supporters would have us believe, there’s no precedent for the HHS mandate.An argument that seems to be gaining more and more currency among liberal supporters of President...
View ArticleMandates and Bad Law
Were the central task of government to be seen as that of aiding citizens in their own self-constitution, oriented towards real human goods including the good of religion, the HHS mandate would be seen...
View ArticleObama’s Contraception Cram-down: The Pork Precedent
An ancient example of resistance to a tyrant’s attempt to coerce violations of religious conscience provides an interesting perspective on resistance to the Obama administration’s recent healthcare...
View ArticleEquality versus Freedom?
Lawmakers must look past the “equality versus religious freedom” standoff, and consider the substantive merits of each particular case.I recently had the opportunity to comment upon Professor Roger...
View ArticleThe Bishops and the Mandate: Principled Witness vs. Politics as Usual
The controversy over the HHS mandate is not a spat about wonkish detail or tribal privilege. It remains a struggle for the principle of religious freedom, the soul of civil society. America’s Catholic...
View ArticleA Guiding Principle Revealed
The state should never force anyone to perform an action he or she believes to be wrong, unless it has a good reason, not merely to have the action performed, but to insist that even those who find it...
View ArticleConfusion About Discrimination
Not all discrimination is wrong. While the government should regulate some forms of wrongful discrimination, other forms of discrimination lie beyond the purview of the state.Last week, “Vandy...
View ArticleIs Conscience Partisan? A Look at the Clinton, Moynihan, and Kennedy Records
When did respect for conscience rights, once a bipartisan consensus, become a “Republican war on women”?On March 1, the U.S. Senate voted 51 to 48 to table the “Respect for Rights of Conscience Act,”...
View ArticleWhat’s Behind the HHS Mandate?
The HHS mandate illustrates three liberal ideological commitments that treat religious freedom as an afterthought. What do the University of Notre Dame, EWTN, and the Archdiocese of New York have in...
View ArticleTaking (Conscience) Rights Seriously
As a pluralistic liberal democracy, we should craft our laws so that individuals will never be unnecessarily coerced into violating their consciences.Recently Catholics stood up in a united protest...
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