James Wilson Institute Podcast

The opening weeks of the Trump presidency have featured a flurry of Executive Orders aimed not only to reverse the policies and priorities of the Biden Administration but also to advance the Trump administration’s vision of the good. Indeed, on the day of President Trump’s inauguration he placed himself in the middle of the Capital One Arena indowntown DC before a giant rally of his supporters to begin signing these Executive Orders (or EOs). This relatively unprecedented practice of drawing attention to the signing of EOs speaks to how significant they are at altering the political and legal terrain. Some of the most impactful of these EOs concern matters touching on human sexuality and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. We’ll discuss those EOs with attorney Mary Rice Hasson. She is the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where she co-founded and directs the Person and Identity Project, aninitiative that equips parents and faith-based institution

Alex MacDonald, a DC-based labor lawyer, touches on the historical roots of the right to work, the right’s connection with natural-law principles, and its return to modern jurisprudence. Informed by JWI Co-Director Hadley Arkes's Mere Natural Law, Alex examines how that return could transform modern labor law, especially the concept of exclusive representation. This episode, adapted from a lecture he delivered to the James Wilson Institute and the Center on Religion Culture & Democracy in 2024, draws largely upon Alex’s article published in the North Dakota Law Review.

For the latest Anchoring Truths Podcast, JWI Affiliated Scholar Paul DeHart joins for a fascinating in-depth discussion on themes from his latest book, The Social Contract in the Ruins: Natural Law and Government by Consent. DeHart is a distinguished professor of political science at Texas State University. Topics include the limits of the consent of the governed, philosophic errors of modern liberals such as John Rawls, what the American Founders correctly identified about the origins of rights, and the problems with Justice Holmes's legal positivism.

This episode features a webinar discussion on Natural Law and Women's Rights with Erika Bachiochi, a legal scholar and current fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center. This webinar was part of our ongoing series of legal education webinars with the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy. Erika Bachiochi examines, both philosophically and historically, two competing accounts of rights with their derivative (and competing) accounts of women's rights: the early modern (autonomy) account and the natural law (responsibilities) account. Erika argues that, properly understood, modern sex discrimination law is a determination of the natural law in our day and that abortion restrictions do not discriminate against women. Ethics and Public Policy Center Fellow Erika Bachiochi is a legal scholar who works at the intersection of constitutional law, political theory, women’s history, and Catholic social teaching. She is also the editor-in-chief of Fairer Disputations, the online journal of the Mercy

Returning Anchoring Truths Podcast guest Ilya Shapiro has written a new book Lawless: the Miseducation of America’s Elites that is part indictment of how the legal academy has succumbed to the worst excesses of illiberalism but also part memoir of his own experience at Georgetown Law at the hands of administrators who run the legal academy. His book is a must read, and our conversation a must listen. Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute and director of Cato’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies. Shapiro is also the author of Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020). He writes frequently, including at his Substack Shapiro’s Gavel. Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/​adviser to the Multi-​National Force in Iraq on rule

Join the Anchoring Truths Podcast for both a look back and a look ahead for originalism. Our guest, Steven Calabresi, is the co-author of a new intellectual history “The Meese Revolution” that describes the rise of originalism, which necessitates telling the story of Ed Meese, without whom it surely does not happen. Calabresi, who was part of that history working closely with Meese, threads a story through virtually all important legal and policy events of the 1980s, many of which continue to shape the world of the twenty-first century. And as we come to the end of our discussion, I think you’ll agree that in many respects we are still living through the Meese Revolution. Professor Calabresi is the Clayton J. & Henry R. Barber Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, as well as a visiting professor at Yale Law School. Calabresi clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia and Judges Robert H. Bork and Ralph K. Winter. He was a Special Assistant to Attorney General Meese from 1985 to 1987 and worked with K

Join host Garrett Snedeker for an exciting discussion with author Brad Littlejohn, Ph.D., about his new book Called to Freedom: Retrieving Christian Liberty in an Age of License. The conversation explored conflicting definitions of liberty, the issue of expressive individualism, and misperceptions of the freedom secured by the Constitution. Pre-order Called to Freedom here. Brad Littlejohn (Ph.D, University of Edinburgh) is a Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), where he writes on technology policy and Protestant social ethics. He is also the founder and President Emeritus of The Davenant Institute, and the author or editor of nineteen books, the newest of which is Called to Freedom: Retrieving Christian Liberty in an Age of License. He writes (regularly) at his Substack, bradlittlejohn.substack.com, and tweets (irregularly) under the handle @WBLittlejohn.

JWI Affiliated Scholar & Professor of Philosophy Frank Beckwith confronts a troubling trend among some legal scholars who, in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, have constructed and advocated for a right to abortion rooted in religious liberty. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade and Casey in Dobbs, an increasing number of scholars argue that the Constitution may still vindicate the right to abortion, but through the First Amendment’s two religion clauses. They argue that state laws that limit access to abortion on the grounds that the fetus is a person or that prenatal life is sacred violate the Establishment Clause, since such laws are based on a contested religious view of what constitutes “personhood.” They also argue that prolife laws violate the Free Exercise rights of women whose religious views either permit or require them to procure an abortion in certain circumstances.Because all current post-Dobbs prolife laws include exceptions--such as for the life of the mother, substantial health risk

A recap of the largest annual gathering of the Right's lawyers, the Federalist Society's National Lawyers Convention, is the topic of discussion this week. Garrett Snedeker joins JWI Programs Director Daniel Osborne for a high-level account of the 2024 NLC. Snedeker shares his thoughts with Osborne on the convention's theme of group identity and the law, the backdrops of the convention including a new administration and a forthcoming change in leadership for the Society, and the happy presence of so many James Wilson Fellowship alumni at the convention. To watch videos of the convention's panels visit here

Who was for they/them versus who was for you? Join host Garrett Snedeker for a fascinating discussion with Jon Schweppe, Director of Policy for the American Principles Project (APP), on the power of the most influential political ads that shaped the 2024 presidential election. Jon Schweppe is the Director of Policy for APP. He advances the organization’s legislative priorities by working with allied groups and with federal and state lawmakers. Schweppe is an alumnus of the Claremont Institute’s Lincoln Fellowship. He has been published in a number of publications, including The New York Post, The American Mind, First Things, Newsweek, The Federalist, and the Daily Caller. He has worked on several political campaigns, focusing mainly on communications and policy. He is a graduate of Augustana College, where he majored in Economics and Finance. Follow Jon on X here. Learn more about APP here.

JWI Co-Director Gerry Bradley delivers remarks on what he calls the tragedy of "progressive" prosecution. Since George Floyd's death on May 25, 2020, the U.S. has undergone a significant reevaluation of its criminal justice system and has moved towards a more "progressive" prosecution. Professor Bradley explores the legal and societal implications of this evolution and will consider how a proper understanding of crime and punishment might provide a just solution; particularly in light of the moral responsibly of prosecutors and the need for a compelling justification for punishment in a fair society.

We are excited to be dive into Second Amendment jurisprudence and the Natural Right to Self Defense. Our entry into that topic is collection of opinions in Hanson v. United States from a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from October 29, 2024. In that case, the majority upheld the District’s ban on the possession and sale of what it called “extra-large capacity magazines." The panel ruled the city’s ten-round limit for magazines fit within the nation’s historical tradition of regulating “particularly dangerous weapons” and those “capable of unprecedented lethality,” even though there weren’t similar bans when the Second Amendment was ratified. A dissenting opinion held that “Magazines holding more than ten rounds of ammunition are arms in common use for lawful purposes. Therefore, the government cannot ban them.” Joining us on the episode is the lawyer who delivered theoral argument and represented Mr. Hanson and other plaintiffs at the D.C. Circuit, Edward “Ed” Wenger.

Join Anchoring Truths Podcast host Garrett Snedeker and journalist Conn Carroll for an exciting discussion about Carroll's new book Sex and the Citizen and the importance of marriage. In Sex and the Citizen, Conn Carroll shows how the assault on marriage conducted by cultural and political elites is undermining the very foundations of our democracy. Carroll's book is a powerful and urgent exploration of one of the most overlooked forces shaping the political landscape today: the rapid decline of marriage. Once the cornerstone of American life, marriage has seen a dramatic fall from grace. In 1960, four out of five households were led by married couples; today, that number has plummeted to less than half, with more people choosing cohabitation over commitment. The American family, as we once knew it, is unraveling. Sex and the Citizen offers a bold vision for restoring the stability and prosperity that marriage once provided. By learning from history, we can rebuild a society where love and commitment are the

In this minisode, host Garrett Snedeker speaks with returning guest Mark Bauerlein about the current decline in educational quality at universities, and the challenges that technology poses to the intellectual development of youth. Mark W. Bauerlein is an English professor emeritus at Emory University and a senior editor of First Things. He also serves as a visitor of Ralston College, a start-up liberal arts college in Savannah and as a trustee of New College of Florida.

The world is not a machine. Humanity is not a mistake. Those should not be such bold words and yet, according to this week’s guest, Spencer Klavan, they need to be repeated as often as possible today. For centuries, a grim anti-human outlook has taken hold of the public imagination, teaching us all to view ourselves as random products of a cruel and uncaring natural world. The pursuit of scientific understanding of the material world has made mastery of it and determinism the reigning orthodoxy. Light of the Mind, Light of the World, Spencer's new book, tells a daring new story about how we got here, and how we can chart a better path forward. He argues that science itself is leading us not away from God but back to him, and to the ancient faith that places the human soul at the center of the universe. Spencer A. Klavan is returning guest to the Anchoring Truths Podcast. A graduate of Yale, he earned his doctorate in ancient Greek literature from Oxford University. He is the author of the acclaimed book How

Join host Garrett Snedeker and JWI Programs Director Daniel Osborne for special look inside JWI's Law School Seminar program. Highlighting their trips to Harvard Law and Notre Dame Law, Snedeker and Osborne provide an overview of the seminars JWI hosts on campuses across the country and the impact of these seminars on law students.

JWI Deputy Director, Garrett Snedeker, and 2023 James Wilson Fellow Jack Kieffaber discuss the impact of impending AI developments on the judiciary. Kieffaber's new article "Predictability, AI, and Judicial Futurism: Why Robots Will Run the Law and Textualists Will Like It," forthcoming in 2025 in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, is a stirring challenge to avowed textualists. In this podcast, Kieffaber shares his predictions about the development of "Judge.AI," discusses this system's implications on the popular understanding of textualism, and expounds on the role of normative judgments in textualist inquiry. This episode has been edited since its original release.

As Constitution Day approaches, we feature a forthcoming book that tackles how far we’ve come in the Progressives’ quiet regime change over the last century, replacing our constitutional republic with rule by the administrative state. That book is American Leviathan: the birth of the Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism by Ned Ryun. Ryun is the Founder and CEO of American Majority and Voter Gravity. The son of the former congressman, Olympian, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Jim Ryun, Ned is also the author of Restoring Our Republic and The Adversaries: A Story of Boston and Bunker Hill. A frequent commentator on Fox News, Ryun currently resides in Western Loudoun County, VA, with his wife and four children. Buy or pre-order American Leviathan here. Follow Ned Ryun on Twitter.

After the Supreme Court's blockbuster decision in Loper Bright/Relentless on administrative law, the question remains what will happen next in the effort to rein in the administrative state. Host Garrett Snedeker discusses a recent essay he wrote in which he urges close attention to the lower courts wrestling with the precedent in a post-Loper Bright future with JWI Programs Director Daniel Osborne. Read Snedeker's essay from TomKlingenstein.com here.

Join JWI Deputy Director Garrett Snedeker and Intern Catherine Hickam for a discussion with Prof. Michael Pakaluk about Natural Law and the traditional Thomistic and New Natural Law perspectives.