Larry Solum has a must-read post up on Justice O'Connor, formalism, and the judicial virtues. Check it out.
Saturday, July 2, 2005
The Virtue of Justice and the Virtuous Justice
Friday, July 1, 2005
The Importance of Being Sandra
As we salute Justice O'Connor as an individual and honor her for the boost she gave to the participation of women in the legal profession, we also turn to the consequences of her retirement for a whole range of legal, especially constitutional, issues. The Supreme Court Nomination Blog posts a long list of the 5-4 decisions in which Justice O'Connor cast the deciding vote and a more conservative replacement might vote differently. They include church-state cases but also, obviously, lots of others that might be grist for our mill of discussing the future of the law as it relates to Catholic thought. I'd be interested in hearing about some of them -- especially some of the less well known holdings -- from fellow MOJers knowledgable in the respective fields.
Tom B.
The Gift of Married Priests
THE TABLET
02/07/2005
The gift of married priests
John Crowley
After
40 years as a priest, the Bishop of Middlesbrough hopes for a mixed,
celibate and non-celibate clergy. Access to Mass, rather than marital
status, matters
RECENTLY
it has been my happiness to celebrate 40 years of priesthood. On the
actual anniversary date itself I was able to offer a Jubilee Mass of
Thanksgiving in our cathedral, together with many of my brother
priests, deacons and lay faithful. It was an intensely joyful
experience which touched me more deeply than I had anticipated. On the
eve of that celebration I was interviewed on local radio on a whole
range of issues which included a question about my view on married
priests. I expressed the personal hope that within my lifetime the
Church might more generally allow married priests. Subsequently that
remark has produced some lively debate, not least in some parts of the
Catholic press. That is all to the good, but it might be helpful to put
my remarks into their wider context, and The Tablet has kindly allowed me the space to do so.
[To read the piece, click here.]
______________
mp
Justice O'Connor
As MOJ readers certainly know, Justice Sandra O'Connor has announced her retirement from the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice O'Connor concludes -- for now, anyway -- a long career of public service as a legislator, judge, and justice. In my view, she was -- among other things -- a consistent and important defender of religious freedom, and of the constitutional principle that our First Amendment does not require discrimination against religious believers or the exclusion of religion from the public square. Her life story is fascinating and inspiring. I gather from news reports that her husband is not well, and so I wish her, and him, all the best.
Rick
A reader responds to 10C question
I follow the Mirror of Justice blog with interest, and saw your recent post concerning religious and governmental institutions, and their spheres of operation. May I suggest the following historical and legal sources? I encountered them during my education at Catholic University School of Law, and in personal reading.
- Kenneth Pennington, Law and Norms Without a State - Here
- Jacques Maritain - Man and the State
- Any St. Thomas Aquinas on State Government
May I also suggest that a more precise definition of "allegiance" might be required? For instance, it might be said that it is required that secular government both draw basic norms from natural law; secular government because this forms the baseline for varied people, and religious where the tenants of natural law are confirmed (or at the very least, uncontradicted) by revealed or divine law. Another way of defining allegiance would be to indicate, as did the Centurion did, that the secular government has power over a people only because it is given that power from above. It is worthwhile to note that until the 18th century, custom and natural law (here, meaning transnational norms of the ius commune) had a higher place on the heirarchy than promulgated law.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Watson
Thank you Jonathan for responding.
10C Questions
When did "secular" come to mean "neutral" or "agnostic" in legal and political theory? What good sources track this development? What good sources explore the idea that "secular government" and "religious institutions" operate in separate spheres and possess a degree of autonomy from one another but that both owe their foundation and their allegiance to God and must operate consistently with His commands. In other words, what good sources (historically and contemporary) argue that "secular" cannot be "agnostic" or "neutral" between theism or atheism as a matter of the foundations of government although it might be neutral in the granting of benefits or the imposition of burdens in particular cases?
Thanks, Michael
More on Feldman's Solution
Over at the SCOTUS blog on the 10 Commandments cases, I've posted a criticism of Noah Feldman's church-state proposal forthcoming in the Times Magazine. Summary quote from the post:
In the modern state, therefore, preserving the goal of religious voluntarism that animated the founders calls for the opposite of Feldman's proposal: continued suspicion of official government religious pronouncements, but increased acceptance of including religious choices fully in programs of educational or social-service funding. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that I think that Feldman's analysis is very thoughtful and deserves close study.
Tom B.
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