Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Wright on Constitutional Cases and the Four Cardinal Virtues

By Rick Garnett

I always learn from George Wright's work.  Here is another paper of his that I just came across, "Constitutional Cases and the Four Cardinal Virtues":

Judges typically decide constitutional cases by referring to one or more legal precedents, rules, tests, principles, doctrines, or policies. This Article recommends supplementing this standard approach with fully legitimate and appropriate attention to what many cultures have long recognized as the four basic cardinal virtues of practical wisdom or reasonable prudence, courage or fortitude, temperance or reasonable self-restraint, and justice as the disposition to give everyone their due.

The Article illustrates the legitimacy and usefulness of this supplementary approach, with judicial attention being paid either to government actors or to some broader public, in a range of important constitutional cases.

Part of the justification for this Article’s recommended approach is drawn directly from reflection on the case law, but the Article also draws upon philosophical discussions of the basic virtues from many cultures in order to address a number of possible critical concerns.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

A new conscience-clause-advocacy group

By Rick Garnett

Politico reports that a new "center-right" group is forming "to advocate for measures exempting religious organizations from federal rules governing contraception coverage."

. . . The group is set to announce more details about its structure and planned activities in the coming days. Matalin said Conscience Cause plans to leverage “earned media, paid media, petitions” and more to spur a legislative debate.

While the operatives involved in the group say it is not focused on electoral politics, there’s been an unmistakable loss of momentum on the conservative side of the debate as it’s been framed as an issue of reproductive rights, rather than religious conscience. To the extent that faith-oriented activists and conservatives in general can move the conversation back in the direction of conscience, it’s presumably a help to Republicans and to those who think President Barack Obama’s split-the-difference policy on the issue is inadequate.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Misunderstanding (or misrepresenting) the concern for religious freedom

By Rick Garnett

My resolve, in the wake of its recent decision to run an ignorant, nasty, and bigoted advertisement, not to engage New York Times pieces on this blog was, it appears, pretty weak.  (That said, I hope all of you are cancelling your subscriptions, and urging any Catholic institutions with which you are affiliated to do the same.) 

In this piece ("Leaps of Faith"), Molly Worthen charges that the recent expressions of concern about the Obama Administration's insensitivity to, and undervaluing of, religious freedom are really part of a strategy to deny or question the President's own faith, to paint him as a "faker on religious freedom," as part of the "ongoing attack on his legitimacy."

Groan.  This is nonsense.  This Administration has said and done a number of things that, taken together, more than justify the concern that it does not value religious freedom -- and does not appreciate the constraints that a meaningful commitment to religious freedom puts on governments -- to the extent it should.  It is entirely reasonable to worry, given what the Administration has done, that it does not value, to the extent it should, a rich and pluralistic civil society when it comes to religious social-welfare institutions and their distinctive character.  Ah, but -- like a clever detective in a Dan Brown or Umberto Eco novel -- Molly Worthen sees what is really going on:

[Religious liberty] is a code phrase alternately benign and sinister, much like that other clever cloak for bigotry, “states’ rights.” In the context of the 2012 race, the charge that Obama subverts religious freedom is a code meant to label the president as an impostor, a blasphemer of the American gospel who adheres to another religion entirely.

No, Ms. Worthen, it isn't.  And, just a note:  Charging that concern for religious freedom is really sinister (racist?) code-talk is hardly the kind of "civil discourse" that our President -- whose "legitimacy" I do not question, even if I regret his election -- says (even if not consistently) our politics is lacking.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Notre Dame's Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy soliciting papers

By Rick Garnett

            The Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy is currently soliciting articles for publication in our upcoming Spring 2013 issue. The issue will focus on the legal, ethical and policy considerations on a variety of important public policy issues currently facing the country. The Journal is unique among legal periodicals because it examines public policy questions within the framework of the Judeo-Christian intellectual and moral tradition. The Journal seeks to create a dialogue of ethical issues that is inclusive of diverse perspectives.  The Journal has a national audience of persons actively involved in the formulation of public policy, and often includes timely pieces from a broad spectrum of prominent scholars and officials.  Past contributors include Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, Justice William J. Brennan, Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Judges Richard Posner and Diarmuid O’Scannlain, Senators Bill Bradley and Orrin Hatch, Governor Mario Cuomo, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Father Richard John Neuhaus, and Michael Novak, among others. The Journal’s unique focus is widely recognized, as demonstrated in citations to the Journal by various state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. 

            If you are interested in submitting a piece for publication, please contact me directly at (505) 280-8334, or via e-mail at [email protected].  Should you wish to examine a prior issue, the Journal would be pleased to provide you with a copy.  On behalf of myself, the Journal, and the University of Notre Dame, thank you for your kind consideration.

Sincerely,

Breanna Houghton ([email protected])
Solicitation Editor
Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy

FFRF urges liberals to "consider quitting" the Catholic Church

By Rick Garnett

NOTE:  I deleted the content of the original post, because it became clear to me -- as it probably should have before -- that there was no good reason to call additional attention to the Freedom from Religion Foundation's mean-spirited and ignorant advertisement, and no real point to noting the double-standard reflected in its publication.  "Blogging while really irritated" is, I know (even if I sometimes forget), generally to be avoided.

As for "quitting" the Church:   God works in mysterious ways, and maybe -- during Lent -- the FFRA's crude challenge can provide an occasion for reflecting on the fact that it is certainly not because I deserve it that Christ called me to and sustains me in His Church.

"A new journal for the New Evangelization"

By Rick Garnett

Go here, to read about (and subscribe to) a new journal, Church Life:  A Journal for the New Evangelization, being published by Notre Dame's Institute for Church Life.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Fish pronounces Santorum "not crazy"

By Rick Garnett

I suppose, given all the givens, it would have been too much to expect the Times to run a headline that said "Actually, if the terms and ideas at issue are properly understood, Rick Santorum is correct."  Still, that's basically the upshot of Stanley Fish's latest Opinionator piece.  Putting aside the foolishness of putting one's criticisms of then-Senator Kennedy's speech as Santorum did (and noting, just for the record, that I am not a supporter of his candidacy), there's no getting around the fact that very smart, thoughtful, non-"crazy" people have expressed pretty much the same concerns about the content of the Kennedy speech as Santorum did.  (Besides me!)  In particular, I'd recommend Michael McConnell's essay, in the Notre Dame Law Review, "Is There Still a Catholic Question:  Reflecting on John F. Kennedy's Speech to the Houston Ministerial Association."

Robert Rodes on Prop 8 and the "metaphysics of marriage"

By Rick Garnett

My friend, colleague, and teacher, Bob Rodes, has posted a short essay at Jurist on the Ninth Circuit's decision in the Prop. 8 case.  He concludes with this:

[C]an a state base its laws on a metaphysical insight? In a word, yes. The equality of the races is a metaphysical insight, and all of our civil rights laws are based on it. Furthermore, the laws defining marriage, unlike the civil rights laws, do not coerce anyone. They express the metaphysical stance of the state without compelling anyone to adopt that stance. The main objection to its doing so is that it excludes people from the mainstream, whose metaphysical stance is different from that of the state. The primary answer to this objection, I believe, is that it belongs to the community as a whole to define its mainstream. We have wisely given our courts the task of protecting cultural minorities, people who differ from the mainstream in their beliefs, their practices or their lifestyles, and to shield that protection from the vicissitudes of politics. However, it is the task of the people, not the judiciary, to define the mainstream, and to do so through the democratic, political process. In this process, the people are sometimes wiser than their rulers, or the judges who have assumed their role.

Check out, by the way, his latest book, "Schools of Jurisprudence".

Lumen Christi Institute's Graduate summer seminar on Aquinas and Law

By Rick Garnett

Check this out.

 

 

The Lumen Christi Institute for Catholic Thought is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the 2012 Summer Seminars in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition.  Each seminar in the Lumen Christi Summer Seminar program is designed to address a perennial theme, question, or text in the Catholic philosophical, theological, spiritual, or social traditions.  We draw upon world renowned scholars to teach graduate students and untenured faculty from our nation’s premier universities, in order to foster a better understanding of and appreciation for the wisdom of the Catholic intellectual tradition.  Books, lodging, and travel will be included for those whose applications are accepted.  (Note, while Lumen Christi is an institute of Catholic thought, participation is not exclusive to graduate students of any particular religious affiliation.)

In the summer of 2012, the Lumen Christi Institute will host the following seminar:

August 5-11, 2012
University of California, Berkeley
“St. Thomas Aquinas on Law:
An Intensive Seminar on the Treatise on Law, ST I-II, Q90-108″

Seminar Leader:
Russell Hittinger is the William K. Warren Professor of Catholic Studies and Research Professor of Law at the University of Tulsa.  He is also a member of the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas.  Professor Hittinger is the author of many books, including A Critique of the New Natural Law Theory, The First Grace: Rediscovering Natural Law in a Post-Christian Age, and Thomas Aquinas the Rule of Law.

Location:
The seminar will take place on The University of California, Berkeley campus.  Students will be provided with accommodations and meals in the dormitories on campus for the duration of the seminar.

Topic:
Thomas Aquinas wrote one of the most influential treatises on law, which is indispensable for understanding the natural law approach to jurisprudence, as well as the foundations of natural law approaches to ethical theory.  In this seminar, we will cover the entirety of St. Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Law, ST I-II, qq. 90-108.  The seminar will be a five-day, intensive discussion of this primary text and its relationship to the rest of Aquinas’s thought, in particular, his philosophical anthropology, action theory, and theology.  We will focus on becoming familiar with Aquinas’s synthetic method, and the context of the Summa Theolgiae as a whole.

Our discussion of this seminal text will be centered around the following guiding questions: What is the most important to the concept of well ordered liberty, virtue or law?  What are the limits of human law?  How do we evaluate and ground claims regarding human rights?  How can natural law jurisprudence help to solve the problems that face contemporary society?

Format:
This will be a five-day, intensive discussion of The Treatise on Law. There will be two 2 ½  hour sessions each day.  Professor Hittinger will open each session with a lecture, and then we will turn to general, seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to make seminar presentations of the material under discussion.

Application Information:
This seminar will be open to PhD students in the humanities, as well as students in law school, from any institution. Applicants will need to provide the following materials in order to be considered for participation: The application form, an updated CV, one letter of recommendation from a member of the program in which the student is currently enrolled, a statement of research interest, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans, and one example of written, academic work (25-30 pages maximum). Incomplete applications will not be considered.

We will admit 15 students to this seminar.  Application materials must be received by March 30th, 2012.  Application materials can be emailed to [email protected], or they can be mailed to:

Lumen Christi Institute
Graduate Seminar Admissions
1220 East 58th St.
Chicago, IL 60637

Any further questions should be directed to Jennifer Frey, at [email protected]

Application materials must be received by March 30th, 2012.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Catholic Legal Bibliography

By Rick Garnett

The Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law has a very helpful "annotated bibliography" of materials relating to the "Catholic Dimensions of Legal Study," here.

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