JWI Presents: Anchoring Truths Podcast

James Wilson Institute
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JWI Presents: Anchoring Truths Podcast

The James Wilson Institute flagship recording: Anchoring Truths Podcast

  1. 5 DAYS AGO

    Natural Law and Government by Consent with Paul DeHart

    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.

    48 min

  2. JAN 23

    The Rights of Women: A Natural Law Approach with Erika Bachiochi

    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 Otis Warren Initiative for Women in Civic Life and Thought at the School for Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at ASU. She is a 2024–25 Fellow at the Nesti Center for Faith and Culture at the University of St. Thomas (Houston) where she is teaching a women’s history course in UST’s new Catholic Women and Gender Studies Program. A 2018 visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, she is also a Senior Fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute in Cambridge, MA, where she founded the Wollstonecraft Project. Her latest book, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision, was published by Notre Dame University Press in 2021, and was named a finalist for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's 2022 Conservative Book of the Year award.

    48 min

  3. JAN 16

    Lawless: the Miseducation of America's Elites with Ilya Shapiro

    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-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an Masters from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School. You may purchase a copy of Lawless from Amazon here.

    46 min

  4. 12/19/2024

    Ed Meese & the Revolution of Originalism with Steven Calabresi

    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 Ken Cribb as his deputy in 1987 on the second floor of the West Wing of the Reagan White House. Calabresi has written books on presidential power and comparative constitutional law and the origins of judicial review. He and co-author of The Meese Revolution Gary Lawson are also the co-editors of a casebook on U.S. Constitutional Law, and Calabresi is also the co-editor of a casebook on comparative constitutional law. He has written over seventy law review articles since 1990. "The Meese Revolution" may be purchased here.

    47 min

  5. 12/12/2024

    Rightful Understanding of Freedom with Dr. Brad Littlejohn

    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.

    55 min

  6. 12/05/2024

    A Religious Liberty Right to Abortion? with Frank Beckwith

    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, severe fetal deformity, or a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest—defenders of the Free Exercise argument maintain that under current precedent after Employment Division v. Smith (1990), the Court should apply strict scrutiny to such prolife laws.  Francis "Frank" J. Beckwith is a member of the JWI Board of Scholars and a professor of philosophy and church-state studies at Baylor University, where he also serves as the Associate Director of Graduate Studies in Philosophy and an Affiliate Professor of Political Science. His academic interests encompass religion, jurisprudence, politics, and ethics. Beckwith's scholarly contributions appear in leading academic journals, and he has authored several influential books that explore the intersections of faith, law, and morality. A recognized figure in the discourse on church-state relations, he frequently engages in public debates and discussions, sharing his expertise in both academic and broader societal contexts. Additionally, Beckwith has delivered lectures at various institutions, enhancing the understanding of how philosophical principles inform contemporary legal and political issues. This episode is adapted from a program JWI co-sponsored with First Liberty Institute's Center on Religion Culture and Democracy.

    50 min

  7. 11/21/2024

    Minisode 11: Federalist Society 2024 National Lawyers Convention

    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

    27 min

  8. 11/14/2024

    *The* Ads that Shaped the 2024 Election with Jon Schweppe

    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.

    41 min
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The James Wilson Institute flagship recording: Anchoring Truths Podcast

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