The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture publication
Chief Justice Roberts, Judicial Restraint, and Dobbs
Edward Whelan
For Chief Justice Roberts and other proponents of judicial restraint, stare decisis considerations should be especially weak when—as with Roe and Casey—the precedent under examination has usurped the democratic processes.
Articles
National Review Online / August 25, 2021
Chief Justice Roberts, Stare Decisis, and Dobbs
Edward Whelan
For anyone trying to understand how Chief Justice Roberts’s jurisprudential principles apply to the question whether he should vote to overrule Roe and Casey, the Chief’s concurring opinion in Citizens United v. FEC (2010) is essential reading.
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National Review Online / August 24, 2021
A Quick Guide to Today’s Opinions in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia
Edward Whelan
In one of the most-watched cases of the term, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled today in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia that the city of Philadelphia violated the free-exercise rights of Catholic Social Services, a Catholic foster-care agency, by conditioning CSS’s continued provision of foster-care services on its agreeing to certify same-sex couples as foster parents.
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National Review Online / June 17, 2021
Doubts About Constitutional Personhood
Edward Whelan
The only plausible path to imminent legal protection of the unborn has as its first step overturning Roe and restoring abortion policy to the states.
Articles
First Things / April 8, 2021
The Unsoundness and Imprudence of “Common-Good Originalism”
Edward Whelan
The immediate aftermath of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court is a strange time to urge conservatives to repudiate Justice Antonin Scalia’s twin interpretive methodologies of originalism and textualism.
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Public Discourse / March 2, 2021
Justice Barrett Would Extend Scalia’s Legacy
Edward Whelan
Amy Coney Barrett’s record, both as a judge and in her earlier career as a distinguished law professor at Notre Dame, shows both her profound commitment to Justice Scalia’s principles of textualism and originalism and her stellar ability to implement them.
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National Review - October 19, 2020 issue / September 30, 2020
Why Finding Justices Who Will Overturn Roe v. Wade Hasn’t Been Easy, And What to…
Edward Whelan
Any effort to seat justices who will overturn Roe needs to take account of the serious political obstacles that stand in the way. We must not surrender in the face of these obstacles. But we must recognize them in order to navigate through them.
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Public Discourse / August 25, 2020
Senator Hawley’s Judicial Test on Roe v. Wade Won’t Work
Edward Whelan
Political realities can be confronted and transformed, but they cannot simply be imagined away. Unfortunately, Senator Hawley’s pro-life litmus test promises no more success in the future than it would have had in the past.
Articles
Public Discourse / August 24, 2020
McConnell’s Supreme Court Tactics: Politics 101
Edward Whelan
When the president and the Senate majority are from the same party, look for the swift confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee.
Articles
National Review Online / January 2, 2020
The Presumption of Constitutionality
Edward Whelan
The principle that the courts must apply a statute unless the statute clearly conflicts with the Constitution has deep roots and inheres in the very foundation of the power of judicial review.
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Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy - Volume 42 / March 12, 2019
The Judicial Divide Between Conservatives and Liberals
Edward Whelan
EPPC President Ed Whelan was interviewed by The Politic, an undergraduate journal at Yale, about right vs. left on the Supreme Court and more.
Articles
The (Yale) Politic / November 20, 2018
Trump Picks Brett Kavanaugh
Edward Whelan
Judge Kavanaugh, 53 years old, has compiled an outstanding record during his twelve years on the federal court of appeals in D.C. On what is commonly regarded as the second-most-important court in the country, he has confronted a vast array of consequential constitutional and statutory issues and has written strong, influential opinions.
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National Review Online / July 9, 2018