Tag: Constitutional Law

Topics

Books

Judges and Natural Law

– Washington Post, August 12, 1991.
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas has expressed a belief in natural law and natural rights. In the overheated, brightly lit arena of Supreme Court politics, that simple allegiance has… More

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays

– Oxford University Press, 1992.
Description from Publisher: Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest in a variety of scholarly disciplines including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and… More

The Moral Fragility of Constitutionalism

– First Things, January 1993.
Excerpt: In this collection of characteristically brilliant essays, Harvey C. Mansfield Jr., one of our nation’s most eminent conservative political theorists, defends the American… More

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This work brings together leading defenders of Natural Law and Liberalism for a series of frank and lively exchanges touching upon critical issues of… More

Law, Democracy, and Moral Disagreement

– Harvard Law Review 110:7 (May 1997).
Reviewed Works: Democracy and Disagreement: Why Moral Conflict Cannot Be Avoided in Politics, and What Should Be Done about It by Amy Gutmann, Dennis Thompson; Legal Reasoning and Political… More

On the Supreme Court’s 1996-97 Term

– First Things, October 1997.
The first key decision of the Supreme Court’s most recent term was Agostini v. Felton, handed down June 23, 1997, concerning the proper interpretation and application of the First… More

Justice, Legitimacy, and Allegiance

– Loyola Law Review 44:1 (1998). Reprinted in Mitchell Muncy (ed.) The End of Democracy II:  A Crisis of Legitimacy (Spence Publishing Co., 1998); and in Sotirios Barber and Robert P. George (eds.) Constitutional Politics:  Essays on Constitution Making, Maintenance, and Change (Princeton University Press, 2001).

One Hundred Years of Legal Philosophy

– Notre Dame Law Review 74:5 (1999). Reprinted in Brian J. Shanley (ed.), One Hundred Years of Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2001), and as “What is Law? A Century of Arguments,” in First Things 112 (April 2001).
There is a sense in which twentieth century legal philosophy began on January 8, 1897. On that day, Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,… More

Great Cases in Constitutional Law

– Princeton University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: Slavery, segregation, abortion, workers’ rights, the power of the courts. These issues have been at the heart of the greatest constitutional controversies… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– With Christopher Wolfe, eds. Georgetown University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: “Public reason” is one of the central concepts in modern liberal political theory. As articulated by John Rawls, it presents a way to overcome the… More

The Natural Law Due Process Philosophy

– Fordham Law Review 69:6 (2001). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).
I am grateful to Joseph Koterski and James Fleming for their comments on my paper. Father Koterski and I agree more than we disagree. Things are the other way with Professor Fleming, so I… More

On Jurisprudence

– Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2001.
The flowering of interest in jurisprudence among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the twentieth century produced a number of outstanding books. The four I discuss in the… More

Natural Law and the Constitution Revisited

– Fordham Law Review 70:2 (2001).
James Fleming says that I have misinterpreted him on several points. My essay, Fleming’s critique, and my reply to his critique’ are now before the reader. Happily, anyone who… More

The 28th Amendment

– National Review, July 23, 2001.
Marriage is so central to the well-being of children-and society as a whole-that it was, until recently, difficult to imagine that it might be necessary to mount a national political… More

Lincoln on Judicial Despotism

– First Things, February 2003.
After the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Educationordering the desegregation of public schools in Topeka, Kansas, lawsuits promptly were brought to dismantle… More

Heretic in the Temple

– J. I. Merritt, Princeton Alumni Weekly, October 8, 2003.
Excerpt: The lecturer in Politics 315 – Constitutional Interpretation, or “Coninterp,” as generations of students have called it – came to class, as usual, wearing a dark… More

Judicial Usurpation and Sexual Liberation: Courts and the Abolition of Marriage

– Regent University Law Review 17:1 (Fall 2004). Reprinted as "High Courts and Misdemeanors" in Touchstone 17: 8 (October 2004), and in New Jersey Family Magazine (2005). Reprinted as "Judicial Usurpation: Perennial Temptation, Contemporary Challenge," in Bradley C. S. Watson (ed.), Ourselves and Our Posterity:  Essays in Constitutional Originalism (Lexington Books, 2009).
Judicial power can be used, and has been used, for both good and ill. In a basically just democratic republic, however, judicial power should never be exercised—even for desirable… More

Independence Day

– National Review, May 23, 2005, with Ramesh Ponnuru.
University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein thinks that we are entering a new and “worrisome” phase in the political struggles over the courts: The Right is mounting “a… More

The Bad Decision that Started It All

– National Review, July 18, 2005, with David L. Tubbs.
Forty years ago, in Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down state laws forbidding the sale, distribution, and use of contraceptives on the basis of a… More

The Supreme Court’s Private Life

– New York Times, September 18, 2005.
WHEN John Roberts, President Bush’s nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court, told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that “the right to privacy is protected under… More

A Mind on the Right

– Paul Wachter, Swarthmore Bulletin, January, 2009.
Excerpt: Robert George ’77, a leading conservative public intellectual, remembers the precise moment that he was set on the path to becoming an academic: It was when he first encountered… More

Matters of Principle: Unconstitutional Judicial Activism

– American Principles in Action, published August 5, 2009, YouTube.
Dr. Robert George, Founder of the American Principles Project, discusses the ways in which judicial activism has intruded upon the Constitution. For more information, visit our website at… More

What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense

– With Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson. Encounter Books, 2012.
Description from the Publisher: Until yesterday, no society had seen marriage as anything other than a conjugal partner­ship: a male-female union. What Is Marriage? identifies and defends… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

The Nature and Basis of Religious Freedom

– Keynote address at Franciscan University of Steubenville’s conference on “Truth, Conscience, and Religious Freedom,” April 4-5, 2014, YouTube.
Dr. Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University discusses the importance of asking questions in this excerpt from his talk entitled “The Nature and… More

Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and Why It Matters

– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Description from the Publisher: This book defends the conjugal view of marriage. Patrick Lee and Robert P. George argue that marriage is a distinctive type of community: the union of a man… More

Consequences of an Idea: The Social Cost of Redefining Marriage

– AWC Family Foundation Lecture at Hillsdale College, June 23, 2015, YouTube.
Advocates of redefining marriage assured the public that their proposal would injure no one’s rights or interests. Today it is clear that this is the very reverse of the truth. What are… More

Why We’re Losing Liberty

– Prager University online course, published September 7, 2015, YouTube.
Was the Constitution written in a way that was designed to protect freedom and limit the government’s size? Has it been effective in doing that? And what’s the Supreme… More

C-SPAN Appearances

– C-SPAN.
Follow the link to all of Robert George’s video lectures and discussions of religious freedom, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, the Constitution and more.

The Constitution and Morality

– Eighth Annual Rosenkranz Debate at Federalist Society’s 2015 National Lawyers Convention, with John O. McGinnis, moderated by Hon. William H. Pryor Jr., introduced by Eugene B. Meyer, Washington DC, November 14, 2015, YouTube.

Essays

Judges and Natural Law

– Washington Post, August 12, 1991.
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas has expressed a belief in natural law and natural rights. In the overheated, brightly lit arena of Supreme Court politics, that simple allegiance has… More

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays

– Oxford University Press, 1992.
Description from Publisher: Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest in a variety of scholarly disciplines including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and… More

The Moral Fragility of Constitutionalism

– First Things, January 1993.
Excerpt: In this collection of characteristically brilliant essays, Harvey C. Mansfield Jr., one of our nation’s most eminent conservative political theorists, defends the American… More

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This work brings together leading defenders of Natural Law and Liberalism for a series of frank and lively exchanges touching upon critical issues of… More

Law, Democracy, and Moral Disagreement

– Harvard Law Review 110:7 (May 1997).
Reviewed Works: Democracy and Disagreement: Why Moral Conflict Cannot Be Avoided in Politics, and What Should Be Done about It by Amy Gutmann, Dennis Thompson; Legal Reasoning and Political… More

On the Supreme Court’s 1996-97 Term

– First Things, October 1997.
The first key decision of the Supreme Court’s most recent term was Agostini v. Felton, handed down June 23, 1997, concerning the proper interpretation and application of the First… More

Justice, Legitimacy, and Allegiance

– Loyola Law Review 44:1 (1998). Reprinted in Mitchell Muncy (ed.) The End of Democracy II:  A Crisis of Legitimacy (Spence Publishing Co., 1998); and in Sotirios Barber and Robert P. George (eds.) Constitutional Politics:  Essays on Constitution Making, Maintenance, and Change (Princeton University Press, 2001).

One Hundred Years of Legal Philosophy

– Notre Dame Law Review 74:5 (1999). Reprinted in Brian J. Shanley (ed.), One Hundred Years of Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2001), and as “What is Law? A Century of Arguments,” in First Things 112 (April 2001).
There is a sense in which twentieth century legal philosophy began on January 8, 1897. On that day, Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,… More

Great Cases in Constitutional Law

– Princeton University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: Slavery, segregation, abortion, workers’ rights, the power of the courts. These issues have been at the heart of the greatest constitutional controversies… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– With Christopher Wolfe, eds. Georgetown University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: “Public reason” is one of the central concepts in modern liberal political theory. As articulated by John Rawls, it presents a way to overcome the… More

The Natural Law Due Process Philosophy

– Fordham Law Review 69:6 (2001). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).
I am grateful to Joseph Koterski and James Fleming for their comments on my paper. Father Koterski and I agree more than we disagree. Things are the other way with Professor Fleming, so I… More

On Jurisprudence

– Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2001.
The flowering of interest in jurisprudence among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the twentieth century produced a number of outstanding books. The four I discuss in the… More

Natural Law and the Constitution Revisited

– Fordham Law Review 70:2 (2001).
James Fleming says that I have misinterpreted him on several points. My essay, Fleming’s critique, and my reply to his critique’ are now before the reader. Happily, anyone who… More

The 28th Amendment

– National Review, July 23, 2001.
Marriage is so central to the well-being of children-and society as a whole-that it was, until recently, difficult to imagine that it might be necessary to mount a national political… More

Lincoln on Judicial Despotism

– First Things, February 2003.
After the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Educationordering the desegregation of public schools in Topeka, Kansas, lawsuits promptly were brought to dismantle… More

Heretic in the Temple

– J. I. Merritt, Princeton Alumni Weekly, October 8, 2003.
Excerpt: The lecturer in Politics 315 – Constitutional Interpretation, or “Coninterp,” as generations of students have called it – came to class, as usual, wearing a dark… More

Judicial Usurpation and Sexual Liberation: Courts and the Abolition of Marriage

– Regent University Law Review 17:1 (Fall 2004). Reprinted as "High Courts and Misdemeanors" in Touchstone 17: 8 (October 2004), and in New Jersey Family Magazine (2005). Reprinted as "Judicial Usurpation: Perennial Temptation, Contemporary Challenge," in Bradley C. S. Watson (ed.), Ourselves and Our Posterity:  Essays in Constitutional Originalism (Lexington Books, 2009).
Judicial power can be used, and has been used, for both good and ill. In a basically just democratic republic, however, judicial power should never be exercised—even for desirable… More

Independence Day

– National Review, May 23, 2005, with Ramesh Ponnuru.
University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein thinks that we are entering a new and “worrisome” phase in the political struggles over the courts: The Right is mounting “a… More

The Bad Decision that Started It All

– National Review, July 18, 2005, with David L. Tubbs.
Forty years ago, in Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down state laws forbidding the sale, distribution, and use of contraceptives on the basis of a… More

The Supreme Court’s Private Life

– New York Times, September 18, 2005.
WHEN John Roberts, President Bush’s nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court, told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that “the right to privacy is protected under… More

A Mind on the Right

– Paul Wachter, Swarthmore Bulletin, January, 2009.
Excerpt: Robert George ’77, a leading conservative public intellectual, remembers the precise moment that he was set on the path to becoming an academic: It was when he first encountered… More

Matters of Principle: Unconstitutional Judicial Activism

– American Principles in Action, published August 5, 2009, YouTube.
Dr. Robert George, Founder of the American Principles Project, discusses the ways in which judicial activism has intruded upon the Constitution. For more information, visit our website at… More

What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense

– With Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson. Encounter Books, 2012.
Description from the Publisher: Until yesterday, no society had seen marriage as anything other than a conjugal partner­ship: a male-female union. What Is Marriage? identifies and defends… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

The Nature and Basis of Religious Freedom

– Keynote address at Franciscan University of Steubenville’s conference on “Truth, Conscience, and Religious Freedom,” April 4-5, 2014, YouTube.
Dr. Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University discusses the importance of asking questions in this excerpt from his talk entitled “The Nature and… More

Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and Why It Matters

– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Description from the Publisher: This book defends the conjugal view of marriage. Patrick Lee and Robert P. George argue that marriage is a distinctive type of community: the union of a man… More

Consequences of an Idea: The Social Cost of Redefining Marriage

– AWC Family Foundation Lecture at Hillsdale College, June 23, 2015, YouTube.
Advocates of redefining marriage assured the public that their proposal would injure no one’s rights or interests. Today it is clear that this is the very reverse of the truth. What are… More

Why We’re Losing Liberty

– Prager University online course, published September 7, 2015, YouTube.
Was the Constitution written in a way that was designed to protect freedom and limit the government’s size? Has it been effective in doing that? And what’s the Supreme… More

C-SPAN Appearances

– C-SPAN.
Follow the link to all of Robert George’s video lectures and discussions of religious freedom, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, the Constitution and more.

The Constitution and Morality

– Eighth Annual Rosenkranz Debate at Federalist Society’s 2015 National Lawyers Convention, with John O. McGinnis, moderated by Hon. William H. Pryor Jr., introduced by Eugene B. Meyer, Washington DC, November 14, 2015, YouTube.

Commentary

Judges and Natural Law

– Washington Post, August 12, 1991.
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas has expressed a belief in natural law and natural rights. In the overheated, brightly lit arena of Supreme Court politics, that simple allegiance has… More

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays

– Oxford University Press, 1992.
Description from Publisher: Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest in a variety of scholarly disciplines including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and… More

The Moral Fragility of Constitutionalism

– First Things, January 1993.
Excerpt: In this collection of characteristically brilliant essays, Harvey C. Mansfield Jr., one of our nation’s most eminent conservative political theorists, defends the American… More

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This work brings together leading defenders of Natural Law and Liberalism for a series of frank and lively exchanges touching upon critical issues of… More

Law, Democracy, and Moral Disagreement

– Harvard Law Review 110:7 (May 1997).
Reviewed Works: Democracy and Disagreement: Why Moral Conflict Cannot Be Avoided in Politics, and What Should Be Done about It by Amy Gutmann, Dennis Thompson; Legal Reasoning and Political… More

On the Supreme Court’s 1996-97 Term

– First Things, October 1997.
The first key decision of the Supreme Court’s most recent term was Agostini v. Felton, handed down June 23, 1997, concerning the proper interpretation and application of the First… More

Justice, Legitimacy, and Allegiance

– Loyola Law Review 44:1 (1998). Reprinted in Mitchell Muncy (ed.) The End of Democracy II:  A Crisis of Legitimacy (Spence Publishing Co., 1998); and in Sotirios Barber and Robert P. George (eds.) Constitutional Politics:  Essays on Constitution Making, Maintenance, and Change (Princeton University Press, 2001).

One Hundred Years of Legal Philosophy

– Notre Dame Law Review 74:5 (1999). Reprinted in Brian J. Shanley (ed.), One Hundred Years of Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2001), and as “What is Law? A Century of Arguments,” in First Things 112 (April 2001).
There is a sense in which twentieth century legal philosophy began on January 8, 1897. On that day, Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,… More

Great Cases in Constitutional Law

– Princeton University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: Slavery, segregation, abortion, workers’ rights, the power of the courts. These issues have been at the heart of the greatest constitutional controversies… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– With Christopher Wolfe, eds. Georgetown University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: “Public reason” is one of the central concepts in modern liberal political theory. As articulated by John Rawls, it presents a way to overcome the… More

The Natural Law Due Process Philosophy

– Fordham Law Review 69:6 (2001). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).
I am grateful to Joseph Koterski and James Fleming for their comments on my paper. Father Koterski and I agree more than we disagree. Things are the other way with Professor Fleming, so I… More

On Jurisprudence

– Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2001.
The flowering of interest in jurisprudence among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the twentieth century produced a number of outstanding books. The four I discuss in the… More

Natural Law and the Constitution Revisited

– Fordham Law Review 70:2 (2001).
James Fleming says that I have misinterpreted him on several points. My essay, Fleming’s critique, and my reply to his critique’ are now before the reader. Happily, anyone who… More

The 28th Amendment

– National Review, July 23, 2001.
Marriage is so central to the well-being of children-and society as a whole-that it was, until recently, difficult to imagine that it might be necessary to mount a national political… More

Lincoln on Judicial Despotism

– First Things, February 2003.
After the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Educationordering the desegregation of public schools in Topeka, Kansas, lawsuits promptly were brought to dismantle… More

Heretic in the Temple

– J. I. Merritt, Princeton Alumni Weekly, October 8, 2003.
Excerpt: The lecturer in Politics 315 – Constitutional Interpretation, or “Coninterp,” as generations of students have called it – came to class, as usual, wearing a dark… More

Judicial Usurpation and Sexual Liberation: Courts and the Abolition of Marriage

– Regent University Law Review 17:1 (Fall 2004). Reprinted as "High Courts and Misdemeanors" in Touchstone 17: 8 (October 2004), and in New Jersey Family Magazine (2005). Reprinted as "Judicial Usurpation: Perennial Temptation, Contemporary Challenge," in Bradley C. S. Watson (ed.), Ourselves and Our Posterity:  Essays in Constitutional Originalism (Lexington Books, 2009).
Judicial power can be used, and has been used, for both good and ill. In a basically just democratic republic, however, judicial power should never be exercised—even for desirable… More

Independence Day

– National Review, May 23, 2005, with Ramesh Ponnuru.
University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein thinks that we are entering a new and “worrisome” phase in the political struggles over the courts: The Right is mounting “a… More

The Bad Decision that Started It All

– National Review, July 18, 2005, with David L. Tubbs.
Forty years ago, in Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down state laws forbidding the sale, distribution, and use of contraceptives on the basis of a… More

The Supreme Court’s Private Life

– New York Times, September 18, 2005.
WHEN John Roberts, President Bush’s nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court, told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that “the right to privacy is protected under… More

A Mind on the Right

– Paul Wachter, Swarthmore Bulletin, January, 2009.
Excerpt: Robert George ’77, a leading conservative public intellectual, remembers the precise moment that he was set on the path to becoming an academic: It was when he first encountered… More

Matters of Principle: Unconstitutional Judicial Activism

– American Principles in Action, published August 5, 2009, YouTube.
Dr. Robert George, Founder of the American Principles Project, discusses the ways in which judicial activism has intruded upon the Constitution. For more information, visit our website at… More

What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense

– With Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson. Encounter Books, 2012.
Description from the Publisher: Until yesterday, no society had seen marriage as anything other than a conjugal partner­ship: a male-female union. What Is Marriage? identifies and defends… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

The Nature and Basis of Religious Freedom

– Keynote address at Franciscan University of Steubenville’s conference on “Truth, Conscience, and Religious Freedom,” April 4-5, 2014, YouTube.
Dr. Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University discusses the importance of asking questions in this excerpt from his talk entitled “The Nature and… More

Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and Why It Matters

– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Description from the Publisher: This book defends the conjugal view of marriage. Patrick Lee and Robert P. George argue that marriage is a distinctive type of community: the union of a man… More

Consequences of an Idea: The Social Cost of Redefining Marriage

– AWC Family Foundation Lecture at Hillsdale College, June 23, 2015, YouTube.
Advocates of redefining marriage assured the public that their proposal would injure no one’s rights or interests. Today it is clear that this is the very reverse of the truth. What are… More

Why We’re Losing Liberty

– Prager University online course, published September 7, 2015, YouTube.
Was the Constitution written in a way that was designed to protect freedom and limit the government’s size? Has it been effective in doing that? And what’s the Supreme… More

C-SPAN Appearances

– C-SPAN.
Follow the link to all of Robert George’s video lectures and discussions of religious freedom, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, the Constitution and more.

The Constitution and Morality

– Eighth Annual Rosenkranz Debate at Federalist Society’s 2015 National Lawyers Convention, with John O. McGinnis, moderated by Hon. William H. Pryor Jr., introduced by Eugene B. Meyer, Washington DC, November 14, 2015, YouTube.

Multimedia

Judges and Natural Law

– Washington Post, August 12, 1991.
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas has expressed a belief in natural law and natural rights. In the overheated, brightly lit arena of Supreme Court politics, that simple allegiance has… More

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays

– Oxford University Press, 1992.
Description from Publisher: Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest in a variety of scholarly disciplines including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and… More

The Moral Fragility of Constitutionalism

– First Things, January 1993.
Excerpt: In this collection of characteristically brilliant essays, Harvey C. Mansfield Jr., one of our nation’s most eminent conservative political theorists, defends the American… More

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This work brings together leading defenders of Natural Law and Liberalism for a series of frank and lively exchanges touching upon critical issues of… More

Law, Democracy, and Moral Disagreement

– Harvard Law Review 110:7 (May 1997).
Reviewed Works: Democracy and Disagreement: Why Moral Conflict Cannot Be Avoided in Politics, and What Should Be Done about It by Amy Gutmann, Dennis Thompson; Legal Reasoning and Political… More

On the Supreme Court’s 1996-97 Term

– First Things, October 1997.
The first key decision of the Supreme Court’s most recent term was Agostini v. Felton, handed down June 23, 1997, concerning the proper interpretation and application of the First… More

Justice, Legitimacy, and Allegiance

– Loyola Law Review 44:1 (1998). Reprinted in Mitchell Muncy (ed.) The End of Democracy II:  A Crisis of Legitimacy (Spence Publishing Co., 1998); and in Sotirios Barber and Robert P. George (eds.) Constitutional Politics:  Essays on Constitution Making, Maintenance, and Change (Princeton University Press, 2001).

One Hundred Years of Legal Philosophy

– Notre Dame Law Review 74:5 (1999). Reprinted in Brian J. Shanley (ed.), One Hundred Years of Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2001), and as “What is Law? A Century of Arguments,” in First Things 112 (April 2001).
There is a sense in which twentieth century legal philosophy began on January 8, 1897. On that day, Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,… More

Great Cases in Constitutional Law

– Princeton University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: Slavery, segregation, abortion, workers’ rights, the power of the courts. These issues have been at the heart of the greatest constitutional controversies… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– With Christopher Wolfe, eds. Georgetown University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: “Public reason” is one of the central concepts in modern liberal political theory. As articulated by John Rawls, it presents a way to overcome the… More

The Natural Law Due Process Philosophy

– Fordham Law Review 69:6 (2001). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).
I am grateful to Joseph Koterski and James Fleming for their comments on my paper. Father Koterski and I agree more than we disagree. Things are the other way with Professor Fleming, so I… More

On Jurisprudence

– Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2001.
The flowering of interest in jurisprudence among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the twentieth century produced a number of outstanding books. The four I discuss in the… More

Natural Law and the Constitution Revisited

– Fordham Law Review 70:2 (2001).
James Fleming says that I have misinterpreted him on several points. My essay, Fleming’s critique, and my reply to his critique’ are now before the reader. Happily, anyone who… More

The 28th Amendment

– National Review, July 23, 2001.
Marriage is so central to the well-being of children-and society as a whole-that it was, until recently, difficult to imagine that it might be necessary to mount a national political… More

Lincoln on Judicial Despotism

– First Things, February 2003.
After the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Educationordering the desegregation of public schools in Topeka, Kansas, lawsuits promptly were brought to dismantle… More

Heretic in the Temple

– J. I. Merritt, Princeton Alumni Weekly, October 8, 2003.
Excerpt: The lecturer in Politics 315 – Constitutional Interpretation, or “Coninterp,” as generations of students have called it – came to class, as usual, wearing a dark… More

Judicial Usurpation and Sexual Liberation: Courts and the Abolition of Marriage

– Regent University Law Review 17:1 (Fall 2004). Reprinted as "High Courts and Misdemeanors" in Touchstone 17: 8 (October 2004), and in New Jersey Family Magazine (2005). Reprinted as "Judicial Usurpation: Perennial Temptation, Contemporary Challenge," in Bradley C. S. Watson (ed.), Ourselves and Our Posterity:  Essays in Constitutional Originalism (Lexington Books, 2009).
Judicial power can be used, and has been used, for both good and ill. In a basically just democratic republic, however, judicial power should never be exercised—even for desirable… More

Independence Day

– National Review, May 23, 2005, with Ramesh Ponnuru.
University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein thinks that we are entering a new and “worrisome” phase in the political struggles over the courts: The Right is mounting “a… More

The Bad Decision that Started It All

– National Review, July 18, 2005, with David L. Tubbs.
Forty years ago, in Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down state laws forbidding the sale, distribution, and use of contraceptives on the basis of a… More

The Supreme Court’s Private Life

– New York Times, September 18, 2005.
WHEN John Roberts, President Bush’s nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court, told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that “the right to privacy is protected under… More

A Mind on the Right

– Paul Wachter, Swarthmore Bulletin, January, 2009.
Excerpt: Robert George ’77, a leading conservative public intellectual, remembers the precise moment that he was set on the path to becoming an academic: It was when he first encountered… More

Matters of Principle: Unconstitutional Judicial Activism

– American Principles in Action, published August 5, 2009, YouTube.
Dr. Robert George, Founder of the American Principles Project, discusses the ways in which judicial activism has intruded upon the Constitution. For more information, visit our website at… More

What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense

– With Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson. Encounter Books, 2012.
Description from the Publisher: Until yesterday, no society had seen marriage as anything other than a conjugal partner­ship: a male-female union. What Is Marriage? identifies and defends… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

The Nature and Basis of Religious Freedom

– Keynote address at Franciscan University of Steubenville’s conference on “Truth, Conscience, and Religious Freedom,” April 4-5, 2014, YouTube.
Dr. Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University discusses the importance of asking questions in this excerpt from his talk entitled “The Nature and… More

Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and Why It Matters

– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Description from the Publisher: This book defends the conjugal view of marriage. Patrick Lee and Robert P. George argue that marriage is a distinctive type of community: the union of a man… More

Consequences of an Idea: The Social Cost of Redefining Marriage

– AWC Family Foundation Lecture at Hillsdale College, June 23, 2015, YouTube.
Advocates of redefining marriage assured the public that their proposal would injure no one’s rights or interests. Today it is clear that this is the very reverse of the truth. What are… More

Why We’re Losing Liberty

– Prager University online course, published September 7, 2015, YouTube.
Was the Constitution written in a way that was designed to protect freedom and limit the government’s size? Has it been effective in doing that? And what’s the Supreme… More

C-SPAN Appearances

– C-SPAN.
Follow the link to all of Robert George’s video lectures and discussions of religious freedom, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, the Constitution and more.

The Constitution and Morality

– Eighth Annual Rosenkranz Debate at Federalist Society’s 2015 National Lawyers Convention, with John O. McGinnis, moderated by Hon. William H. Pryor Jr., introduced by Eugene B. Meyer, Washington DC, November 14, 2015, YouTube.

Teaching

Judges and Natural Law

– Washington Post, August 12, 1991.
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas has expressed a belief in natural law and natural rights. In the overheated, brightly lit arena of Supreme Court politics, that simple allegiance has… More

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays

– Oxford University Press, 1992.
Description from Publisher: Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest in a variety of scholarly disciplines including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and… More

The Moral Fragility of Constitutionalism

– First Things, January 1993.
Excerpt: In this collection of characteristically brilliant essays, Harvey C. Mansfield Jr., one of our nation’s most eminent conservative political theorists, defends the American… More

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This work brings together leading defenders of Natural Law and Liberalism for a series of frank and lively exchanges touching upon critical issues of… More

Law, Democracy, and Moral Disagreement

– Harvard Law Review 110:7 (May 1997).
Reviewed Works: Democracy and Disagreement: Why Moral Conflict Cannot Be Avoided in Politics, and What Should Be Done about It by Amy Gutmann, Dennis Thompson; Legal Reasoning and Political… More

On the Supreme Court’s 1996-97 Term

– First Things, October 1997.
The first key decision of the Supreme Court’s most recent term was Agostini v. Felton, handed down June 23, 1997, concerning the proper interpretation and application of the First… More

Justice, Legitimacy, and Allegiance

– Loyola Law Review 44:1 (1998). Reprinted in Mitchell Muncy (ed.) The End of Democracy II:  A Crisis of Legitimacy (Spence Publishing Co., 1998); and in Sotirios Barber and Robert P. George (eds.) Constitutional Politics:  Essays on Constitution Making, Maintenance, and Change (Princeton University Press, 2001).

One Hundred Years of Legal Philosophy

– Notre Dame Law Review 74:5 (1999). Reprinted in Brian J. Shanley (ed.), One Hundred Years of Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2001), and as “What is Law? A Century of Arguments,” in First Things 112 (April 2001).
There is a sense in which twentieth century legal philosophy began on January 8, 1897. On that day, Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,… More

Great Cases in Constitutional Law

– Princeton University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: Slavery, segregation, abortion, workers’ rights, the power of the courts. These issues have been at the heart of the greatest constitutional controversies… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– With Christopher Wolfe, eds. Georgetown University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: “Public reason” is one of the central concepts in modern liberal political theory. As articulated by John Rawls, it presents a way to overcome the… More

The Natural Law Due Process Philosophy

– Fordham Law Review 69:6 (2001). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).
I am grateful to Joseph Koterski and James Fleming for their comments on my paper. Father Koterski and I agree more than we disagree. Things are the other way with Professor Fleming, so I… More

On Jurisprudence

– Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2001.
The flowering of interest in jurisprudence among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the twentieth century produced a number of outstanding books. The four I discuss in the… More

Natural Law and the Constitution Revisited

– Fordham Law Review 70:2 (2001).
James Fleming says that I have misinterpreted him on several points. My essay, Fleming’s critique, and my reply to his critique’ are now before the reader. Happily, anyone who… More

The 28th Amendment

– National Review, July 23, 2001.
Marriage is so central to the well-being of children-and society as a whole-that it was, until recently, difficult to imagine that it might be necessary to mount a national political… More

Lincoln on Judicial Despotism

– First Things, February 2003.
After the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Educationordering the desegregation of public schools in Topeka, Kansas, lawsuits promptly were brought to dismantle… More

Heretic in the Temple

– J. I. Merritt, Princeton Alumni Weekly, October 8, 2003.
Excerpt: The lecturer in Politics 315 – Constitutional Interpretation, or “Coninterp,” as generations of students have called it – came to class, as usual, wearing a dark… More

Judicial Usurpation and Sexual Liberation: Courts and the Abolition of Marriage

– Regent University Law Review 17:1 (Fall 2004). Reprinted as "High Courts and Misdemeanors" in Touchstone 17: 8 (October 2004), and in New Jersey Family Magazine (2005). Reprinted as "Judicial Usurpation: Perennial Temptation, Contemporary Challenge," in Bradley C. S. Watson (ed.), Ourselves and Our Posterity:  Essays in Constitutional Originalism (Lexington Books, 2009).
Judicial power can be used, and has been used, for both good and ill. In a basically just democratic republic, however, judicial power should never be exercised—even for desirable… More

Independence Day

– National Review, May 23, 2005, with Ramesh Ponnuru.
University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein thinks that we are entering a new and “worrisome” phase in the political struggles over the courts: The Right is mounting “a… More

The Bad Decision that Started It All

– National Review, July 18, 2005, with David L. Tubbs.
Forty years ago, in Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down state laws forbidding the sale, distribution, and use of contraceptives on the basis of a… More

The Supreme Court’s Private Life

– New York Times, September 18, 2005.
WHEN John Roberts, President Bush’s nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court, told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that “the right to privacy is protected under… More

A Mind on the Right

– Paul Wachter, Swarthmore Bulletin, January, 2009.
Excerpt: Robert George ’77, a leading conservative public intellectual, remembers the precise moment that he was set on the path to becoming an academic: It was when he first encountered… More

Matters of Principle: Unconstitutional Judicial Activism

– American Principles in Action, published August 5, 2009, YouTube.
Dr. Robert George, Founder of the American Principles Project, discusses the ways in which judicial activism has intruded upon the Constitution. For more information, visit our website at… More

What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense

– With Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson. Encounter Books, 2012.
Description from the Publisher: Until yesterday, no society had seen marriage as anything other than a conjugal partner­ship: a male-female union. What Is Marriage? identifies and defends… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

The Nature and Basis of Religious Freedom

– Keynote address at Franciscan University of Steubenville’s conference on “Truth, Conscience, and Religious Freedom,” April 4-5, 2014, YouTube.
Dr. Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University discusses the importance of asking questions in this excerpt from his talk entitled “The Nature and… More

Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and Why It Matters

– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Description from the Publisher: This book defends the conjugal view of marriage. Patrick Lee and Robert P. George argue that marriage is a distinctive type of community: the union of a man… More

Consequences of an Idea: The Social Cost of Redefining Marriage

– AWC Family Foundation Lecture at Hillsdale College, June 23, 2015, YouTube.
Advocates of redefining marriage assured the public that their proposal would injure no one’s rights or interests. Today it is clear that this is the very reverse of the truth. What are… More

Why We’re Losing Liberty

– Prager University online course, published September 7, 2015, YouTube.
Was the Constitution written in a way that was designed to protect freedom and limit the government’s size? Has it been effective in doing that? And what’s the Supreme… More

C-SPAN Appearances

– C-SPAN.
Follow the link to all of Robert George’s video lectures and discussions of religious freedom, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, the Constitution and more.

The Constitution and Morality

– Eighth Annual Rosenkranz Debate at Federalist Society’s 2015 National Lawyers Convention, with John O. McGinnis, moderated by Hon. William H. Pryor Jr., introduced by Eugene B. Meyer, Washington DC, November 14, 2015, YouTube.