Books
Rule by Law
– National Review, February 26, 1996, with Ramesh Ponnuru.The New Abortion Debate
– First Things, April 1996.Over the last few months, certain intellectuals on both sides of the debate over abortion have publicly expressed newfound doubts about their side’s positions and tactics. Notable… More
Making Children Moral: Pornography, Parents, and the Public Interest
– Arizona State Law Review 29 (Summer 1997). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).On two occasions in October of 1965, Sam Ginsberg, proprietor of Sam’s Stationery and Luncheonette in Bellmore, New York, sold magazines containing photographs of nude women to a… More
What Can We Reasonably Hope For?
– First Things, January 2000.Anyone gazing into a crystal ball with the aim of divining the future of relations among members of different religious communities in the new millennium would do well to remember how… More
The Clinton Puzzle: Why Do Liberals Love Him So?
– Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2000.Liberals love Bill Clinton; conservatives loathe him. No surprise there, some might say. Yet if one considers any number of things Mr. Clinton has done over the past decade, something of a… More
Reason, Freedom, and the Rule of Law
– American Journal of Jurisprudence 46 (2001). Reprinted in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 1:1 (Fall 2001), Regent University Law Review 15:2 (2002-2003), Charles W. Dunn (ed.), Faith, Freedom, and the Future: Religion in American Political Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), The Clarion Review 2 (2004), and Michael A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collet (eds.), Recovering Self-Evident Truths: Catholic Perspectives on American Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).The idea of law and the ideal of the rule of law are central to the natural law tradition of thought about public (or “political”) order. St. Thomas Aquinas went so far as to… 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
Responding Justly to Terrorism
– Crisis Magazine, November 1, 2001.There is no question that our nation will respond with force to the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. What will our response look like if it is shaped by the Catholic… More
Would a War in Iraq be Ethically Justified?
– The Daily Princetonian, September 19, 2002.How can we decide if an attack on Iraq in ethically justified? Although the early architects of “just war theory” held that punishing past aggression is among the legitimate… More
Presidential Leadership and the Judiciary
– In James Taranto and Leonard Leo (eds.), Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and Worst in the White House (Wall Street Journal Books, 2004).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
Why We Need a Marriage Amendment
– City Journal, Autumn 2004, with David L. Tubbs.When President George W. Bush declared his support for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, his most vitriolic critics, such as… More
The Moral Status of the Human Embryo
– Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 48:2 (Spring 2005), with Alfonso Gómez-Lobo. First published as "Statement of Professor George" in Leon R. Kass (ed.), Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council On Bioethics (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 294-306; and Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry (The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002).The subject matter of Human Cloning and Human Dignity (President’s Council 2002) is the production of a human embryo by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or similar… 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
Moral Issues, Political Candidates, and the Vocation of Public Service
– In Michael Aquilina and Kenneth Ogorek (eds.), The Great Life: Essays on Doctrine and Holiness (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2005). Reprinted in Voices 22:2 (2007).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
Fetal Attraction
– The Weekly Standard, October 3, 2005. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:4 (Fall 2005); in Spanish translation as “Fabricas de Organos,” La Gaceta de los Negocios (October 2, 2006); and in Rafael Domingo et al. (eds.) Hacia Un Derecho Global (Thomson Publishing Co., 2007).THE JOURNAL Science late last month published the results of research conducted at Harvard proving that embryonic stem cells can be produced by a method that does not involve creating or… More
Terri Schiavo: A Right to Life Denied or a Right to Die Honored?
– Constitutional Commentary 22:3 (Winter 2005).There is a spectrum of positions on end of life issues, and on life issues generally. However, a crucial line of division exists between those who affirm, and those who deny, that the life… More
Pope John Paul II
– In John Witte and Frank Alexander (eds.), The Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature (Columbia University Press, 2006), with Gerard Bradley.Restricting Reasons, Attenuating Discourse: Rawls, Habermas, and the Catholic Problem
– In Daniel N. Robinson, Gladys M. Sweeney, and Richard Gill (eds.), Human Nature and Its Wholeness (Catholic University of America Press, 2006). Reprinted with abridgments and additions as “Public Morality, Public Reason,” First Things, November, 2006.A contest of worldviews in our time pits devout Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and other believers against secularist liberals and those who, while remaining within the religious… More
Barring Faith
– The Weekly Standard, July 17, 2006, with Gerald V. BradleyTO FULLY APPRECIATE the wrong headedness of a federal district court’s recent decision expelling a faith-based program from an Iowa prison, it is necessary first to take a backward… More
Prophets and Kings: When Must the Church Speak Out Against Injustice?
– Journal of Law, Philosophy and Culture 2:1 (2008).Slouching Towards Gomorrah Revisited
– Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 31:2 (March 2008).Abstract: A literary criticism of the book “Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline,” by Robert H. Bork is presented. It praises the accuracy of the… More
Not a Victimless Crime
– National Review, August 10, 2009, with Donna Hughes.iny Rhode Island prides itself on its history and charm. But since it decriminalized prostitution in 1980, it has become a haven for something decidedly uncharming: the trafficking of girls… More
Business and Family in a Decent and Dynamic Society
– In Samuel Gregg and James R. Stoner, Jr. (eds.), Profit, Prudence and Virtue: Essays in Ethics, Business and Management (St. Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2009). Also published in Rethinking Business Management (The Witherspoon Institute, 2008).Academic Freedom and What It Means Today
– In Roger Scruton (ed.), Liberty and Civilization: The Western Heritage (Encounter Books, 2010). Originally published as "Academic Freedom and the Liberal Arts" in The American Spectator 41:7 (September 2008).When the flower children and anti-war activists of the 1960s came to power in the universities, they did not overthrow the idea of liberal arts education. In a great many cases, they… More
Does Sex Ed Undermine Parental Rights?
– New York Times, October 18, 2011, with Melissa Moschella.IMAGINE you have a 10- or 11-year-old child, just entering a public middle school. How would you feel if, as part of a class ostensibly about the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, he… More
The Undermining of the Family: A Long-term Project
– Can Do Australia's Voice, published on August 14, 2012, YouTube.Professor Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, visited Sydney recently as keynote speaker at the John Paul II Leaders Forum. Praised by US… More
Religious Freedom is About More Than Religion
– Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2013, with Katrina Lantos Swett.A common theory about freedom of religion suggests that such a value is grounded in a modus vivendi, or compromise: People agree to respect each other’s freedom in order to avoid… More
The U.S.’s Lagging Commitment to Religious Freedom
– Washington Post, August 21, 2013, with Katrina Lantos Swett.Although religious freedom is a pivotal human right, critical to national security and global stability, key provisions of the landmark International Religious Freedom Act are being… More
Would Bombing Syria be a “Just War”?
– Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2013.Jean Bethke Elshtain, the eminent University of Chicago scholar who died last month at age 72, was a little lady from a small town in Colorado who became a giant in the field of political… More
Liberty and Conscience
– National Affairs, Fall 2013.One of the more dubious achievements of the Obama administration has been to put religious freedom and the rights of conscience back on the agenda in American politics. Most notoriously,… More
Religious Exemptions are Vital for Religious Liberty
– Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2014, with Hamza Yusuf.The United States is one of the most religiously diverse nations on earth. People of a vast array of traditions of faith live here in a harmony that would have been unthinkable in most of… More
International Religious Freedom (Robert George with Raymond Arroyo)
– EWTN, May 8, 2014, YouTube.ROBERT GEORGE, professor of law at Princeton University and the Chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom on the USCIRF’s new report and the most striking… More
Iran’s Forgotten Prisoners of Conscience
– Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2014, with Katrina Lantos Swett.As Iran approaches the anniversary of Hasan Rouhani’s presidential victory, the Islamic Republic’s human-rights record, particularly its treatment of religious minorities,… More
“Swarthmore at its Best” — An Interview with Robert George
– Victor Gomes, The Phoenix, February 27, 2014.1) Could you describe your background and beliefs throughout your life? Your beliefs before going into Swarthmore, during, after, and currently. Have you noticed, looking back, any way in… More
Robert George on CBN News’ “The 700 Club” with Dr. Pat Robertson
– CBN News, August 20, 2014, published by Shirley & Bannister Public Affairs, YouTube.Dr. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, discusses a petition to destroy the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq with Dr. Pat Robertson on CBN… More
Russia’s Extremism Law Violates Human Rights
– The Moscow Times, November 26, 2014, with Katrina Lantos Swett.Last Friday, a video deemed offensive to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was ruled “extremist” by a city court in Vladimir. While Alexander… More
Remarks on the Future of the Pro-Life Movement
– The SpeakOut Illinois 2015 conference, Illinois Family Institute, January 31, 2015, YouTube.Professor Robert George, renowned scholar on religious liberty at Princeton University, spoke with IFI’s Monte Larrick at the recent pro-life SpeakOut Illinois conference.
The Case Against Divestment at Princeton University
– Princeton University, April 16, 2015, published by Jeremy Rosenthal, YouTube.Professor Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, speaking as part of the panel discussion held at Princeton on April 16th, 2015. The full panel… 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
Essays
Rule by Law
– National Review, February 26, 1996, with Ramesh Ponnuru.The New Abortion Debate
– First Things, April 1996.Over the last few months, certain intellectuals on both sides of the debate over abortion have publicly expressed newfound doubts about their side’s positions and tactics. Notable… More
Making Children Moral: Pornography, Parents, and the Public Interest
– Arizona State Law Review 29 (Summer 1997). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).On two occasions in October of 1965, Sam Ginsberg, proprietor of Sam’s Stationery and Luncheonette in Bellmore, New York, sold magazines containing photographs of nude women to a… More
What Can We Reasonably Hope For?
– First Things, January 2000.Anyone gazing into a crystal ball with the aim of divining the future of relations among members of different religious communities in the new millennium would do well to remember how… More
The Clinton Puzzle: Why Do Liberals Love Him So?
– Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2000.Liberals love Bill Clinton; conservatives loathe him. No surprise there, some might say. Yet if one considers any number of things Mr. Clinton has done over the past decade, something of a… More
Reason, Freedom, and the Rule of Law
– American Journal of Jurisprudence 46 (2001). Reprinted in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 1:1 (Fall 2001), Regent University Law Review 15:2 (2002-2003), Charles W. Dunn (ed.), Faith, Freedom, and the Future: Religion in American Political Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), The Clarion Review 2 (2004), and Michael A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collet (eds.), Recovering Self-Evident Truths: Catholic Perspectives on American Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).The idea of law and the ideal of the rule of law are central to the natural law tradition of thought about public (or “political”) order. St. Thomas Aquinas went so far as to… 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
Responding Justly to Terrorism
– Crisis Magazine, November 1, 2001.There is no question that our nation will respond with force to the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. What will our response look like if it is shaped by the Catholic… More
Would a War in Iraq be Ethically Justified?
– The Daily Princetonian, September 19, 2002.How can we decide if an attack on Iraq in ethically justified? Although the early architects of “just war theory” held that punishing past aggression is among the legitimate… More
Presidential Leadership and the Judiciary
– In James Taranto and Leonard Leo (eds.), Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and Worst in the White House (Wall Street Journal Books, 2004).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
Why We Need a Marriage Amendment
– City Journal, Autumn 2004, with David L. Tubbs.When President George W. Bush declared his support for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, his most vitriolic critics, such as… More
The Moral Status of the Human Embryo
– Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 48:2 (Spring 2005), with Alfonso Gómez-Lobo. First published as "Statement of Professor George" in Leon R. Kass (ed.), Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council On Bioethics (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 294-306; and Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry (The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002).The subject matter of Human Cloning and Human Dignity (President’s Council 2002) is the production of a human embryo by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or similar… 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
Moral Issues, Political Candidates, and the Vocation of Public Service
– In Michael Aquilina and Kenneth Ogorek (eds.), The Great Life: Essays on Doctrine and Holiness (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2005). Reprinted in Voices 22:2 (2007).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
Fetal Attraction
– The Weekly Standard, October 3, 2005. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:4 (Fall 2005); in Spanish translation as “Fabricas de Organos,” La Gaceta de los Negocios (October 2, 2006); and in Rafael Domingo et al. (eds.) Hacia Un Derecho Global (Thomson Publishing Co., 2007).THE JOURNAL Science late last month published the results of research conducted at Harvard proving that embryonic stem cells can be produced by a method that does not involve creating or… More
Terri Schiavo: A Right to Life Denied or a Right to Die Honored?
– Constitutional Commentary 22:3 (Winter 2005).There is a spectrum of positions on end of life issues, and on life issues generally. However, a crucial line of division exists between those who affirm, and those who deny, that the life… More
Pope John Paul II
– In John Witte and Frank Alexander (eds.), The Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature (Columbia University Press, 2006), with Gerard Bradley.Restricting Reasons, Attenuating Discourse: Rawls, Habermas, and the Catholic Problem
– In Daniel N. Robinson, Gladys M. Sweeney, and Richard Gill (eds.), Human Nature and Its Wholeness (Catholic University of America Press, 2006). Reprinted with abridgments and additions as “Public Morality, Public Reason,” First Things, November, 2006.A contest of worldviews in our time pits devout Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and other believers against secularist liberals and those who, while remaining within the religious… More
Barring Faith
– The Weekly Standard, July 17, 2006, with Gerald V. BradleyTO FULLY APPRECIATE the wrong headedness of a federal district court’s recent decision expelling a faith-based program from an Iowa prison, it is necessary first to take a backward… More
Prophets and Kings: When Must the Church Speak Out Against Injustice?
– Journal of Law, Philosophy and Culture 2:1 (2008).Slouching Towards Gomorrah Revisited
– Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 31:2 (March 2008).Abstract: A literary criticism of the book “Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline,” by Robert H. Bork is presented. It praises the accuracy of the… More
Not a Victimless Crime
– National Review, August 10, 2009, with Donna Hughes.iny Rhode Island prides itself on its history and charm. But since it decriminalized prostitution in 1980, it has become a haven for something decidedly uncharming: the trafficking of girls… More
Business and Family in a Decent and Dynamic Society
– In Samuel Gregg and James R. Stoner, Jr. (eds.), Profit, Prudence and Virtue: Essays in Ethics, Business and Management (St. Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2009). Also published in Rethinking Business Management (The Witherspoon Institute, 2008).Academic Freedom and What It Means Today
– In Roger Scruton (ed.), Liberty and Civilization: The Western Heritage (Encounter Books, 2010). Originally published as "Academic Freedom and the Liberal Arts" in The American Spectator 41:7 (September 2008).When the flower children and anti-war activists of the 1960s came to power in the universities, they did not overthrow the idea of liberal arts education. In a great many cases, they… More
Does Sex Ed Undermine Parental Rights?
– New York Times, October 18, 2011, with Melissa Moschella.IMAGINE you have a 10- or 11-year-old child, just entering a public middle school. How would you feel if, as part of a class ostensibly about the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, he… More
The Undermining of the Family: A Long-term Project
– Can Do Australia's Voice, published on August 14, 2012, YouTube.Professor Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, visited Sydney recently as keynote speaker at the John Paul II Leaders Forum. Praised by US… More
Religious Freedom is About More Than Religion
– Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2013, with Katrina Lantos Swett.A common theory about freedom of religion suggests that such a value is grounded in a modus vivendi, or compromise: People agree to respect each other’s freedom in order to avoid… More
The U.S.’s Lagging Commitment to Religious Freedom
– Washington Post, August 21, 2013, with Katrina Lantos Swett.Although religious freedom is a pivotal human right, critical to national security and global stability, key provisions of the landmark International Religious Freedom Act are being… More
Would Bombing Syria be a “Just War”?
– Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2013.Jean Bethke Elshtain, the eminent University of Chicago scholar who died last month at age 72, was a little lady from a small town in Colorado who became a giant in the field of political… More
Liberty and Conscience
– National Affairs, Fall 2013.One of the more dubious achievements of the Obama administration has been to put religious freedom and the rights of conscience back on the agenda in American politics. Most notoriously,… More
Religious Exemptions are Vital for Religious Liberty
– Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2014, with Hamza Yusuf.The United States is one of the most religiously diverse nations on earth. People of a vast array of traditions of faith live here in a harmony that would have been unthinkable in most of… More
International Religious Freedom (Robert George with Raymond Arroyo)
– EWTN, May 8, 2014, YouTube.ROBERT GEORGE, professor of law at Princeton University and the Chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom on the USCIRF’s new report and the most striking… More
Iran’s Forgotten Prisoners of Conscience
– Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2014, with Katrina Lantos Swett.As Iran approaches the anniversary of Hasan Rouhani’s presidential victory, the Islamic Republic’s human-rights record, particularly its treatment of religious minorities,… More
“Swarthmore at its Best” — An Interview with Robert George
– Victor Gomes, The Phoenix, February 27, 2014.1) Could you describe your background and beliefs throughout your life? Your beliefs before going into Swarthmore, during, after, and currently. Have you noticed, looking back, any way in… More
Robert George on CBN News’ “The 700 Club” with Dr. Pat Robertson
– CBN News, August 20, 2014, published by Shirley & Bannister Public Affairs, YouTube.Dr. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, discusses a petition to destroy the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq with Dr. Pat Robertson on CBN… More
Russia’s Extremism Law Violates Human Rights
– The Moscow Times, November 26, 2014, with Katrina Lantos Swett.Last Friday, a video deemed offensive to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was ruled “extremist” by a city court in Vladimir. While Alexander… More
Remarks on the Future of the Pro-Life Movement
– The SpeakOut Illinois 2015 conference, Illinois Family Institute, January 31, 2015, YouTube.Professor Robert George, renowned scholar on religious liberty at Princeton University, spoke with IFI’s Monte Larrick at the recent pro-life SpeakOut Illinois conference.
The Case Against Divestment at Princeton University
– Princeton University, April 16, 2015, published by Jeremy Rosenthal, YouTube.Professor Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, speaking as part of the panel discussion held at Princeton on April 16th, 2015. The full panel… 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
Commentary
Rule by Law
– National Review, February 26, 1996, with Ramesh Ponnuru.The New Abortion Debate
– First Things, April 1996.Over the last few months, certain intellectuals on both sides of the debate over abortion have publicly expressed newfound doubts about their side’s positions and tactics. Notable… More
Making Children Moral: Pornography, Parents, and the Public Interest
– Arizona State Law Review 29 (Summer 1997). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).On two occasions in October of 1965, Sam Ginsberg, proprietor of Sam’s Stationery and Luncheonette in Bellmore, New York, sold magazines containing photographs of nude women to a… More
What Can We Reasonably Hope For?
– First Things, January 2000.Anyone gazing into a crystal ball with the aim of divining the future of relations among members of different religious communities in the new millennium would do well to remember how… More
The Clinton Puzzle: Why Do Liberals Love Him So?
– Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2000.Liberals love Bill Clinton; conservatives loathe him. No surprise there, some might say. Yet if one considers any number of things Mr. Clinton has done over the past decade, something of a… More
Reason, Freedom, and the Rule of Law
– American Journal of Jurisprudence 46 (2001). Reprinted in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 1:1 (Fall 2001), Regent University Law Review 15:2 (2002-2003), Charles W. Dunn (ed.), Faith, Freedom, and the Future: Religion in American Political Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), The Clarion Review 2 (2004), and Michael A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collet (eds.), Recovering Self-Evident Truths: Catholic Perspectives on American Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).The idea of law and the ideal of the rule of law are central to the natural law tradition of thought about public (or “political”) order. St. Thomas Aquinas went so far as to… 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
Responding Justly to Terrorism
– Crisis Magazine, November 1, 2001.There is no question that our nation will respond with force to the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. What will our response look like if it is shaped by the Catholic… More
Would a War in Iraq be Ethically Justified?
– The Daily Princetonian, September 19, 2002.How can we decide if an attack on Iraq in ethically justified? Although the early architects of “just war theory” held that punishing past aggression is among the legitimate… More
Presidential Leadership and the Judiciary
– In James Taranto and Leonard Leo (eds.), Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and Worst in the White House (Wall Street Journal Books, 2004).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
Why We Need a Marriage Amendment
– City Journal, Autumn 2004, with David L. Tubbs.When President George W. Bush declared his support for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, his most vitriolic critics, such as… More
The Moral Status of the Human Embryo
– Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 48:2 (Spring 2005), with Alfonso Gómez-Lobo. First published as "Statement of Professor George" in Leon R. Kass (ed.), Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council On Bioethics (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 294-306; and Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry (The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002).The subject matter of Human Cloning and Human Dignity (President’s Council 2002) is the production of a human embryo by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or similar… 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
Moral Issues, Political Candidates, and the Vocation of Public Service
– In Michael Aquilina and Kenneth Ogorek (eds.), The Great Life: Essays on Doctrine and Holiness (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2005). Reprinted in Voices 22:2 (2007).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
Fetal Attraction
– The Weekly Standard, October 3, 2005. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:4 (Fall 2005); in Spanish translation as “Fabricas de Organos,” La Gaceta de los Negocios (October 2, 2006); and in Rafael Domingo et al. (eds.) Hacia Un Derecho Global (Thomson Publishing Co., 2007).THE JOURNAL Science late last month published the results of research conducted at Harvard proving that embryonic stem cells can be produced by a method that does not involve creating or… More
Terri Schiavo: A Right to Life Denied or a Right to Die Honored?
– Constitutional Commentary 22:3 (Winter 2005).There is a spectrum of positions on end of life issues, and on life issues generally. However, a crucial line of division exists between those who affirm, and those who deny, that the life… More
Pope John Paul II
– In John Witte and Frank Alexander (eds.), The Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature (Columbia University Press, 2006), with Gerard Bradley.Restricting Reasons, Attenuating Discourse: Rawls, Habermas, and the Catholic Problem
– In Daniel N. Robinson, Gladys M. Sweeney, and Richard Gill (eds.), Human Nature and Its Wholeness (Catholic University of America Press, 2006). Reprinted with abridgments and additions as “Public Morality, Public Reason,” First Things, November, 2006.A contest of worldviews in our time pits devout Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and other believers against secularist liberals and those who, while remaining within the religious… More
Barring Faith
– The Weekly Standard, July 17, 2006, with Gerald V. BradleyTO FULLY APPRECIATE the wrong headedness of a federal district court’s recent decision expelling a faith-based program from an Iowa prison, it is necessary first to take a backward… More
Prophets and Kings: When Must the Church Speak Out Against Injustice?
– Journal of Law, Philosophy and Culture 2:1 (2008).Slouching Towards Gomorrah Revisited
– Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 31:2 (March 2008).Abstract: A literary criticism of the book “Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline,” by Robert H. Bork is presented. It praises the accuracy of the… More
Not a Victimless Crime
– National Review, August 10, 2009, with Donna Hughes.iny Rhode Island prides itself on its history and charm. But since it decriminalized prostitution in 1980, it has become a haven for something decidedly uncharming: the trafficking of girls… More
Business and Family in a Decent and Dynamic Society
– In Samuel Gregg and James R. Stoner, Jr. (eds.), Profit, Prudence and Virtue: Essays in Ethics, Business and Management (St. Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2009). Also published in Rethinking Business Management (The Witherspoon Institute, 2008).Academic Freedom and What It Means Today
– In Roger Scruton (ed.), Liberty and Civilization: The Western Heritage (Encounter Books, 2010). Originally published as "Academic Freedom and the Liberal Arts" in The American Spectator 41:7 (September 2008).When the flower children and anti-war activists of the 1960s came to power in the universities, they did not overthrow the idea of liberal arts education. In a great many cases, they… More
Does Sex Ed Undermine Parental Rights?
– New York Times, October 18, 2011, with Melissa Moschella.IMAGINE you have a 10- or 11-year-old child, just entering a public middle school. How would you feel if, as part of a class ostensibly about the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, he… More
The Undermining of the Family: A Long-term Project
– Can Do Australia's Voice, published on August 14, 2012, YouTube.Professor Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, visited Sydney recently as keynote speaker at the John Paul II Leaders Forum. Praised by US… More
Religious Freedom is About More Than Religion
– Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2013, with Katrina Lantos Swett.A common theory about freedom of religion suggests that such a value is grounded in a modus vivendi, or compromise: People agree to respect each other’s freedom in order to avoid… More
The U.S.’s Lagging Commitment to Religious Freedom
– Washington Post, August 21, 2013, with Katrina Lantos Swett.Although religious freedom is a pivotal human right, critical to national security and global stability, key provisions of the landmark International Religious Freedom Act are being… More
Would Bombing Syria be a “Just War”?
– Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2013.Jean Bethke Elshtain, the eminent University of Chicago scholar who died last month at age 72, was a little lady from a small town in Colorado who became a giant in the field of political… More
Liberty and Conscience
– National Affairs, Fall 2013.One of the more dubious achievements of the Obama administration has been to put religious freedom and the rights of conscience back on the agenda in American politics. Most notoriously,… More
Religious Exemptions are Vital for Religious Liberty
– Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2014, with Hamza Yusuf.The United States is one of the most religiously diverse nations on earth. People of a vast array of traditions of faith live here in a harmony that would have been unthinkable in most of… More
International Religious Freedom (Robert George with Raymond Arroyo)
– EWTN, May 8, 2014, YouTube.ROBERT GEORGE, professor of law at Princeton University and the Chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom on the USCIRF’s new report and the most striking… More
Iran’s Forgotten Prisoners of Conscience
– Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2014, with Katrina Lantos Swett.As Iran approaches the anniversary of Hasan Rouhani’s presidential victory, the Islamic Republic’s human-rights record, particularly its treatment of religious minorities,… More
“Swarthmore at its Best” — An Interview with Robert George
– Victor Gomes, The Phoenix, February 27, 2014.1) Could you describe your background and beliefs throughout your life? Your beliefs before going into Swarthmore, during, after, and currently. Have you noticed, looking back, any way in… More
Robert George on CBN News’ “The 700 Club” with Dr. Pat Robertson
– CBN News, August 20, 2014, published by Shirley & Bannister Public Affairs, YouTube.Dr. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, discusses a petition to destroy the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq with Dr. Pat Robertson on CBN… More
Russia’s Extremism Law Violates Human Rights
– The Moscow Times, November 26, 2014, with Katrina Lantos Swett.Last Friday, a video deemed offensive to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was ruled “extremist” by a city court in Vladimir. While Alexander… More
Remarks on the Future of the Pro-Life Movement
– The SpeakOut Illinois 2015 conference, Illinois Family Institute, January 31, 2015, YouTube.Professor Robert George, renowned scholar on religious liberty at Princeton University, spoke with IFI’s Monte Larrick at the recent pro-life SpeakOut Illinois conference.
The Case Against Divestment at Princeton University
– Princeton University, April 16, 2015, published by Jeremy Rosenthal, YouTube.Professor Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, speaking as part of the panel discussion held at Princeton on April 16th, 2015. The full panel… 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
Multimedia
Rule by Law
– National Review, February 26, 1996, with Ramesh Ponnuru.The New Abortion Debate
– First Things, April 1996.Over the last few months, certain intellectuals on both sides of the debate over abortion have publicly expressed newfound doubts about their side’s positions and tactics. Notable… More
Making Children Moral: Pornography, Parents, and the Public Interest
– Arizona State Law Review 29 (Summer 1997). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).On two occasions in October of 1965, Sam Ginsberg, proprietor of Sam’s Stationery and Luncheonette in Bellmore, New York, sold magazines containing photographs of nude women to a… More
What Can We Reasonably Hope For?
– First Things, January 2000.Anyone gazing into a crystal ball with the aim of divining the future of relations among members of different religious communities in the new millennium would do well to remember how… More
The Clinton Puzzle: Why Do Liberals Love Him So?
– Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2000.Liberals love Bill Clinton; conservatives loathe him. No surprise there, some might say. Yet if one considers any number of things Mr. Clinton has done over the past decade, something of a… More
Reason, Freedom, and the Rule of Law
– American Journal of Jurisprudence 46 (2001). Reprinted in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 1:1 (Fall 2001), Regent University Law Review 15:2 (2002-2003), Charles W. Dunn (ed.), Faith, Freedom, and the Future: Religion in American Political Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), The Clarion Review 2 (2004), and Michael A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collet (eds.), Recovering Self-Evident Truths: Catholic Perspectives on American Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).The idea of law and the ideal of the rule of law are central to the natural law tradition of thought about public (or “political”) order. St. Thomas Aquinas went so far as to… 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
Responding Justly to Terrorism
– Crisis Magazine, November 1, 2001.There is no question that our nation will respond with force to the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. What will our response look like if it is shaped by the Catholic… More
Would a War in Iraq be Ethically Justified?
– The Daily Princetonian, September 19, 2002.How can we decide if an attack on Iraq in ethically justified? Although the early architects of “just war theory” held that punishing past aggression is among the legitimate… More
Presidential Leadership and the Judiciary
– In James Taranto and Leonard Leo (eds.), Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and Worst in the White House (Wall Street Journal Books, 2004).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
Why We Need a Marriage Amendment
– City Journal, Autumn 2004, with David L. Tubbs.When President George W. Bush declared his support for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, his most vitriolic critics, such as… More
The Moral Status of the Human Embryo
– Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 48:2 (Spring 2005), with Alfonso Gómez-Lobo. First published as "Statement of Professor George" in Leon R. Kass (ed.), Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council On Bioethics (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 294-306; and Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry (The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002).The subject matter of Human Cloning and Human Dignity (President’s Council 2002) is the production of a human embryo by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or similar… 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
Moral Issues, Political Candidates, and the Vocation of Public Service
– In Michael Aquilina and Kenneth Ogorek (eds.), The Great Life: Essays on Doctrine and Holiness (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2005). Reprinted in Voices 22:2 (2007).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
Fetal Attraction
– The Weekly Standard, October 3, 2005. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:4 (Fall 2005); in Spanish translation as “Fabricas de Organos,” La Gaceta de los Negocios (October 2, 2006); and in Rafael Domingo et al. (eds.) Hacia Un Derecho Global (Thomson Publishing Co., 2007).THE JOURNAL Science late last month published the results of research conducted at Harvard proving that embryonic stem cells can be produced by a method that does not involve creating or… More
Terri Schiavo: A Right to Life Denied or a Right to Die Honored?
– Constitutional Commentary 22:3 (Winter 2005).There is a spectrum of positions on end of life issues, and on life issues generally. However, a crucial line of division exists between those who affirm, and those who deny, that the life… More
Pope John Paul II
– In John Witte and Frank Alexander (eds.), The Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature (Columbia University Press, 2006), with Gerard Bradley.Restricting Reasons, Attenuating Discourse: Rawls, Habermas, and the Catholic Problem
– In Daniel N. Robinson, Gladys M. Sweeney, and Richard Gill (eds.), Human Nature and Its Wholeness (Catholic University of America Press, 2006). Reprinted with abridgments and additions as “Public Morality, Public Reason,” First Things, November, 2006.A contest of worldviews in our time pits devout Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and other believers against secularist liberals and those who, while remaining within the religious… More
Barring Faith
– The Weekly Standard, July 17, 2006, with Gerald V. BradleyTO FULLY APPRECIATE the wrong headedness of a federal district court’s recent decision expelling a faith-based program from an Iowa prison, it is necessary first to take a backward… More
Prophets and Kings: When Must the Church Speak Out Against Injustice?
– Journal of Law, Philosophy and Culture 2:1 (2008).Slouching Towards Gomorrah Revisited
– Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 31:2 (March 2008).Abstract: A literary criticism of the book “Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline,” by Robert H. Bork is presented. It praises the accuracy of the… More
Not a Victimless Crime
– National Review, August 10, 2009, with Donna Hughes.iny Rhode Island prides itself on its history and charm. But since it decriminalized prostitution in 1980, it has become a haven for something decidedly uncharming: the trafficking of girls… More
Business and Family in a Decent and Dynamic Society
– In Samuel Gregg and James R. Stoner, Jr. (eds.), Profit, Prudence and Virtue: Essays in Ethics, Business and Management (St. Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2009). Also published in Rethinking Business Management (The Witherspoon Institute, 2008).Academic Freedom and What It Means Today
– In Roger Scruton (ed.), Liberty and Civilization: The Western Heritage (Encounter Books, 2010). Originally published as "Academic Freedom and the Liberal Arts" in The American Spectator 41:7 (September 2008).When the flower children and anti-war activists of the 1960s came to power in the universities, they did not overthrow the idea of liberal arts education. In a great many cases, they… More
Does Sex Ed Undermine Parental Rights?
– New York Times, October 18, 2011, with Melissa Moschella.IMAGINE you have a 10- or 11-year-old child, just entering a public middle school. How would you feel if, as part of a class ostensibly about the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, he… More
The Undermining of the Family: A Long-term Project
– Can Do Australia's Voice, published on August 14, 2012, YouTube.Professor Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, visited Sydney recently as keynote speaker at the John Paul II Leaders Forum. Praised by US… More
Religious Freedom is About More Than Religion
– Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2013, with Katrina Lantos Swett.A common theory about freedom of religion suggests that such a value is grounded in a modus vivendi, or compromise: People agree to respect each other’s freedom in order to avoid… More
The U.S.’s Lagging Commitment to Religious Freedom
– Washington Post, August 21, 2013, with Katrina Lantos Swett.Although religious freedom is a pivotal human right, critical to national security and global stability, key provisions of the landmark International Religious Freedom Act are being… More
Would Bombing Syria be a “Just War”?
– Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2013.Jean Bethke Elshtain, the eminent University of Chicago scholar who died last month at age 72, was a little lady from a small town in Colorado who became a giant in the field of political… More
Liberty and Conscience
– National Affairs, Fall 2013.One of the more dubious achievements of the Obama administration has been to put religious freedom and the rights of conscience back on the agenda in American politics. Most notoriously,… More
Religious Exemptions are Vital for Religious Liberty
– Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2014, with Hamza Yusuf.The United States is one of the most religiously diverse nations on earth. People of a vast array of traditions of faith live here in a harmony that would have been unthinkable in most of… More
International Religious Freedom (Robert George with Raymond Arroyo)
– EWTN, May 8, 2014, YouTube.ROBERT GEORGE, professor of law at Princeton University and the Chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom on the USCIRF’s new report and the most striking… More
Iran’s Forgotten Prisoners of Conscience
– Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2014, with Katrina Lantos Swett.As Iran approaches the anniversary of Hasan Rouhani’s presidential victory, the Islamic Republic’s human-rights record, particularly its treatment of religious minorities,… More
“Swarthmore at its Best” — An Interview with Robert George
– Victor Gomes, The Phoenix, February 27, 2014.1) Could you describe your background and beliefs throughout your life? Your beliefs before going into Swarthmore, during, after, and currently. Have you noticed, looking back, any way in… More
Robert George on CBN News’ “The 700 Club” with Dr. Pat Robertson
– CBN News, August 20, 2014, published by Shirley & Bannister Public Affairs, YouTube.Dr. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, discusses a petition to destroy the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq with Dr. Pat Robertson on CBN… More
Russia’s Extremism Law Violates Human Rights
– The Moscow Times, November 26, 2014, with Katrina Lantos Swett.Last Friday, a video deemed offensive to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was ruled “extremist” by a city court in Vladimir. While Alexander… More
Remarks on the Future of the Pro-Life Movement
– The SpeakOut Illinois 2015 conference, Illinois Family Institute, January 31, 2015, YouTube.Professor Robert George, renowned scholar on religious liberty at Princeton University, spoke with IFI’s Monte Larrick at the recent pro-life SpeakOut Illinois conference.
The Case Against Divestment at Princeton University
– Princeton University, April 16, 2015, published by Jeremy Rosenthal, YouTube.Professor Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, speaking as part of the panel discussion held at Princeton on April 16th, 2015. The full panel… 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
Teaching
Rule by Law
– National Review, February 26, 1996, with Ramesh Ponnuru.The New Abortion Debate
– First Things, April 1996.Over the last few months, certain intellectuals on both sides of the debate over abortion have publicly expressed newfound doubts about their side’s positions and tactics. Notable… More
Making Children Moral: Pornography, Parents, and the Public Interest
– Arizona State Law Review 29 (Summer 1997). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).On two occasions in October of 1965, Sam Ginsberg, proprietor of Sam’s Stationery and Luncheonette in Bellmore, New York, sold magazines containing photographs of nude women to a… More
What Can We Reasonably Hope For?
– First Things, January 2000.Anyone gazing into a crystal ball with the aim of divining the future of relations among members of different religious communities in the new millennium would do well to remember how… More
The Clinton Puzzle: Why Do Liberals Love Him So?
– Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2000.Liberals love Bill Clinton; conservatives loathe him. No surprise there, some might say. Yet if one considers any number of things Mr. Clinton has done over the past decade, something of a… More
Reason, Freedom, and the Rule of Law
– American Journal of Jurisprudence 46 (2001). Reprinted in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 1:1 (Fall 2001), Regent University Law Review 15:2 (2002-2003), Charles W. Dunn (ed.), Faith, Freedom, and the Future: Religion in American Political Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), The Clarion Review 2 (2004), and Michael A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collet (eds.), Recovering Self-Evident Truths: Catholic Perspectives on American Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).The idea of law and the ideal of the rule of law are central to the natural law tradition of thought about public (or “political”) order. St. Thomas Aquinas went so far as to… 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
Responding Justly to Terrorism
– Crisis Magazine, November 1, 2001.There is no question that our nation will respond with force to the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. What will our response look like if it is shaped by the Catholic… More
Would a War in Iraq be Ethically Justified?
– The Daily Princetonian, September 19, 2002.How can we decide if an attack on Iraq in ethically justified? Although the early architects of “just war theory” held that punishing past aggression is among the legitimate… More
Presidential Leadership and the Judiciary
– In James Taranto and Leonard Leo (eds.), Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and Worst in the White House (Wall Street Journal Books, 2004).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
Why We Need a Marriage Amendment
– City Journal, Autumn 2004, with David L. Tubbs.When President George W. Bush declared his support for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, his most vitriolic critics, such as… More
The Moral Status of the Human Embryo
– Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 48:2 (Spring 2005), with Alfonso Gómez-Lobo. First published as "Statement of Professor George" in Leon R. Kass (ed.), Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council On Bioethics (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 294-306; and Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry (The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002).The subject matter of Human Cloning and Human Dignity (President’s Council 2002) is the production of a human embryo by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or similar… 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
Moral Issues, Political Candidates, and the Vocation of Public Service
– In Michael Aquilina and Kenneth Ogorek (eds.), The Great Life: Essays on Doctrine and Holiness (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2005). Reprinted in Voices 22:2 (2007).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
Fetal Attraction
– The Weekly Standard, October 3, 2005. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:4 (Fall 2005); in Spanish translation as “Fabricas de Organos,” La Gaceta de los Negocios (October 2, 2006); and in Rafael Domingo et al. (eds.) Hacia Un Derecho Global (Thomson Publishing Co., 2007).THE JOURNAL Science late last month published the results of research conducted at Harvard proving that embryonic stem cells can be produced by a method that does not involve creating or… More
Terri Schiavo: A Right to Life Denied or a Right to Die Honored?
– Constitutional Commentary 22:3 (Winter 2005).There is a spectrum of positions on end of life issues, and on life issues generally. However, a crucial line of division exists between those who affirm, and those who deny, that the life… More
Pope John Paul II
– In John Witte and Frank Alexander (eds.), The Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature (Columbia University Press, 2006), with Gerard Bradley.Restricting Reasons, Attenuating Discourse: Rawls, Habermas, and the Catholic Problem
– In Daniel N. Robinson, Gladys M. Sweeney, and Richard Gill (eds.), Human Nature and Its Wholeness (Catholic University of America Press, 2006). Reprinted with abridgments and additions as “Public Morality, Public Reason,” First Things, November, 2006.A contest of worldviews in our time pits devout Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and other believers against secularist liberals and those who, while remaining within the religious… More
Barring Faith
– The Weekly Standard, July 17, 2006, with Gerald V. BradleyTO FULLY APPRECIATE the wrong headedness of a federal district court’s recent decision expelling a faith-based program from an Iowa prison, it is necessary first to take a backward… More
Prophets and Kings: When Must the Church Speak Out Against Injustice?
– Journal of Law, Philosophy and Culture 2:1 (2008).Slouching Towards Gomorrah Revisited
– Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 31:2 (March 2008).Abstract: A literary criticism of the book “Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline,” by Robert H. Bork is presented. It praises the accuracy of the… More
Not a Victimless Crime
– National Review, August 10, 2009, with Donna Hughes.iny Rhode Island prides itself on its history and charm. But since it decriminalized prostitution in 1980, it has become a haven for something decidedly uncharming: the trafficking of girls… More
Business and Family in a Decent and Dynamic Society
– In Samuel Gregg and James R. Stoner, Jr. (eds.), Profit, Prudence and Virtue: Essays in Ethics, Business and Management (St. Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2009). Also published in Rethinking Business Management (The Witherspoon Institute, 2008).Academic Freedom and What It Means Today
– In Roger Scruton (ed.), Liberty and Civilization: The Western Heritage (Encounter Books, 2010). Originally published as "Academic Freedom and the Liberal Arts" in The American Spectator 41:7 (September 2008).When the flower children and anti-war activists of the 1960s came to power in the universities, they did not overthrow the idea of liberal arts education. In a great many cases, they… More
Does Sex Ed Undermine Parental Rights?
– New York Times, October 18, 2011, with Melissa Moschella.IMAGINE you have a 10- or 11-year-old child, just entering a public middle school. How would you feel if, as part of a class ostensibly about the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, he… More
The Undermining of the Family: A Long-term Project
– Can Do Australia's Voice, published on August 14, 2012, YouTube.Professor Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, visited Sydney recently as keynote speaker at the John Paul II Leaders Forum. Praised by US… More
Religious Freedom is About More Than Religion
– Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2013, with Katrina Lantos Swett.A common theory about freedom of religion suggests that such a value is grounded in a modus vivendi, or compromise: People agree to respect each other’s freedom in order to avoid… More
The U.S.’s Lagging Commitment to Religious Freedom
– Washington Post, August 21, 2013, with Katrina Lantos Swett.Although religious freedom is a pivotal human right, critical to national security and global stability, key provisions of the landmark International Religious Freedom Act are being… More
Would Bombing Syria be a “Just War”?
– Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2013.Jean Bethke Elshtain, the eminent University of Chicago scholar who died last month at age 72, was a little lady from a small town in Colorado who became a giant in the field of political… More
Liberty and Conscience
– National Affairs, Fall 2013.One of the more dubious achievements of the Obama administration has been to put religious freedom and the rights of conscience back on the agenda in American politics. Most notoriously,… More
Religious Exemptions are Vital for Religious Liberty
– Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2014, with Hamza Yusuf.The United States is one of the most religiously diverse nations on earth. People of a vast array of traditions of faith live here in a harmony that would have been unthinkable in most of… More
International Religious Freedom (Robert George with Raymond Arroyo)
– EWTN, May 8, 2014, YouTube.ROBERT GEORGE, professor of law at Princeton University and the Chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom on the USCIRF’s new report and the most striking… More
Iran’s Forgotten Prisoners of Conscience
– Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2014, with Katrina Lantos Swett.As Iran approaches the anniversary of Hasan Rouhani’s presidential victory, the Islamic Republic’s human-rights record, particularly its treatment of religious minorities,… More
“Swarthmore at its Best” — An Interview with Robert George
– Victor Gomes, The Phoenix, February 27, 2014.1) Could you describe your background and beliefs throughout your life? Your beliefs before going into Swarthmore, during, after, and currently. Have you noticed, looking back, any way in… More
Robert George on CBN News’ “The 700 Club” with Dr. Pat Robertson
– CBN News, August 20, 2014, published by Shirley & Bannister Public Affairs, YouTube.Dr. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, discusses a petition to destroy the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq with Dr. Pat Robertson on CBN… More
Russia’s Extremism Law Violates Human Rights
– The Moscow Times, November 26, 2014, with Katrina Lantos Swett.Last Friday, a video deemed offensive to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was ruled “extremist” by a city court in Vladimir. While Alexander… More
Remarks on the Future of the Pro-Life Movement
– The SpeakOut Illinois 2015 conference, Illinois Family Institute, January 31, 2015, YouTube.Professor Robert George, renowned scholar on religious liberty at Princeton University, spoke with IFI’s Monte Larrick at the recent pro-life SpeakOut Illinois conference.
The Case Against Divestment at Princeton University
– Princeton University, April 16, 2015, published by Jeremy Rosenthal, YouTube.Professor Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, speaking as part of the panel discussion held at Princeton on April 16th, 2015. The full panel… 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