Mississippi 26 and Public Opinion on Abortion
Pro-life advocates pushing for a controversial definition are doing harm to their own cause.
On the Newsstand:pro-life
Pro-Choice Activists Fight a Losing Fight
Pro-choice Democrats are falling back on sensational rhetoric in response to status quote legislation and a growing pro-life tide in public opinion.
Funding for Abortion; Libertarian Nuances
The Planned Parenthood controversy and how libertarians really see abortion
Rand Paul a Racist? I Think Not.
Sam Barr’s most recent post makes the rather shocking claim that Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky being vacated by the retiring Jim Bunning, is a racist, or at least that he is not a non-racist. Sam deduces this from the fact that Mr. Paul is not a “consistent libertarian,” that he “picks and ... Read More
Has Health Reform Failed?
The question is not intended substantively. The bill that is being debated by the Senate is an ugly mess from the perspective of any reasonable observer, left, right, or center. However, as inefficient and messy as it is, it will still do a much better job than the status quo of providing healthcare to the people in the country who ... Read More
Conservative Mental Gestures
The last few days, I’ve been reminded of Lionel Trilling’s rather impolite description of conservatism as a philosophy expressed in “irritable mental gestures” rather than ideas. What keeps provoking this thought in me is all the carping about Sonia Sotomayor’s “reverse racism.” I got to thinking about what I find so, well, irritating about this particular conservative mental gesture. And ... Read More
Comeback to the Future
A proposal for rejuvenating the Republican Party American conservatism is in disarray. Democrats won decisively in the 2006 midterm and 2008 presidential elections. Once reliably conservative constituencies like married couples and regular churchgoers are shrinking in size, and young voters voted overwhelmingly Democratic. Conservatism is out of power and out of steam. With both the White House and Capitol Hill ... Read More
Abortion Rights at the Court
Crucial crossroad, or more of the same? Every election cycle, we are told that the future of the Supreme Court, and particularly the future of abortion jurisprudence, is at stake. This election-centric view infects the mainstream media, which routinely publish October headlines like “This time, Roe v. Wade really could hang in the balance,” as the Los Angeles Times declared ... Read More
Civil Rights in the Courts
A changing legal landscape In American history civil rights issues have often found their footing in the high courts. Decisions such as the recent Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts’ ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in Goodrige v. Department of Public Health exemplify the courts’ ability to swiftly expand civil rights. However Proposition 8 in California, which amended the state’s constitution to ... Read More
A New Front in the Abortion Debate?
I wrote in the most recent issue of the HPR that the Supreme Court would be unlikely to dramatically alter its abortion jurisprudence, regardless of the outcome of the presidential election. My piece was meant to quiet hyperventilating liberals who feared that a McCain presidency automatically spelled doom for abortion rights. Of course, my prediction is now moot: The Court ... Read More
