Justice Alito’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month

Juvenal said that it is very difficult not to write satire. As its 2022 term came to a close, the United States Supreme Court proved his point. Take Justice Samuel Alito. Arrogant has its etymological roots in the Latin rogare: to ask. It shares that root withinterrogate (to question), prerogative (which, literally, means “ask first”) and rogation (hence the special period of petitionary prayer known as Rogation Days.) Arrogant, then, … Read More Justice Alito’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month

John Alan Burns (1957-2023)

Redeeming the Past

The names “Plessy” and “Ferguson” are linked, seemingly forever, in American legal history. Homer Plessy, a resident of New Orleans, bought a first-class ticket for a train from New Orleans to Covington. He sat in a car reserved for White passengers. The conductor ordered him to move to a different car because he was of “mixed descent:” 7/8 “Caucasian” and 1/8 “African,” as the … Read More Redeeming the Past

Richard Hooker, Humanist Saint

Wednesday was the feast day in the Anglican Communion for the author Richard Hooker. Not the author of the novel MASH, but of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, which (the last time I looked) has not been made into a movie or television series. But perhaps it should. Richard Hooker the theologian has a good deal to say to us. Hooker lived in a time … Read More Richard Hooker, Humanist Saint

Fright Night at the School Board Meeting

William F. Buckley Jr. once said of socialism something like “everyone knows that it doesn’t work, but when did it get so creepy?” (The emphasis, as I recall, was his.) This phenomenon, of regarding ideas as not just intellectually suspect but threatening or sinister, is all too common these days. Socialism, which originally was simply an economic theory, continues to occupy a high position on this … Read More Fright Night at the School Board Meeting

Is There a “Higher”Law?

The Ken Burns film on the life of the boxer Muhammed Ali, which ran on PBS a few weeks ago, returns time and again to Ali’s battle with the federal government to stay out of the Vietnam War. Drafted into the United States Army, Ali refused induction, claiming that as a Muslim he was opposed to all wars save those declared by Allah or … Read More Is There a “Higher”Law?

Suffer the Little Children

Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Mississippi inmate Brett Jones share more than their first name. They both have incidents in their past that have followed them since. Justice Kavanaugh got a second chance. Jones, in part because of Kavanaugh, apparently will not. Justice Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion in Jones v. Mississippi, released earlier this week. In 2004, Jones, fifteen years old, killed his grandfather … Read More Suffer the Little Children

Fanfare for the Common Man (and Woman)

Everyone seems to have adopted a pandemic project: learn to bake scones, run a marathon on a treadmill (assuming you have a treadmill, because good luck buying one), write a novel, teach yourself Greek or Gaelic, clean out your closet or your inbox. One of my projects, given that Anne makes Texas’s best scones and we don’t own a treadmill, is to read all … Read More Fanfare for the Common Man (and Woman)

Pardon Me?

Clemency is much in the news. President Trump on his way out of office has used the presidential power of pardon and commutation (clemency includes both) to benefit associates such as Paul Manafort and Roger Stone; staff members and administration officials, notably Michael Flynn; his personal lawyer Michael Cohen; and his daughter’s father-in-law Charles Kushner. The executive power of clemency is absolute, but odd. … Read More Pardon Me?

For Whose is the Power?

Last week, the Reverend Dr. Sam Wells used the BBC “Daily Service” program for a fourteen-minute meditation on the Lord’s Prayer. It is wonderful, and for the next three weeks you can listen to it here.  Dr. Wells contemplates why the Lord’s prayer is, and remains, central to our worship. You really should listen to it. He breaks the Prayer up into six mini-prayers, … Read More For Whose is the Power?

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the protests arising out of the George Floyd murder, the Presidential election, and the President’s attempt to stop the publication of John Bolton’s book (even though prior restraint has been disfavored since before the Declaration of Independence),[1] we have this week a breath of fresh air from, of all places, the United States Supreme Court. We have Justice Roberts’ opinion … Read More A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

Mr. Smith Leaves Washington

I spent some of my lockdown time reading one of the great, and one of the underappreciated, books of Western social philosophy, Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). The choice is, I suppose, no accident. I also read Scott’s Waverly, and found myself putting shortbread biscuits in my weekly grocery cart. I suspect an underlying grieving over the prospects of my getting back … Read More Mr. Smith Leaves Washington