Joseph Knippenberg

There was a time when those of us who paid attention to the First Amendment religion clauses could find a lot of grist for our mills in judicial battles over public holiday—er, Christmas—displays. That particular front in our so-called culture war has died down a bit, only to be . . . . Continue Reading »

Easter Sunday, the Obama family worshipped at St. John’s Church , across Lafayette Square from the White House. The audio recording of the sermon is not yet available on the church’s website, but you can read the press summary here . It seems in some way to be addressed to those . . . . Continue Reading »

This somewhat misleadingly headlined Washington Post article takes note of an effort among Evangelicals (not all of whom are conservative) and other religious folks to participate in the current conversation about immigration reform. It focuses on this relatively new organization , whose membership . . . . Continue Reading »

We’re hearing lots of reports that sentiment at the recent CPAC (Conervative Political Action Conference), and elsewhere , tended to favor legalizing same-sex marriage or at least abandoning opposition to it.  George Will characterized the event as providing evidence for the . . . . Continue Reading »

I am currently, as I’ve noted before , teaching a course on the family in political thought. This past week, we discussed Tocqueville; after Spring Break, we’ll tackle Hegel, Mill, and that book about marriage whose title I can’t recall . From time to time, I’ll also pass . . . . Continue Reading »

This post raises all sorts of interesting questions about President Obama’s proposal in his State of the Union Address to fund a project to map the human brain , a Human Neuron Project, if you will. I’ll focus on this one: If the research succeeded, it might result in better prosthetics . . . . Continue Reading »

I have long followed and commented on the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s efforts to banish all religious references from the public square. Well, they just lost one , when the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the City of Warren’s refusal to include an FFRF message disparaging . . . . Continue Reading »

I’m reading NFIB v. Sebelius  (the Obamacare decision) in preparation for teaching the case to my constitutional law students and came across the following most interesting passage in in Justice Ginsburg’s opinion: “A mandate to purchase a particular product would be . . . . Continue Reading »

Virginia State Senator Mark Obenshain is sponsoring a bill that would protect the integrity of student religious and political organizations in his state’s public universities. A response to CLS v. Martinez , the 2010 Supreme Court decision that upheld Hastings College of Law’s decision . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday, a couple of headlines caught my eye. “Homeschooling Not a Fundamental Right, Justice Dept. Argues .” That one came from evangelical commentator Napp Nazworth. ” Homeschooling Not a Fundamental Right Says Justice Department” was our old friend Joe Carter’s . . . . Continue Reading »