Robert T. Miller

One of my favorite intellectual puzzles is figuring out what deep conceptual presuppositions cause some people to be conservatives, other people to be liberals. That is, on a range of issues that would seem largely unrelated—say, abortion, affirmative action, and gun control—it turns that . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s a slippery problem. According to this story in the Legal Intelligencer , in the early 1990s Joel McKiernan and Ivonne Ferguson were involved in a romantic relationship. After the relationship ended, they remained in contact, and when, several years later, Ms. Ferguson wanted to . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s one reason—as if people who’ve read my writings needed any more proof—that I’ll never be literary. In his interesting web article , Gerald Rusello quotes Jacques Barzun as saying, “the historian can only show, not prove; persuade, not convince.” I know . . . . Continue Reading »

Law as a Means to an End: Threat to the Rule of Law by brian z. tamanaha cambridge university press, 268 pages, $31.99 It is a commonplace in American legal culture that law is a means to an end, that laws serve such social purposes as protecting individuals against physical harm, promoting . . . . Continue Reading »

I think that, in his recent web article , Fr. Neuhaus underestimates Professor Budziszewski’s point that written constitutions can undermine constitutionalism. Fr. Neuhaus rightly notes that this need not happen if judges interpreting the constitution take an appropriately deferential . . . . Continue Reading »

According to a news story from Reuters , a recent Tufts University study (available here ) says that “if nothing is done to combat global warming,” then, by the year 2100, “two of Florida’s nuclear power plants, three of its prisons and 1,362 hotels, motels and inns will be under . . . . Continue Reading »

First, I want to follow Jody in congratulating Tony Blair, who has been a good friend to this nation, on his conversion to Catholicism. I am also happy to congratulate Mr. Blair’s country, the United Kingdom, on its conversion to Catholicism. Yes, you read that correctly. What I mean is that, . . . . Continue Reading »

Re: women freezing eggs or couples genetically designing babies, I agree that both will happen in the future, but I’m not sure how common either will be. In discussing Dworkin’s article about the former yesterday, I subtly added to Dworkin’s analysis an assumption that such . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s a tale of woe. According to this story in the American Lawyer , lawyers in Manhattan’s elite law firms—the kinds of places where partners make $1 million a year and more—are depressed because they don’t make as much money as financial professionals. Alas, . . . . Continue Reading »

Ronald Dworkin—not the famous legal theorist, but a medical doctor and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute—writes in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal about the development of technology that will allow women to freeze unfertilized eggs when they’re young so that they can . . . . Continue Reading »