RJN 1.13.05 The Roe decision…

The Roe decision of 1973, wrote Yale’s legendary law professor, John Hart Ely, “is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be.” He is hardly alone in holding that view. Among the harshest critics of Roe, most of whom nonetheless support the abortion license, are Laurence Tribe, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, William Saletan, Alan Dershowitz, Cass Sunstein, and Michael Kinsley. Timothy Carney has pulled together some of what they and others have said about the wrongheadedness of Roe and that can be found on his website here .

In addition to which :

“From Ratzinger to Benedict” is Avery Cardinal Dulles’ critical evaluation of the pope’s critical evaluation of Vatican Council II. Also in the February issue is Stephen Barr on design and evolution, Stephen Webb on the achievement, and mistakes, of Stanley Hauerwas, and Robert P. George on why private acts are a legitimate public concern. To subscribe to F IRST T HINGS , click here .