The big internet platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google are no longer allowed to censor conservative viewpoints in Texas. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a Texas law outlawing Big Tech censorship, requiring the social media platforms to disclose and justify their editorial standards. While this is generally good news for…
The Napa Catholic Conference last month included an inspiring series of talks on subjects as wide-ranging as theology, art, science and politics. One of the topics most discussed was the recent Dobbs case by which the Supreme Court finally overturned the so-called Constitutional right to abortion under the Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.…
The Supreme Court has overruled Roe v. Wade, holding that each state should decide its own abortion law, but there is a new battle looming over whether that extends to chemical abortions. This is no small issue when more than half of all abortions in the United States are carried out using a drug called…
The Supreme Court’s recent decisions on abortion and the Second Amendment right to bear arms are finally placing limits on the kind of judicial activism that has made our Constitution and Constitutional law almost unrecognizable. While these two cases may seem very different, the Court is telling us in both cases that the Constitution means…
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on May 31, in the case of NetChoice v. Paxton, that Twitter, Facebook and Google can censor conservative political views, at least for now, while challenges against a Texas anti-censorship law make their way through the Court system. The Court’s decision would seem to condone blatant viewpoint discrimination, including the…
Government agencies, run by thousands of unelected, unaccountable and mostly unreachable bureaucrats, increasingly affect nearly every aspect of American life. We are forced to comply with burdensome IRS requirements. Businesses struggle under onerous EPA rules. Most recently, we’ve seen heavy-handed vaccine mandates imposed by OSHA and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS.) And…
President Biden has vowed to appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court in order to achieve more diversity among the Justices. He wants the Court to represent all Americans, and of course he wants a Justice who will be open to his political agenda. While there is certainly nothing wrong with diversity, the Supreme Court…
The Supreme Court has rebuffed, for now, the government’s OSHA vaccine mandate that would have affected 80 million American workers. While that was good news, the Court unfortunately failed to address some of the biggest problems with that mandate, and a second case decided the same day, Biden v. Missouri, approved a different mandate that…
We keep reading about new Covid vaccine mandates imposed by governments, employers, educational institutions and entertainment venues. They make no exception for people who have already had the disease, despite numerous studies showing that natural immunity from having the disease is better protection than the vaccine. What about natural immunity? Isn’t natural immunity something we…
President Trump has filed lawsuits against Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accusing them of working with the government to censor free speech. His lawsuits raise two points: The big internet platforms are violating the First Amendment by colluding with government officials to censor unapproved ideas. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is unconstitutional in granting…
Father Paul Mariani, S.J., professor at Santa Clara University, gave a fascinating talk at the Napa Institute Summer Conference on the subject of China and the Vatican. Father Mariani’s presentation centered on a 2018 “provisional accord” between China and the Vatican that was apparently designed to work toward normalizing relations and resolving issues over the…
The Napa Catholic Conference last month included a presentation on very practical ways to defend the Church’s moral teachings in a world that too often just doesn’t hear the truth. Father Robert Spitzer, S.J., President of the Magis Center for Faith and Reason, and President of the Napa Institute, started with some disturbing facts: Fewer…
The Eleventh Annual Napa Catholic Conference was held July 22-24, 2021, with an impressive lineup of Catholic speakers on the theme “All Things Made New.” The conference included Mass and a wide range of talks, including religious and spiritual topics, lots of commentary on current Church and world events, apologetics and some very practical subjects…
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor famously stated in 1983 that Roe v. Wade is “on a collision course with itself” considering ongoing advances in medical science. Roe contains the seeds of its own destruction since the Court’s basic premise, that abortions should be allowed before the baby is “viable” outside the womb, disintegrates over…
We have seen varying degrees of public hysteria since the beginning of Covid 19 and more than a little government overreach. Some of that may begin to subside now with reduced new cases and rollout of the vaccines, but with the vaccines we are also starting to see some new abuses in the form of…
Since we are responsible for the actions of those we elect, how should we vote when there is no perfect candidate? Obviously, the same way we make other prudential decisions in an imperfect world… we prioritize and weigh competing issues and considerations. This does not make us a “single issue” voter but we do have…
When the Coronavirus pandemic first hit, the Catholic Church was among some of the first organizations to “self quarantine.” Public worship was quickly shut down, including Masses and confessions. Unfortunately, as time has passed and safety procedures are being developed, little effort has been made to reopen the sacraments, even during Easter week, and even…
Much has been written about the morality of investing in the stock market, often expressed in terms of an obligation to avoid stock in companies that are engaged in immoral businesses. This can be very difficult considering the wide variety of business activities of major corporations and the diverse stock holdings in modern mutual funds,…
