Many are still shocked to learn that the United States is the largest jailer in the world. Data shows that the U.S incarcerates about 2 million people annually, and that every three seconds, there is an arrest in the United States. Disturbingly, the carceral state has expanded during the global pandemic. According to the COVID-19…
I The COVID-19 pandemic recently passed the one-year mark. Despite the predictions of some health officials a year ago, the once-impossible has become reality: we have a vaccine. Actually, multiple vaccines, with over 100 million doses having been administered already. Recent polling shows that three-quarters of American adults have received or are willing to receive…
In Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo (2020), the U.S. Supreme Court held that New York’s religious-attendance restrictions “would lead to irreparable injury” to religious communities and, if enjoined or rejected, “would not harm the public interest.” While the decision largely focused on the state’s unequal treatment of religion, the Court’s brief remarks concerning harm and…
“The Right to Shun: Ghent’s Misguided Jehovah’s Witness Decision“ Matthew P. Cavedon In March, the criminal court of Ghent, Belgium fined the congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW) for “inciting discrimination and hatred or violence against former members.” The case centered on the JW practice of “disfellowshipping.” While the court’s sensitivity to the individual impact of…
First of all, let me thank David Little, Jennifer Herdt, John Milbank, Joel Harrison, Hans-Martien ten Napel, and Mark Hill for taking the time and trouble to comment on my book. The process of responding to what they have written has helped me understand my own thinking better, even when it has not led me…
Following the murder of eight people in Atlanta, six of them Asian-American women, news broke that the killer Robert Aaron Long had been expelled from his church. At first, speculation about the killer’s motives had focused on the Asian-American identity of the majority of his victims. Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, members of…
First of all, let me thank David Little, Jennifer Herdt, John Milbank, Joel Harrison, Hans-Martien ten Napel, and Mark Hill for taking the time and trouble to comment on my book. The process of responding to what they have written has helped me understand my own thinking better, even when it has not led me…
Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine for a moment that it was last term, rather than this term, when the U.S. Supreme Court heard Fulton v. Philadelphia, the case involving religious foster-care agencies who refused to place children with same-sex parents. Imagine, too, that the justices accepted the Fulton plaintiffs’ invitation to overrule Employment Division v.…
First of all, let me thank David Little, Jennifer Herdt, John Milbank, Joel Harrison, Hans-Martien ten Napel, and Mark Hill for taking the time and trouble to comment on my book What’s Wrong with Rights? (Oxford University Press, 2020). The process of responding to what they have written has helped me understand my own thinking better,…
Religiously Based Ethical Arguments Favoring Estate Taxes Susan Pace Hamill The federal estate tax imposes a tax on the wealth that individuals leave their heirs. This tax only applies to the very richest — well under half a percent — of all persons in the United States. Generous exemptions allow millions to be inherited without…