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Religion & Law

Mirror of Justice

Dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.

Post Frequency: 46.4/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 15:50:36

Kudos to ACE -- Implementing the Theology of Inclusion in Catholic Schools

Posted on April 23, 2009
I've complained before about the lack of commitment by Catholic schools to educating children with special needs. Well, someone's finally doing something about it, and it appears that they are doing it very, very well! Nicole Garnett brought to my...

Law as a Means

Posted on April 23, 2009
Leslie Green has posted a new paper that should be of interest to MoJ-ers. Here's the abstract: This article defends legal instrumentalism, i.e. the thesis that law is distinguished among social institutions more by the means by which it serves...

Colorado death-penalty vote

Posted on April 23, 2009
The Colorado House of Representatives has voted -- narrowly -- to repeal the death penalty. According to this story, the person who cast the deciding vote did so on the basis of "moral appeals he had heard, including from Archbishop...

Redirecting harm through torture: the information gap

Posted on April 23, 2009
Villanova law student Casey Khan responds to Chris Eberle's post regarding torture as the distribution of harm: Prof. Eberle gives one of the most sophisticated arguments I've seen for a limited instance of justified torture. The reason the argument fails,...

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Some new blogs at First Things

Posted on April 23, 2009
"Icons and PomoCons". Looks interesting!

Torture as an interrogational method? Why?

Posted on April 23, 2009
[An op-ed in today's NYT, by Ali Soufan, who was an F.B.I. supervisory special agent from 1997 to 2005.] My Tortured Decision FOR seven years I have remained silent about the false claims magnifying the effectiveness of the so-called enhanced...

More from Chris Eberle . . .

Posted on April 23, 2009
This, from Chris: I'm not sure from Rob's response whether or not we actually disagree on principle. I articulated a non-consequentialist argument in support of the permissibility of waterboarding KSM-- fairness is distributing harms permits us to waterboard KSM if...

More from Chris Eberle, responding to Rob, re: punishment, etc.

Posted on April 22, 2009
This from Chris Eberle: Rob expresses the concern that the argument I articulated in favor of waterboarding KSM blurs the line -- unacceptably -- between interrogation and punishment. But I'm not sure about that. I don't think that waterboarding KSM....

Is culpability relevant to torture's permissibility?

Posted on April 22, 2009
Thanks to Chris Eberle for his thoughtful comment on my question about evaluating the moral permissibility of torture based on the fruits of torture. I need to think more about this, but let me offer a couple off-the-cuff reactions: First,...

Eberle on torture, etc., in response to Rob

Posted on April 22, 2009
MOJ-friend and accomplished philosopher Chris Eberle sends in this: Rob Vischer asked the following question: In response to the release of documents describing our government's interrogation practices, former Vice-President Cheney has asked the government to release documents that "lay out...

Anscombe on Hudson on torture

Posted on April 22, 2009
A reader responds to my post of Deal Hudson's (reported) application of just war theory to torture: Hudson's comment (assuming it's accurately rendered) moves (without justification) straight to application of just war criteria and altogether ignores that the prohibition on...

Fact and Fiction about the Framers and Faith

Posted on April 22, 2009
Check out this essay, "Blushing Our Way Past Historical Fact and Fiction," by Seth Tillman. Abstract: Legal academics and the public are fascinated by both constitutional text and the processes by which it is interpreted. The precise role for legal...

A wretched decision by the Ninth Circuit

Posted on April 22, 2009
A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has mangled the landmark ruling in Zelman and concluded that Arizona's (wise and wonderful) tax-credit program, in practice, could violate the Establishment Clause. Read it and weep.

Kmiec's latest

Posted on April 22, 2009
A religious-left organization called "Faith in Public Life" has released a series of quick-bites from "evangelical and Catholic leaders" who are said to "welcome" the Administration's new stem-cell-research guidelines. One of the "Catholic leaders" quoted is Doug Kmiec, who continues...

What might have been . . .

Posted on April 22, 2009
500 years ago today, Henry VIII acceded to the throne of England, which was then the most Catholic country in the world. Sigh.

Toward a just war theory . . . of torture?

Posted on April 22, 2009
I do not subscribe to the theory that torture is only torture if it leaves lasting scars. Even if I did, William Saletan explains why mental torture is still torture. Key quote: "You can't torture the mind without altering the...

Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty Issues in Connecticut

Posted on April 21, 2009
The Connecticut legislature is taking up a bill to implement the state supreme court's October 2008 decision in Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health requiring the recognition of same-sex marriage. The bill currently contains only a narrow religious-liberty exemption protecting...

Cheney's consequentialism, cont'd

Posted on April 21, 2009
I agree with Rob that the good results achieved through immoral interrogation practices -- and, I am inclined we should not kid ourselves by thinking that these practices did not yield any good results -- should not be seen as...

Cheney's twisted (but disturbingly common) moral reasoning

Posted on April 21, 2009
In response to the release of documents describing our government's interrogation practices, former Vice-President Cheney has asked the government to release documents that "lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country...

Waldron on Christian Silence on Torture

Posted on April 21, 2009
Revelations regarding the Bush administration's torture practices (e.g., waterboarding two subjects a total of 266 times) brought to mind a powerful and timely essay by Jeremy Waldron in the wonderful recent issue of Catholic University's Journal of Law, Philosophy and...

Waldron on Christian Silence and Torture?take two

Posted on April 21, 2009
I share Rob?s interest in the work of Jeremy Waldron especially on his recent essay in Volume II of the Journal of law, Philosophy and Culture regarding the putative Christian silence and torture. I am anxious to find out what...

Clarification re: "the current opposition of most people"

Posted on April 20, 2009
Nothing in my post -- in which I noted the "current opposition of most people" to same-sex marriage -- is inconsistent with Michael's observations that (a) a majority of Americans, according to some polls, anyway, support some kind of legal...

Call for Papers

Posted on April 20, 2009
CALL FOR PAPERS NOTRE DAME CENTER FOR ETHICS & CULTURE 10th ANNUAL FALL CONFERENCE The Summons of Freedom: Virtue, Sacrifice, and the Common Good November 12-14, 2009 This past November 6-8, the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture hosted...

Law-blog rankings

Posted on April 20, 2009
Prof. Paul Caron has the latest. MOJ is holding strong. Still, I can't help thinking we should be outdrawing the "Wills, Trusts, and Estates Blog" (no offense, but . . .).

Everybody is somebody

Posted on April 20, 2009
Fr. James Martin's reflections on the Susan Boyle phenomenon are very moving; well worth a read. (If you have not yet watched Ms. Boyle's performance on "Britain's Got Talent," do it. It's absolutely beautiful. As Fr. Martin put it, "[i]t...

The Times embarrasses itself -- yet again -- on religion

Posted on April 20, 2009
Here is the NYT account of Arbp. Timothy Dolan's homily at St. Patrick's this past Sunday. (I was there.) Sigh. Is this really the best the "oh so great all the smart people read it" paper can do? The homily...

A Tree Grows in Oklahoma City

Posted on April 19, 2009
Re Michael S.'s reminder of the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing: while visiting them last spring, Michael and his wife, Maria, took me to visit the site. Many things about the visit moved me, but one of most powerful...

We will never forget

Posted on April 19, 2009
those who died and those who were injured 14 years ago today in the Oklahoma City bombing and those who came to aid them.

"Shadows in Amsterdam"

Posted on April 19, 2009
Sally Thomas has written a moving and sobering essay in the May issue of First Things, well worth tracking down even if you're not a subscriber. She writes about a former neighbor of hers, a Dutchman who kept in touch...

" ... notwithstanding the current opposition of most people."

Posted on April 19, 2009
The title of this post is lifted from Rick Garnett's post earlier today. Yes, a majority currently opposes opening up "marriage" to same-sex couples. But a majority currently *supports* creating civil unions for same-sex couples: According to a 2007 Pew...

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