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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 Recent Entries: 3708
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Should the White House defend "Targeted Killings"
Posted on September 27, 2010According to this report, "[t]he Obama administration sought Friday to block a lawsuit over the scope of its targeted killing program for suspected terrorists, in a case that challenges the government to define the limits of its global battlefield against...
School choice
Posted on September 27, 2010We regularly discuss school choice on MoJ, and in the past we've noted the tendency of political leaders who oppose school choice to choose private schools for their own kids. This morning President Obama at least was candid about his...
Pulpit Freedom Sunday
Posted on September 27, 2010Yesterday was Pulpit Freedom Sunday, the day designated to challenge IRS restrictions on political speech by churches. I'm guessing that the day went by unnoticed in most churches (especially Catholic churches), but Chuck Colson thinks that the time is right...
religion as a game show
Posted on September 27, 2010In the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, (Dei Verbum), the fathers of the Second Vatican Council taught that "insight grows into what has been handed down" (no. 8) or, as another translation has it, "there is a growth in the...
Zuckerberg's well-meaning mistake
Posted on September 27, 2010On the "Oprah" show the other day, it was announced that Mark Zuckerberg (the founder of Facebook) is going to spend $100 million to try to improve -- in partnership with Mayor Cory Booker (D) and Gov. Chris Christie (R)...
Patriarchal religion, pornography, and woman-hating at Wake Forest
Posted on September 24, 2010I just received a postcard today for a Wake Forest Law School symposium titled "Patriarchal Religion, Sexuality, and Gender." The symposium happened last week and I have no direct knowledge of what transpired, but I have a good guess as...
Farr on religious freedom, foreign policy, and security
Posted on September 24, 2010At Public Discourse, Tom Farr reminds us, again, of the importance of religious freedom -- here and abroad -- to stability, security, and peace: [T]he American experience teaches that religious liberty can be an effective way to engage religious actors...
USCCB Committee on Doctrine Statement on book by Salzman and Lawler
Posted on September 24, 2010Here is a Zenit story on the USCCB's Commitee on Doctrine's recent statement critiquing a book ("The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology") by Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler. Here is a link to the Committee on Doctrine's statement.....
The Execution in Virginia
Posted on September 24, 2010Here's a post, at America, about the execution by Virginia of Teresa Lewis. I note that Ms. Lewis was represented, at the end, by my former law-practice colleague (and Notre Dame graduate), Jim Rocap. In some of the commentary I've...
Religion and Reconciliation
Posted on September 23, 2010My friend and colleague at Notre Dame, Dan Philpott, is involved in a new, worthy project: ?The idea of reconciliation has deep roots in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other faiths,? says Philpott, associate professor of political science and peace studies,...
Ah, "change"
Posted on September 23, 2010David Mills, at First Things, calls our attention to this plea, in The Guardian, for "secularist change." Mills writes: By ?secularism,? he means a movement that ?seeks to defend the absolute freedom of religious and other belief, seeks to maximise...
Linker's proposed "religious test"
Posted on September 23, 2010In the Washington Post, Damon Linker (author of "Theocons"), proposes a "religious test" for all political candidates: Instead of attempting the impossible task of abolishing faith from the political conversation, we need a new kind of religious test for our...
Life in the bubble
Posted on September 23, 2010Since we regularly discuss the mission and function of Christian higher education on MoJ, readers might be interested in this reflection by Philip Yancey (one of my favorite writers) about his experience at bible college in the 1960s.
"A Commercial for Religious Freedom"?
Posted on September 23, 2010Anne Applebaum writes, at Slate, that the "fuss over Pope Benedict's visit to Britain was a blessing for Catholicism." I might characterize the orgy of ignorance, bile, and hate in which many revelled as a bit more than a "fuss",...
Implications of the affirming the priority of the common good
Posted on September 23, 2010I've long wanted to understand more deeply what was at issue when Jacques Maritain and Charles De Koninck famously disagreed about the nature of the common good (and the individual person's relation thereto). The recent translation, by Ralph McInerny, and...
Should Catholics support "Don't ask, Don't tell?"
Posted on September 22, 2010My understanding is that the Catholic Church opposes employment discrimination against gays and lesbians unless there is some specific reason why sexual orientation is relevant to a particular position (e.g., priests, in the Church's view). If I'm mistaken as to...
A quick and short response to Rob
Posted on September 22, 2010I would offer a quick response to Rob's hypothetical by offering these two points that should be taken into consideration when searching for the distinctions between religious faith and sexual orientation. The first consideration is the need to acknowledge that...
Elizabeth Scalia on "Why I Remain a Catholic"
Posted on September 21, 2010A beautiful, honest, and very personal reflection on her relationship with the Church. "I remain within, and love, the Catholic Church because it is a church that has lived and wrestled within the mystery of the shadow lands ever since...
Steve Smith Responds
Posted on September 21, 2010Steve Smith has responded to my posts here and here. His response was tucked away as a comment, but I thought I would reproduce it here. Here is what he says: "I thank Steve for his perceptive comments on my...
Douthat on the Pope's visit to the U.K.
Posted on September 20, 2010He writes, in today's NYT: But in turning out for their beleaguered pope, Britain?s Catholics acknowledged something essential about their faith that many of the Vatican?s critics, secular and religious alike, persistently fail to understand. They weren?t there to voice...
Archbishop Dolan's plan for New York's Catholic schools
Posted on September 20, 2010I linked, a few days ago, to Archbishop Dolan's wonderful essay in America on the importance of Catholic schools. Today, the NYT is reporting on the Archbishop's plan to "save" Catholic schools by moving away from the parish-school model (in...
Secular Discourse, Religious Discourse, and Steven Smith
Posted on September 20, 2010Last week I highly recommended (here) Steve Smith?s new book, The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse. I do, however, have some significant disagreements. Smith believes that the problems he associates with secular discourse can be remedied by opening up our public...
An open thread on the Pope's visit to Great Britain
Posted on September 20, 2010Pope Benedict has returned to Rome, after what seems to have been a successful visit to the land of St. Thomas More. More than a few of his statements, it appears, touched on matters of church-state relations, religious freedom, and...
Food for thought for bloggers and surfers
Posted on September 19, 2010Alan Jacobs (Wheaton) writes, in "The Online State of Nature": [A]s we have come to focus our attention ever more on politics and the arts of public justice, we have increasingly defined our private, familial, and communal lives in similar...
Chaput, "Catholics in the Next America"
Posted on September 19, 2010Archbishop Chaput has a worth-reading essay over at First Things, which provides a useful complement to the sometimes-too-quickly-accepted "Catholics finally made it in America after the election of Kennedy and Vatican II" narrative: . . . In the years since...
The Pope's mission to uphold human dignity
Posted on September 19, 2010This letter appeared in The Guardian (HT: First Things): We welcome His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to the UK as both head of state of the Holy See and as leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics and to the...
Catholic Colleges 20 years after Ex Corde
Posted on September 19, 2010David House has this essay, "Catholic Colleges 20 Years After 'Ex Corde'", in the Chronicle of Higher Education. He writes: Twenty years ago, Pope John Paul II issued Ex corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church), an Apostolic Constitution...
Burning the Koran as a Work of Art
Posted on September 18, 2010Pastor Terry Jones' as yet unfulfilled proposal to burn the Koran (here) continues to ripple through the culture. Earlier this week there was Justice Breyer's comments that acts like Pastor Jones' burning of the Koran might not be constitutionally protected...
More great stuff from Walker Percy
Posted on September 17, 2010Here's Walker Percy again, from an essay called "Why Are You Catholic?": "The reason I am a Catholic is that I believe that what the Catholic Church proposes is true." Works for me!
Bainbridge responds to Sen. Gregg regarding "social justice"
Posted on September 17, 2010Here is former MOJ-er Prof. Bainbridge, responding to Sen. Gregg on the issue of promoting "social justice": What's wrong with promoting social justice? The Hill: "My concern is that she would use the agency for the purpose of promoting social...
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The Justice Mills Lawyer’s Relief Act of 2007 or Multiple Avenues of Appeal of a Comprehensive Permit Still Available.
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Enlarging Time to Appeal Land Use Decisions in the Interests of Justice
In Gregory v. Borough of Avalon, the Appellate Division evaluated ...
Mirror International Prenuptial Agreements
We frequently recommend mirror prenuptial agreements for people wi...
Anna Nicole Smith's Legal Troubles
Court cases and legal issues related to Anna Nicole Smith
Personal information/online harassment?
Quit talking with people on message boards that support these activities. The se...
Is there a time limit where someone can't be convicted of a sexual crime after the child has told someone?
The statute of limitations can differ from state to state. Look into it by conta...
My children's school is falsely charging me with truancy. The local district justice works for the school in the most blatently open way. And his wife works for the district, too! They have violated private health record
I am no lawer by any means, so I would love for someone to verify what I have to...

Personal information/online harassment?
Quit talking with people on message boards that support these activities. The se...
Is there a time limit where someone can't be convicted of a sexual crime after the child has told someone?
The statute of limitations can differ from state to state. Look into it by conta...
My children's school is falsely charging me with truancy. The local district justice works for the school in the most blatently open way. And his wife works for the district, too! They have violated private health record
I am no lawer by any means, so I would love for someone to verify what I have to...








