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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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What's "borderline despicable" ... or just plain despicable? This is.
Posted on June 14, 2010A new low in our politics? Or would it be naive to think that? Read about it here.
Who's "Chosen"? Jews? Americans? Catholics?
Posted on June 14, 2010Sightings 6/14/10 Chosen People -- Martin E. Marty The grand theological themes don?t fade or disappear from headlines or prime time. ?Being chosen,? as in the case of biblical or modern Israel, is the grand theological theme today. My clippings...
Legal Ethics and Moral Character
Posted on June 14, 2010I highly recommend a new paper, Legal Ethics and Moral Character, by Brad Wendel and Alice Woolley. Legal ethics discourse is traditionally focused on coming up with a theory that explains and justifies the lawyer's role; Wendel and Woolley ask...
"In Memo, Kagan Took Broad View of Religious Freedom"
Posted on June 11, 2010"WASHINGTON ? As a young White House lawyer, Elena Kagan wrote that it was ?quite outrageous? for the government to force a landlord to rent an apartment to an unwed couple if doing so violated the landlord?s religious beliefs against...
Quote of the day
Posted on June 10, 2010I just ran across this quote from Richard Rorty: I do not think that Christian theism is irrational. I entirely agree . . . that it is no more irrational than atheism. Irrationality is not the question but rather, desirability....
Dear Rob, about that Rorty quote:
Posted on June 10, 2010Given his conception of rationality, Rorty wouldn't say that, e.g., creation science is irrational either. So for Rorty to say what he did about Christian theism shouldn't be misconstrued as a compliment to Christian theism. By the way, what *is*...
Bess on Building
Posted on June 09, 2010The "urbanist" work of my friend and colleague Philip Bess is well known, I suspect, to most longtime MOJ readers. Here, thanks to Public Discourse, is an adaptation of his recent speech, "Toward a Renewed Culture of Building": [E]ven modern...
Because it's summer . . .
Posted on June 09, 2010. . . here's The Onion's take on Peter Singer's question.
Hauerwas (and Sandel) on Singer's Question
Posted on June 09, 2010Stanley Hauerwas provided what I think is the best response to Peter Singer?s question in an article he wrote back in 1977, called ?Having and Learning to Care for Retarded Children.? [Which you can find in a great collection edited...
Must Knowledge Be Secular?
Posted on June 08, 2010This week I'm participating in a St. Thomas faculty seminar titled, "Must Knowledge Be Secular?" The seminar is being led by Notre Dame history prof Brad Gregory, and Brad is using it to try out portions of his forthcoming book,...
"breathing space" as CSD's way around/through the pervasive false dilemma
Posted on June 08, 2010A very perceptive person I was talking with today opined that most Americans oscillate between bald individualism, on the one hand, and totalitarianism, on the other, leaving little (or only awkward) conceptual room for what Catholic social doctrine prizes in...
No Cheers for Hedgehogs
Posted on June 07, 2010Ronald Dworkin has a book forthcoming later this year, Justice for Hedgehogs, but there is already a symposium in the Boston University Law Review discussing it with a response by Dworkin. I have always been attracted to the main lines...
Heinrich Rommen
Posted on June 07, 2010As I was recently paging through my copy of Heinrich Rommen?s The Natural Law, I came across this passage of his: When little or no respect any longer exists for any authority; when marriage generally ceases to be differentiated from...
"At Any Cost: Heroic Measures to Saves Lives"
Posted on June 07, 2010Some time ago my sister, Angela, sent me her essay "At Any Cost: Heroic Measures to Save Lives." Although written after the Haiti earthquate and well before Peter Singer's recent op-ed titled "Should This Be the Last Generation?," I think...
Capital Punishment, Revisited
Posted on June 07, 2010Interesting post by Lisa Fullam, with comments, over at dotCommonweal.
From Ayn Rand to Glenn Beck
Posted on June 07, 2010"Nietzsche, the child of a Lutheran pastor, radicalized this argument, painting all of Christianity?indeed all of Western religion, going back to Judaism?as a slave morality, the psychic revolt of the lower orders against their betters. Before there was religion or...
God (as mediated by Julian of Norwich) to Peter Singer
Posted on June 07, 2010"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."
If I understand Rick's response correctly,
Posted on June 06, 2010Rick's position is simple and unconditional--simple because unconditional. By contrast, I agree with Goldsworthy and Kay. Which means that my position is not unconditional--and, therefore, not simple. Maybe Rick and I will get to clarify our respective positions, by talking...
Wading into Michael's "deep waters"
Posted on June 06, 2010Thanks to Michael for his recent post, in which he asks us to consider two hypotheticals in light of Jeffrey Goldsworthy's claim that "[j]udges may sometimes be morally justified in lying about what they are doing, but in a democratic...
O'Neill on "Religion and the Judiciary"
Posted on June 06, 2010This post, "Religion and the Judiciary" -- about the relevance of judges' religious faith -- from the "U.K. Supreme Court blog"("SCOTUK?"), by MOJ-friend Aidan O'Neill, is worthy reading and thinking about. (Among other things, the post is a reminder that...
Deep waters, revisited
Posted on June 06, 2010[Some notes from my comments to the judges at the Second Circuit Judicial Conference: notes, it bears emphasis, intended to engender discussion and not to answer the question posed. I am happy to report that the discussion was thoughtful and...
Americans' evolving views of homosexuality
Posted on June 06, 2010NYT, June 4, 2010 Charles M. Blow, "Gay? Whatever, Dude" Last week, while many of us were distracted by the oil belching forth from the gulf floor and the president?s ham-handed attempts to demonstrate that he was sufficiently engaged and...
Peter Singer: "Should This Be the Last Generation?"
Posted on June 06, 2010The Stone Should This Be the Last Generation? On the moral calculus of bringing a child into the world.
Constitutional/constitutive deceit?
Posted on June 06, 2010Many good answers to questions that properly arise in the face of the dilemma -- which I regard to be false -- of judges either *making it up* or *looking it up* can be found in Jeff Powell's Constitutional Conscience:...
Justice Souter?s Commencement Address at Harvard University
Posted on June 05, 2010On May 27, Justice Souter, who retired from the Supreme Court for about a year ago, delivered a commencement address [Here] at his alma mater Harvard University. The New York Times praised his address in an editorial [Here] today, and...
Sister of Mercy Margaret McBride
Posted on June 05, 2010[From the current issue of The Tablet:] Sister of mercy Michael Sean Winters Catholics in America are divided over the formal excommunication of a nun who authorised an abortion to save a mother?s life. It is the latest case to...
Discrimination Against Gays and Lesbians
Posted on June 04, 2010Note: this post was prepared for religiousleftlaw.com (thus the focus on the left), but it should be of interest here Chip Lupu and Robert Tuttle were recently interviewed in the Pew Forum about the class of cases involving discrimination against...
Catholics in Political Life Today
Posted on June 04, 2010Last night Loyola University Chicago School of Law was proud to host a panel discussion entitled ?Catholics in Political Life Today: Partisan Politics and Religious Identity.? The event, which was co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, featured Melinda Henneberger, editor-in-chief...
Don S. Browning, R.I.P.
Posted on June 04, 2010The brilliant Christian sociologist, Don Browning, who was a dear friend and mentor to many of us here at MOJ, passed away during the night of June 3. R.I.P.
A question for Eduardo about discrimination
Posted on June 04, 2010In his recent post, regarding the bishops' opposition to ENDA, Eduardo writes: [The question is] precisely what sort of discrimination the bishops believe to be ?unjust.? The letter doesn?t say, but it would be nice to know what they think....
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The Justice Mills Lawyer’s Relief Act of 2007 or Multiple Avenues of Appeal of a Comprehensive Permit Still Available.
Topics: Administrative Appeal; Zoning Appeal; Mootness; Housing Ap...
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...








