Status Updates From Mere Natural Law: Originali...

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Pp.271 - 298 Notes (read as book read)
Pp.299 - 307 Index

Ch.11 Complete
After the Overruling of Roe: The Natural Law Movement

Dobbs v. Jackson
was
less fundamental for pro-lifers
&
not as devastating as pro-abortionists feared.

"On the substantive rights or wrongs of abortion,
conservative jurisprudence had nothing to say"

"value judgments" replaced obvious NL "moral truths"

so issue back to the states to set own "value judgments"

as both sides could make return to NL

Thursday, January 29, 2026

Monday, January 26, 2026
Ch.10 Complete
The Moral Turn in Jurisprudence

A 25-page run-down of cases and arguments
that led to the SCOTUS decision of
Roe v. Wade
and the impact to NL.

Ch.9 Complete
Recasting Religious Freedom

J.Madison's "Memorial & Remonstrance against Religious Assessment" (1785)
"this right [of religious freedom] is in its nature an unalienable right"

The moral reasoning of the NL

Reynolds v US
"legitimate religion in America"
polygamy

to satisfy the non-religious, conservs backed off legit vs illegit

RFRA

NL in play when we test "justifications" for restricting freedoms

Ch.8 Complete
The Conservatives and the Lure of Defensive Relativism:
Spiraling Down

Matal v Tam (2017) The Slants

Speech may not be banned on ground it expresses ideas that offend

offense is subjective

A.Lincoln: only rightful govt depends on consent of the government

"Choosing to elect Nazis" is to legit Party that would end elections

moral relativism

Conservatives backed themselves into spiral of relativism

Ch.7 Complete
Speech and the Erosion of Relativism

One man's vulgarity another man's lyric

If moral judgments rested on mere feelings,
how could one ever have a MORAL ARGUMENT?

Our language reflects our nature as moral beings

Convoluted twists of SCOTUS decisions
of allowed/disallowed speech

pro-life
racism

Hitler: "conquest of the streets"

Heckler's Veto

"Homophobe" slur to shut down

words to incite fighing

Ch.6 Complete
On Civil Rights: Theories in Search of a Principle

"DIF between real principles & merely 'contingent propositions'"

"We cannot hold people accountable for acts they powerless to effect"

"racial discrimination denies black people as moral agents to bear responsibility for own acts"

Racial quotas betray that categorical truth by "allowing" diversity racism

No way for categorical wrong to be justified

Ch.5 Complete
Are There Natural Rights?

J.Wilson:
Constitution not to invent new rights 'by a human establishment,'
but to secure & enlarge rights we already have by nature"

Current Constitution is our 2nd (after A.ofC.)

"Burden of justification would lie w/ the law when it restricts that freedom"

Kant's categorical imperative

Our NR is... to be treated justly w/ grounds for justification for restricting freedom

Ch.4 Complete
On Aquinas and That Other First Principle of Moral Judgment

Lincoln's great argument against slavery in debate w/ Douglas

If Constitution meant owners could not be deprived of property in slaves when they entered a new territory, the people in that territory were no long free to vote slavery out."

Aquina's 1sty princ:
cannot say one has a right to do X
and
it rightful of someone else to obstruct it

Ch.3 Complete
The Ploughman and the Professor

per se nota
(true in themselves)

Law of Contradiction

"The necessary truth here is that there is indeed 'truth.'"

A.Lincoln's genius analysis against slavery

"All men created equal" creatures of reasons rightly governed only w/ reasons"

People not responsible for acts powerless to effect

The Founders also said little about alphabet
Like I say "And water is wet"

Ch.2 Complete
The Pat of Vignettes

"Law of Reason (Contradiction):
2 contradictory propositions cannot both be true

Beings who can give/understand reasons
deserve to be ruled by their consent

Animals cannot reason

Quarreling shows other right/wrong,
so we agree in right & wrong

Judges not Feelers

Not Might makes Right

"stripped of moral differences, a fireplace & arson are just dif.ways of heating a house"

Ch.1 Complete
The Natural Law Challenge

Pg3
Natural Law (NL) never missing - always been w/ us

Pg4
harms as "contingent" (degree or circumstance)
vs wrongs as "categorical" (always wrong)

Pg9
NL supplied for Founders an anchoring MORAL TRUTH about rightful & wrongful governance of humans

NL became anathema to the left, scorned by conserv

Kagan:We're all originalists now.

NL: law for normal human beings

Mere NL