Natural Law Moment

For this special America 250 edition of the Natural Law Moment Podcast, we turn to the Declaration of Independence and its crucial importance as the statement that founding our country as a regime rooted in the Natural Law — a foundationthat remains urgently relevant in this, our natural law moment. We mildly dip into the Supreme Court's recent decision in Trump v. Barbara in a discussion over...

Join Natural Law Moment for the next installment of a look back into the lives of our co-hosts Profs. Arkes and Bradley before they became the storied teachers they would become. This latest episode focuses on Hadley Arkes's intellectual formation at the University of Chicago in the early 1960s as a graduate student of the legendary philosopher and political scientiest Leo Strauss. Our co-host...

Join co-hosts Hadley Arkes and Gerry Bradley for the first of something we expect to become a regular feature on Natural Law Moment , a look back into the lives of Profs. Arkes and Bradley before became the storied teachers they would become. This latest episode focuses on how young Gerry Bradley was thrust into the rough and tumble world of the law as a young prosecutor in the Manhattan District...

Join Natural Law Moment’s hosts Hadley Arkes and Gerry Bradley for a pointed discussion of the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary in American public life. Since the confirmation of three Supreme Court justices appointed by President Trump, progressives have publicly questioned the legitimacy of the Court, threatening to pack it beyond nine members. Yet now even with the significant progressiv...

In the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Natural Law Moment's co-hosts Hadley Arkes and Gerry Bradley consider Kirk's legacy as an advocate for free speech. They mourn Kirk's loss as well as distill his incredible memorial service. Finally, Arkes and Bradley discuss why free speech on the campuses has gained an added relevance, given that Kirk's assassination occurred as h...

Our fifth episode represents a first for Natural Law Moment , our first featuring a guest. And we could think of no better a first guest than to welcome one of the oldest and dearest friends of Hadley Arkes and Gerry Bradley, Robert George. Robby as he is known to his friends, is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions...

Join us for this fourth episode in our new Natural Law Moment podcast! Hadley Arkes and Gerry Bradley take up the challenge of analyzing the Court's decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti , a case about a Tennessee law prohibiting sex-transition surgeries and treatments for minors. They drill down to the core question, whether these surgeries are defensible or if they are child-mutilation, a question th...

Join us for the third episode of the Natural Law Moment! In an episode recorded before the Supreme Court decided  U.S. v. Skrmetti , Professors Arkes and Bradley take up the issue of parental rights in our jurisprudence. Does deference to parental rights truly encompass a right to opt-out of regime that would regulate surgeries and therapies related to gender dysphoria for minors? The framework fo...

For the second episode of Natural Law Moment, join Professors Hadley Arkes and Gerry Bradley as they examine the current state of the Pro-Life movement in the United States. Longtime leaders in the movement, Professors Arkes and Bradley have played key roles in shaping the intellectual arguments opposing abortion. Yet now, after the Dobbs decision from 2022, the Pro-Life movement not only seems to...

Join us for the debut episode of the Natural Law Moment! In Episode 1, Professors Arkes and Bradley will discuss their efforts over the last half-century in reviving a Natural Law-basis for American Jurisprudence. In particular, they discuss how the emergence of Originalism in the latter half of the 20th century erred by embracing legal positivism and rejecting moral reasoning in jurisprudence. Li...