Free Republic

Oklahoma state Rep. Forrest Bennett (D), who describes himself as a "pragmatic progressive," walked back a legislative proposal that attempted to corner pro-life advocates. Instead, pro-life advocates and conservatives agreed with the premise of the proposed legislation, while progressives sharply criticized him. What happened? Bennett announced on Twitter that he had introduced HB3129 to codify that "a father’s financial responsibility to his baby & their mom begins at conception." "If Oklahoma is going to restrict a woman’s right to choose, we sure better make sure the man involved can’t just walk away from his responsibility," Bennett declared. The bill would...

Many on the left have accused originalism of being nothing but a cover for conservatives’ preferred policy outcomes, but Vermeule’s proposal illustrates how restrained originalists have been. “The Republic” often alarms first-time readers. Not only is Plato’s dialogic style foreign to us, the character of Socrates makes bizarre and even wicked proposals as he outlines a supposed ideal polity, such as a communism not only of property, but also of wives and children. Many readers, including some philosophers, have taken Plato literally and seriously, and therefore condemned him as a proto-totalitarian. Something similar seems to have happened in response to...

In a lengthy academic paper , President Obama's regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein, argued the U.S. government should ban "conspiracy theorizing." Among the beliefs Sunstein would ban is advocating that the theory of global warming is a deliberate fraud. Sunstein also recommended the government send agents to infiltrate "extremists who supply conspiracy theories" to disrupt the efforts of the "extremists" to propagate their theories. In a 2008 Harvard law paper, "Conspiracy Theories," Sunstein and co-author Adrian Vermeule, a Harvard law professor, ask, "What can government do about conspiracy theories?" "We can readily imagine a series of possible responses. (1) Government might...