JWI Presents: Anchoring Truths Podcast

Join the Anchoring Truths Podcast for a tour de force from our friend Prof. Josh Blackman. In the height of the politicization of the judicial branch, the federal courts cannot be reformed through unilateral disarmament, argues Blackman. Rather, any federal judicial reform must be bilateral. Blackman lays out a set of ten proposals for reducing the power both the Right and the Left exert through the judiciary based on a law review article he wrote earlier this year. This episode is an adapted webinar co-sponsored with the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy of First Liberty Institute.Josh Blackman is a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court. Josh’s work was quoted during two presidential impeachment trials. He has testified before Congress and advises federal and state lawmakers. Josh regularly appears on TV, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the BBC. Josh is also a frequent guest on NPR and other syndicated radio programs. He has published commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and leading national publications. Since 2012, Josh has served as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Josh is the Senior Editor of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution (3rd Edition). Josh has written more than seven dozen law review articles that have been cited more than a thousand times. Josh was selected as the Jurist of the Year by the Texas Journal of Law & Public Policy, received the inaugural Meese III Originalism Award from the Heritage Foundation, and was awarded the Inaugural Joseph Story Award. Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy. Josh is the President of the Harlan Institute and founded FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracy and tweets @JoshMBlackman.Read Blackman's article here.

In light of the tragic killing of Charlie Kirk, the culture of American Campuses and Free Speech - which Kirk fought so hard for - are more relevant than ever. Profs. Hadley Arkes & Justin Dyer share a discussion of a new way to look at free speech, its purpose, and the best way to restore its role at American Universities.Arkes Symposium ArticleDyer Symposium ArticlePlease note that this episode is marked as explicit. Due to the discussion of free speech, some words used in examples are explicit in nature.

With less than one more before the Supreme Court’s oral argument in one of the most explosive cases of this term, Trump v. Slaughter, you're encouraged to join the Anchoring Truths Podcast for a discussion of this important case over whether the President remove any Senate-confirmed commissioner of an agency he no longer wishes to have serve in that federal agency. The constitutional question in the case concerns statutory removal protections for the Federal Trade Commission—previously upheld in the Court’s landmark decision in Humphrey's Executor v. United States—and whether a federal court may prevent removal of a commissioner from public office. The stakes for this case are enormous for all three branches of the government, foremost though the executive. Is the power to remove an executive branch agency’s commissioner vested solely in the President, as it is under what’s known as the theory of the unitary executive? Or can Congress place conditions on removal that prevent such exercise of the executive’s authority?Joining us to preview the oral argument is Mark Chenoweth of the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Mark is NCLA’s President and Chief Legal Officer, and along with Margot Cleveland and Professor Philip Hamburger, the co-authors of an amicus brief in the case.Mark served as the first chief of staff to Congressman Mike Pompeo, as legal counsel to Commissioner Anne Northup at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a law clerk to the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.Mark has worked in several different roles in the private sector as well. He began his legal career in D.C. as a regulatory associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He then returned to his home state of Kansas to serve as in-house counsel for Koch Industries. Most recently he spent over four years as general counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation.Learn more about NCLA.

Professor Melissa Moschella of the University of Notre Dame joins us to discuss the contents of her recently published book titled, "Ethics, Politics, and Natural Law: Principles for Human Flourishing." A rich yet cogent articulation of New Natural Law Theory (NNLT), Moschella's work has been described as "the clearest, most readable exposition and defense of contemporary natural law theory yet to appear" by Dr. Robert George. Professor Moschella provides an overview of the ideas in her book with respect to the subject of parental rights and two recent landmark decisions currently shaping its discourse. Melissa Moschella is Professor of the Practice in Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life. Her work spans the fields of ethics, political philosophy, and law, and her areas of special expertise include natural law theory, biomedical ethics, and the family, especially parental rights. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, earned a Licentiate in Philosophy summa cum laude from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, and received her Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from Princeton University. 

Join the Anchoring Truths Podcast for an in-depth dive into the career and jurisprudential mind of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The occasion for doing so is the publication in September of Justice Barrett's new book, Listening to the Law. Anchoring Truths featured an exclusive review of the book by Michael A. Fragoso. Fragoso joins the podcast to discuss his review. Fragoso was not only a student of the justice while in law school at Notre Dame, but also one of the Senate staffers most responsible for her confirmation to the Supreme Court. He brings a fascinating and unique perspective to the path the justice has taken to the Court and the approach to judging she details in the book.Fragoso is currently Partner at Torridon LLC, the boutique law firm founded by former AG Bill Barr. Before joining Torridon, he was chief counsel to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Fragoso was the Leader’s primary legal advisor and managed the “last mile” of any legislation touching on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also repeatedly represented Leader McConnell as counsel of record at the Supreme Court. Leader McConnell said of Fragoso that he’s “equally at home in the high-minded philosophical discourse of the legal community and the urgent pragmatism of Congressional dealmaking,” and that he “maintains a firm grasp on the realm of the possible” but “knows which screws to twist.” He observed that Mike “is so exceptionally competent that he often produces from his desk the work that would normally require, literally, teams of outside counsel.”Fragoso previously was chief counsel for nominations and constitutional law for the Senate Judiciary Committee under Ranking Member Chuck Grassley and Chairman Lindsey Graham. During this time, he advised the Senators on two presidential impeachments, ran multiple policy hearings, and managed the confirmation process for over 80 federal judges, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Chairman Graham described Fragoso as “a force of nature.” He frequently comments on public affairs, and his writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.Fragoso has also served as a law clerk to Judge Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School and Princeton University.

Think back to when you were in high school or even middle school. Do you remember the history textbook you used? Perhaps that’s the problem: what passed for your reading material was so forgettable. Or if you do remember it, do you remember it being so ideologically slanted you were constantly fighting the story you were presented with? Indeed reinstating lost academic standards for excellence is an arduous task. Fortunately, a path towards academic renewal has been charted by a burgeoning reform movement of parents and educators who aspire to a higher standard for children. In recent years this coalition has made critical strides in expanding families’ freedom to choose alternatives from legacy educational models. It’s with this backdrop that we are delighted to convey that there is a fantastic new textbook series, a two volume set titled "The Golden Thread” which offers an eloquent and refreshing overview of the trajectory of the West—its unique customs of art and literature, law, philosophy, science, faith, and tolerance that have bound the people of its tradition together—from the ancient Greeks and Romans to medieval Christendom and Europe, and finally the modern world and America. And we are pleased to have one of the authors of this series, a friend of ours for many years, Prof. Allen Guelzo, on the Anchoring Truths Podcast to tell us about this fantastic new offering.Prof. Guelzo has joined the Hamilton School faculty at the University of Florida in the summer of 2025 as a Professor of Humanities. He is a New York Times best-selling author, American historian and commentator on public issues. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, most recently Robet E. Lee a Life  as well as Gettysburg: the Last Invasion and Lincoln Redeemer President. He was the Senior Research Scholar in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University and he taught for many years at Gettysburg College.

Lawyer and legal scholar Timon Cline joins the podcast to share his ambitious proposal to revisit and overturn the Supreme Court’s 1947 ruling on the Establishment Clause in Everson v. Board of Education. Drawing on his recent Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy article, "Everson Must Fall," co-authored with Josh Hammer (James Wilson '21) and Yoram Hazony, Cline explains the role that the opinion has played in misshaping our culture and a potential path to its reversal. Timon Cline is the Editor in Chief at American Reformer. He is an attorney and a fellow at the Craig Center at Westminster Theological Seminary and the Director of Scholarly Initiatives at the Hale Institute of New Saint Andrews College. His writing has appeared in Anchoring Truths, the American Spectator, Mere Orthodoxy, American Greatness, Areo Magazine, and the American Mind, among others.The episode is adapted from a webinar the James Wilson Institute hosted with the Center on Religion, Culture, and Democracy of First Liberty Institute.

Join us for this episode as Professor Robert Luther anticipates judicial nomination selection in Trump's second term. Professor Luther asks two types of questions: formally, "How will the Senate composition impact Judicial Nominations?" "How many seats will be open to fill? Will blue slips still apply for district courts?" "Will any circuit seats be moved to different states?" and substantively, "What types of judges will President Trump nominate and how will this differ from his last term?"Robert Luther, III was appointed Associate Professor of Law in 2025 at Antonin Scalia Law. He teaches and writes on the federal courts, legal and judicial ethics, political law, Congress, and professional sports. He has served at high levels in all three branches of the federal government and recently founded Constitutional Solutions PLLC—a law firm that navigates judicial candidates, judges, elected officials, professional athletes, and executives through high-stakes hearings, investigations, and reputational attacks.Immediately before joining the Scalia Law faculty, Professor Luther spent over five years in the Washington, D.C. office of Jones Day, where his practice focused on strategic counseling, crisis management, and litigation. Prior to joining Jones Day, he served as Associate Counsel to the President of the United States in the White House Counsel’s Office. In the White House, he co-managed the judicial selection process and supervised the preparation of over 150 federal judicial nominees for their successful U.S. Senate confirmation hearings. The New York Times Magazine referred to his work on judicial selection during this period as “unique in White House history.” Before joining the White House, Professor Luther served as Counsel to then–U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where he served as a core member of the team that prepared the Senator for confirmation as United States Attorney General. Professor Luther was also a law clerk to Judge Daniel A. Manion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Earlier in his career, Professor Luther practiced civil and appellate litigation at a boutique firm in Williamsburg, Va. and taught at William & Mary Law School.Professor Luther frequently speaks on the legal profession, political law, and federal judicial selection. His public work has been covered by or appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Fox News, The Hill, The Washington Examiner, National Law Journal, Law360, The Washington Reporter, and elsewhere, while his scholarship is published in the law journals of nearly twenty universities including Harvard, Georgetown, Texas, William & Mary, UC-Davis, UC Law San Francisco, Howard University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Richmond, and Marquette University. He holds active law licenses in Virginia, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and half of the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Professor Luther serves on the Advisory Board of the Wilson Center for Leadership at Hampden-Sydney College. Since 2019, over 150 of his former students have secured clerkships with federal judges.

As a loose tie in to the launch of our sister podcast, Natural Law Moment, we could not think of a better guest to have on the Anchoring Truths Podcast than Dennis Wieboldt, the author of a new article forthcoming in the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy titled "Our Natural Law Moment(s).” The article argues that in the last 100 years, American law has experienced two other Natural Law Moments before today. We explore what today’s moment, the third Natural Law Moment in Mr. Wieboldt’s view, has in common with these past ones, where it has differed, and what it has built on.Dennis Wieboldt is a J.D./Ph.D. student in history at the University of Notre Dame, where he is a Richard and Peggy Notebaert Premier Fellow at the Graduate School and Edward J. Murphy Fellow at the Law School. The first Notre Dame student to concurrently pursue a J.D./Ph.D. in history, Dennis has authored more than a dozen scholarly articles and book chapters on religious liberty, civil rights, constitutional interpretation, and related subjects.Dennis earned his B.A. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Boston College. After earning his B.A., Dennis earned an M.A. in history from Boston College.Read "Our Natural Law Moment(s)" hereFollow Dennis on Twitter/X here

Join us for this special episode featuring Judge Janice Rogers Brown (U.S. Circuit Court for D.C, ret.). Her remarks, given in 2023 as she received the James Wilson Leadership & the Law Award, comment on the need for judicial courage and fortitude, especially for those who take the Natural Law seriously.