The Islamic Republic of Iran presents a sustained and multifaceted national security threat to the United States. That threat is not confined to a single weapon system or a single battlefield. It includes Iran’s nuclear ambitions and missile capabilities, its support for proxy forces across the Middle East, its direct and indirect threats to U.S. personnel and installations, and its willingness to engage in regional escalation to achieve strategic ends. Recent reports of coor

In the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 32, Jesus tells his disciples, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  This is no casual remark. It is a foundational claim about the nature of freedom itself — that liberty is inseparable from truth. President Ronald Reagan, a statesman who grasped the religious roots of American liberty, once said, “Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.”  Both Scripture and

The President's Executive Order Confronting the Cuban Threat The President of the United States recently issued an Executive Order Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba . This Executive Order declares that the policies and actions of the Cuban government constitute an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and foreign policy and, accordingly, declares a national emergency to confront that threat. It authorizes the establish

Separation of Powers, Sovereignty, and National Security   Abstract At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a growing movement in American legal thought urged courts to align constitutional interpretation with evolving international norms. Foreign judicial decisions, international declarations, and global “consensus” were increasingly cited in domestic adjudication. Some federal courts expanded the use of customary international law as a source of enforceable federal cl

The Constitutional Doctrine of Standing in the Context of Parental Rights Across our nation, a quiet but profound constitutional conflict is unfolding. It is not confined to distant federal agencies or obscure regulatory codes. It is happening in families. In living rooms. In conversations between mothers and daughters, fathers and sons. It is unfolding in the deeply personal, often painful moments when parents seek to guide their children through adolescence, identity strugg

A Rebuttal to the Leftist Report, In Harm’s Way —  Exposing the Flaws in Research, Law, and Logic Behind the Call to Repeal Michigan’s Parental Consent Statute In recent years, Michigan has emerged as a focal point of a national effort to dismantle long-standing parental involvement requirements in abortion law. This article offers a comprehensive rebuttal to In Harm’s Way : How Michigan’s Forced Parental Consent for Abortion Law Hurts Young People, a report published by the

Clergy content casting Mary as the “main character” of the Christmas story, infers she possessed the power to abort Jesus. This recast provides a revealing case study of a broader theological and jurisprudential shift. Drawing on constitutional theory, natural law, Christian theology, and historical precedent, the Article argues that such framing reflects the ascendancy of a secular progressive humanist worldview grounded in radical personal autonomy rather than unalienable r

In December 2025, the White House released its National Security Strategy (NSS) , a document that does more than outline foreign-policy priorities—it signals a fundamental rethinking of the purpose of American power. Departing from decades of globalist assumptions, the Strategy rejects the notion that the United States exists to manage the world’s problems and instead reasserts a more traditional understanding of national security as the protection of a sovereign republic, it

By the Hon. William Wagner (Ret.) Executive summary Nigeria stands at a crossroads between social collapse and constitutional renewal. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), in its statement “Peace in Nigeria: Moving from Fragility to Stability,” offers an urgent, morally lucid, and legally grounded diagnosis of Nigeria’s spiraling insecurity and repression. The instant Issue Brief amplifies this warning and calls the international community to attend to it. This

By Hon. William Wagner (Ret) WFFC Distinguished Chair for Faith & Freedom, Spring Arbor University Executive Summary Violent attacks and hate crimes against Christians in Europe rose sharply in 2024, according to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC) —data first brought to international attention through reporting by The Christian Post. While the total number of incidents decreased slightly from the previous year, the severity

By the Hon. William Wagner (Ret.) WFFC Distinguished Chair for Faith & Freedom, Spring Arbor University Abstract This Issue Brief contends that Federal involvement in education rests on unstable constitutional ground and that renewed efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (ED) highlight, rather than resolve, deep structural questions about federalism, ordered liberty, and religious freedom. Drawing on constitutional text, original meaning, historical practice,

The Michigan Department of Education’s most recent revision of the Health Education Standards represents not merely administrative fine-tuning, but a wholesale ideological shift in the purpose and scope of health instruction in Michigan schools. The Board voted to approve the updated health-education/sex-education standards on Thursday, November 13, 2025. The magnitude and nature of these changes raise profound constitutional concerns—particularly regarding parental rights, l

Executive Summary   Some athletes claim legal protection for new classifications flowing from fluid gender identity formulations, rather than objective biological science showing sex as immutable. When this contemporary cultural clash challenged the advancement of fairness for women in sports, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) sought a just resolution.   An NAIA Task Force conducted a two-year study under the direction of the Council of Presidents.

Judicially active writing—what some call organic jurisprudence—erodes the Rule of Law by empowering judges to abandon their limited duty of applying the Constitution and laws, and instead to usurp the policymaking authority reserved to the elected Executive and Legislative branches. When lawyers encourage courts to create conclusions not textually grounded in statutory law or the Constitution, they bypass the democratic process and enable judges to substitute unprincipled jud

A proposal for a new Executive Order would require states to adopt free-market education policies as a condition of receiving federal funds is a decisive step toward empowering parents, protecting religious liberty, and ensuring educational excellence across the nation. At the heart of this proposed order is a simple principle: parents, not bureaucracies, should control education dollars. By mandating that state appropriations follow the child in the form of vouchers or educa

Governments increasingly infringe on parents' liberty to direct and control the upbringing of their children. Does the Constitution limit the exercise of government power in this area. Can government school officials, for example, secretly participate in the social gender transitioning of a child without notifying the child's parents? Fundamental Liberty, Strict Scrutiny, and the Deeply Rooted Legal History and Tradition of a Parent's Right to Direct and Control the Upbrin

Conversation censorship laws regulating professions (e.g., lawyers, physicians, pharmacists, counselors, etc) substantially interfere with a Christian person's religious identity and expressive exercise of their religious conscience. WFFC's latest White Paper focuses on Colorado's conversation censorship law that regulates counselors licensed by the State.  Under the law, the State of Colorado deliberately requires a Christian person to renounce her religious expression, cons

April 21, 2025 — Denver, Colorado — William Wagner presented testimony to the Colorado House of Representatives concerning a constitutional amendment recognizing the inalienable right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children. “The deeply rooted historical and legal traditions of this nation recognize what every parent knows the moment they hold their child for the first time …  It has been given to them the duty, responsibility, and right to

Presented by Prof. William Wagner to International Christian Professors 9 April 2025 Good morning, colleagues.  We come from over twenty nations with very different cultures, yet we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a distinct honor share this message with you today. As a fellow Christian and former judge, I stand before you not just with legal experience, but with a shared reverence for the One who authored both law and liberty. The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Cor

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with chi