Justices Urged to Protect Religious Schools and Parental Educational Freedom November 4, 2026 The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, a consequential religious liberty case examining whether states may condition participation in publicly funded educational programs on religious schools surrendering practices rooted in their sincerely held beliefs. The Wagner Faith & Freedom Center at Spring Arbor University played an im

Commencement Address presented at Spring Arbor University 2026 A.D. by the Hon. William Wagner (Ret), WFFC Distinguished Chair for Faith & Freedom (SAU); Distinguished Professor Emeritus Listen Watch President Ellis, members of the Board of Trustees, distinguished faculty and staff, families and friends—and most especially, graduates: Congratulations. You have earned this moment. You survived examinations, clinics, research papers, presentations, deadlines, group projects— An

An Update to “Life Holds Value at Every Stage – A Canadian Horror Story” In our September 25 Waypoint article, “Life Holds Value at Every Stage – A Canadian Horror Story,” we examined the troubling consequences of Canada's expanding euthanasia regime. Through the heartbreaking account of Brigitte Stegemann, an elderly Canadian woman whose family raised serious questions about the circumstances surrounding her medically administered death, we called for a return to a fundament

The Department of Justice's newly released report provides a documentary account of federal investigations involving parents who challenged public school policies. Its findings invite a deeper examination of governmental authority, constitutional liberty, and the fundamental rights of parents. A government that fears the voices of parents has forgotten whom it serves. During my years serving as a federal prosecutor and later as a federal judge, I learned the indispensable imp

The Quiet Power to Shape What We Think While researching a constitutional issue recently, I encountered something that unsettled me. The legal question itself was difficult but not obscure. I was examining the interaction between a proposed constitutional provision, parental rights, and the protection of human life. Yet reaching a clear answer required repeated probing, careful reformulation, and persistence. Eventually, the analysis emerged. But the experience left me thinki

I lived much of my life in the great Commonwealth of Virginia, and all my children were born there. That is why Question 1, the constitutional abortion amendment on November 3’s ballot, concerns me as both a father and a constitutional scholar. Beneath its language of freedom lies a threat to children before and after birth. My children’s birth certificates recorded their arrival, not the beginning of their humanity. Their worth did not depend on being wanted. Every human bei

Fifty years ago, Congress drew a moral line. On September 30, 1976, it enacted the first Hyde Amendment, providing that federal Medicaid funds generally could not be used to pay for abortions. Congress has renewed that protection in annual appropriations ever since.1 The Hyde Amendment prevents the federal government from compelling taxpayers to finance most abortions. That distinction reflects both constitutional restraint and moral clarity. It also respects the deeply held

“They’re going to kill me?” Those words should stop us cold. According to her family, 83-year-old Brigitte Stegemann asked that question after her granddaughter explained what Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program would do. Brigitte suffered from advanced stomach cancer. She was elderly. She was vulnerable. And on July 10, 2026, a medical professional intentionally ended her life by lethal injection. Her family says Brigitte had earlier rejected physician-assisted kill

Coalition Urges Supreme Court to Protect Parents from Government Policies That Displace Their Authority Over the Care and Upbringing of Their Children SPRING ARBOR, Mich. — September 15, 2026 — The Wagner Faith & Freedom Center at Spring Arbor University today joined a major coalition of national organizations and leaders in filing an amicus curiae brief before the Supreme Court of the United States defending the fundamental constitutional right of parents to direct the care

If you follow our work here at all, good news from Nigeria has been painfully scarce. For years, the story has been one of murdered worshipers, kidnapped schoolchildren, displaced villages, intimidated converts, and a government too often unwilling, or unable, to secure justice. Against that dark background, a recent Federal High Court ruling deserves more than passing notice. It is a genuine victory for religious freedom, human dignity, and the Rule of Law. The case concerns

Reflections on Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission The American constitutional order begins with the first principle that civil government may exercise only limited power. Among the most important of those limits is that government holds no authority to define authentic religious belief or determine how citizens must express their faith. Such belong to God, and to the religious communities that seek to obey Him. Whenever the State a

Reflections on First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Davenport Every generation must decide whether liberty is an inherent right bestowed by our Creator or a privilege bestowed by government. As I've often noted, the American Founders answered that question with remarkable clarity. The Declaration of Independence proclaims that all persons “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” and that governments are instituted not to create those rights but

The Department of Justice’s newly issued guidance on religious liberty, and the legal basis for it, deserves our attention. Although it lacks the drama of a Supreme Court opinion, its practical effect may prove equally significant. The Guidance directs every federal agency to interpret and administer federal law in light of nearly a decade of Supreme Court decisions reaffirming America’s first freedom. That development reflects an abiding constitutional truth. Religious liber

Commentary on the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty Draft Report The Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty has released for public comment one of the most significant governmental studies of religious liberty in a generation. At a time when public debate often reduces religious freedom to a political slogan or a cultural grievance, the Commission’s draft report returns the discussion to something far more enduring, first principles. That alone deserves comme

The release of Pastor Ezra Jin from imprisonment in China is a welcome answer to prayer. After months of detention for faithfully shepherding an independent Christian congregation, he is once again free. We rightly rejoice with his family and with believers around the world who never ceased praying for his release. His story, though, reminds us of a deeper truth. Freedom is precious, but faithfulness is priceless. Throughout history, those who have proclaimed the Gospel of J

WORLD legal correspondent Jenny Rough reports on the Supreme Court ruling that states may reserve girls' and women's sports for females, interviewing the Hon. William Wagner, WFFC Distinguished Chair for Faith & Freedom. Listen Here https://wng.org/podcasts/a-league-of-their-own-1782942774 World News Interview

Washington D.C. — The Wagner Faith & Freedom Center at Spring Arbor University applauds today’s landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States upholding the constitutionality of laws enacted by West Virginia and Idaho preserving girls’ and women’s athletic competition for biological females. In a decisive affirmation of both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, the Court held that states may reserve female athletic teams for biological women and girls in ord

The Supreme Court just answered one of the most consequential constitutional questions of our time. In upholding the laws of West Virginia and Idaho reserving girls’ and women’s athletic teams for biological females, the Court did far more than decide who may compete in school sports. It reaffirmed a foundational principle of constitutional government. The law must remain anchored to objective reality. Congress enacted Title IX in 1972 to ensure that women and girls would enj

The measure of a free society is not how it treats popular opinions. It is how it treats the conscience of those who peacefully disagree. For more than 125 years, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have quietly cared for the dying poor. They ask nothing in return. They accept no government funding, charge no fees, and seek only the freedom to carry out Christ’s command to care for “the least of these.” Yet, New York now threatens these women with fines, loss of licensure, an

A free and democratic society has both the right and the responsibility to protect its citizens from violence, intimidation, and genuine threats. Canada’s recently enacted Combatting Hate Act (Bill C-9) seeks to address legitimate concerns about rising hate crimes and antisemitic violence. Yet in pursuing that worthy objective, Canada risks undermining one of the very liberties that distinguishes free nations from authoritarian regimes (i.e., the fundamental right to speak, b