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

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 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

In a unanimous decision, the United States Supreme Court again affirmed that government must never wield its power to chill the exercise of fundamental freedoms. In First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin, the Court permitted a faith-based ministry to challenge a state subpoena demanding disclosure of its donors, an act that threatened to silence both speech and conscience. This case raises fundamental moral and constitutional questions about the nature of freedom it