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Articles by Mark Hall
What Does "History and Tradition" Require?
The Liberty Counsel stages a live nativity scene outside... more October 13, 2026 The Court’s shift from Lemon to history and tradition raises a new set of interpretative challenges. United States Supreme Court justices have long insisted that the Establishment Clause must be understood in light of its “generating history.” In 1971, a majority of them adopted an analytical test, known as the Lemon Test, that was purportedly grounded in this history.
Accuracy in Media Articles
The goal of THE THINKING CONSERVATIVE is to help us educate ourselves on conservative topics of importance to our freedom and our pursuit of happiness. We do this by sharing conservative opinions on all kinds of subjects, from all types of people, and all kinds of media, in a way that will challenge our perceptions and help us to make educated choices.
Save the Last Branch for Me
Sarah Isgur’s Last Branch Standing argues that the Supreme Court is the last legitimate part of the Founders’ Constitution, the only one operating per the original design. She fears, though, that it might not be able to survive the rising tide of populism. Congress no longer legislates, and presidents have filled that void with rule-by-pen-and-phone executive orders. An increasingly polarized electorate has come to rely on the Supreme Court to defend its view of the rule of law.
The Declaration’s Promise and Peril at 250
On July 4, 2026, the United States will turn 250 years old. Some curmudgeons will object that America did not become an independent nation until the Treaty of Paris was ratified by the Confederation Congress on January 14, 1784, or by King George on April 9, 1784. Others will point out that the Declaration resulted in thirteen independent states; that the United States did not really become a country until the Constitution was ratified on June 21, 1788. These voices will be a minority.
Religious Freedom and the Founding – Mark David Hall
Since Everson v. Board of Education (1947), justices have interpreted the Establishment Clause in light of its “generating history.” Those favoring “a high and impregnable” wall of separation between church and state have focused on the words and deeds of two founders: Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
In this episode, we sit down with Mark David Hall, a Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Politics and Faculty Fellow in the Honors Program at George Fox University. In addition to his academic work, he is also the author of an array of books that demonstrate how religion and politics are interconnected with American life.
Democratic Efficacy and the Unitary Executive – James R. Rogers
The central normative claim for the unitary executive is an irony. It claims that expanding presidential authority over the entire executive branch enhances rather than diminishes the system of checks and balances established in the US Constitution.
The Danger of AI’s Soft Landing – Charles T. Rubin
I appreciate the attention given to my article by my interlocutors. I regret that the skeptical and anti-utopian thrust of my original essay was not clearer to them, Rachel Lomasky in particular. The last words of James Pethokoukis’s essay will serve as a good way to start clarifying. Although he concedes that there is a dystopian streak in the thought of some of the most enthusiastic promoters of AI, he denies that their vision will wholly guide the development of this technology.
Pierce at 100 – Mark David Hall & Ernie Walton
May 30, 2025 A century ago, the Court recognized the essential right of parents to direct the education of their children. This weekend marks the hundredth anniversary of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, a decision that should be celebrated by everyone committed to liberty and limited government. In this ruling, the Supreme Court declared there to be an unenumerated but judicially enforceable constitutional right for parents to “direct the upbringing and education” of their children.
Scrutinizing Christian Nationalism – Law & Liberty - Mark David Hall, Miles Smith IV & Daniel K. Williams
“Christian Nationalism” splashes across headlines regularly. But there is no clear definition of it. Is it just an epithet? A concept used for partisan manipulation? A real trend in socio-religious thought in America? Mark David Hall, Miles Smith IV, and Daniel K. Williams offer different definitions, consider which ideas might be lumped into the category, and debate how it relates to American pluralism, historical Protestant political ideas, and contemporary populism.
Was the Founding Generation "Churched"? – Mark David Hall
George Hawley is one of the best students of contemporary political conservativism and the Alt-Right. His recent Law & Liberty piece on American Christian nationalism does not disappoint.
The Christian Nationalist Panic – Jesse Smith
A moderately informed observer of American politics in the 2020s might be forgiven for perceiving Christian nationalism to be an imminent and existential threat to our political order.
Alberta is doing a good job managing grizzly bears
By Mark Hall Op-Ed Commentary Alberta has a science-based grizzly bear recovery strategy and conflict response plan. The conflict response plan emphasizes mitigation and prevention. This plan has a series of response matrices that guide wildlife officials on what to do with bears with a pattern of escalating conflict history or offensive behavior towards people. The matrices include aspects of grizzly bear biology that are linked to their conservation.
Good Deeds Unpunished – Adam J. MacLeod & Mark David Hall
On March 8, 2022, police officers in Bullhead City, Arizona, arrested Norma Thornton for serving home-cooked meals in a park near her home. The city charged her with violating an ordinance that essentially prohibits anyone from sharing food on public property for charitable purposes. Under that ordinance, individuals may share food on public property for any purpose whatsoever, so long as their motivations are not charitable or they are charging money. Thornton was not trying to profit in any way.
Religious Liberty in the States – Mark David Hall & Paul Mueller
When Americans think about religious liberty, our minds naturally turn to the protections offered by the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This amendment, and related federal legislation, offer important protections, but there are numerous areas in which states are free to protect, or not protect, religious liberty.
How about actually teaching them?
The Ten Commandments have long been understood as articulating central religious and moral duties accepted by almost everyone (at least until recently) in western civilization. They are also considered a core foundation of western jurisprudence. One would think that even an ardent atheist wouldn’t object to students being exposed to, and even perhaps even being taught about, this important text.
1776: The Year That Changed Everything
According to Ron Swanson, the gruff libertarian of the TV show Parks and Recreation, “History began on July 4, 1776. Everything else was a mistake.” Andrew Wilson partially agrees, although he focuses on the year rather than the day: “The big idea of this book is that 1776, more than any other year in the last millennium, is the year that made us who we are.”Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian Westis a sweeping book with a strong thesis.
James Wilson and the New Nation
Wilson was born in Carskerdo, Scotland, in 1742. He received a solid classical education that enabled him to win a scholarship to the University of St. Andrews. Wilson studied there for four years before apprenticing briefly as an attorney and then attending the University of Glasgow where he may have heard lectures by Adam Smith and Thomas Reid.
Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American New Republic
Roger Sherman was born in Stoughton, Massachusetts in 1721. Shortly after the death of his father in 1741, he moved to New Milford, Connecticut, where he worked as a cobbler, surveyor, and store owner. Sherman never went to college, but he was a voracious reader. He taught himself advanced mathematics and, in 1750, he began publishing a popular almanac which was issued annually or biannually until 1761. Sherman later studied law and was admitted to the Litchfield bar in 1754.
Evaluating Religious Liberty in the States – Mark David Hall & Jordan J. Ballor
Religious liberty was so important to America’s founders that they often referred to it as a “.” Virtually all state constitutions adopted after America’s break from Great Britain contained provisions protecting this freedom, but the federal constitution of 1787 did not.
Europe's Post-Religious Right – - Mark David Hall
Religious nationalism threatens liberal democracy around the world, at least according to many critics. Its leaders are said to include India’s Narendra Modi, Hungary’s Victor Orbán, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Brazil’s Jair Messias Bolsonaro, and America’s Donald Trump.
A Land of Faith and Liberty – - James Bruce
Mark David Hall’s Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land: How Christianity Has Advanced Freedom and Equality for All Americans delivers on its subtitle by exploring the role Christians have played in advancing freedom and equality for all Americans, even for those Americans who despise Christianity. Hall does not focus on whether Christianity should support freedom and equality in theory or whether they say they do so.
America’s Founders and Natural Law – - Mark David Hall
Some conservatives lament—and many progressives celebrate—the myth that America’s founders were deists, theistic rationalists, or even atheists who were influenced by modern, secular ideas.
Pope Benedict’s Parting Challenge – Donald Devine
With all that has been said about the passing of Pope Benedict XVI, most of it neglects the larger historical context—his prediction of the end of our era and his vision for the one to follow it. One must begin back in the decade following the horrors of World War I in April 1917.
Israel's Illiberal Judiciary – Ronen Shoval
Israel’s public discourse has been especially turbulent of late, so much so that its shockwaves have reached overseas. November’s election brought a right-wing coalition into power, and the resulting conservative policies that it proposes have all been hysterically described by Israeli and international progressives as nothing less than a mortal threat to the nation’s democratic foundations.
Servile Sciences – Auguste Meyrat
Among the many slogans adopted during Covid pandemic, one that was constantly repeated was “Trust the experts.” The models could’ve been way off, the numbers of cases and deaths completely distorted and misleading, and the remedies for slowing the spread and treating the virus totally counterproductive, but it was important to trust the experts all the same. Undermining the experts could result in people dying.
To See Ourselves as Others See Us – - Helen Dale
When a review copy of Konstantin Kisin’s An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the Westlanded on my doormat late last year, Kisin was one half (with Francis Foster) of a popular but geographically constrained chat-show, Triggernometry, and very much a neophyte writer. Love Letter is his first book.
Freedom from Public Education – - Henry T. Edmondson III
Charles Dickens’s famous opening passage in A Tale of Two Cities might apply to US education policy today. For that reason, Neal P.
Supreme Failures from the Court – Matthew J. Franck & Mark David Hall
It should come as no surprise that many conservative legal thinkers consider Roe v. Wade to be among the worst decisions ever handed down by the Supreme Court. The fiftieth anniversary of Roe is also the first since it was overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. But many terrible decisions remain. The anniversary prompted us to ask: What are the worst of the worst?
Are all persons created equal?
The 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade is a good time to take a step back and ask which of the 25,000-plus majority opinions issued by Supreme Court justices are among the worst. To answer this question, we surveyed more than 100 leading self-identified conservative and libertarian legal scholars. Although the 50 who responded disagreed among themselves, there was widespread agreement that the worst opinions denied the full humanity of others. By far and away, Dred Scott v.
Black Humor from the Emerald Isle – Gage Klipper
Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin is a film long in the making, having been scrapped, rewritten, and delayed numerous times over the course of McDonagh’s three-decade career. Originally written for the stage, it stands as the final sequence of his Aran Island Trilogy, which examines the loneliness, brutality, and absurdity of rural Irish life.
Woman, Defined - Rachel Lu
Now that 2022 is officially in the books, we can formally enshrine it as “the year when Americans decided they didn’t know what a woman was.” Dictionary.com has by selecting “woman” as their Word of the Year. The announcement was accompanied by some hilarious commentary, which made clear that the dictionary people were calling attention to the word partly to emphasize that they don’t know what it means.
The Big Tech Panic Attack – Jessica Melugin
Traditionally, conservatives look to free markets to provide for human needs. They place a great deal of trust in decentralized knowledge, private property, and the incentives for profit. Those on the left typically put more faith in experts and their centralized government solutions.
Stephen Wolfe's Gift - American Reformer
The Case for Patriarchal Christian Localism According to the sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry, American Christian nationalism “idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life” and “includes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism.” Using questionable measures, they conclude that 51.9% of Americans fully or partially embrace the phenomenon.
The 500-Year-Old Case for Christian Nationalism
Between 2006 and 2022, “Christian nationalism” was primarily used by critics to describe Americans who conflate God and country and who are racist, sexist, and, generally, deplorable. So, of course, combative Christians including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Douglas Wilson, and Andrew Torba decided to embrace the label in 2022. They have now been joined by a provocative scholar who purports to make the case for Christian nationalism.
American Crusade: Christianity, Warfare, and National Identity, 1860-1920
Americans are a religious people and, historically, we have been a Christian people (today, identify themselves as Christians). When the nation goes to war, it should come as no surprise that civic leaders regularly call upon God’s help. These pleas do not always assume American righteousness.
Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American New Republic
In 1777, John Adams described Connecticut’s Roger Sherman as “that old Puritan, as honest as an angel, and as firm in the cause of American Independence as Mt. Atlas.” Late in life, Patrick Henry remarked that Sherman and George Mason were “the greatest statesmen he ever knew.” Thomas Jefferson, who was often at odds with both Adams and Henry, shared their admiration for Sherman.
The End(s) of American Civil Religion – - Mark David Hall
I have spent my entire professional career writing and teaching about the relationship between religion, politics, and law in the American context. I’ve dutifully taught about American civil religion (ACR), although I’ve always found the concept a bit murky.
A Crusader Court? – - Mark David Hall
In Andrew Seidel’s telling of the tale, Supreme Court justices used to recognize that religious liberty primarily means the freedom to believe, build walls of separation between church and state, and find unenumerated rights to privacy and abortion hiding in the penumbras formed by emanations of the Bill of Rights.
"Life-Giving Reproof" – Paul D. Miller
In his review of my book, Mark David Hall has mounted an impressive argument against the idea that Christian nationalism is an “existential threat” to American democracy. Indeed, I am so persuaded that I would repent, retract what I wrote, and recall my book for its fallacious argument—if I had ever written such a thing. I never argued that Christian nationalism presents an “existential threat.” The phrase does not occur in my book.
Rights and Liberty in the Western Legal Tradition
Far too many accounts of Western intellectual history claim that natural rights were largely unknown until brilliant Enlightenment thinkers discovered them. Christians, it is commonly asserted, opposed these rights, especially the freedom of conscience. John Witte, Jr. tells a very different tale in The Blessings of Liberty: Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the Western Legal Tradition.
Common Law and Natural Law in America: From the Puritans to the Legal Realists.By Andrew Forsyth. Pp. 156. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. $116.00 (cloth); $29.99 (paper); $88.00 (digital). ISBN: 9781108476973. | Journal of Law and Religi
For the past hundred years, many Americans have thought of laws primarily as statutes passed by legislatures. As Andrew Forsyth demonstrates in his wonderful book, Common Law and Natural Law in America: From the Puritans to the Legal Realists, this has not always been the case. For most of this nation’s history, students and practitioners of law have been interested in the natural law and the common law, both of which were understood to be grounded in Christianity.
Robespierre and Us – - Daniel J. Mahoney Original
Maximilien Robespierre is far from yesterday’s news.
Christian Nationalism: An Existential Threat? – - Mark David Hall
Almost no one was concerned about Christian nationalism in America before 2006. Since then, there has been a constant stream of books warning of its dangers.
James Wilson and the New Nation
In 2007, Gary L. Gregg and I asked more than one hundred history, politics, and law professors who was the most important but forgotten of all American founders. There was widespread agreement that this honor, if it can be called an honor to be a forgotten founder, belongs to James Wilson. Wilson was born in Carskerdo, Scotland, in 1742. He received a solid classical education that enabled him to win a scholarship to the University of St. Andrews.
Revisiting the Sage of Monticello – - Mark David Hall
In November of 2021, a statue of Thomas Jefferson was removed from City Hall in New York City. It had been in the building for 187 years. Jefferson-Jackson dinners used to be key fundraising dinners for the Democratic Party. No longer. We have yet to see if Jefferson’s image will remain on the nickel and two-dollar bill.
Right and Wrong Ways to Reform the University – John O. McGinnis
Universities have played an essential role in modern liberal market democracies. First, they increase the human capital of students, raising the productivity of the entire society. Second, they incubate innovation, as science professors make new discoveries and engineering professors teach students how to apply these discoveries to novel technologies for improving human life. Most importantly, however, universities model epistemic liberalism.
There Was Never Any First Amendment Wall – - Mark David Hall
Randall Balmer is troubled. The John Phillips Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College fears that the “First Amendment, with its insistence on the separation of church and state, religion and politics, is under attack as never before.” Balmer’s recent book, Solemn Reverence: The Separation of Church and State in American Life, aims to shore up the “wall of separation” that he believes has served America well.
Taiwan Is Not Ukraine – Zack Yost
In the days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, scarcely a news segment went by without someone mentioning what this invasion means for the future of Taiwan. The usual line of argument was that Russia was only able to invade because of America’s weakness and that China will now feel emboldened to attack and conquer Taiwan, possibly at any moment.
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