Hale Institute

The Hale Institute at New Saint Andrews College is dedicated to the study and discussion of law in its substance, grounding, & effects on persons and community.

[Hale Institute @Hale_Institute]

Let not the law perpetuate lies.

The Supreme Court this morning published its decision in the case of West Virginia v. B.P.J., ruling in favor of state laws that forbid all men (i.e., including men who declare themselves to be women) to compete in women’s sports at schools. Unlike in the Court's opinions in the Bostock and Skrmetti cases, in which the Court majority had written of the males in these cases as if they were females ("she"), the majority opinion by Justice Kavanaugh in B.J.P. did not do so. He used only the name or initials of the men in the case, never using female pronouns for them.

In his concurring opinion in the case, Justice Thomas gives a short admonition on linguistic honesty:

"Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or girls, even if they believe that they are. Sex is an immutable 'biological' characteristic; it is binary; and 'man' and 'woman,' 'boy' and 'girl,' are the terms that correspond to adults and children of each sex. To use language to obscure reality—to show ‘indifference regarding the truth’—is to lie to the public and cease to treat our fellow citizens ‘as equal[s].’ J. Pieper, Abuse of Language—Abuse of Power 17, 21 (1992).”

[New Saint Andrews College @NewSaintAndrews]

There have been numerous efforts to remove Christianity from the public square by omitting it from American history and diminishing its voice in various institutions.

It's time to own and stand on the religion that made America.

Watch @tlloydcline on Kings & Statesmen here: https://t.co/WDwjmgf7NP

[Timon Cline @tlloydcline]

I’ve wanted to talk to Carl Richard for a long time & this week I got to on @Hale_Institute pod:

The Founders, the Classics, & the Bible https://t.co/eGLcHYLocT

[Timon Cline @tlloydcline]

Important conversation with @ilan_wurman on Trump v Barbara, birthright citizenship, and the 14th Amendment
@Hale_Institute

https://t.co/71CLIyp9Lf

[The American Mind @theammind]

“A belief that transcended denominational lines and was the one dogmatic principle all the founders shared.”

That dogmatic belief, @tlloydcline writes in his latest, is our founder's chief doctrine of providentialism. https://t.co/W5QV0zxeDv

[Greater Than Campaign @MakeKidsGreater]

Jeff Shafer, Director of the @Hale_Institute.

[New Saint Andrews College @NewSaintAndrews]

In his lecture last week for the @Hale_Institute, @scottyenor considered the Virginia Military Institute case and set forth his judgment on Justice Ginsburg’s opinion, and on what, in fact, has become of VMI in the thirty years since the Supreme Court ruling.

Watch here: https://t.co/2OYaHR8yyX

[Family Research Council @FRCdc]

"There's not a paragraph in Justice Kennedy's majority opinion that I do not wish to light on fire for a very good reason."

@Hale_Institute's Jeff Schafer discusses the Constitutional errors in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Guest host: @JodyHiceFRCA

[Hale Institute @Hale_Institute]

Watch Jeff Shafer's remarks on overturning Obergefell, here: https://t.co/gO8zqZYPBJ

[Hale Institute @Hale_Institute]

“For courts to ‘constitutionalize’ a requirement that states reduce maternity and paternity to mere biological inputs vacant of personal meaning and responsibility so that partners in same-sex relationships may be empowered to lay claim to other people’s children, upends a great deal more than the information imposed upon state birth certificates. It both topples the historic edifice of state family law and removes from public authority a vision of human nature that acknowledges the primal meaningfulness of a child being born of this mother and this father." - Jeff Shafer, NatCon 2025

Children are greater than equal.
@MakeKidsGreater

[Greater Than Campaign @MakeKidsGreater]

It’s this simple: Child needs > Adult desires

Join the #GreaterThan movement.

[Scott Yenor @scottyenor]

Conservatives interested in institutional conquest should turn their eyes to law schools. @tlloydcline discussed the blueprint with me.

[Timon Cline @tlloydcline]

Don’t miss my conversation with @scottyenor on how to reform legal higher education based on his analysis for @TomKlingenstein

https://t.co/rA2zWCh8Na

[Hale Institute @Hale_Institute]

Judicial Sex-Leveling and the Decline of VMI: A Retrospective on United States v. Virginia

Date and Time:

Thursday, January 29, 2026
7:00 pm (doors open at 6:45 pm)
Location:

Pierian Gallery
414 S. Main Street
Moscow, ID 83843

The Virginia Military Institute (VMI), with its mission to produce “citizen-soldiers,” had been an all-male institution of higher education since its founding in 1839. Over a century and a half later, in 1996, the United States Supreme Court ruled that VMI violated the Constitution by denying admission to women. Justice Ginsburg wrote the opinion for the Court explaining its judgment, in what is widely considered to be her most important majority opinion of her 27 years on the Court. That opinion provoked from Justice Scalia a memorably witty and exasperated dissent in which he critiqued the majority opinion for its disdain for our forebears, traditions, democratic process, and even the Court’s own jurisprudence.

Justice Ginsburg concluded her opinion for the Court with the assertion that “[t]here is no reason to believe that the admission of women capable of all the activities required of VMI cadets would destroy the Institute rather than enhance its capacity to serve the ‘more perfect Union.’”

In his lecture considering the VMI case, Professor Scott Yenor will set forth his own judgment on Justice Ginsburg’s opinion, and on what, in fact, has become of VMI in the thirty years since. In addition to surveying the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling, he will explore its wider impact on our law and social institutions.

*  *  *

Scott Yenor, Ph.D. is the Director of the Kenneth B. Simon Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington Fellow at The Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life, and a professor of political science at Boise State University.

Hale Institute director Jeff Shafer will offer introductory comments, followed by Professor Yenor’s lecture and engagement with audience questions.

Secure your seat, here: https://t.co/7hmPqkNUOs

[Timon Cline @tlloydcline]

Talked to Jesse Merriam this week on @Hale_Institute about the future of legal conservatism

Cc @theammind
https://t.co/hdGa86fOnn

[Jonathan McPike @JonathanMcPike]

Great listen.

Sadly, it’ll teach you more about natural law than most law schools will in three years.

[Jeremy Christiansen @TradVat2]

I had a great time chatting with @tlloydcline on the @Hale_Institute podcast. Check it out!

[Hale Institute @Hale_Institute]

Here’s the episode! Enjoy!

https://t.co/7LHpRjRkgD

[Timon Cline @tlloydcline]

On with @thomaspink1 today for @Hale_Institute podcast! Integralism, nature-grace, Suarez, law & coercion, & more on the menu. Stay tuned 🎧

[Timon Cline @tlloydcline]

It was great talking with @TradVat2 about the classical legal tradition (wanted to do it for awhile) on @Hale_Institute this week

🎧 👇

https://t.co/Ks0KczXnxd

[Hale Institute @Hale_Institute]

RT @tlloydcline: A very long review of Nathan Chapman & Michael McConnell, Agreeing to Disagree by yours truly out today @Hale_Institute…