According to an article written last week by law professor John Yoo, Judge Amy Coney Barrett wrote earlier this year “that judges must adhere to the original public meaning of the Constitution’s text.” Her statement should give great solace to those political liberals who are worried about her Catholic beliefs regarding abortion; however, it is also exactly what will drive those same people to rage against her. She is Joe Biden’s worst nightmare in terms of a Supreme Court Justice.

Immediately upon receipt of the news that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died, wide-spread speculation erupted in regard to what her death meant for the upcoming presidential election and what the Democratic Party’s response would be if Republicans filled the vacancy prior to November’s election. Let me explain briefly why I don’t think this really changed anything at all and what our beliefs in this regard says about us.

Yesterday marked the 233rd birthday of a document signed into law on September 17, 1787, officially known as the U.S. Constitution. However, in putting the finishing touches on a new book I’ve written, I realized that even as Nietzsche said “God is dead. . . . And we have killed him,” the same could be said of the 1787 Constitution. The United States Supreme Court, with our help, killed that Constitution. But the framers planted a seed for its resurrection if we will just tend and cultivate it.

This week, President Trump threatened to cut off federal education funding to schools that use the 1619 Project. According to the Pulitzer Center, the Project “challenges us to reframe U.S. history by marking the year when the first enslaved Africans arrived on Virginia soil as our nation's foundational date.” There’s no doubt slavery in the United States has scarred our nation in many ways, but what we need is what I’d call the “1620 Project.”

I find interesting the political rhetoric coming from the presidential campaigns surrounding the “civil unrest” that is burning down some of our nation’s larger cities and destroying the properties and livelihoods of innocent persons. On the one hand, we are told that if we don’t vote for Joe Biden, the destruction will continue and worsen because it is fueled in various ways by President Trump. On the other hand, we are told that if we don’t vote for Donald Trump, the destruction will continue and worsen because Joe Biden has no courage to stand up to lawlessness. What should we make of this Hobson’s choice?

It is easy for those of us who profess to be Christians to point to Black Lives Matter, sexual-identity advocates, feminists, abortion advocates, Democrats, and Republicans in Name Only as those who are leading to our nation’s decline. However, the resignation of Liberty University’s Jerry Falwell, Jr., son of the late founder of the defunct Moral Majority, offers professing Christians like me an opportunity to refine our focus and, more specifically, to focus on how we, too, have contributed to the mess our Nation is in.

Last week, Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education released a child well-being toolkit that government officials were to use to “ensur[e] that the needs of Tennessee children are met during and after extended periods away from school.” The next day, the Governor rightly instructed the Commissioner to take it down and promised to release a “better” version. In the interim, all of us would be well-served by conducting a well-being check on our government.  

In June, the United States Supreme Court held in Bostock v. Clayton County that transgender ideology, namely, the principle that sex is not biological but a subjective mental state, was infused into the word “sex” found in Title XII of the 1964 civil rights law that applies to organizations with 15 or more employees. This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit took the next step, extending the Supreme Court’s “gender ideology” to countless public and private schools and colleges. Here are the hard questions this new decision raises.

Everybody knew the federal district court would prevent the state from enforcing the abortion law that the legislature passed on the last day of the legislative session. District courts adhere closely to U.S. Supreme Court precedent. However, it seems to me the judge’s opinion showed why the pro-life community might as well have directly challenged Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey as try to dance around them.

This week, Tennessee’s Supreme Court heard oral arguments in regard to a lawsuit in which a handful of Tennesseans alleged that Tennessee’s absentee ballot statutes violate their right to vote. As I read some of the questions the Justices asked, I obtained and read the Order of Chancellor Ellen Lyle that is being appealed. If that Order is upheld and followed, the state Constitution will no longer mean much. I really hope you’ll read this to understand what is going on.