Separation of School and State

During my last semester of law school, we read an interesting case for Corporations class, A. P. Smith Mfg. Co. vs. Barlow, 13 N.J. 145, 98 A.2d 581.  In this 1953 decision by the New Jersey supreme court, the question (basically) was whether the corporation was allowed to donate money to charity, or whether donating would be an illegal waste of the shareholders’ money.  I won’t bore you with the legal details (the court found that the corporation was allowed to make such donations), but listen to some of the testimony in the case: 

Support Arizona

You may have heard that Arizona recently passed an immigration law.*  Its critics claim several objections; according to them, among other things:

1—A state has no business dealing with the immigration problem; that’s for the federal government.
(The federal government has chosen not to enforce the border, and that should be the end of that!)

Yes, Marriage Is worth Defending

Even from a Non-Christian Perspective

“Should We Defend Marriage?”

I’m sympathetic to the libertarian argument (made by many, including many Christians) that the state should completely get out of the marriage business.  From this point of view, we can avoid all the rancorous public fights over same-sex marriage, etc. if we can all agree that it’s not the government’s business whether a given couple (or group, in the case of polygamy or “polyamory”) is “married”.

Ultimately, however, I’m inclined to disagree.  Even judging only by non-religious utilitarian criteria, I think the state should recognize—and (if only by recognizing) encourage—marriage.