About Allen Porter Mendenhall

Allen Mendenhall is Associate Dean at Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, Executive Director of the Blackstone & Burke Center for Law & Liberty, and the author of Literature and Liberty.

What Austrian Economists Can Learn From Roger Scruton

By |2020-05-10T20:31:17-05:00May 10th, 2020|Categories: Economics, Ludwig von Mises, Roger Scruton|

There can be no freedom absent some authority. Conservatives and libertarians alike may locate that authority in mediating institutions of modest size, recognizing the importance of consent and localism, family and place, to good government. Sir Roger Scruton’s example shows that certain conservative cultural conditions enable market-based economies to flourish. The room is alive with [...]

Brett Kavanaugh and Originalism

By |2018-10-09T15:53:15-05:00October 9th, 2018|Categories: Congress, Justice, Political Philosophy, Politics, Supreme Court|

Even before the spectacle of Christine Balsey Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the hearing for President Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, was characterized not by political acumen, wit, cunning, or prudence, but by partisan obstruction, lawlessness, tantrums, hysteria, ignorance, frenzy, and anger. Protestors screamed vulgarities and trite slogans, proving [...]

The Abuse of the Fourteenth Amendment

By |2020-07-08T17:01:02-05:00July 30th, 2017|Categories: American Republic, Constitution, Equality, Featured, Rule of Law, Timeless Essays|

The federal judiciary is often the most dangerous branch precisely because it is considered to be the least dangerous one.  Libertarians and conservatives have never achieved widespread consensus regarding issues of federalism in American jurisprudence. The gridlock has to do with competing ideas about the proper role of the federal judiciary in protecting and preserving [...]

Is the Rule of Law in Danger?

By |2020-09-25T00:15:48-05:00May 29th, 2017|Categories: American Republic, Donald Trump, Friedrich Hayek, History, Politics, Rule of Law|

Having flouted and subverted the rule of law for decades, the radical elements of the progressive left in the United States now face the inevitable consequence of their concerted activity. “Donald Trump Could Threaten U.S. Rule of Law, Scholars Say.” So declared an ominous headline in the New York Times during the Republican primary campaign of [...]

The Sad Career of Justice Stephen Breyer

By |2016-04-19T17:21:51-05:00April 4th, 2016|Categories: Books, Featured, Freedom, Supreme Court|

It is an unfortunate truism that the longer one remains in the legal profession, the less educated he becomes. The law, as the saying goes, is a jealous mistress: She does not permit solicitors to invest time in rival passions—e.g., philosophy, history, and literature—let alone cultivate the niceties and nuances of expression that distinguish the [...]

The Next President and the Supreme Court

By |2015-04-24T11:03:08-05:00April 21st, 2015|Categories: Featured, Government, Politics, Presidency, Supreme Court|

It’s campaign season again. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton, and Marco Rubio have already announced their bid to become president. More politicians are expected to follow suit. These candidates will, we can be sure, equivocate, pontificate, prevaricate, and grandstand about any number of issues in the coming months, but the one that should be [...]

Are Lawyers Illiterate?

By |2018-06-03T14:59:40-05:00August 22nd, 2014|Categories: Books, Intelligence, Liberal Learning, Literature|

Webster’s defines “intelligent” as “endowed with intelligence or intellect; possessed of, or exhibiting, a high or fitting degree of intelligence or understanding.” This modern understanding of “intelligence” as an innate disposition or propensity differs from earlier understandings of the word as meaning “versed” or “skilled.” Milton, for instance, in Paradise Lost, calls the eagle and [...]

Article V Convention: To Convene or Not?

By |2014-03-07T09:32:14-06:00March 4th, 2014|Categories: Constitution, Politics|

There are two ways to propose amendments to the Constitution: by a supermajority vote of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, or by a convention called by at least two-thirds of the state legislatures. The second option is not, strictly speaking, a constitutional convention, but a convention for proposing amendments to the [...]

To Educate in the Permanent Things

By |2014-01-16T15:51:33-06:00July 11th, 2013|Categories: Culture, Liberal Learning, Permanent Things|

In his State of the Union address President Obama proposed changes to preschool, high school, and college education, respectively. His proposals generated praise and condemnation from the predictable cheerleaders and naysayers. Some celebrated his efforts to expand early childhood education; others suggested that he should have focused more on the student loan crisis; still others, [...]

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