University Faculty for LifeRichard S. Myers, the Vice-President of UFL, is Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law, where he teaches Antitrust, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, and Religious Freedom. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Kenyon College and earned his law degree at Notre Dame, where he won the law school's highest academic prize. He began his legal career by clerking for Judge John F. Kilkenny of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Myers also worked for Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Washington, D.C. He taught at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law before joining the Ave Maria faculty. He is a co-editor of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition: Contemporary Perspectives (Catholic University of American Press, 2004) and a co-editor of Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy (Scarecrow Press, 2007). He has also published extensively on constitutional law in law reviews and also testified before Congressional and state legislative hearings on life issues.
Married to Mollie Murphy, who is also on the faculty at Ave Maria School of Law, they are the proud parents of six children - Michael, Patrick, Clare, Kathleen, Matthew, and Andrew. http://www.avemarialaw.edu/index.cfm?event=faculty.bio&pid=11705E7D4E0111010366
Here is a link to an excellent essay by Hadley Arkes in the May 2017 issue of First Things. The essay is entitled “The Moral Turn” and it is a thought-provoking essay on natural law and the judicial role, with considerable focus on abortion. The essay is definitely well worth reading.
Here is a link to Richard Doerflinger’s analysis of assisted suicide in Oregon. Here’s a bit from his conclusion: “In short, despite a thoroughly inadequate reporting system designed to cover up rather than reveal problems, Oregon shows exactly the problems that critics predicted: No meaningful protection against coercion, influence by others on patients with depression and […]
Here is a very good piece by Clarke Forsythe (from Americans United for Life) explaining why Roe v. Wade is not settled law, and why there are good reasons to believe that Roe will eventually be overruled.
Here and here are links (from LifeNews and the National Right to Life News) to stories about the Trump Administration’s plans to defund The United Nations Population Fund, which has been complicit in China’s forced population control activities for many years. In explaining the decision, the US State Department stated:“This determination was made based on […]
Here is a link to a blog post from Alex Schadenberg about a March 30, 2017 decision from the UK High Court rejecting a challenge to the law banning assisted suicide. Here is a link to the opinion.
In May 2016, in Myers v. Schneiderman, an intermediate appellate court in New York upheld the constitutionality of New York’s ban on assisted suicide. (I discussed the case in this paper presented at the 2016 University Faculty for Life conference.) The New York Court of Appeals, which is the highest court in the state, has […]
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about a positive development in Hawaii. The Hawaii House tabled a bill that would have allowed physician-assisted suicide. This follows a recent decision by the New Mexico Senate to reject an effort to legalize assisted suicide.
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about the ACLU’s challenge to Kentucky’s ultrasound law, which requires women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound. Here is a comment from Ingrid Duran (NRLC’s Director of State Legislation) that was made when the Kentucky law passed: “Kentucky took an important step […]
Here is a link to a LifeNews story about the Arkansas legislature’s recent vote to pass a ban on sex-selection abortions.
Here is a link to a press release from ADF about its effort to obtain Supreme Court review of a Ninth Circuit decision upholding a California law that forces pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to promote abortion. Courts around the country are divided on the constitutional issues presented and there is a strong likelihood that the Court […]