The Supreme Court Puts the Pro-Life Movement to the Test
Rarely has a case had less legal meaning and greater moral weight.
By David French
I’m a new kid on the block in Opinion. I joined in January 2023, and while I write on a wide range of topics, a common theme is that I like to explore the story behind the story. What are the reasons for American polarization and dysfunction? Why do so many Americans feel lonely and anxious? Why is religious affiliation in such sharp decline? I’m just as likely to write about faith, friendship, marriage and parenting as I am to write about the war in Ukraine or the latest developments in American constitutional law. I also write quite a bit about religion in America, with a particular focus on the health of the evangelical church.
I took a long and winding road to journalism. I was born in Alabama, grew up in a small town in Kentucky, attended Lipscomb University in Nashville, and graduated from Harvard Law School. I was a commercial litigator for a number of years, and then ultimately switched to constitutional law. In 1999, I took a brief detour from my litigation career and served as a lecturer at Cornell Law School.
In 2006, I obtained an age waiver from the Army and joined the JAG Corps as an Army lawyer. After dragging my old body through basic training, I volunteered to deploy to Iraq and served with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Diyala Province during the height of the Surge in 2007. I was awarded a Bronze Star.
During my litigation career, I worked for both commercial and public interest law firms and was a former president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. I spent most of my career defending free speech, religious freedom and due process in courtrooms across the country.
After 21 years of legal practice, I changed careers. In 2015, I joined National Review as a senior writer, but left in 2019 to help start The Dispatch, a conservative media company. I also became a contributing writer for The Atlantic. In 2023, I joined The Times.
If there were a Nerd Olympics, I might take the gold medal. If you want recommendations on sci-fi or fantasy books or movies — or the definitive rankings of Star Wars movies — please ask. I’d be happy to answer, at length.
My most recent book, “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation,” outlined the dangers of polarization and the need to engage with people who have opposing viewpoints. I’m an evangelical conservative who believes strongly in a classical liberal, pluralistic vision of American democracy, in which people with deep religious, cultural, and moral differences can live and work together and enjoy equal legal protection and shared cultural tolerance. In both my personal and professional life I strive to live up to the high ideals of Micah 6:8 — to act justly, to love kindness, and to walk humbly before God.
I live in Tennessee.
I’m an opinion writer, but I’m not a polemicist. My goals are to treat opposing arguments fairly, to make sure that my facts are correct, that my analysis is sound, and to be transparent about gaps in my knowledge or limitations in my understanding. I believe in admitting mistakes and telling readers when I change my mind, and why. I think personal and professional transparency is important. If we ask readers to trust us, then they deserve to know us.
I follow the Times’s Ethical Journalism Handbook. I disclose potential conflicts of interest, and when I’m in doubt about any potential ethical question, I seek guidance from my editors in much the same way that a lawyer with ethical concerns seeks guidance from the bar association.
Email: david.french@nytimes.com
Threads: @davidfrenchjag
Anonymous tips: nytimes.com/tips
Rarely has a case had less legal meaning and greater moral weight.
By David French
The Trumpist right is presenting aggressive legal theories that fail again and again.
By David French
We take a look at J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Doug Burgum, Tim Scott, Elise Stefanik and more possible Republican running mates.
By Ross Douthat, David French, Michelle Goldberg and Bret Stephens
Modern American lawmakers are not limited by the colonial imagination.
By David French
The case against Marcellus Williams is far from settled.
By David French
Documents do not radiate powers of personal virtue.
By David French
There is a difference between peace and capitulation.
By David French
Not everything is in crisis.
By David French
There’s no basis for the MAGA complaint that Biden has broken the justice system.
By David French
Sonia Sotomayor helped protect the country from Donald Trump, and she did it in an unexpected way.
By David French
Donald Trump’s a felon now. That could make a difference.
By David French, Michelle Goldberg and Patrick Healy
We’re at a crucial moment in the war.
By David French
In war, death interrupts nothing. Time doesn’t stop; it seems to accelerate.
By David French
A terrible man is in the cross hairs of American justice, but immorality alone doesn’t make him a criminal.
By David French
Your emotions will often lead you astray.
By David French
Who is more pleased with the course of the trial so far — the prosecution or the defense?
By David French, Rebecca Roiphe and Ken White
Our daughter was becoming a mother in the most difficult of circumstances.
By David French
There is a simple way to fix the Antisemitism Awareness Act.
By David French
The uproars that don’t seem to touch Trump at all can still bring down other Republicans.
By David French
There is no originalist case for presidential immunity.
By David French
What is the line between civil disobedience and lawlessness?
By David French, Sarah Wildman, Vishakha Darbha and Jillian Weinberger
Trump’s Republican Party no longer feels a sense of a responsibility to U.S. allies.
By David French
How do we find our way to a campus culture in which everyone can be heard?
By David French
Evangelicals, fundamentalists and Pentecostals are taking the church in very different directions.
By David French
What if Iran’s next missile attack is more effective?
By David French
A threat of violence shouldn’t cancel the right to free expression.
By David French
Debate and analysis about the case, jury selection and anticipation for a potential witness.
By David French, Mary McCord and Ken White
Struggling men need to leave the gurus behind.
By David French
There is no longer a truly pro-life party in the United States.
By David French
Longer college careers would benefit both the N.C.A.A. and the N.B.A.
By David French
The Israel Defense Forces’ military challenge is inseparable from its humanitarian obligations.
By David French
The filibuster is not what the architects of the Constitution had in mind.
By David French
When I think of “Christian Visibility Day,” I have very different images in mind.
By David French
There are ways to limit their social media exposure without damaging constitutional rights.
By David French
It is fitting that the biggest movie in the world this year is the story of a messiah gone wrong.
By David French
There’s a problem with these kinds of government clampdowns.
By David French
Did his law clerk say she hates Black people? She needs to answer clearly.
By David French
Polls that don’t change can be illuminating.
By David French
Trump distorts everything, but some intriguing patterns are falling into place.
By David French
If American law is to evolve, the change should come from lawmakers, not judges.
By David French
On yet another issue, Trump sides with a foreign adversary over America.
By David French
This was featured in live coverage.
By David French
Two new lawsuits describe a rash of bigotry on elite campuses.
By David French
David French on why “MAGA will not accommodate Reagan conservatism.”
By David French and Jillian Weinberger
Earlier this month, classical liberals prevailed again.
By David French
The MAGA break with Reagan Republicans is so severe that they should ally with Democrats against Trump.
By David French
Its ruling on Trump’s eligibility for the presidency contradicts the clear language of the 14th Amendment.
By David French
With readership collapsing for right-wing outlets, X is all the movement has left.
By David French
Why the sexes are moving farther apart, socially and politically
By David French
That’s why the Supreme Court should not have delayed his federal criminal case.
By David French
And what is it not?
By David French
The court may allow schools to use other methods besides affirmative action.
By David French
Nowhere is this more true than in red states.
By David French
It’s a challenge to Christians to forgo hate and practice love.
By David French
It’s hard to imagine the justices giving him a stay in the immunity case.
By David French
He is exploiting ideological hatred and civic ignorance to create the conditions for World War III.
By David French
The confusion and forgetfulness vividly described in the special counsel Robert Hur’s report are not going away.
By David French
Inside the far right’s latest bespoke reality.
By David French
Even liberal justices seemed to agree that states can’t remove national candidates from the ballot.
By David French and Jesse Wegman
The appeals court ruling supports the American Revolution.
By David French
The latest conspiracy theory shows how malice leads to stupidity, and vice versa.
By David French
He brought joy to millions of us, as his moments onscreen became part of the fabric of our lives.
By David French
The Senate’s compromise legislation is a desperately needed solution to problems at the border.
By David French
Always read the comments.
By David French
The case of the disgraced pastor Paul Pressler offers a window into why America is so divided as a nation.
By David French
Animosity proved stronger than character or ideology.
By David French
A relatively close New Hampshire victory could suggest he’ll have trouble ahead.
By David French
So many Trump supporters are motivated by a shocking degree of rage and spite.
By David French
On the eve of New Hampshire’s primary, David French makes a final plea.
By David French, Patrick Healy, Jillian Weinberger and Vishakha Darbha
As Congress has abdicated authority, the executive branch has seized it. We need to start fixing that.
By David French
The 14th Amendment has been used both to keep insurrectionists out of office and to let them back in. The latter choice has led to disaster.
By David French
Taking Trump off the ballot has risks, but so does keeping him in place.
By David French
The problem is when admirable goals are pursued through illiberal or unconstitutional means.
By David French
However much a second term would harm America’s politics, it would harm America’s moral culture even more.
By David French
The issue here is maintaining standards, not passing judgment.
By David French
A cancer diagnosis, a Swedish proverb and the blessing of human connection.
By David French
Worrying about “consequences” is not a legal argument.
By David French
An act of ideological vandalism offers a crucial lesson.
By David French
Rudy Giuliani, fined $148 million at his defamation trial, is the embodiment of what Trump’s enablers eventually become.
By David French
Helping defend a free nation against brutal Russian aggression is smart as well as simply right.
By David French