Hobbes and Locke in Richard A. Epstein's "Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain"

This is Part 4 in a series noting that 2025 is the 40th Anniversary of Harvard University Press' 1985 publication of Richard A. Epstein's "Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain." We continue our celebration of this anniversary with a fair use and transformative reading, finishing chapter 3 in what Richard calls "Philosophical Preliminaries." He titles chapter 3 "The Integrity of the Constitutional Text" because he's taking a look at political philosophy and the American constitutional order, how these things interact. Every college student should read this book. It's a superb introduction to the political philosophy of the American regime. Praise the Lord. We'd like to thank Harvard University Press for making this material available and Richard Epstein for writing it. Make sure you buy the book and follow along. It's very important for you to have your own copy on your own bookshelf, and to begin to master this material. Support your local book dealer. See if they have a copy of it, or if they'd mind keeping an eye out for you. I always encourage buying physical books, objects you can have, hold, cherish, learn from, display on your bookshelf as a topic of conversation, things you can pass on to the next generation with your notes in them, things that do not depend upon electricity. Toward that end: Go to Harvard University Press for more selections available for purchase. Please support the publisher and your local booksellers. The Republican Professor is a pro-correctly-contemplating-property-rights podcast. The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

For Part 4a of this deep dive we continue the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024) decision that overruled Chevron (1984), Chief Justice Roberts' Opinion for the Court starting from from his page 1 to the top of page 7 in the Slip Opinion. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-451_7m58.pdf (603 U.S. _____ (2024) of the Opinion of the Court written by Chief Justice Roberts. We will pick up with Chief Justice Roberts' Opinion for the Court at the top of his page 7 next time. Donate a gift to keep the podcast going on Venmo at-sign no space TheRepublicanProfessor or https://buymeacoffee.com/lucasj.mather Warmly, Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D. The Republican Professor Podcast The Republican Professor Newsletter on Substack https://therepublicanprofessor.substack.com/ https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/podcast/ https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/articles/ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRepublicanProfessor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRepublicanProfessor Twitter: @RepublicanProf Instagram: @the_republican_professor

Part 3: We continue our timely coverage of Pope Leo XIII 's Rerum Novarum numbers 13 and 14 this time in his condemnation of Socialism and collectivism against the individual rights of workers and families in 1891, when Socialism was increasingly popular in intellectual circles, setting the stage for the statisms of the 1900s. The Republican Professor is a pro-getting-theology's-application-to-public-policy-correct podcast. The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D. Support the podcast. Buy me a cup of coffee or ten here : https://buymeacoffee.com/lucasj.mather

This is the next episode in our series of dissents in the en banc resolution of Duncan v. Bonta (Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, 20 March 2025). This episode is part 1 of Judge VanDyke's epic dissent in that resolution which caught a lot of controversy because part of his dissent was a link to the following website : https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/23-55805/opinion , which, as you'll see, does not go to the Ninth Circuit federal government website but instead goes to YouTube, the Ninth Circuit's YouTube channel. The link for the en banc opinion of the Court as well as the dissents covered here can be found here : https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2025/03/20/23-55805.pdf These materials, the text and the video linked within the text of Judge VanDyke's dissent are in the public domain and have no copyright restrictions upon them. I have done the best I could, given the technology, to make a fair use of them with a transformative reading for educational purposes only. The controversy around the video includes not merely that Judge VanDyke, a Trump appointee to the Court, included video as a supplement embedded within his dissent, which he (and the Court) clearly consider to be official parts of his dissent, but what he filmed there in the federal courthouse in Reno, Nevada (probably, since that's where his chambers are according to the US Ninth Circuit's seniority website. He filmed, in his chambers, wearing his black robe, with views on the video to the tune of hundreds of thousands, a tote bag with his own guns, his own handguns, real firearms. He mentioned that the firearms used for the video were rendered inoperable, unloaded, and safe for purposes of the educational part of the dissent. He claimed to be filling in missing background information useful for understanding the record before the court, not for supplementing the record per se with his, the Judge's, testimony -- something that would be not only unusual but inappropriate. I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. The Republican Professor is a pro-correctly-articulating-civil-liberties podcast. Therefore, welcome Judge VanDyke . The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

For Part 3f of this deep dive we continue the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024) decision that overruled Chevron (1984), Kagan's dissent continued from her p. 24 (Roman Numeral III) through to the end of that Democrat dissent in the Slip Opinion. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-451_7m58.pdf (603 U.S. _____ (2024) of Kagan's dissent. We will pick up the rest of p.15 of that dissent next time. Footnotes: For the "novice/2 expert problem" I reference Alvin Goldman's "Social Epistemology" entry in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2006 version, available here: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2006/entries/epistemology-social/ Be sure to cite your sources early and often. Donate a gift to keep the podcast going on Venmo at-sign no space TheRepublicanProfessor or https://buymeacoffee.com/lucasj.mather Warmly, Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D. The Republican Professor Podcast The Republican Professor Newsletter on Substack https://therepublicanprofessor.substack.com/ https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/podcast/ https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/articles/ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRepublicanProfessor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRepublicanProfessor Twitter: @RepublicanProf Instagram: @the_republican_professor

This is Part 3 in a series noting that 2025 is the 40th Anniversary of Harvard University Press' 1985 publication of Richard A. Epstein's "Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain." We continue our celebration of this anniversary with a fair use and transformative reading, finishing chapter 2 in what Richard calls "Philosophical Preliminaries." He titles chapter 2 "Hobbseian Man, Lockean World" because he's taking a look at political philosophy and the American constitutional order, how these things interact. Every college student should read this book. It's a superb introduction to the political philosophy of the American regime. Praise the Lord. We'd like to thank Harvard University Press for making this material available and Richard Epstein for writing it. Make sure you buy the book and follow along. It's very important for you to have your own copy on your own bookshelf, and to begin to master this material. Support your local book dealer. See if they have a copy of it, or if they'd mind keeping an eye out for you. I always encourage buying physical books, objects you can have, hold, cherish, learn from, display on your bookshelf as a topic of conversation, things you can pass on to the next generation with your notes in them, things that do not depend upon electricity. Toward that end: Go to Harvard University Press for more selections available for purchase. Please support the publisher and your local booksellers. The Republican Professor is a pro-correctly-contemplating-property-rights podcast. The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

We're continuing our fair use and transformative reading of the rest of an essay in one of my favorite publications. This is an engagement with an essay by TRP podcast guest Charles R. Kesler and one of my favorite writers on American Politics entitled "America's Red Shift" in Fall 2024 Claremont Review of Books. Kesler was also one of my Ph.D. professors at Claremont Colleges (4 courses). We pick up reading and commenting at "Kamala's Red Shift" on page 8, continuing to the end on page 12 in the hard cover edition. CRB has generously made this material available for you to follow along on their website. We want to thank Claremont Review of Books for making this material available. Go to ClaremontReviewofBooks.com to subscribe for a very reasonable price and get the hard copies with aesthetically pleasing artwork and thoughtful though accessible essays in your physical mailbox. The Republican Professor is a pro-Claremont-Review-of-Books podcast. The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

We're doing a fair use and transformative reading of part of an essay in one of my favorite publications. This is an engagement with an essay by TRP podcast guest Charles R. Kesler and one of my favorite writers on American Politics entitled "America's Red Shift" in Fall 2024 Claremont Review of Books. Kesler was also one of my Ph.D. professors at Claremont Colleges (4 courses). We want to thank Claremont Review of Books for making this material available. Go to ClaremontReviewofBooks.com to subscribe for a very reasonable price and get the hard copies with aesthetically pleasing artwork and thoughtful though accessible essays in your physical mailbox. The Republican Professor is a pro-Claremont-Review-of-Books podcast. The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

I read from the Signet Classics edition of The Federalist Papers, introduction and notes by Charles R. Kesler (a guest on the podcast and my professor at the Ph.D. level for the material presented, here). The Republican Professor is a pro-correctly-understanding-American-organic-Law podcast. The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

Nguyen v. Bonta , published 20 June 2025 . https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2025/06/20/24-2036.pdf The Republican Professor is a pro-poaching-Democrat-judges-in-support-of-the-2nd-Amendment podcast. The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.