In the second installment of a two-part column, University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses the Catholic Nationalists who have joined the push for theocracy in the United States, focusing on the postliberal, or integralist, theorists led by Patrick Deneen and Adrian Vermeule and on Opus Dei and its allies, including Leonard Leo, Vice President JD Vance, and the architects of Project 2025. Professor Hamilton argues that these movements seek to impose Catholic natural law on Americans through an authoritarian elite, that they wrongly cast the many religious Americans who disagree with them as secular, that integralism has repeatedly failed elsewhere, and that because both groups need an authoritarian at the top, theocracy is on the ballot this fall.

In the first installment of a two-part column, University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses how the 2026 midterm election will test the religious identity of the United States, focusing on the White Evangelical Christian Nationalists who claim America is a “Christian country” and their growing influence in the Trump Administration through figures like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Project 2025, and allied groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom. Professor Hamilton argues that these nationalists rely on a revisionist history that erases the nation’s founding religious diversity, that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority and a compliant Republican Congress have helped them pursue theocracy without amending the Constitution, and that because most Americans reject Christian Nationalism, voters should use the midterms to stop it.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses how child sex abuse and the Epstein files could affect the midterm elections, focusing on Republican candidates and on Pennsylvania’s failure to pass a law letting past abuse victims sue. Professor Hamilton argues that voters of both parties want powerful people held accountable, and that Republican leaders who ignore survivors will lose votes.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses Congress’s history of failing to regulate the internet and social media—most notably through Section 230’s liability shield, which she argues left children unprotected from online exploitation—and applies these lessons to the current debate over AI regulation. Professor Hamilton argues that lawmakers must stop deferring to AI industry leaders and lobbyists out of self-interest or claimed technical ignorance, and instead hold public hearings and establish accountability mechanisms, such as a cause of action for AI-inflicted harm, given the stakes involved.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses the recent measles and whooping cough deaths tied to declining vaccination rates and examines the role of federal officials, state lawmakers, and courts in enabling or preventing those outbreaks. Professor Hamilton argues that religious and philosophical exemptions to childhood vaccine mandates should be rolled back, that courts should reject claims equating them with medical exemptions, and that states should prioritize children’s public health over anti-vaccine and religious-liberty lobbying.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton examines how the religious right and Christian Nationalist movement promote a narrow framework of “religious liberty” to influence American jurisprudence and public policy. Professor Hamilton argues that these groups misrepresent religious freedom to impose minority theological beliefs on the public, erode civil rights for women and LGBTQ+ individuals, and compel the government to fund religious discrimination.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses Delaware’s collapse of HB75, a bill that would have permanently revived time-barred child sex abuse claims, after Democratic senators added last-minute poison pill amendments, and links this to broader controversies over false claims in California’s mass tort litigation and reduced settlement caps in Maryland. Professor Hamilton argues Delaware’s retreat was unjustified given its successful history with prior SOL windows, and that fraud concerns should be addressed through a stronger certificate of merit requirement rather than by restricting survivors’ access to justice.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton, in an open letter to Pope Leo XIV, discusses the legal and moral case for eliminating the priest-penitent confessional privilege when clergy learn of child sex abuse, situating the issue within recent state legislative efforts in Vermont and Missouri and the Church’s history of covering up abuse. Professor Hamilton argues that the First Amendment does not shield clergy from mandated reporting laws given the compelling state interest in preventing child sex abuse, and contends that continued secrecy—rather than protecting the Church—perpetuates harm to children and further damages the Church's credibility and moral standing.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses the breakdown of productive religious discourse in American public life, arguing that the religious right has seized control of the conversation through strategic framing, the appropriation of the undifferentiated label “Christian,” and the suppression of inconvenient facts. Professor Hamilton proposes three corrective rules: insist on factual accuracy in policy debates rather than deferring to religious framing, recognize Christianity as a diverse category rather than a monolith, and embrace open theological disagreement among believers as a legitimate and necessary form of public discourse.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses Donald Trump’s dual strategy for institutionalizing White Christian Nationalism by installing a conservative Supreme Court majority and empowering the religious right’s political agenda. Professor Hamilton argues that these efforts subvert the separation of church and state by promoting a false historical narrative and prioritizing the specific theological demands of a minority over the rule of law and civil liberties.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses the systemic barriers child sex abuse survivors face when seeking justice and highlights three individuals who use their professional expertise to force institutional transparency and reform. Professor Hamilton argues that while these survivors courageously drive progress, society must stop placing the burden of child protection on the victims and instead proactively hold institutions accountable.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton examines Donald Trump’s public projection of himself as a messianic figure, contextualizing this behavior within his interactions with other global leaders and religious authorities. Professor Hamilton argues that the American religious right is responsible for fostering Trump’s dangerous messiah complex and urges them to reckon with the authoritarian monster they have helped create.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton examines the Trump administration’s promotion of Christian Nationalism across multiple domains—the White House, the military, and Congress—and its corresponding erosion of church-state separation, particularly in the context of Trump’s war with Iran. Professor Hamilton argues that this government alignment with a specific evangelical Christian agenda violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, distorts American religious history, and has created a political permission structure for unconstitutional attacks on Muslims and other religious minorities.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses the three primary avenues through which accountability in the Jeffrey Epstein cases can be pursued—congressional hearings, a New Mexico state investigation, and a United Nations crimes-against-humanity inquiry—in the face of what she characterizes as a deliberate federal cover-up by the Trump administration. Professor Hamilton argues that despite the administration’s efforts to suppress further investigation, the partial release of Epstein’s files has already implicated dozens of powerful figures across the political spectrum, and that these three pathways will continue to expose the truth, bring shame to those involved, and ultimately deliver justice to survivors.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files, criticizing the selective release of documents and attempts to minimize their importance to the public. Professor Hamilton argues that none of the powerful men in Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit acted with moral decency by reporting the obvious abuse of young girls they witnessed, and she calls for complete transparency rather than allowing officials to suppress information and avoid accountability.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton addresses the Trump administration’s handling of public health, particularly its promotion of anti-vaccine rhetoric and policy decisions that have led to a resurgence of preventable childhood diseases and deaths. Professor Hamilton argues that by empowering figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and prioritizing parental “rights” over established science, the administration has fostered a reckless and deadly culture that endangers children’s lives.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton discusses the anticipated release of the Jeffrey Epstein files under the Epstein Transparency Act and the Trump administration’s expected efforts to limit disclosure, set against the broader context of society’s evolving response to child sex abuse cover-ups. Professor Hamilton argues that despite attempts to suppress the truth, a powerful cultural shift toward justice for survivors and public demand for accountability will ultimately defeat the efforts to protect powerful abusers and enablers.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton traces the decades-long movement to reform statutes of limitations (SOLs) for child sex abuse victims, highlighting the legal, political, and cultural progress made and the recent challenges posed by unscrupulous legal practices. Professor Hamilton argues that while the movement has empowered many survivors and exposed hidden abuse, the rise of false claims by unethical mass tort firms threatens its integrity, necessitating legal safeguards like certificate of merit requirements to preserve justice and protect genuine victims.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton explores the intersection of free speech, political overreach, and the First Amendment in the context of Donald Trump’s attempts to silence critics like Jimmy Kimmel and suppress damaging information such as the Epstein files. Professor Hamilton argues that despite the Trump administration’s efforts to control narratives and promote its narrow cultural and religious views, the American public’s constitutional right to free expression remains a powerful force that will ultimately expose truth and resist authoritarianism.

University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton draws parallels between her experience clerking at the U.S. Supreme Court during efforts to undermine Roe v. Wade and the Trump administration’s implementation of its secretive Project 2025 policy agenda. Professor Hamilton argues that, much like the conservative clerk “cabal,” the administration operates through covert, coordinated strategies to impose unpopular ideology without public debate, using authoritarian means to bypass democratic norms.