On October 16, 2020, Catholic Law Professor Joel Alicea acted as the moderator of a debate hosted by the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department, in partnership with the James Wilson Institute (JWI).

The conversation centered on the relationship between natural law and originalism. This relationship has come into focus recently with the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barret—a prominent originalist—to the Supreme Court and the sustained critiques of originalism by Harvard University’s Adrian Vermeule. AEI’s Peter J. Wallison and JWI Founder and Director Hadley P. Arkes debated the topic and Alicea provided clarifying remarks and moderated an audience Q&A.