Constitution and Catholic Social Doctrine

The Program on the Constitution and Catholic Social Doctrine is making the moral argument that the deterioration of the constitutional structure — especially federalism and the separation of powers — has impaired the formation of flourishing persons and strong communities and undermined local and national solidarity.

The Program educates the public and generates concrete solutions to uphold human dignity through:

  • Easily implemented, accessible solutions that restore constitutional integrity
  • Bipartisan support
  • Legislation developed through Program-generated models has been adopted in multiple states
  • “The Inequity of Federal Western Land Policy: A Bipartisan Struggle” with former Utah State Representative Ken Ivory
  • “Unwinding the Administrative State: Progress, Setbacks, and the Road Ahead” with Emmett McGroarty, Kara Rollins, and Anthony Campau
  • “Alienated America: Centralization, Subsidiarity, and the Political Rise of Trump” with Tim Carney 
  • “Neighborhood Solidarity and the Preservation of the American Experiment” by Program Director Emmett McGroarty
  • “The Fate of the Administrative State” by Emmett McGroarty
  • “Uncivil Wars of Civil Religion,” by IHE Postdoctoral Fellow Clifford Humphrey

Our Scholars

Emmett McGroarty, Program Director

Expertise: Education Policy, Federalism Issues
Emmett McGroarty, J.D., is the Director of Research and Planning at the Institute for Human Ecology. He studies public policies that undermine the constitutional structure and the principle of subsidiarity. He is the co-author of Deconstructing the Administrative State: The Fight for Liberty. He is also co-author of Controlling Education from the Top: Why Common Core Is Bad for America, Pioneer Institute, No. 87 (May 2012); and Cogs in the Machine: Big Data, Common Core, and National Testing, Pioneer Institute, No. 114 (May 2014).

Mr. McGroarty is Co-Founder of truthinamericaneducation.com, a nationwide network of individuals and organizations that sheds light on the Common Core system and the collection of private data on children and their families. His published works have appeared in, among others, Breitbart, Christian Post, Crisis, Daily Caller, The Federalist, FoxNews.com, New York Post, Public Discourse, The Hill, Townhall, USA Today, and The Washington Times. He has testified before state and federal committees and commissions. Mr. McGroarty received an A.B. from Georgetown University and a J.D. from Fordham School of Law.

Clifford Humphrey, Fellow

Clifford Humphrey is originally from Warm Springs, Georgia. In May 2020, he received his PhD in politics from Hillsdale College. His research focuses on the political thought of John Taylor of Caroline, specifically in regard to understanding the nature of American federalism. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina where he is helping to launch Thales College.

Articles and News

    • Pope Saint John Paul II
      “Apart from the family, other intermediate communities exercise primary functions and give life to specific networks of solidarity. These develop as real communities of persons and strengthen the social fabric, preventing society from becoming an anonymous and impersonal mass, as unfortunately often happens today. It is in interrelationships on many levels that a person lives, and that society becomes more `personalized.’”
      Pope Saint John Paul II
      Centesimus Annus, 49 (15 May 1991)
    • Alexander Hamilton
      “The fabric of American Empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure original fountain of all legitimate authority.”
      Alexander Hamilton
      Federalist, No. 22
    • Pope Pius XI
      “Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body social, and never destroy and absorb them.”
      Pope Pius XI
      Quadragesimo Anno, 79 (15 May 1931)

    For more information about the program:

    Questions about the IHE? Get in touch!

    • ihe@cua.edu
    • 202-319-5892

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    The Institute for Human Ecology (IHE) at The Catholic University of America is the nation’s leading academic institute committed to increasing scientific understanding of the economic, cultural, and social conditions vital for human flourishing.

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    The Institute for Human Ecology

    The Catholic University of America

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    202-319-5892
    ihe@cua.edu

    620 Michigan Avenue, NE
    339 Caldwell Hall
    Washington, DC 20064

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