america

Justice Thomas Warns Progressivism Opposes America’s Founding Principles

Justice Clarence Thomas is celebrating America’s 250th birthday by urging Americans to return to our nation’s founding principles.

Thomas has been one of the U.S. Supreme Court’s most steadfast constitutionalist judges since being nominated to the Court by former President George H.W. Bush in 1991.

Now the Court’s fourth longest-serving justice, Thomas was famous for his 17 years of near silence on the bench during the Court’s oral arguments, stating he doesn’t find them particularly helpful. Of course, Thomas made his thoughts perfectly clear in numerous well-written and convincing opinions in his 34 years on the high Court.

Now, Thomas is boldly speaking out, urging Americans to return to our nation’s founding principles found in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

Justice Thomas recently spoke at the University of Texas, Austin to preview the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration.

“The Constitution is the means of government; it is the Declaration that announces the ends of government,” Justice Thomas stated. “The Constitution achieves this purpose by protecting our natural rights and liberties from concentrated power and excessive democracy.”

He warned about how progressive ideology – introduced to Americans in the 20th century – is at odds with our nation’s founding principles.

“As we meet today, it is unclear whether these principles will endure,” Thomas forewarned, giving a brief history lesson:

At the beginning of the 20th century, a new set of first principles of government was introduced into the American mainstream. The proponents of this new set of first principles, most prominently among them the 28th president, Woodrow Wilson, called it progressivism.
Since Wilson’s presidency, progressivism has made many inroads in our system of government and our way of life. It has coexisted uneasily with the principles of the Declaration. Because it is opposed to those principles, it is not possible for the two to coexist forever.

Early progressives viewed America’s commitment to limited government, natural rights and equality as impediments to “more advanced and sophisticated” forms of government, Thomas shared.

These progressives preferred to concentrate power in the hands of a well-educate, elite class of society, rather than diffuse it among the people, and rejected the Declaration’s acknowledgment of self-evident natural rights that preexist governments and are granted by God – rights that are “endowed by their Creator” – in the words of the Declaration, penned by former President Thomas Jefferson.

For these individuals like Wilson and John Dewey, “Liberty no longer preceded the government as a gift from God, but was to be enjoyed at the grace of the government,” Thomas summarized. “Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence, and hence our form of government.”

For this reason, the American people face a time of choosing. We can choose the philosophy of government adopted at our nation’s founding: constitutionalism. Or we can continue down the Wilsonian path: progressivism.

Thomas quoted from former President Calvin Coolidge, who on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration, pointed out that “progress” beyond our nation’s founding principles is not progress at all:

If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people.

We thank Justice Thomas for the boldness and clarity of his remarks. As our nation approaches its 250th birthday, we must heed Justice Thomas’ warning and recommit ourselves to our nation’s founding principles.

As Andrew Walker writes in WORLD, “If America is to regain the Christian imagination it had at its beginnings, it cannot be progressive.”

Related articles and resources:

Clarence Thomas Becomes Nation’s Fifth Longest-Serving Supreme Court Justice

Celebrating Clarence Thomas’ Remarkable 32 Years on the U.S. Supreme Court

On This Independence Day, Clarence Thomas Explains What’s Great About America

Justice Clarence Thomas Spotted Laying Wreaths at Arlington Cemetery to Honor our Military

Celebrating Giants Like Justice Clarence Thomas During Black History Month

Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words

Photo from Getty Images.

America’s Birthday Should Be a Declaration of the Right to Life

Red, white and blue confetti fell from the sky in Times Square, as a patriotic New Year’s Eve crystal ball came down to welcome 2026.

At the same time, the Washington Monument lit up like a giant birthday candle for America, with video projections celebrating key moments in an American history that can fittingly be described as miraculous.

As we welcomed the New Year, we have welcomed the 250th birthday of America, marked by the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

On Friday, January 23, the day of the national March for Life in Washington, DC, I will again lead the National Prayer Service in the historic and beautiful Constitution Hall, located at 1776 D St. NW, at 18th and D Streets.

The theme of this inspirational event will be In Celebration of America’s 250th Birthday – Celebrating the Right to Life as Recognized in Our Declaration of Independence.

My pro-life ministry, Priests for Life, and I are honored to be a part of the America 250 Civics Education Coalition, along with other national leaders, which is preparing for the celebration of our nation’s Semiquincentennial in 2026. The Coalition is led by the America First Policy Institute, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Education.

In the coming months, events will be held as we plan to celebrate the 250th birthday of this bold and hopeful experiment known as the United States of America, and to educate our fellow citizens on the meaning of our founding documents and the extraordinary system of government our Founders have left us.

The key focus my ministry brings to this anniversary celebration of the adoption of the

Declaration of Independence is that this birth certificate of our country clearly and strongly proclaims that God is the source of our rights, that the first of those rights is life, and that government exists to secure those rights.

A proper understanding of these founding principles can only lead to one conclusion regarding abortion: governments have no authority to permit the killing of babies.

This is why the first of our activities as a member group of this Coalition is the National Prayer Service. Clergy and activists of all denominations will gather to pray for an end to abortion, for unity in the pro-life movement, to honor individuals for their outstanding work, and to praise the Lord before we march to the Supreme Court.

At this interdenominational service, Liche Ariza—who plays the role of Gedera, a Sadducee in Jerusalem and a member of the Sanhedrin in The Chosen—will be our special guest speaker. I will preach the sermon, and we will honor the memory of Charlie Kirk. For him, abortion was indeed a fundamental issue, a key passion. We spoke of it, privately and publicly, many times, and worked together to elect pro-life candidates. His message and example inspires a new generation of pro-life activists.

Co-sponsors of the National Prayer Service include the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, American Principles Project, Bott Radio Network, Thomas More Society, Human Life Alliance, The Justice Foundation, Operation Outcry, Timothy Plan, and Intercessors for America.

Please join and/or promote this event, as well as the numerous events throughout this new year for America’s 250th birthday. May our love for this country and our faithful citizenship be renewed as never before!

For more information on the prayer service, visit NationalPrayerService.com, and for more information on the educational activities for America’s 250th birthday, visit America250Civics.org.