Jon Guze

Director of Legal Studies
Jon Guze is the Director of Legal Studies at the John Locke Foundation.

Before joining the John Locke Foundation, Jon practiced law in Durham, North Carolina for over twenty years. He received a J.D., with honors, from Duke Law School in 1994 and an A.B. in history from Harvard College in 1972. In between, he studied architecture and, as a Vice President at HOK, Inc., he managed numerous large architectural and engineering projects across the US and in the UK.

Jon lives in Durham, NC with his wife of forty years. He has four children and three grandchildren.

Posts by Jon Guze (page 1)

  • “Americans are not rallying around Donald Trump during the pandemic”

    That’s the headline of a recent article in the Economist. It goes on to say, “His approval ratings have been remarkably flat compared with those of other leaders—and past American presidents,” and it provides this chart:  …
    Jon Guze, May 22, 2020

  • Why do we do we let them do this kind of thing?

    In 2012, Science magazine published a report by a group of scientists who proudly reported: Highly pathogenic avian influenza A/H5N1 virus can cause morbidity and mortality in humans but thus far has not acquired the ability to be transmitted by aerosol or respiratory droplet (“airborne transmission”) between…
    Jon Guze, May 21, 2020

  • “Democrats Have Abandoned Civil Liberties”

    It’s sad, and all too true, but it’s not something you often hear from a left-wing ideologue like Matt Taibbi. Nevertheless, that’s the title of a recent blog post by the life-long Democrat. The subtitle is, “The Blue Party’s Trump-era Embrace of Authoritarianism Isn’t Just Wrong, it’s a Fatal…
    Jon Guze, May 19, 2020

  • What I’m Hoping For

    Karol Sikora is Dean and Professor of Medicine at Buckingham Medical School in the UK. He recently posted this encouraging assessment on Twitter:   Fingers crossed!…
    Jon Guze, May 18, 2020

  • What Does North Carolina Law Say About Demonstrating With Guns?

    For those who are interested, UNC Professor Jonathan Holbrook provides a thorough analysis at the School of Government’s Criminal Law blog. Here are some highlights: Protests and public demonstrations are permitted, of course, but if a participant engages in other criminal conduct during the course of the event (e.g., assault,…
    Jon Guze, May 13, 2020
    Silver revolver pistol overlaid with an image of the North Carolina flag

  • Statewide lockdowns aren’t just outrageously authoritarian; they’re also ineffectual, and they waste valuable time and energy that should be used to fight COVID-19.

    In “Statewide lockdowns unnecessarily divide, divert us from task at hand,” I suggested that “even in the absence of statewide lockdown orders, voluntary social distancing would have had more or less the same effects on both the spread of COVID-19 and on the economy,” and I provided evidence compiled…
    Jon Guze, May 8, 2020

  • What accounts for the decline of religion in American life?

    Lyman Stone attempts to answer that question in a new paper published by the American Enterprize Institute. The title is “Promise and peril: The history of American religiosity and its recent decline,” and the key findings are: American religiosity is in rapid decline according to numerous measures. However, Americans…
    Jon Guze, May 4, 2020

  • Why are COVID-19 death rates so much higher in states with Democratic governors?

    That’s the provocative question raised by James R. Rogers in a recent peice at the Law & Liberty blog: When controlling for the differences in population across states, the number of deaths from coronavirus is over three times higher in states with Democratic governors than in states…
    Jon Guze, May 2, 2020