Award Recipients | Colgate University

The Brian Horey ’82 Civic Freedom Award

An award and scholarship given annually to the students who make the greatest contribution to promoting the ideals of freedom and Western civilization.

2025: James (JP) Conrad ’25

Our 2025 Brian Horey ’82 Civic Freedom Award goes to James (JP) Conrad ’25. Since his arrival at Colgate in the fall of 2021, JP has impressed faculty associated with the Center with his intellectual seriousness, commitment to freedom, and the study of Western Civilization. At Colgate, he explored legacies of the ancient world, politics and moral vision, foundations of political thought, modernity and its conservative critics, constitutional law, freedom and authority, ancient Greek history, Augustan Rome, and philosophy of law. To supplement his work at Colgate, he spent his junior year at Oxford University, where he furthered his study of ancient, medieval, and modern political philosophy, Greek tragedy, and the tragedies and comedies of Shakespeare. With all of this, he managed to combine an economics minor with his political science major.

A native of the California Bay Area, JP learned early on the importance of what he has styled “sensitive diplomacy” as he navigated his way through its dominant political culture of progressive secularism with his long-standing commitment to
limited government, traditional family values, and respect for religious institutions and traditions. He also learned there, and further at Colgate and Oxford, a profound appreciation for the value of intellectual diversity. Only by encountering beliefs other than your own, JP has often remarked, can you deepen your understanding, correct your errors, and sharpen your skills.

JP will continue his association with the Center through a James Madison Fellowship for the summer of 2025. In this project, JP will address the important, but surprisingly under-explored question of the influence of Aristotle on Alexander the Great’s imperialism and style of rule. In the fall, he will continue his study of political philosophy and intellectual history through an MA degree program at Queen Mary, University of London, and may consider future pursuits in law, academics, or finance. But wherever he goes, we are certain he will be a well-quipped ambassador for the values of Freedom and Western Civilization.

Michael Hanratty ’24 receives the Brian Horey ’82 Civic Freedom Award for 2024, with his faculty sponsor, Professor of Political Science Stanley Brubaker. Photo by Andy Daddio.

2024 Award: Michael Hanratty

Michael Hanratty ’24 of Barkhamsted, Conn. is the 2024 recipient of the the Brian Horey ’82 Civic Freedom Award. Hanratty is the Class of 2024 Valedictorian, graduating Summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, majoring in economics and political science and receiving high honors in political science. As a 2023 James Madison Fellow his research project was titled “The Development of the Supreme Court’s Power of Judicial Review” and Stanley Brubaker, professor of political science, was his faculty sponsor.

Prof. Brubaker: As a James Madison Fellow, Michael explored the use of judicial review in the early years of our republic, with a close analysis of the first two instances in which federal law was found unconstitutional, the remarkably opposed examples of Marbury v. Madison (1803) and Dred Scott (1857), the one solidifying our constitution, the other nearly destroying it. For his senior thesis, he continued his study of the Court, this time focusing on its recently formulated “major questions doctrine.” Under this doctrine, the Court has ruled that when administrative agencies make rulings of deep economic and political significance, marking a change from previous public policy, they must have clear authorization from Congress. Though the doctrine is controversial, Michael defends it as one of the Court’s “passive virtues,” a set of tools the Court can draw upon to avoid imposing direct answers to controversial questions while drawing the polity into a deeper reflection on the subject or the constitutional principles involved.