The Catholic emphasis of the study of this course explores not just how contracts are formed or what remedies exist for breach, but also the justice of keeping one's promises and paying a just or family wage, for example.

By contrast, most law schools have become entirely utilitarian and consequentialist – believing that ends justify means – and they've cast aside first principles, the most prominent of which is the belief that moral reality can be known and understood by men and women.

[8]Days before the arguments in front of the Supreme Court of California on Proposition 8, the amendment to the state constitution which recognizes marriage the union of man and woman, Kmiec and his colleague Shelley Ross Saxer, co-wrote an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle.

If a couple wanted "marriage," Proposition 8 should prevent the state from dealing with the topic, which means it could again become the sole province of religious bodies.

[11] Although he initially supported Republican Mitt Romney,[12] Kmiec "caused a stir" when he endorsed Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election in a piece on Slate.

[14] In the endorsement itself, Kmiec explained his disagreements with Obama, especially over the issue of abortion, but indicated that it was time to find common ground on this and other topics.

[15] As a result of endorsing the pro-choice Obama, Kmiec was denied Communion in May 2008 at a Red Mass for Catholic business people in California.

[16] Kmiec confirmed the incident with Nina Totenberg, NPR's legal correspondent[17] and E. J. Dionne of The Washington Post wrote a column[16] noting how John Kerry and other Catholic public officials had been threatened with communion denial in 2004 because of their pro-choice position,[18] but the first actual denial was experienced by Kmiec, a Catholic layman.

[19] After review, Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles called the action "shameful and indefensible" and asked the priest to write a letter of apology to Kmiec.

In April 2011, he was criticized by the Inspector General of the State Department for spending too much time on what the OIG reported as unofficial (religious) duties, which Kmiec saw as integral to his ambassadorial role.

"[30] Columnist Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times writes: "Over the last few years, Kmiec has emerged as one of this country's most important witnesses to the proposition that religious conviction and political civility need not be at odds; that reasonable people of determined good conscience, whatever their faith or lack thereof, can find ways to cooperate in the common good.

Though Kmiec has not sought their intervention, the president and the secretary of State ought to deal with the bureaucrats seeking to silence a voice whose only offense is to speak in the vocabulary of our own better angels.

Kmiec explained his decision as being motivated by a desire to find a place he could do good while he still had the "energy and excitement of the ideas of social justice especially as they are now so well articulated by Pope Francis.

"[35] The Chief political correspondent for the dominant paper in the district commented that "Douglas Kmiec may be the most interesting and most learned individual ever to run for Congress in Ventura County.