Religious liberty occupies a distinctive place in the American constitutional tradition. Faith, Freedom, and the Constitution: Exploring Religious Liberty will examine the origins and development of this fundamental freedom, from the principles articulated by the Founders to the Supreme Court’s modern interpretation of the Religion Clauses.
Participants will begin with Founding-era writings that illuminate competing understandings of religious freedom and the proper relationship between religion and government. George Washington’s 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and others will provide a foundation for considering religious liberty.
The seminar will then trace the development of modern constitutional doctrine. Participants will examine the Court’s more recent jurisprudence through Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, Carson v. Makin, and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, examining fundamental questions about religious discrimination, religious institutions, public accommodations, and expressions of faith in public life.
By placing contemporary controversies in conversation with the Founders’ understanding of religious liberty, participants will explore how the Constitution seeks to protect freedom of conscience, prevent religious discrimination and government establishment, and sustain a pluralistic civil society.
Note: Thank you to First Liberty for use of the photo above from the Kennedy v Bremerton School District Supreme Court case.
Speaker:
Michael Moreland, PhD, JD
Dr. Michael P. Moreland is University Professor of Law and Religion at Villanova University and Director of the Eleanor H. McCullen Center for Law, Religion and Public Policy at Villanova’s Charles Widger School of Law. He joined the Villanova faculty in 2006, served as Vice Dean from 2012 to 2015, and was appointed University Professor, one of Villanova’s highest faculty distinctions, in 2017. His scholarship focuses on religious liberty, law and religion, constitutional law, torts, bioethics, and Catholic social thought.
Moreland earned his BA in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, his MA and PhD in Theological Ethics from Boston College, and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Paul J. Kelly Jr. of the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and practiced at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., handling First Amendment and other litigation.
Before joining Villanova, Moreland served as Associate Director for Domestic Policy in the White House from 2005 to 2006. His portfolio included criminal justice, immigration, civil rights, and liability reform. He later returned to his undergraduate alma mater, Notre Dame as a Visiting Professor of Law and Mary Ann Remick Senior Visiting Fellow at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. He was also the Forbes Visiting Fellow in Princeton University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions in 2010–11.
Through the McCullen Center, he directs interdisciplinary programs examining freedom of religion and speech, constitutional liberty, and the role of religion in American civil society. His recent publications include contributions to The Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Law and work on John Henry Newman, Christianity, liberalism, and legal theory.
The three- and four-day seminar includes historic interpreters, a content-lecture from a scholarly expert, a faculty-led discussion of relevant primary sources, and an appropriate field study of historic sites, archives, and museums.
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