In a TV interview last month, House Speaker Mike Johnson raised eyebrows by asserting that Framers welcomed religion in public life and that the Establishment Clause protects religion from the encroachment of government, not the other way around. In this podcast, we show how Johnson was both right and wrong. Many Framers shared his view,…

Recently, many people have been talking about classical law–specifically whether classical law, with its focus on Christian universals and natural law concepts, can make a comeback in American law schools. Will classical law have traction in an academy dominated by positivism, law-and-economics, and critical theories? Would it be a good thing if it did? We’re…

Welcome back! In our first Legal Spirits episode of the academic year, we interview our friend, law professor Tom Berg (University of St. Thomas) about his new book, Religious Liberty in a Polarized Age. We explore how fights about religious liberty both reflect and contribute to the deep social division in the US today–but also…

In our traditional end-of-term wrap up, Marc and Mark discuss the Supreme Court’s decisions in two cases: Groff v. DeJoy, the Title VII religious accommodations case, and 303 Creative v. Elenis, the website designer case. Were these simple cases masquerading as complicated ones? Do they suggest the Court is rethinking its views on free speech,…

In this episode, Marc and Mark offer some thoughts about the Biden Administration Department of Education’s guidance issued earlier this month (the first since 2020) on prayer and religious expression in public schools. The new guidance largely avoids much discussion of the newest Supreme Court decision on the matter, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, and…

In this episode, Marc and Mark discuss the background and recent oral argument before the Supreme Court in Groff v. DeJoy, a case about religious accommodation in the workplace under Title VII. The case involves a postal worker who observes Sunday sabbath and who was disciplined by the United States Postal Service after a dispute…

In this podcast, Marc and Mark discuss some of the common themes in two books that we recently read and reflected on with our students in the Center’s Reading Society: Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz and Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. The themes include the nature and value…

Last month, the Center co-sponsored a panel, “The Rise of the Nones and American Law,” featuring Professors Steven Collis (University of Texas), Mark Movsesian (St. John’s) and Gregory Sisk (University of St. Thomas–Minnesota). The panel explored how the explosion in the numbers of the religiously unaffiliated in contemporary America might affect jurisprudence under the Religion…

For our first podcast of 2023, we are delighted to welcome Professor Nicholas Aroney of the University of Queensland Law School, a distinguished constitutional law scholar who has co-edited (with Professor Ian Leigh) a new book just published by Oxford University Press: Christianity and Constitutionalism. Marc and Mark interview him about the book’s themes, scope,…

Last month, a federal court ruled that New York could constitutionally restrict the sale of alcohol when New Year’s falls on a Sunday, as it will this year. In our final podcast of 2022, we discuss this ruling and the Supreme Court’s longstanding view that Sunday alcohol restrictions and closing laws do not violate the…