What did the Founders mean by “an establishment of religion,” and how should that history shape church-state disputes today? In the latest Federalist Society America250 program, leading scholars and litigators examine the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to move away from the Lemon test and toward interpreting the Establishment Clause through “historical practices and understandings.”
Featured speaker Douglas Laycock, Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Virginia and Alice McKean Young Regents Chair in Law Emeritus at the University of Texas, also serves as a Reporter on Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Remedies.
The discussion explores the original meaning of the Establishment Clause and its relevance to modern controversies, including religious displays such as the Ten Commandments in public schools.
Additional panelists include Joe Davis of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Michael McConnell of Stanford Law School. The conversation is moderated by Ryan D. Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.