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CHURCH-STATE
A guide to church-state experts and organizations
IN
THE NORTHEAST
Hadley
Arkes is a senior fellow at the Ethics
and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where he co-directs its program
on the Constitution,
the Courts and the Culture. He is also a professor of political science
at Amherst College in Amherst, Mass. Contact 413-542-2293, hparkes@amherst.edu.
John
H. Mansfield is a professor at Harvard University Law School who teaches
about issues arising under the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the
First Amendment. Contact Mansfield at 617-495-3141 or his assistant, Susan Norton,
at 617-496-2609.
John H. Garvey is the dean of Boston College Law School and an authority
on legal issues regarding church and state. He expects school vouchers and charitable
choice issues to dominate the church-state debate in the near future and says
he believes the government should provide maximum protection to religious liberty,
while remaining neutral in its speech and aid regarding religion. He is a co-author
of Religion and the Constitution (Aspen, 2002), the leading casebook
on law and religion. He wrote an amicus brief for the United States in Mueller
v. Allen. Contact 617-552-4340, garvey@bc.edu.
Jay
D. Wexler is an associate professor of law at Boston University School of
Law, where he teaches law and religion. Contact 617-353-2789.
IN
THE EAST
Robert
Destro is professor of law at Catholic University of America in Washington,
D.C., and co-director and founder of the Interdisciplinary Program in Law and
Religion. He co-authored, with Michael S. Ariens, Religious Liberty in a
Pluralistic Society (Carolina Academic Press, 2002), the nation's leading
law school textbook on religious liberty. Contact 202-319-5202, destro@law.cua.edu.
Daniel
Dreisbach is a nonpracticing lawyer and the author of Thomas Jefferson
and the Wall of Separation Between Church and State (New York University
Press, 2003). He is also a professor in the department of justice, law and society
at American University in Washington, D.C. He expects a rise in cases challenging
the public display of religious symbols, such as crosses and the Ten Commandments,
in the public arena, and perhaps an increasing number of cases challenging "arguably
religious imagery" in public seals and in the public calendar. He also
expects cases that will test the limits of religiously motivated speech that
is deemed offensive to a protected group, such as a religiously themed denunciation
of homosexuals. Will such speech be ruled freedom of expression and of religion,
or will it be considered hate speech and render the speaker civilly or criminally
liable? He considers himself a "free speech and free exercise libertarian"
in that he sides with maximizing free speech and exercise rights. Contact 202-885-2380,
ddreisb@american.edu.
Francis Manion is senior counsel with the American
Center for Law and Justice who specializes in First Amendment law and pro-life
legal matters. He has argued before state and federal courts. He specializes
in defending public displays of the Ten Commandments and the rights of medical
personnel required to participate in pregnancy-ending procedures. Contact 502-549-7020,
fmanion@aol.com.
Marci A. Hamilton is professor of law and director of the Intellectual
Property Law Program at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University
in New York, N.Y. She is a nationally recognized expert on the religion clauses
of the First Amendment. Establishment Clause cases she has worked on include
City of Boerne v. Flores and several cases challenging RLUIPA and RFRA, including
the UDV case pending before the Supreme Court. Contact 212-790-0215, Hamilton02@aol.com.
IN
THE SOUTHEAST
Jim Allison is a paralegal and historical-legal researcher and writer, and Susan
Batte is a lawyer and a member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar who practices in
Virginia. Both have been involved in the debate on separation of church and
state, researching and writing extensively on the subject. Together, they maintain
The
Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State, a web site dedicated
to combating "history by sound bite" that provides audio links to
Supreme Court oral arguments and speeches by civil rights/constitutional lawyers
and others. Contact both at shangrila38@hotmail.com.
Robert Ash is senior associate counsel of the American
Center for Law and Justice, where he specializes in First Amendment law.
He is also a professor of law at the law school and the Robertson School of
Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., where he teaches First
Amendment law. Contact via Sherry-Ann Morris, director of marketing and communications,
Regent University School of Law, 757-226-4647.
Erwin
Chemerinsky is a professor of law and political science at Duke University
in Durham, N.C. He specializes in constitutional law and civil rights issues.
He argued Van Orden v. Perry before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the
plaintiff. Contact 919-613-7173, chemerinsky@law.duke.edu.
Jeanne
Helton is an attorney with Smith, Hulsey & Busey in Jacksonville, Fla.,
and president of the Jacksonville chapter of the Christian Legal Society. Contact
904-359-7761, jhelton@smithhulsey.com.
Isabelle Kinnard is the education director of the Council
for American's First Freedom in Richmond, Va. It is raising money to build
the First Freedom Center, a national educational center devoted to the protection
and expansion of religious freedom worldwide. Contact 804-643-1786, ikinnard@firstfreedom.org.
Melissa
Rogers is a lawyer and a visiting professor of religion and public policy
at Wake Forest University Divinity School. She expects church-state cases in
the near future to involve school vouchers and state constitutional provisions,
RLUIPA cases and the question of whether pharmacists can be compelled to dispense
medication when they claim that doing so would conflict with their religious
convictions. She says she supports broad interpretations of both the Establishment
and Free Exercise clauses. She believes that people ought to be able to express
their religious beliefs on government property and in public discourse and that
religious groups ought to be able to participate in the delivery of government-funded
social services. But she also believes the government should not promote or
subsidize religion. She served as a counsel on amicus briefs filed with the
U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the prevailing party in Santa
Fe ISD v. Doe and on behalf of the losing side in Mitchell
v. Helms. Contact 202-904-4936, rogersm@wfu.edu.
John
Tuskey is an associate professor at Regent
University's School of Law in Virginia Beach, Va., who specializes in constitutional
law. Contact 757-226-4584.
IN
THE SOUTH
Chris
Doss is director of the Center
for the Study of Law and the Church at Samford University in Birmingham,
Ala. Contact 205-726-2409.
Bryan
K. Fair is a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, where his
specialties include the First Amendment. He expects the number of church-state
conflicts to increase because the Supreme Court has "been so pliant"
in efforts to "accommodate religious fundamentalism." He thinks Oregon
v. Smith could be overruled and says Planned
Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey could be vulnerable. He
defines himself as a separationist. Contact 205-886-9156, bfair@law.ua.edu.
Timothy
Hall is a University of Mississippi law professor whose expertise is in
the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment. Contact
662-915-6847, lwhall@olemiss.edu.
Wilfred
McClay is a senior fellow at the Ethics
and Public Policy Center, where he co-directs the center's program on Evangelicals
in Civic Life. He is also a professor of history at the University of Tennessee
at Chattanooga. Contact 425-5202, Bill-McClay@utc.edu.
Thomas
R. McCoy is a professor of law at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.,
who specializes in freedom of speech, press and religion as well as church-state
issues. Contact 615-322-2711, thomas.mccoy@vanderbilt.edu.
Susan
McPherson is a lawyer with Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff and Brandt in Birmingham,
Ala., where she specializes, in part, in constitutional law. She is also president
of the Birmingham chapter of the Christian Legal Society. Contact 205- 870-0555,
sm@wallacejordan.com.
IN
THE MIDWEST
Gerard
V. Bradley is a scholar of constitutional law and law and religion at Notre
Dame Law School in Indiana. Contact 574-631-8385.
Carl
Esbeck is a professor of law at the University of Missouri in Columbia,
where he specializes in First Amendment issues, especially the Establishment
and Free Exercise clauses. Contact 573-883-6543, EsbeckC@missouri.edu.
Howard Friedman is a professor emeritus of law at the University of Toledo
in Ohio who maintains a blog
called Religion Clause on freedom of religion. Contact religionclause@sev.org.
Richard
Garnett is a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame,
Ind. One of his areas of expertise is church-state relations. Contact 574-631-6981,
Rick.Garnett.4@nd.edu.
Frank
Lambert is a history professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.,
and author of The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America (Princeton
University Press, 2003). Contact 765-494-5811, flambert@cla.purdue.edu.
Frank
Ravitch is a professor of law at Michigan State University in East Lansing
and a scholar of constitutional law and of law and religion. He is author of
School Prayer and Discrimination: The Civil Rights of Religious Minorities
and Dissenters (Northeastern University, 2001) and Law and Religion,
A Reader: Cases, Concepts and Theory (Thomson/West, 2004). He expects the
lower courts to hear more cases on intelligent design and evolution and on religious
monument cases. He also expects funding cases dealing with whether the federal
government must include religious bodies in generally available funding programs.
He describes himself as neither a separationist nor an accommodationist, but
says he favors accommodation of free exercise and generally favors separation
in the establishment context. He wrote an amicus brief to the Supreme Court
in Chandler v. Siegelman, a school prayer case from Alabama, in support of those
opposing school prayer practices. Contact 517-432-6973, fravitch@law.msu.edu.
IN
THE SOUTHWEST
John
Attanasio is dean of the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University
in Dallas and a professor of constitutional law. He teaches a class on First
Amendment issues, including the separation of church and state. Contact jba@mail.smu.edu.
W. Cole
Durham Jr. is a law professor and director of the International
Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University in Provo,
Utah. Contact 801-422-2281, durhamc@lawgate.byu.edu.
John
Ferguson is a religious liberty attorney and an assistant professor of political
science at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. Before joining Howard
Payne, he was at the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University,
where he was education coordinator. Contact 325-649-8708, jferguson@hputx.edu.
Eric
Hall is an associate attorney with Rothgerber,
Johnson & Lyons in its Colorado Springs, Colo., office. He represents
religious institutions in legal matters, including in Establishment Clause cases.
He says he expects to see more cases involving religious expression in the military,
school vouchers, intelligent design curricula and the Pledge of Allegiance.
He says because Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas are already on record
as wanting to substantially change Establishment Clause jurisprudence, the addition
of two new justices to the Court could bring about that change. Contact ehall@rothgerber.com.
L. Martin Nussbaum is a partner in Rothgerber, Johnson & Lyons who
represents religious institutions and schools in legal cases, including First
Amendment cases. He works in Colorado Springs, Colo. Contact 719-386-3004.
Mark Weldon Whitten is the author of The Myth of Christian America:
What You Need to Know About the Separation of Church and State (Smith and
Helwys, 1999). He teaches religion and philosophy at Montgomery College and
is president of the Greater Houston Area Chapter of Americans United for the
Separation of Church and State. Contact 936-273-7492, Mark.W.Whitten@nhmccd.edu.
IN
THE WEST/NORTHWEST
Alan
E. Brownstein teaches law at the University of California, Davis. He specializes
in constitutional law. He has given testimony before legislatures and courts
in church-state issues. Contact 530-752-2586 or 530-752-0243, aebrownstein@ucdavis.edu.
Mark
David Hall is a professor of political science at George Fox University
in Newberg, Ore. He is currently co-editing The Sacred Rights of Conscience,
a collection of primary sources on church and state in America that will be
published by Liberty Fund Press. Contact 503-554-2674, mhall@georgefox.edu.
Edward Tabash is
a civil rights attorney and chairman of the National Legal Committee for Americans
United for Separation of Church and State. He is also honorary chairman of the
Center for Inquiry West and chairman of the First Amendment Task Force of the
Council for Secular Humanism. He lives in Los Angeles, Calif. Contact via his
web site.
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