2026 Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit: Day 2 Recap
TUESDAY, JULY 7
OPENING REMARKS
Dean G. Marcus Cole
On Tuesday morning, Dean G. Marcus Cole delivered the opening remarks at the 2026 Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit.
“The theme of this year’s summit is “We Hold These Truths…” As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of our nation – the first nation in the history of the world to be founded upon the core principle of religious freedom – it is appropriate that we do so here in Chicago, a city in which virtually every faith in the world is represented.”
“Notre Dame has become a safe harbor for people of all faiths because it emits a beacon of hope – and an assurance that faith matters.”
“The purpose of the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit is to explore issues, ideas, and strategies toward the protection and promotion of religious liberty, here in the United States and around the world.”
Dean G. Marcus Cole, Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law, Founder of the Religious Liberty Summit
Read his full remarks here.
PANEL DISCUSSION
"The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God": Natural Law and Rights
At our first set of panel discussions at the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit, speakers explored the theme “The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God: Natural Law and Rights.” Panelists included Professor Kurt Lash (University of Richmond School of Law), Professor Christopher Tollefsen (University of South Carolina), and Professor Melissa Moschella (University of Notre Dame), with Professor Sherif Girgis (Notre Dame Law School) serving as chair.
“The Declaration found its way into our Constitution and our political culture, because the people agreed that these words did, in fact, give voice to who they were as a people. It was because we held those truths to be self-evident that the laws of nature and nature's God entitled our existence as an independent nation in 1776 and demanded our blood and treasure as a matter of duty in the years to follow. Presumably that duty remains today, and I find that to be a sobering thought for 250 years later.”
Professor Kurt Lash, University of Richmond School of Law
"Restrictions, impediments, and burdens on religious practice are violations of the absolute core of the right to religious liberty when they're intended to suppress religious belief, worship, or action as such."
Professor Christopher Tollefsen, University of South Carolina
“If in line with the natural law tradition and the view of religion dominant in our nation's founding, we can understand religion as something objectively and distinctively valuable for human beings, not only as one among many goods that contribute to human fulfillment, but as a good that plays an architectonic that is a governing and structuring role in the good life. Then justice, and by extension law, requires giving it its special treatment in accordance with its special role in good life.”
Professor Melissa Moschella, University of Notre Dame
Professor Sherif Girgis, Notre Dame Law School, posed thoughtful questions that invited the panelists to consider whether belief in God is logically connected to belief in absolute rights and whether references to God in the Declaration of Independence were merely rhetorical or foundational to the framers' understanding of government.
PANEL DISCUSSION
The Religious Foundations of the American Revolution
Our second panel discussion of the day at the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit was on “The Religious Foundations of the American Revolution” with Mr. Mintae Cha, a third-year law student at Notre Dame Law School, Professor Daniel Slate (Notre Dame Law School), and Professor John Witte (Emory University School of Law). The session was chaired by Professor Nicole Garnett (Notre Dame Law School).
"With the American Revolution, a lot of people dropped their ethnic identity, which opened up new religious choices for them."
Mr. Mintae Cha, Notre Dame Law School
"Political Hebraism was not the only influence on the American founding, but it is an important part of the story that has too often been forgotten."
"As we continue the effort to recover the full view of the sources that shaped our Constitution, Political Hebraism deserves to be part of that conversation."
Professor Daniel Slate, Notre Dame Law School
“One important source of the American Revolution and founding that is often forgotten today is the Netherlands, which had an outsized religious and political influence on the founders.”
“Going Dutch meant engaging with and eagerly embracing Dutch revolutionary and constitutional ideas. But it also meant that the American founders ultimately paved their own way.”
Professor John Witte, Emory University School of Law
LUNCH KEYNOTE
Dr. Jacqueline Rivers
Dr. Jacqueline Rivers, executive director of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies, delivered the keynote address during today's programming at the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit. Dr. Rivers is both a scholar and a leader in advancing religious freedom for all, including minority groups, and fostering religious coexistence in pluralistic societies. In her keynote address, she spoke about the importance of engaging the Black Church in the defense of religious freedom.
"For African Americans, the relationship to religious freedom is quite complicated. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and as we reflect on these truths that we hold to be self-evident, we need to recognize that for African Americans, for Black people, for enslaved Africans at the time of the founding, they were actually denied religious freedom.”
“Those who are defending religious freedom have got to respond to God's call as expressed in the words of Isaiah: 'Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.’ We have to demonstrate that we care about the things that matter to the Black Church if we hope to get the Black Church involved.'"
"We call on all the fighters for religious freedom to engage a powerful ally—the Black Church—by standing with us in the challenges we face."
"Religious freedom has been very important for the history and development of the Black community."
Dr. Jacqueline Rivers, executive director of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies
PANEL DISCUSSION
Religious Freedom and the Making of Free Societies
The final panel discussion of the day at the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit was "Religious Freedom and the Making of Free Societies" with Professor Daniel Philpott (University of Notre Dame), Professor Allen Hertzke (University of Oklahoma), and Ms. Samah Norquist (Religious Freedom and Foreign Policy Expert). The session was chaired by Professor Rick Garnett (Notre Dame Law School).
"The two great factors that shape the political role of religious communities are their independence from government and a political theology that favors religious freedom."
Professor Daniel Philpott, University of Notre Dame
“For the good of freedom and Christianity, we must reclaim the pluralist foundations of democracy, reaffirming that our constitutional heritage does not privilege any faith but welcomes all.”
Professor Allen Hertzke, University of Oklahoma
“It is no coincidence that the First Amendment begins by protecting religious liberty, reflecting the conviction that our rights are inherent, not granted by government, but endowed by our Creator. It becomes the North Star for all other freedoms.”
Ms. Samah Norquist, Religious Freedom and Foreign Policy Expert
“He [James Madison] saw early on, like many others, that it was important to put religious freedom at the heart of the American constitutional experiment."
Professor Rick Garnett, Notre Dame Law School
DINNER CRUISE
Chicago River and Lake Michigan Dinner Cruise
Attendees at the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit concluded the day’s programming with a dinner cruise on the Chicago River and Lake Michigan aboard the First Lady.
Read the other daily recaps from the 2026 Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit: