Prof. Garnett invited to speak at Ethics and Culture conference

The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture invited Professor of Law Rick Garnett to speak at the Center’s 10th annual fall conference, “The Summons of Freedom: Virtue, Sacrifice, and the Common Good.” The conference runs Thursday, Nov. 12 through Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. Garnett will present “Religious Freedom in America Today: Freedom From, Freedom Of, or Freedom For?”

Says Garnett, “James Madison once expressed his view that America’s distinctive commitment to religious liberty would add ‘lustre to our country.’ We, his successors, have for two centuries been struggling to work out the content and implications of that commitment. Although we do not always agree what religious freedom means, we agree that it matters. For us, the goal has been, and remains, not to use the law to achieve freedom from religion, but rather freedom of, and for religion.”

Garnett teaches courses on criminal law, criminal procedure, First Amendment law, and the death penalty. His areas of research interest and expertise include: school choice, Catholic social thought, Church / state relations, religion in the public square, free speech and expressive association, free exercise of religion, federalism and criminal law, and the death penalty.

Link to more about Garnett, including his CV and selected scholarship, at /people/faculty-and-administration/teaching-and-research-faculty/richard-w-garnett.

For more on the conference, visit http://ethicscenter.nd.edu/events/fallconfs/sof/sof.shtml.