Sarah (Sally) Barringer Gordon, Arlin M. Adams Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of History, will be giving this year's Erickson Legal History Distinguished Lecture, "The Spirit of the Law: Religion and the Constitution in Modern America", on March 10, 2010 at 3:30 p.m. in Room 50 of the Law School. Reception to follow.
"The Spirit of the Law: Religion and the Constiution in Modern America"
Sarah (Sally) Barringer Gordon, Arlin M.
Adams Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of History, will be
giving this year's Erickson Legal History Distinguished Lecture, on
Wednesday, March 10, 3:30 p.m. (Room 50 Law School), with a reception
following in the Lindquist & Vennum Conference Room. Her lecture, drawn
from her forthcoming book, is titled "The Spirit of the Law: Religion
and the Constitution in Modern America."
Abstract: "A new constitutional world burst into American life in the
mid-twentieth century. For the first time, the national constitution's
religion clauses were extended by the United States Supreme Court to all
state and local governments. As energized religious individuals and
groups probed the new boundaries between religion and government and
claimed their sacred rights in court, a complex and evolving landscape
of religion and law emerged. Passionate believers turned to the law and
the courts to facilitate a dazzling diversity of spiritual practice.
Legal decisions revealed the exquisite difficulty of gauging where
religion ends and government begins. Controversies over school prayer,
public funding, religion in prison, and same-sex marriage roiled
long-standing assumptions about religion in public life."
See attachment below for flyer.
Erickson Lecture (Spring 2010).pdf
