• October 2023
    On Oct 31, the Center co-sponsored a talk by William Saunders, and human rights lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, at the Columbus School of Law

    On Oct 26, the Center co-sponsored a talk by Nick Nikas on Morality and the Law, at the Columbus School of Law
    Talks with Authors: What It Means to Be Human
    In What It Means to Be Human - The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics Prof. O. Carter Snead investigates the tension between the natural limits of the human body and the political philosophy of autonomy, and the legal and policy challenges that arise when those two conflict. He proposes a new paradigm of how to understand being human and applies it to complex issues of bioethics, laying out a framework of embodiment and dependence. Moderated by Prof. William Saunders.

  • September 2023
    The Law, Policy and Politics of International Religious Freedom
    This panel was moderated by Bill Saunders, Co-Director of the Center for Religious Liberty, Catholic Law Panelist included:
    Nadine Maenza, President, IRF Secretariat and Global Fellow, The Wilson Center; Former Chair, The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
    Daniel E. Lungren, Former U.S. Congressman and California State Attorney
    General H.E. Michele Bowe, Ambassador of the Order of Malta to Palestine
    Piero Tozzi, Staff Director, Congressional Executive Commission on China

    Religious Liberty in the Supreme Court: What's in Store for October Term 2023 and Beyond? with Professors Eric Treene and Asma Uddin

    The Federalist Society presents Religious Liberty and the Court - Looking Ahead to the Next Term with Center for Religious Liberty Directors Professor Mark Rienzi and Professor William Saunders

  • June, 2023
    William Saunders wrote a Washington Insider column for the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly on the Fulton decision and the upcoming Dobbs decision. Click here to learn more.

  • February 2023
    Eric Treene presentation on regulating houses of worship after Covid.

  • January 2023
    William Saunders participated in the International Religious Freedom Summit, leading the youth leadership track session.

  • December 2022
    Mark Rienzi interviewed by William Saunders on careers in religious liberty.

  • November 2022
    Student meeting: Rachel Morrison presentation on the regulatory process and its impact on religious liberty.

  • October 2022
    Sponsored conference on interfaith cooperation as part of international peace and security.

  • September 2022
    Mark Rienzi quoted in Wall Street Journal regarding a Supreme Court win on behalf of Yeshiva University.

    The Center for Religious Liberty Fellows program launched. The Center added the following Fellows: Elizabeth Kirk, Kevin Walsh, Bob Destro, Eric Treene, Jennie Lichter, Asma Uddin, and Louis Brown.

  • August 2022
    Co-Directors of Catholic Law’s Center for Religious Liberty Featured on a Recent Federalist Society Webinar

  • April 2022
    William Saunders participated in Talks with Authors: John Fisher and Thomas More: Keeping Their Souls While Losing Their Heads. Click here to learn more.

  • February 2022
    Catholic Law Professor Mark Rienzi Comments On Protecting Religious Liberty for New York Health Care Workers

    William Saunders participated in the first civil society meeting with Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Rashad Hussain.

  • January 2022
    Two Members of Catholic Law’s Center for Religious Liberty Participate in “Institutional Religious Freedom: Exploring Contemporary Policy Challenges

  • December 2021
    Joel Alicea published “Liberalism and Disagreement in American Constitutional Theory,” 107 VA. L. Rev.

    Joel Alicea published “Dobbs and the Fate of the Conservative Legal Movement.” City J.

  • October 2021
    Mark Rienzi presented an invited paper at a roundtable at the Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason Scalia Law School in Arlington, VA.

    Annual Human Rights Lecture Ambassador Sam Brownback in Conversation with William Saunders on Human Rights and International Religious Freedom.

    Ambassador Sam Brownback joined the Center as a Fellow in October 2021, having served as U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom from 2018 – 2021. The former Governor and Senator from Kansas will teach a course on international religious freedom in the Spring of 2022.

  • September 2021
    Federal Society roundup of religious liberty developments at SCOTUS with Rienzi and Saunders. Click here to learn more.

    William Saunders wrote a Washington Insider column for the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly on the Fulton decision and the upcoming Dobbs decision.

  • August 2021
    Joel Alicea was featured on “Religious Freedom Matters” Podcast on EWTN.

    Co-director Mark Rienzi and Will Haun '12 gave a presentation on COVID and Religious Liberty.  Click here to learn more.

  • July 2021
    The Center cosponsored the International Religious Freedom Summit, held in Washington, DC. Co-director William Saunders served on the organizing committee. At the Summit, the Center held a session in which Co-director Saunders and CUA Distinguished Fellow, Chen Guangcheng, discussed religious liberty issues in China.

  • May 2021
    The Center assisted with an amicus brief by religious liberty scholars from around the world filed with the Inter American Court of Human Rights. The case concerned religious liberty protections for Catholic schools in Chile.

  • March 2021
    Rienzi and Saunders, Faith & Law event, “Covid and the Courts – Current Threats to Religious Liberty.” 
    Click here to learn more.

  • October 2020
    A Conversation with Judge Daniel Aaron Bress, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Professor Daniel F. Attridge. DATE A study of COVID lockdown cases with James Phillips. Click here to learn more.

    Religious Liberty at the Supreme Court Virtual Event featuring Louis Brown, Executive Director, Chrismedicus.org, Will Haun '12, Consel, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and Co-directors, William Saunders and Mark Rienzi, for Center of Liberty.  Click here to learn more.

  • September 2020
    Rienzi and Saunders, Federalist Society Podcast, “Previewing the New Term.” Click here to learn more.

  • July 2020
    Mark Rienzi and William Saunders, Federalist Society Podcast, “Religious Liberty at the Supreme Court: the 2020 Term and Beyond.” Click here to learn more.

  • March 2020
    Center also began a relationship as co-sponsor of the Siegenthaler-Sutherland Cup, which is the nation's oldest (71 years) and now only national First Amendment moot court competition. The sponsorship provides that every year one of the questions in the competition will address religious liberty. Twenty-four teams from around the country come to Washington, D.C., for a 2-day competition. The competition requires all teams to brief and argue both sides of each question.

  • February 2020
    Hosted “Religious Liberty and Nondiscrimination: Are We on a Collision Course?” presented by The Honorable Elizabeth L. Branch, United States Court of Appeals, for the 11th Circuit at the Columbus School of Law.  Click here to learn more.

    The Center hired Joel Alicea, J.D., as its first Fellow.

  • May 2019
    Participated as part of a panel in the Freedom of Religious Institutions in Society Conference held in Washington, D.C.

  • November 2018
    Justice Alito talking to students in the law school atrium
    Hosted “A Special Lecture: The Honorable Samuel Alito, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States” at the Columbus School of Law. Click here to learn more.

    Religious Liberty Conference signage
    Hosted a symposium entitled “The Future of Religious Liberty in America” at the Columbus School of Law. Co-sponsored with the Heritage Foundation. Click here to learn more.

  • July 2018
    “The Fight for International Religious Freedom: Perspectives from the Vatican,” featuring U.S. Ambassador Callista Gingrich and Vatican Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Gallagher. Co-sponsored with the Religious Freedom Institute. Click here to learn more.

  • April 2018
    Held inaugural lecture with Ambassador Sam Brownback, U.S. ambassador-at- large for international religious freedom at Columbus School of Law. Click here to learn more.