Kelsey Baer Flores

Kelsey Baer Flores joined BYU Law School in 2026 as an associate professor of law and director of the new Religious Liberty Clinic. Her research centers on the free exercise clause, the establishment clause, and the intersection of those clauses: the church autonomy doctrine. Professor Flores’s career has focused on defending religious freedom for people of all faiths. In one role, she led the religious liberty efforts for the chair of the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and worked on judicial nominations.

Following her time on the Hill, she helped launch the Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic as its clinical instructor, where she supervised students through various aspects of litigation and taught seminars on religious liberty law. Professor Flores later practiced constitutional law at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, representing religious clients at both the trial and appellate levels. She clerked for Judge Don Willett of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Judge Brantley Starr of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She earned a BA in journalism from BYU and a JD from SMU Dedman School of Law. Her favorite time of year is college football season with her husband and three young children.