2021-2022 Newsletter
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As we move into a new academic year, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the second year of the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center. It is in the books and was a resounding success! Since its launch in the fall of 2020 with generous donations from Texas Law alumni Doug Bech and Sam Loughlin, the Center has continued to advance dialogue and scholarship as the leading academic center in the country focused on all the freedoms found in the First Amendment. Founding faculty director, Professor Steven T. Collis, continues to lead the Center and the Law and Religion Clinic in realizing the core mission of understanding, exploring, and defending those freedoms. This newsletter will give you an update about the Center’s progress this past year and how we plan to expand our work in the year ahead.
Committed to being a non-partisan entity, the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center is founded on the premise that robust discussion of contested legal questions is essential to a well-functioning democratic culture and to the preservation of the rule of law. This past year, the Center was proud to host a number of important events to that end, both at the Law School and across the university. We were honored to welcome prominent First Amendment scholars and thought-leaders who participated in timely discussions about topics ranging from free speech, religious freedom, the Second Founding, judicial perspectives on the First Amendment, and hate speech and academic freedom in a social media age. Click the links below to watch these conversations:
Events and Programming
Academic Freedom, the First Amendment, and the American University
David Rabban (Texas Law) and Laura Weinrib (Harvard Law)
View full conversation here.
Perspectives on the Second Founding (co hosted by the Texas Law Review)
William M. Carter, Jr. (University of Pittsburgh School of Law) and Ilan Wurman (Arizona State College of Law)
View full conversation here.
Judicial Perspectives on the First Amendment
Federal Appellate Judges Patrick Bumatay (9th Circuit), James Ho (5th Circuit), and Timothy Tymkovich (10th Circuit)
View full conversation here.
Academic Freedom and Free Speech in the Social Media Age
Nadine Strossen (former national president of the ACLU) and Keith Whittington (Princeton University)
View full conversation here.
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Another successful year for the Law and Religion Clinic
Fall 2021 Clinic Students Spring 2022 Clinic Students
The Law and Religion Clinic had another successful year. Through their exceptional and dedicated work, the fall 2021 and spring 2022 cohorts fully engaged in exploring religious freedom law in the United States, grew in their lawyering skills, and helped protect the rights of a number of vulnerable clients. Key cases included contributing to a significant victory in the Supreme Court achieved by an all-UT team of lawyers/professors, as well as earning a preliminary injunction ordering a prison system not to proceed with an execution without granting the Clinic’s client his requested religious accommodation. In addition, the spring 2022 class, once again, participated in Yale’s Religious Liberty Speaker Series with their counterparts in the clinics at the Notre Dame, Yale, Pepperdine, Harvard, and Stanford law schools in exploring the latest and most foundational legal scholarship in the field (including from Texas Law’s own Elizabeth Sepper).
The case work this academic year involved representing a broad range of religious groups and individuals, including (but not limited to):
- Assisting an Amish community in Minnesota being forced to adopt technology that violates their religious beliefs
- Advising a Sikh army officer on becoming a chaplain in the US military
- Presenting on a panel at a conference regarding the rise of the religious “Nones”
- Working with the Texas Law Supreme Court Clinic on a key victory in the United States Supreme Court.
- Securing a preliminary injunction against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for refusing to allow a religious accommodation at the moment of execution.
- Advising a Muslim employee on receiving religious accommodations in the workplace.
- Helping an incarcerated man wear sacred religious garb in prison
- Advising several Unitarian Universalist congregations on various tax and transactional matters.
Our students accomplished so much this past year and those who graduated are now on their way to jobs with sophisticated law firms across the country, positions with federal agencies or nonprofits, or clerkships in the Ninth, Fifth, Sixth, and D.C. Circuits, as well as a number of federal district courts or state supreme courts. For Fall 2022, we are excited to welcome the largest group of students we have ever had and look forward to seeing the amazing things they do!
Notable Student Quotes:
- “This clinic constituted my most meaningful academic experience in law school. I thoroughly enjoyed the work I did, my client interactions, and the learning that happened along the way. I now have a more robust, actual understanding of how litigation works, specifically in the context of religious liberty.”
- “Truly my favorite class and professor at Texas Law by far. Collis is witty, intelligent, great at explaining, and truly passionate about what he does.”
- “I would say this clinic was the most valuable class I took this year. I probably retained more information from this instruction than any other class. It also allowed me do substantive work on some very interesting cases.”
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Faculty Update:
New Acclaimed Book and New Professor!
This last year was another busy one for Professor Steven T. Collis, who joined the Texas Law faculty in 2020 as the founding faculty director of the Center and Clinic. He continued to speak at conferences and to media across the United States and launched a new critically acclaimed book.
Book
Professor Collis’s new book launched to high praise, with the American Library Association giving it a rare, starred review and calling it “mesmerizing . . . instantly establishing [Collis] as a literary force in historical fiction. His compassion and gritty realism bring a remarkably fresh voice. . . . Based on true events, Praying with the Enemy features a sensitive and nuanced range of emotions, granting this well-researched historical and tactical novel satisfying depth.” A #1 release on Amazon, the book has also received praise from sources as diverse as the Midwest Book Review, civil rights organizations, and NBA legend John Stockton, who called it “captivating . . . I couldn’t put it down.”
Community Engagement
Professor Collis also spoke at nearly two dozen events this past year. Here are just a few highlights:
- Presented a lecture at the University of Notre Dame Law School about his book The Immortals, which was a finalist for the Foreword Indies book of the year, which recognizes the best books from independent or university presses.
- Presented a lecture at Brigham Young University regarding the intersection of religious liberty law and LGBT+ rights.
- Guest-lectured for an undergraduate history course at Brigham Young University and presented a lecture on avoiding the Puritan Mistake.
- Spoke in Washington D.C. as part of the Religious Freedom Institute’s event on religious freedom in education.
- At Drake University, spoke alongside other scholars regarding emerging issues related to religious freedom law.
- Participated in a panel discussion at the International Center for Law and Religion Studies regarding the future of the Establishment Clause.
- At the Colorado Capitol, spoke alongside Governor Jared Polis and other dignitaries regarding religious freedom.
- Participated in academic conferences regarding religious liberty in Washington, D.C., and Rome, Italy.
- Was interviewed by or quoted in numerous media outlets, including NPR, the Dallas Morning News, the Deseret News, Bloomberg, and over a dozen podcasts and television shows.
New Professor!
After a nationwide search, the Center is also thrilled to announce that a new Clinical Professor will be joining us in January 2023! This will help continue the great work of the Law & Religion Clinic while the Center maintains and expands its focus on providing top-notch events and scholarship related to the First Amendment. We will announce the hire later this year, so please stay-tuned!
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Center Co-Sponsorships
Once again, the Center was proud to cosponsor events that allowed for the exploration of the First Amendment across the nation.
The Center was a proud co-sponsor of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society’s 2021 Religious Freedom Fellowships, where top law school and undergraduate students from across the world join in D.C. to learn about the fundamentals of religious liberty law from the nation’s leading academics, judges, and advocates. Professor Collis was among those who taught the fellows in D.C., along with University of Texas Law School Professor Douglas Laycock, among many other dignitaries.
The Center sponsored a Texas Law student for a summer internship with one of the nation’s leading religious liberty nonprofits.
It also co-sponsored a conference at Drake University exploring a variety of academic and theological approaches to religious liberty.
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On the horizon…
We wrap up this academic year in celebration and gratitude of the return of some normalcy for our students and the Law School. It has been very rewarding to engage in-person, to get to know our students face-to-face, and to host events where our panelists enjoyed a live audience with our amazing community. The 2022–23 academic year will bring more growth and exciting opportunities for the Center, as we embark on more far-reaching content and events that will include the entire university and beyond.
We will be sharing our calendar of events on the First Amendment Center website, but the best way to receive information is to join our email list. Your participation and support will always make our work more meaningful and worthwhile.
If you (or someone you know) would like to be added to the Center’s email list, please email Sandra Garcia, Center and Clinic administrator, at sandra.garcia@law.utexas.edu. You can also follow the Center on Twitter @UTLaw_1stAmCtr and Professor Collis @steventcollis.
Have a wonderful year and we hope to see you soon!