A Debate about Religious Liberty in America

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 September 2023

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How did America’s founders view religious liberty? What does it mean today? And to what does the Constitution require religious exemptions from generally applicable laws? Marci Hamilton, author of God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty, and Michael McConnell, co-author of Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Protects Religious Diversity and Freedom of Conscience, join for a special Constitution Day discussion to celebrate the opening of the Center’s new First Amendment gallery. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates. Resources: National Constitution Center’s First Amendment gallery Marci Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty (2014) Marci Hamilton, “‘Warped history’: How the U.S. supreme court justified gutting gay rights,” The Guardian (Aug 23, 2023) “Prof. Michael McConnell (Stanford) on 303 Creative (the Web Site Designer / Same-Sex Wedding Case),” Volokh Conspiracy (Dec. 2022) Michael McConnell, Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Protects Religious Diversity and Freedom of Conscience (2023) Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friends. I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution
0:06.9	Center and welcome to We The People Weekly Show of Constitutional Debate.
0:10.8	The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit charted by Congress to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.
0:20.0	On Monday, September 18th, the National Constitution Center celebrated Constitution Day.
0:25.8	Happy Constitution Day everyone.
0:28.4	We hosted an inspiring series of programs featuring judges, scholars, musicians, and more.
0:34.3	There was an inspiring ceremony for new citizens and there were a series of great panels
0:39.3	on topics from the First Amendment to the Constitutional Convention.
0:43.0	And in this episode, we're sharing one of those programs with you.
0:46.0	It's a town hall discussing how the founders viewed religious liberty and what it means today.
0:51.0	It was a vigorous debate between two of America's great scholars of
0:54.2	Religious Liberty, Marcy Hamilton and Michael McCombre, about the scope of
0:58.4	religious exemptions to generally applicable laws. Marcy Hamilton is a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania and
1:05.8	author of God versus the Gavel, the perils of extreme religious liberty, and Michael McConnell's
1:11.0	professor of law at Stanford,
1:13.2	and co-author of agreeing to disagree
1:15.5	how the Establishment Clause protects
1:17.8	religious diversity and freedom of conscience.
1:20.6	Enjoy the show. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the National Constitution Center and happy Constitution Day.
1:34.8	It has been such an inspiring day here at the NCC.
1:39.2	We began in the morning with a reading of the preamble of the Constitution for middle school kids across America.
1:45.6	We had a ceremony for new citizens here on this stage and there's nothing more moving
	...

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