Pepperdine Convenes Legal Scholars, Practitioners, and Judges for Second Annual State of Religious Freedom Conference

Pepperdine Caruso School of Law recently hosted the second annual State of Religious Freedom conference at its Malibu campus, bringing together legal scholars, judges, and experts from around the world to discuss critical issues impacting religious liberty. The event was jointly organized by the Ken Starr Institute for Faith, Law, and Public Service and the Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics, two cornerstone initiatives that focus on the intersection of religious liberty, legal scholarship, and public service. This was the second event in a series of ongoing dialogues about this pivotal civil liberty. 

President Gash

Following welcome remarks by University president Jim Gash (JD ‘93), the conference centered around a series of dialogues, in which participants discussed cutting edge issues involving church-state relations. Chief Judge Matthew H. Solomson of the Court of Federal Claims moderated a panel that featured former Solicitor General of the United States Noel Francisco, Clement & Murphy founding partner Erin Murphy, and several scholars, who debated how the Supreme Court’s recent move towards a historical approach may impact free exercise claims. The discussion broadened with perspectives from an international lens, as former US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback moderated a panel highlighting shared tensions across constitutional democracies which included comments from Justices of the Israeli and Spanish Supreme Courts, a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights, and leading members of the US federal judiciary. Other discussions ranged from conversations about posting the Ten Commandments and the parental rights of religious parents in public schools, and the development of the law surrounding government funding of religious institutions.

Reflecting on the topics and intellectual exchange during the three-day event, Francisco shared, “Conferences like this are invaluable to practitioners in this space. By bringing together leading scholars, practitioners, and judges from across the world, they focus attention on the cutting-edge issues that are at the forefront of religious liberty litigation.”

Paul L. Caron, Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean of the Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law, opened the second day of the conference, which kicked off with a robust exchange moderated by Ninth Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay among judges hailing from five federal circuit courts on religious freedom cases at the trial and appellate levels. This was followed by panels discussing scholarly thoughts on comparative law approaches in the religious freedom space, and a discussion evaluating whether Employment Division v. Smith should stand and what potential legal frameworks might replace it.

Various speakers at the second annual State of Religious Freedom conference

Javier Martínez-Torrón, professor of law at Complutense University in Madrid, Spain, highlighted the value of these international exchanges, stating: “Having an honest and open-minded exchange of views among scholars and judges, in a friendly academic atmosphere, about how to better protect freedom of religion and conscience has been a very enriching experience. We have complementary perspectives on the same issues. We need more initiatives like this.”

As the event came to a close, judges from seven federal circuit courts, international jurists, scholars from across the globe, and some of the nation’s leading practitioners had facilitated a comprehensive dialogue on the future of religious freedom jurisprudence. The range of perspectives reinforced the conference's central theme: That freedom of religion is pivotal to a rightly-ordered system of government.

The conference was convened in partnership with the Centre for Law and Religious Freedom at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, with additional support from Founders' First Freedom.