

Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ
John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law
NBC News
March 31, 2025
It was obvious it would spark a legal challenge, but in consultation with Nicole Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ who along with other conservatives has long argued in favor of religious charter schools, the archdiocese thought it was worth a shot.
The Guardian
March 17, 2025
“That last day when you leave the court you think, ‘Wow, that’s about the coolest thing that’s ever going to happen to me,’” said Nicole Stelle Garnett. She assisted Justice Clarence Thomas during the 1998 term, the same year Barrett worked under Justice Antonin Scalia. “Now, to see my friend testifying before the Senate judiciary committee, to walk back up the steps 21 years later is really, really something.”
The Washington Post
December 02, 2024
There’s a collegiality, a kindness and a lack of an edge,” said law professor Nicole Garnett, a close friend of Barrett’s from their years as colleagues and neighbors, and the driving force behind the school’s success in placing law clerks at all levels of the judiciary.
The Wall Street Journal
November 22, 2024
By Nicole Stelle Garnett and John Meiser. Ms. Garnett and Mr. Meiser are law professors at Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ.
NBC News
October 07, 2024
Seated in his book-lined study on the second floor, the law school’s dean, G. Marcus Cole, alternated between pride at recent achievements and indignation at the idea that the faculty skews disproportionately to the right. The problem, he said, is that most law schools lean heavily to the left and do not reflect America as a whole.
Catholic News Agency
July 01, 2024
Professor Nicole Garnett of the Notre Dame Education Law Project, along with Ilya Shapiro and Tim Rosenberger of the Manhattan Institute, have also filed briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Michigan parents.
The Wall Street Journal
December 18, 2023
By Nicole Stelle Garnett and Tim Rosenberger
The74
June 27, 2023
Nicole Garnett, a Notre Dame University law professor and senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, on Monday said the high court “will [and should] address” the issue of public v. private actors in a future case — she noted that the North Carolina case was arguably “a bad vehicle for resolving the question.”
The Wall Street Journal
June 19, 2023
Nicole Stelle.Garnett is a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.
The74
June 15, 2023
Garnett argues religious organizations that want to open charters should be able to receive public funds, much like faith-based adoption agencies and soup kitchens.
Bloomberg
June 15, 2023
University of Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ professor Nicole Stelle Garnett said charter schools in most states are privately operated independent of the government so that makes them private schools.
The New York Times
June 09, 2023
“The question is, what’s the difference?” said Nicole Stelle Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who helped advise St. Isidore’s organizers and is a prominent voice making the case for religious charter schools.
Education Week
June 07, 2023
It seemed like a good time to check in with Nicole Stelle Garnett, the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law at Notre Dame, the author of Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic 91ÊÓÆµs' Importance in Urban America and the legal scholar probably most responsible for advancing the notion of religious charter schools. Here’s what she had to say..
Quartz
June 06, 2023
But the First Amendment also guarantees the “free exercise” of religion and so prohibits anti-religious discrimination by governments, argueNicole Stelle Garnett and Richard Garnett of Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ, who helped the the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa with their charter school application.
The74
June 06, 2023
But John Mieser of Notre Dame’s Religious Liberty Initiative, told the board that the government can’t discriminate against religious organizations that want to run charter schools. Nicole Garnett, a University of Notre Dame law professor who supports religious charter schools, called Prelogar’s opinion “a good brief” and said it could persuade the court to “take a pass.”
The Tablet
June 06, 2023
Nicole Garnett, a University of Notre Dame law school professor who is part of the university’s Religious Liberty Initiative advising the Oklahoma dioceses in their charter school application, said charter schools are not state actors.
The Wall Street Journal
April 14, 2023
By Nicole Stelle Garnett and Meredith Holland Kessler. Ms. Garnett is a law professor at the University of Notre Dame. Ms. Kessler is an attorney in the Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ Religious Liberty Clinic.
The New York Times
April 11, 2023
Nicole Stelle Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who has argued for religious charter schools and has advised the St. Isidore organizers, said that the “underlying question” was whether charter schools were “state actors” or “private actors,” despite being publicly funded.
Reuters
April 06, 2023
If approved, St. Isidore would be the first religious charter school in the United States, according to Nicole Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ, which has provided assistance to the school's organizers.
Our Sunday Visitor
March 22, 2023
Nicole Stelle Garnett, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, told OSV News that it is “pretty clear” that the California provision distinguishing between sectarian and nonsectarian private schools’ eligibility for the funding is unconstitutional.
The Daily Caller
March 13, 2023
“It’s quite clear that in the state of Oklahoma, as the attorney general last year concluded, their charter school law violates the Free Exercise Clause,” Nicole Garnett, a John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ who has been advising the diocese through the application process, told the DCNF.
Ricochet podcast
Audio
February 23, 2023
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat discusses these developments with , the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ, the author of two books, and the co-editor of a new book, “The Case for Parental Choice: God, Family and Educational Liberty,” coming out in March.
First Things
February 14, 2023
Nicole Stelle Garnett is the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ. Richard W. Garnett is professor of law and concurrent professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.
February 13, 2023
Nicole Stelle Garnett, an associate dean and professor at the University of Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ and an expert in the First Amendment’s religion clauses, said she agreed that Carson did not address the question of religious charter schools. But she believes the Oklahoma attorney general opinion is correct in concluding that, in at least that state, they would be permitted under the First Amendment’s establishment clause and required to be approved under the free exercise clause.
National Catholic Register
January 30, 2023
Nicole Garnett is a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ and a fellow of the university’s Institute for Educational Initiatives.
Video
July 19, 2022
Notre Dame Law Professor Nicole Garnett is At the Bar to discuss the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Carson v. Makin.
PolitiFact
June 30, 2022
"I do not think that the metaphor used in (Jefferson’s) letter accurately conveys the meaning of the establishment clause," said Nicole Stelle Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame. "But the original understanding of the establishment clause — other than the fact it prohibited a national church — is contested."
Reuters
June 28, 2022
Nicole Stelle Garnett, a Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ professor who joined a brief filed with the justices backing the football coach, said the court was merely making clear that governments must treat religious people the same as everyone else.
New York Daily News
June 28, 2022
Nicole Garnett is the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.
New York Daily News
June 27, 2022
Nicole Stelle Garnett is the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.
The Christian Science Monitor
June 27, 2022
“I would say this general trend towards neutrality is the touchstone, the core principle of the First Amendment’s religion clauses, and it predates by many years ... the Roberts court,” says Nicole Stelle Garnett, professor at Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ and former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas.
City-Journal
June 22, 2022
Nicole Stelle Garnett is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.
Los Angeles Times
June 21, 2022
“The court said again no state may set up a program of private school choice and exclude funding for faith-based schools,” said Nicole Garnett, a Notre Dame law professor.
The Washington Post
June 21, 2022
Notre Dame law professor Nicole Stelle Garnett filed a lawsuit against Maine’s program 25 years ago. She called Tuesday’s decision a “victory both for religious liberty and for American schoolchildren.”
Business Insider
June 21, 2022
"The court's already made pretty clear the rules here," Nicole Garnett, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ who filed a legal brief in support of the plaintiffs, told Insider ahead of the decision.
Catholic News Service
May 09, 2022
The program’s interim director, Nicole Stelle Garnett, a Notre Dame law professor, said this case provides the court with the chance to “clarify that religious voices are welcome in the public square and that our nation and communities are enriched by them.”
SCOTUSBlog
April 18, 2022
Amy talks to Professor Nicole Stelle Garnett and supervising attorney John Meiser of the Religious Liberty Clinic at Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ about the amicus brief the clinic filed in Kennedy v. Bremerton 91ÊÓÆµ District.
National Review
February 17, 2022
How about an excerpt on this very theme, from Notre Dame Law professor Nicole Stelle Garnett?
Catholic News Service
January 19, 2022
Notre Dame Law 91ÊÓÆµ’s Religious Liberty Initiative similarly filed an amicus brief in this case. The program’s interim director, Nicole Stelle Garnett, a Notre Dame law professor, said this case provides the court with the chance to “clarify that religious voices are welcome in the public square and that our nation and communities are enriched by them.”
Los Angeles Times
December 08, 2021
Notre Dame law professor Nicole Garnett predicted there would be a move to permit religious charter schools, either through the courts or the states.
City-Journal
December 07, 2021
Nicole Stelle Garnett is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.
Los Angeles Times
December 07, 2021
Notre Dame law professor Nicole Garnett, a former Thomas clerk, predicts there will be a move “in the near future to permit religious charter schools,” either through the courts or the states.
The Christian Science Monitor
December 07, 2021
“At some level pluralism demands that we tolerate views that we don’t like. A lot of religions have views that I disagree with, and I’m able, I hope, to accept that,” says Nicole Stelle Garnett, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
The New York Times
December 04, 2021
But Nicole Garnett, a law professor at Notre Dame, said there was just one sound way to assess the status and stature of the court.