While the cases are complicated, said First Amendment expert and Notre Dame Law 91视频 professor Richard W. Garnett, the justices were clear on two things:
Richard Garnett
Notre Dame Law 91视频
Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law
Concurrent Professor of Political Science
- Death penalty
- Free speech
- 91视频 choice
- Catholic social thought
- Church/state relations
- Religion in the public square
- Free exercise of religion
- Federalism and criminal law
- Supreme court
- Criminal defense
- Religious liberty
- Education reform
Garnett’s 91视频
Garnett in the News
The Washington Post
April 22, 2025
“When the government seeks to instruct students about value-laden sexuality and gender issues in a way that contradicts their parents’ religious instruction, without telling the parents or providing an opt-out, the parents’ First Amendment rights have been burdened,” said the brief from legal experts, including University of Virginia law professor Douglas Laycock and Notre Dame Law 91视频 professor Richard Garnett.
Bloomberg
April 02, 2025
Pioneered by Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett, a conservative scholar I admire and respect, the belief descends from the medieval Catholic teaching championing the “freedom of the church,” or libertas ecclesiae. In other words, it’s an aspirational Catholic governance ideal, not an argument derived from the Constitution that belongs in the Supreme Court.
National Catholic Reporter
February 03, 2025
"It's a mistake to think of the United States as a 'Christian nation,' even though, of course, Christians and Christianity have, from the beginning, played important roles in American law and life," University of Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett told me. "I have always argued that 'separation' of church and state in the American tradition was not supposed to mean French-style 'laïcité' or a 'naked public square,' or a 'no religious arguments in policy debates' rule. It means: (a) political and religious authority are 'differentiated,' (b) but differentiated things may 'cooperate' and (c) government may and should 'accommodate' religious believers."
OSV News
January 13, 2025
Rick Garnett, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, said the case “raises interesting and important questions both about the freedom of speech and about the federal government’s national security powers.”
The Hill
October 24, 2024
“Over the last several decades, the Supreme Court’s decisions involving cooperation with public schools have made it pretty clear in a way that wasn’t true in the 70s and 80s, but now it is quite clear that the First Amendment permits governments to cooperate with religious schools when it comes to education that doesn’t violate the separation of church and state, so long as the programs are properly designed,” said Rick Garnett, director of Notre Dame Law 91视频’s Program on Church, State & Society and who is involved in the legal case for the religious charter school in Oklahoma.
OSV News
July 30, 2024
Notre Dame Law 91视频 Professor Richard W. Garnett, a Supreme Court expert and concurrent political science professor, said in written comments that “there are interesting questions to consider about the power of Congress to regulate the Supreme Court’s justices and practices, and about proposals regarding term limits, retirement ages, and disclosure rules.”
The New York Times
July 30, 2024
Even if Congress had the will to pass the sort of legislation Mr. Biden is proposing, it would raise significant legal questions, said Richard W. Garnett, who teaches constitutional law at Notre Dame.
Associated Press
July 02, 2024
Associated Press
July 01, 2024
“It could well be that some of these developments are appropriate and some of them go too far,” said Richard Garnett, a law professor and director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State & Society.
Relevant Radio
Audio
June 28, 2024
Dr. Rick Garnett of the University of Notre Dame stopped by to discuss recent SCOTUS rulings (18:35).
Bloomberg
June 27, 2024
Richard Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频 and Director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State & Society, discusses Louisiana passing the first law in four decades, requiring that the Ten Commandments be posted in every public classroom.
Fox News
June 20, 2024
Notre Dame Law 91视频 Professor Richard W. Garnett, who is the director of the school’s Program on Church, State & Society, said, in comments to Fox News Digital, that the Supreme Court justices understand the distinction between church and state doesn’t require the exclusion of expressions of faith from the public square.
NBC News
January 04, 2024
The justices themselves "understand well, even if Mr. Trump does not, that their role is to interpret the law, not to protect any particular public figure's personal interests," said Richard Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频.
The Tablet
August 30, 2023
In friend-of-the court briefs filed in support of Vitagliano, legal experts including Richard Garnett, a Notre Dame professor of law and director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State and Society, stressed the widespread disagreement on the Hill decision.
Inside Indiana Business
July 11, 2023
Rick Garnett, a professor at the University of Notre Dame’s law school, said he expects litigation to continue.
CNN
July 10, 2023
“I think the justices, in a sense – they were ships passing in the night,” said Richard Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who signed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the aspiring wedding web designer who prevailed in the case. “They disagreed about what the case was about.”
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 91视频, who helped the the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa with their charter school application.
Reason Magazine
May 19, 2023
"The American constitutional system "protects private actors," says Notre Dame law professor Richard W. Garnett, while constraining how government officials can exercise their power.
The Kansas City Star
May 01, 2023
“People are called traditionalists because of their aesthetic tastes,” said Richard Garnett, the director of the Program on Church, State and Society at Notre Dame University. “And that’s given some political baggage like they’re hostile to the pope or they don’t believe in the Second Vatican Council and that’s a mistake.”
April 20, 2023
Rick Garnett, a law professor from the University of Notre Dame, told the Washington Examiner the court's three Democratic appointees might prefer Congress to address any outstanding questions in Hardison.
Bloomberg
Audio
April 20, 2023
Professor Richard Garnett of Notre Dame Law 91视频, discusses Supreme Court oral arguments in the case of a postal worker who refused to work on Sundays and his request for a religious accomodation.
Our Sunday Visitor
February 15, 2023
Rick Garnett, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, told OSV News that although the FBI retracted the memo, "that it was ever composed is troubling."
First Things
February 14, 2023
Nicole Stelle Garnett is the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law 91视频. Richard W. Garnett is professor of law and concurrent professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.
The Tablet
January 25, 2023
Richard Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State, and Society, told The Tablet that the court’s decision to hear this case is welcome news because it “provides the court with an opportunity to revisit, and correct, a 1977 ruling that most observers, across the political spectrum, agree was wrongly decided.”
Deseret News
December 13, 2022
“As I see it (or, as I heard it), many of the justices were asking the advocates to help them identify lines and limits. It is unlikely that any of the justices believes that public-accommodations laws never implicate First Amendment rights and also unlikely that any of them believes that they always do. What, then, is the principle, factor, or consideration that judges and regulators can use to distinguish between impermissible and permissible uses of such laws?” wrote Rick Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, to me in an email.
Today Show
December 08, 2022
“One reason why I think the restaurant story is getting a lot of attention is because it happened on basically the same day as the arguments in the Supreme Court about the web designer,” Richard W. Garnett, a Notre Dame Law 91视频 professor and director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State & Society, tells TODAY.com.
Law360
October 27, 2022
Rick Garnett, a professor at University of Notre Dame, the Law 91视频 who clerked at the Supreme Court for then-Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, called the lack of a GOP nominee on the First Circuit "a pretty striking data point that the First Circuit is dramatically out of sync, not only with the Supreme Court, but with the other circuit courts at the moment."
Bloomberg
Audio
September 24, 2022
First Amendment law expert Richard Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频, discusses Yeshiva University temporarily suspending all undergraduate club activities after the US Supreme Court refused to step into a legal fight over recognition of a campus LGBTQ student group.
The Washington Post
July 17, 2022
“Jefferson was an outlier among the founding generation, in terms of his views of traditional religious belief and his understanding of what church-state separation should mean,” Richard Garnett, a University of Notre Dame law professor who focuses on freedoms of religion and speech, told The Post in an email.
Catholic News Service
July 03, 2022
Richard Garnett, Notre Dame professor of law and director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State and Society, similarly agreed that the court this term, and in previous terms, has been involved in “doctrinal cleanup.”
City Journal
June 28, 2022
Richard W. Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law 91视频.
Bloomberg
June 28, 2022
The historical test “will provide much needed clarity and consistency to an area of law that has been notoriously confused and inconsistent,” said Notre Dame Law 91视频 Professor Richard Garnett, who filed an amicus brief supporting the coach.
CNN
June 27, 2022
Notre Dame Law 91视频 Professor Richard W. Garnett, who wrote a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Kennedy, said on Monday that the high court's ruling will "provide much needed clarity and consistency" to an area of the law that has been "notoriously confused and inconsistent."
Bloomberg
June 27, 2022
The ruling “confirms that the First Amendment’s rule against establishments of religion is not an excuse for censoring religious expression,” said Richard Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频.
The Hill
June 27, 2022
“The court has made explicit what perhaps has been implicit for a while: that the Establishment Clause is not a justification for censoring religious speech in the name of avoiding endorsements,” said Richard Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频.
Catholic News Service
June 27, 2022
For Richard Garnett, Notre Dame professor of law and director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State and Society, the ruling affirmed that public employees do not lose their right to religious expression in the public square.
WGN
Audio
June 26, 2022
Richard Garnett, Law Professor at Notre Dame, joined WGN Radio’s Karen Conti to discuss freedom of religion and the separation of church and state.
The Wall Street Journal
June 23, 2022
Richard Garnett is a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame and an associated scholar with the Religious Freedom Institute.
Bloomberg
Audio
June 23, 2022
Richard Garnett, a Professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频, discusses a divided Supreme Court decision strengthening religious rights by bolstering the rights of parents to use taxpayer funds for religious education.
NPR
Audio
June 21, 2022
Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett says charter schools "are a gray area.... I am genuinely curious to see how the law of charter schools develops and whether we get to a point where a charter school is permitted to be as ...religiously imbued as a parochial school is. "
Deseret News
June 20, 2022
So does much of the ongoing tension over the establishment clause, says Richard Garnett, professor of law and political science at the University of Notre Dame.
Law360
June 01, 2022
Notre Dame Law 91视频 professor Richard Garnett noted that the plaintiffs in SFFA and Dobbs invoked similar arguments in saying that stare decisis, the principle establishing that prior decisions should be binding, should not be followed when the court feels that the precedential decision is "wrong."
The Indiana Lawyer
May 25, 2022
Richard Garnett, founding director of Notre Dame Law’s Program on Church, State and Society and former clerk for the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, co-authored an amicus brief for the Dobbs case in support of overturning Roe.
Religion News Service
May 17, 2022
Richard Garnett, director of Notre Dame University’s Program on Church, State and Society, expressed skepticism that religious freedom challenges to abortion restrictions could prevail.
Catholic News Service
May 06, 2022
Richard Garnett, a Notre Dame Law 91视频 professor who clerked for the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 1996-97, wrote in a May 5 essay for Newsweek Magazine, that it is not yet clear who or what was the source of the leak, what were the leaker’s motives, whether the draft opinion reflects the court’s final decision or what will be the revelation’s electoral or political fallout in a midterm election year.
Crux
May 04, 2022
Sherif Girgis said he felt “kind of a gut punch” after the draft of a Supreme Court majority decision was leaked late on May 2... Richard W. Garnett, a Notre Dame Law 91视频 professor who clerked for the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 1996-096 said in a statement to Crux that for the court’s sake “we should all hope that the justices will not be swayed or influenced by such efforts” regardless of one’s views on the legal questions of the case.
Newsweek
May 04, 2022
Richard W. Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl/Ft. Howard Corporation Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.
Reuters
May 03, 2022
University of Notre Dame Law 91视频 professor Richard Garnett, formerly a clerk for the late conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist, called it "very troubling that any employee or member of the court would violate what is a very clear rule about the confidentiality of the justices' deliberations."
New York Post
May 03, 2022
“It strikes me that if this leak was done with the intent of affecting justices’ behavior, it strikes me that whoever made that decision was really mistaken,” said Richard Garnett, a professor of freedom of speech, association and religion and constitutional law at Notre Dame.
Chicago Tribune
May 03, 2022
Richard W. Garnett, law professor at the Notre Dame Law 91视频, said that if Roe and Casey are overruled, the matter of abortion regulation will shift to political and legislative contexts.
The New York Times
May 03, 2022
The reasoning in the draft opinion is what one would expect from Justice Alito, a fierce critic of Roe and Casey, said Richard W. Garnett, a law professor at Notre Dame.
Bloomberg
May 03, 2022
“For an employee or member of the court to intentionally leak a draft opinion would be a gross betrayal of trust, particularly if the leak were an effort to advance partisan aims or to undermine the court’s work and legitimacy,” said Rick Garnett, a Notre Dame Law 91视频 professor who clerked for then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist during the 1996-97 term.
The Guardian
May 03, 2022
Notre Dame Law 91视频 professor Richard W Garnett, a supreme court expert who clerked for the late chief justice William Rehnquist during the 1996-97 term, says the leaking of the draft document represents a “gross betrayal of trust”.
WGN Radio
Audio
May 01, 2022
Professor Richard Garnett, Professor at the University of Notre Dame Law 91视频, joined WGN Radio’s Karen Conti to address the Supreme Court case regarding high school football coach Joseph Kennedy, in Washington, being fired for kneeling at the 50 yard line after every game and saying a prayer.
Bloomberg
Audio
April 30, 2022
Richard Garnett, a Professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频, discusses the Supreme Court arguments in the case of the high school football coach fired for praying on the 50-yard line after games.
Newsweek
April 29, 2022
Richard W. Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl/Ft. Howard Corporation Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. Joseph Graziano is a student fellow in the Notre Dame Law 91视频 Religious Liberty Initiative.
CNN
April 25, 2022
“It is a case about protecting all individuals’ right to speak freely – and to pray – in the public square,” Richard W. Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said in a statement.
Los Angeles Times
April 25, 2022
“This is not a case about re-imposing prayer in public-school classrooms. Instead, it is a case about protecting all individuals’ right to speak freely — and to pray — in the public square,” said Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett.
CNN
April 25, 2022
“It is a case about protecting all individuals’ right to speak freely – and to pray – in the public square,” Richard W. Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said in a statement.
Catholic News Service
April 25, 2022
Richard Garnett, Notre Dame professor of law and director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State and Society, said he was encouraged to see many justices skeptical of the school district’s argument that it had to censor Coach Kennedy’s private prayer in order to avoid any appearance that it had ‘endorsed’ his religious beliefs.”
Newsweek
April 25, 2022
Notre Dame Law 91视频 Professor Richard W. Garnett, who oversaw the filing of an amicus brief in support of Kennedy, said he hopes the justices clear up the current judicial confusion over what constitutes an "establishment" of religion in public schools.
USA Today
April 24, 2022
"This is not a case about reimposing prayer in public school classrooms," said Richard Garnett, director of the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law 91视频.
ABA Journal
April 21, 2022
Richard W. Garnett IV, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, helped write a brief in support of Kennedy that calls on the court to reexamine its “endorsement test,” which asks whether a reasonable observer would think the government was endorsing a particular religious message.
Public Discourse
March 29, 2022
Richard W. Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl / Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law, Concurrent Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Program on Church, State, and Society at the University of Notre Dame.
Courthouse News Service
January 14, 2022
Rick Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频, authored an amicus brief cataloguing governments’ many recent efforts to squelch religious speech, including the University of Iowa deregistering religious student groups, Florida State University removing a member of the student senate for sharing religious views in text messages and a high school in Washington state that punished a football coach for praying on the field after games.
Our Sunday Visitor
December 02, 2021
Richard W. Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.
Newsweek
November 30, 2021
Richard W. Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. Olivia Rodgers is a 2L Law student at the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Initiative.
Bloomberg
Audio
November 16, 2021
Richard Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频, discusses the Supreme Court justices grappling with the religious rights of death-row inmates in the execution chamber.
USA Today
November 01, 2021
"I will be interested in the聽extent to which the聽lawyers' arguments, and the justices' questions, wander from the precise, technical questions the聽court agreed to review," said Richard Garnett, who co-authored a brief in support of Mississippi in the Dobbs case.
Religious Freedom Institute
October 08, 2021
Richard W. Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.
Indy Star
September 13, 2021
Rick Garnett, a聽law professor聽and聽Director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State & Society, noted that聽neither public nor private institutions of higher education would聽be obligated to offer religious exemptions amid a general vaccine mandate, especially during a public health crisis.聽
The Indiana Lawyer
July 07, 2021
Richard Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频 and director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State & Society, wrote in an email to Indiana Lawyer that 鈥渁ny challenges to regulations of abortion (that invoke federal claims, as opposed to state-law ones) are going to be kind of 鈥榦n hold鈥� until聽顿辞产产蝉听is decided. Or, if a lower court has to rule on such a challenge in the interim, any appeals will certainly depend on what the Court does in聽Dobbs.鈥�
First Things
June 22, 2021
Richard W. Garnett is professor of law and concurrent professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.
The Christian Science Monitor
June 18, 2021
鈥淲e hear all the time about divisions and polarization and culture wars and all that stuff. But this is a 9-0 ruling in a case involving religion and gay rights. And that鈥檚 significant,鈥� says Richard Garnett, director of the Program on Church, State, and Society at the University of Notre Dame 91视频 of Law, referring to the foster parent case.
USA Today
June 18, 2021
"It's been implicit in some of the things the court has聽been doing in recent years, especially in these COVID cases," said聽搁颈肠丑补谤诲听骋补谤苍别迟迟,聽director of the University of Notre Dame law school program on church, state and society.
USA Today
June 17, 2021
"It is striking, and telling, that the court's more liberal justices joined the court's decision," said 搁颈肠丑补谤诲听骋补谤苍别迟迟,聽director of the University of Notre Dame law school program on church, state and society. "Today's ruling illustrates that respect for religious freedom should not be a partisan, or left-right issue."
Catholic News Service
June 17, 2021
Richard Garnett, law school professor at the University of Notre Dame and director of the university鈥檚 Program on Church, State and Society, said the Supreme Court鈥檚聽 ruling will have a significant impact.
Time
June 17, 2021
Legal scholars disagree about what the scale of the decision鈥檚 impact might be. 鈥淭oday鈥檚 ruling is highly significant,鈥� said Notre Dame Law 91视频 Professor Richard Garnett聽in a statement, pointing out that it veered from three decades of decisions that tended to disfavor religious liberty.
Los Angeles Times
June 17, 2021
Notre Dame聽law professor聽Richard Garnett聽predicted the ruling will not be so limited.
Our Sunday Visitor
May 20, 2021
Richard W. Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.
The Indiana Lawyer
April 28, 2021
鈥淲hether we think the founding fathers were right or not, they believed it was important for judicial power to be separate from legislative power and separate from executive power,鈥� said Richard Garnett, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law 91视频.
The Deseret
April 17, 2021
Even that assessment slightly overstates the gap between liberals and conservatives, said Richard Garnett, director of the program on church, state and society at the University of Notre Dame.聽
Bloomberg
Audio
March 22, 2021
Rick Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频, discusses a 9th Circuit decision that rejects the claims of a high school football coach that he had the right to pray at the 50-yard line immediately after his team鈥檚 games.聽
Bloomberg
March 22, 2021
Do they聽accept the church鈥檚 views as authentic or interpret them as merely聽a way to provoke Christians, asked聽Richard Garnett, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law 91视频 and director of the Program on Church, State and Society.聽
USA Today
March 15, 2021
鈥淭he opinions we're seeing and the votes we're seeing in the shadow docket coronavirus and church closing cases suggest that in the Fulton case, the court is going to come out in favor of the Catholic adoption agency,鈥� said聽Richard Garnett,聽director of the University of Notre Dame law school program on church, state and society.
Bloomberg
Audio
February 13, 2021
Rick Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频, discusses a divided U.S. Supreme Court ordering California to let indoor church services resume. Jimmy Gurule, a professor at Notre Dame Law 91视频, discusses the case for the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump.
Deseret News
January 22, 2021
Legal experts generally agreed that the phrase only applied to instances where someone was mistreated because of their biological sex, said Richard Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, to the Deseret News in 2019.
Catholic News Service
January 07, 2021
Richard Garnett, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame Law 91视频, said Congress could take the fast track to impeachment.
National Catholic Reporter
December 31, 2020
Those sentiments were matched by Notre Dame Law 91视频 professor and the director of the Church, State and Society program, Rick Garnett, who compared Trump's efforts to the "tiresome election-questioning" by Hillary Clinton in 2016 and "all those who purported to believe that 'the Russians' manipulated vote-counts in 2016."
South Bend Tribune
December 31, 2020
Richard Garnett, director of the Church, State and Society program at Notre Dame Law 91视频 and a friend of Barrett鈥檚, said she sticks by legal principles in the face of political forces.