Cultivating Citizenship. Creating a Free and Virtuous Society.
Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government seeks to cultivate thoughtful and educated citizens by supporting scholarship and education concerning the ideas and institutions of constitutional government.
Student Opportunities
Discover the opportunities the Center extends to its students and how we shape the intellectual climate on campus.
Lectures, Debates, & Conversations
Our extensive library of lectures, debates, and conversations are available to view or listen via podcast.
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Potenziani Minor in Constitutional Studies
The core mission of the Center is to educate, mentor, and support students during their academic careers at Notre Dame and beyond. In the classroom, we teach students the principles of constitutional government, the American political tradition, U.S. constitutional law, comparative constitutionalism, and more. Building on courses across the College of Arts & Letters, the Potenziani Minor in Constitutional Studies is designed to encourage students to confront fundamental questions concerning justice, the rule of law, and human flourishing.
News
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Media Mentions
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National Catholic Reporter
Tennessee Catholic bishops join call for clemency for inmate who survived execution attempt
October 03, 2026
Following a failed lethal injection attempt on death row inmate Christa Gail Pike, Tennessee’s Catholic bishops and faith leaders urged Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison. Joining the response, CCCG Affiliate Richard Garnett criticized the attempt, stating it exposes the "delusion" that medicalized procedures change the fundamental reality of state-sanctioned killings. In response to the failed execution, Governor Lee suspended all remaining executions in Tennessee for the rest of the year pending an investigation.
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Professors review major SCOTUS cases of the term, highlights upcoming proceedings
September 22, 2026
In honor of Constitution Day, the University of Notre Dame‘s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government hosted a 2025-2026 Supreme Court review on Friday afternoon. Speakers included law professor and director of the Program on Church, State & Society Richard Garnett and law professor Derek Muller.
