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  1. 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. 

  2. Sherif Girgis joins the Harvard Law faculty

    September 21, 2026

    Harvard Law School announced that Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government Faculty Affiliate Sherif Girgis will join its faculty as a tenured professor of law, effective January 1, 2027. Girgis, a renowned scholar in constitutional law and philosophy who has taught at Notre Dame Law School since 2021, previously served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in spring 2026.

  3. Justice Scalia Was Right About Religious Freedom

    September 17, 2026

    CCCG Distinguished Research Professor Donald Drakeman analyzes historical evidence around the Free Exercise Clause and Justice Antonin Scalia’s approach to religious liberty. 

  4. The Divided Souls of Americans

    September 16, 2026

    Professor Patrick Deneen delivered a lecture entitled American Odyssey: What an Ancient Story Reveals About our Divided Souls on August 27 in the Eck Center Visitors Atrium, hosted by the Center for Constitutional Citizenship & Government. He spoke on how the Odyssey offers a lens into the fundamental tension and eventual resolution within the American soul.

  5. Twenty-Five Years After 9/11

    September 16, 2026

    The Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government's 25 Years After 9/11 panel brought together four witnesses, Rev. Edward Malloy, President Emeritus of Notre Dame; Jennie Bradley Lichter (’04), former president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund; James (Jimmy) Dunne III, co‑founder of Sandler O’Neill and Partners; and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, to reflect on their experiences of September 11 and its lasting impact on Notre Dame and the nation. The panel emphasized the importance of remembering the unity and bravery that emerged after the attacks, while encouraging today’s students to become the kind of citizen capable of courage, sacrifice, and solidarity.

  6. Photos: United States Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh speaks at Notre Dame on 9/11 anniversary

    September 11, 2026

    The Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government hosted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh alongside university leadership and distinguished panelists for the Jeanie Poole O'Shaughnessy Memorial Lecture. Moderated by CCG Director Vincent Phillip Muñoz, the panel reflected on their personal experiences during the 2001 attacks, the enduring lessons of American civic unity, and the responsibility of younger generations to remember and serve.

  7. Kavanaugh returns to ND for Sept. 11 25 years later panel talk

    September 01, 2026

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh will join a private Notre Dame panel on September 11 to reflect on personal experiences from 9/11 and its lasting legacy, with the event livestreamed on YouTube. They’ll share their personal experiences from Sept. 11, 2001 when terrorists flew airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and they’ll discuss its legacy. Leading the talk will be Vincent Phillip Munoz, director of Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government.

  8. The many layers of Landor

    August 26, 2026

    CCCG affiliate Rick Garnett explores the Supreme Court’s late-June decision and what it means for future First Amendment and religious-liberty claims. His analysis unpacks both the constitutional limits on federal remedies and the ongoing responsibilities of state officials.

  9. Vincent Phillip Muñoz: Faith and Free Speech

    August 17, 2026

    America's constitutional founding established religious liberty as a foundational natural right, shaping how the nation balances faith, law, and government power. Today, those same foundational principles face new challenges as student self-censorship threatens free expression on college campuses. Addressing these issues requires applying original First Amendment principles to protect robust, uninhibited debate in modern higher education, as emphasized by CCCG Director Vincent Phillip Muñoz.

  10. Colleges to mark Sept. 11 anniversary for students born after attacks

    August 11, 2026

    As colleges nationwide prepare to mark the 25th anniversary of September 11 for a student generation born after the attacks, higher education institutions are launching remembrance events to preserve the legacy of that day. At the University of Notre Dame, the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government is hosting its annual Jeanie Poole O'Shaughnessy Memorial Lecture, featuring Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and other key leaders reflecting on 9/11's enduring impact. Beyond the lecture, the Center is also collecting "Remembrance Recollections" from participants to honor the victims and capture personal memories of the historic tragedy.

  11. The Professor Pipeline: Legendary Teachers Continue to Inspire the Next Generation of Catholic Academics

    August 07, 2026

    Generational mentorship among Catholic scholars plays a vital role in inspiring students to pursue academic vocations and carry forward a rich intellectual tradition. Mentees absorb not only deep intellectual rigor but also practical classroom methods, such as Notre Dame law professor Sherif Girgis, an affiliate of the CCCG, who adopted Princeton professor Robert George’s dynamic, note-free teaching style and courageous, joyful defense of faith and reason. By building strong personal relationships and modeling academic work as a true calling rather than just a job, legendary professors create a lasting pipeline of scholars dedicated to pursuing and sharing the truth.

  12. NEH Announces $41.4 Million for 81 Humanities Projects

    July 22, 2026

    The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced $41.4 million in grants for 81 humanities projects across the nation. As part of this funding, the Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government (CCCG) at the University of Notre Dame received an Endowments for Advancing the Humanities award to help establish a 20-year term endowment. This funding will support graduate and postdoctoral fellowships, visiting scholars, and faculty scholarship focused on American constitutionalism and civic education.

  13. Analysis: Supreme Court strikes down some Trump priorities, but expands presidential power

    July 08, 2026

    In a recent analysis for OSV News exploring the Supreme Court’s decisions on presidential power and executive limits, CCCG Faculty Affiliate Rick Garnett examined the court's crucial institutional role. Challenging the narrative that the justices are merely political actors, Garnett emphasized that the court operates as the country's best-functioning branch of national government by sticking to legal consensus and established precedent. His insights help clarify the legal realities behind the high-profile rulings shaping the limits of executive authority.

  14. Notre Dame Law Professors Offer Insight on Supreme Court Rulings

    July 02, 2026

    CCCG faculty affiliate Rick Garnett of Notre Dame Law School recently joined national media outlets to provide expert analysis on the Supreme Court's landmark term. Professor Garnett offered crucial insights into the Court's recent religious liberty decisions, including Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections.

  15. Catholic scholars reflect on the American experiment

    June 24, 2026

    The University of Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government (CCCG) recently co-hosted a major conference at The Catholic University of America (CUA) titled “Endowed by Their Creator: Catholicism, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Experiment at 250.” Co-sponsored alongside CUA's Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and the Carroll Forum for Citizenship and Public Life, the symposium brought together prominent Catholic academics, jurists, and public intellectuals to examine the historical intersection and contemporary tensions between Catholic social thought and American constitutional democracy. The event featured a video address by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, alongside panel discussions with noted scholars including Russell Hittinger, Kenneth Grasso, Ryan T. Anderson, and Sarah Gustafson. 

  16. Justice Thomas’ Wisdom

    June 23, 2026

    Robert B. Charles revisits the profound insights of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on how our founding documents weather every national storm. Originally delivered as the "Tocqueville" lecture at the Notre Dame Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government, Thomas’s remarks reflect on his own journey of overcoming cynicism to reclaim his faith, while emphasizing American exceptionalism, natural law, and his guiding daily prayer, the Litany of Humility.

  17. Supreme Court denies Rastafarian's lawsuit after he was forcibly shaved bald behind bars

    June 23, 2026

    Following a 6-3 Supreme Court decision denying a Rastafarian inmate the ability to sue individual prison employees for damages over a forced haircut, legal experts are analyzing the ruling's broader impact on religious liberties. Constitutional law expert Rick Garnett, an affiliated scholar with the Notre Dame Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government, notes that while the decision clarifies the limits of federal spending powers over state prisons, it places a heavier responsibility on individual states to safeguard prisoners' religious freedom.

  18. Harvard's solution won't stop runaway A's. This could.

    May 25, 2026

    CCCG Director Vincent Phillip Muñoz weighed in on Harvard’s attempt to curb runaway grade inflation, calling the university's internal policy a weak, "A-minus" effort that fails to solve the underlying issue. He argued that restoring academic integrity across higher education requires structural transparency, proposing that universities should instead display the overall class grade average on student transcripts alongside individual marks to give true meaning back to top grades. 

  19. Notre Dame considers grade inflation as other institutions come under fire

    May 14, 2026

    As Notre Dame begins exploring options to address decades of rising grade inflation, Constitutional Studies Director Vincent Phillip Muñoz warned that standardizing top marks makes it difficult to recognize truly extraordinary student work. To combat this trend, Muñoz has proposed a system utilizing "grade distinction points" alongside GPAs to incentivize high-performing students and encourage academic rigor among faculty. 

  20. Secretary of State Marco Rubio: The Catholic Roots of America

    May 12, 2026

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a virtual address on April 9 during the conference, “Endowed by Their Creator: Catholicism, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Experiment at 250.”

    Organized by the Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) at The Catholic University of America, together with the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government, and Catholic University’s Carroll Forum for Citizenship and Public Life, the symposium celebrated the nation’s semiquincentennial.