Our Experts in the News: 2025

November 19, 2025

University of Notre Dame faculty members Margot Fassler, Sherif Girgis, Brad Gregory and Prashant Kamat have been inducted into the American Academy of Sciences and Letters in recognition of their outstanding scholarly achievement.

November 19, 2025

This article, an Alumni Spotlight, features Mary Frances Devlin, a former Editor-in-Chief of The Irish Rover (G’16, G’20), who now works as a Government Affairs Associate and Contributing Editor. Devlin recounts how a shift in her academic schedule, following the cancellation of a study abroad program, led her to immerse herself in Constitutional Studies. These courses proved highly formative and energizing, specifically mentioning Professor Phillip Muñoz’s course in constitutional law and a class on liberalism and conservatism taught by Professor Patrick Deneen. The article concludes with Devlin emphasizing the role of The Irish Rover in providing the necessary practical writing experience and network for her to pursue a career centered on writing and advocacy.

November 10, 2025

The Supreme Court recently heard the case of Damon Landor, a Rastafarian man seeking to sue Louisiana prison officials for monetary damages after they forcibly cut his religious dreadlocks in violation of his rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). This significant legal challenge focuses on whether RLUIPA allows for such individual liability against state employees, a question that constitutional law expert Rick Garnett would typically analyze within the ongoing national debate regarding the extent of religious liberty protections for institutionalized persons.

October 27, 2025

In their review of the University of Notre Dame, the ACTA does identify one area of excellence: the Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government, which offers fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to study leadership and citizenship.

October 06, 2025

Princeton University professor Stephen Macedo speaks on how public trust changed for social institutions after the pandemic at an event hosted by the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government. 

October 01, 2025

The article features two professors, Margaret Freddoso and Gabrielle Girgis, both former Visiting Scholars with the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government (CCCG), who offer insight into balancing academic work with motherhood. Freddoso described motherhood as having deepened her sense of purpose and joy while requiring professional trade-offs, and Girgis suggested women should aim for "integration" rather than "balance" by clarifying their vocation's priorities (marriage, motherhood, professional work) to navigate their dual roles.

September 19, 2025

Richard Garnett speaks on legal education, the role of the courts in our constitutional structure, and the law of religious freedom and free expression.

September 17, 2025

Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government (CCCG) hosted Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on September 12 for a moderated conversation facilitated by CCCG Director Vincent Phillip Muñoz. The discussion and following Q&A centered on themes from Barrett’s upcoming book, Listening to the Law. 

September 15, 2025

On Friday afternoon, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett returned to her alma mater, speaking at DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, as part of a media tour promoting her new book “Listening to the Law.” During the roughly 45-minute-long discussion, moderated by professor Vincent Philip Muñoz, the director of the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government, Barrett discussed her faith, her life on the Supreme Court, the judicial doctrine of originalism and her time at Notre Dame Law School, where she earned her Juris Doctor in 1997.

August 31, 2025

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett will visit the University of Notre Dame to discuss her upcoming book. 

August 27, 2025

In the past two years, both Louisiana and Arkansas have enacted laws that would mandate the presence of the Ten Commandments in public-school classrooms. But legal rulings—including from the Supreme Court—going back at least to 1980 have blocked precisely such measures. Richard Garnett explains that the issue has returned because the Court has moved away from the so-called Lemon test for evaluating religion-infused legislation, named after the 1971 case of Lemon v. Kurtzman.

August 20, 2025

Rights and Responsibilities is a recurring series by Notre Dame Law Professor Richard Garnett on legal education, the role of the courts in our constitutional structure, and the law of religious freedom and free expression.

August 17, 2025

Professor Patrick Deneen, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame, writes about what he calls "the myth of academic freedom: [that] we believe in free expression for all -- except for those we despise."

August 04, 2025

Patrick Deneen recently visited Hungary to participate in several discussions during the 5th MCC Feszt in Esztergom, organized by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, where he was also kind enough to sit down with Hungarian Conservative for a conversation. Topics included how Donald Trump’s second presidency has initiated the elite transformation proposed in his latest hit, who might carry that transformation forward once Trump is gone, and how these developments could affect Europe.

July 21, 2025

RealClearPolitics podcast discussing Professor Muñoz's article, which addresses the Declaration of Independence. 

July 20, 2025

Professor Phillip Muñoz and Professor Patrick Deneen tackle crucial interpretations of the Declaration of Independence, exploring its impact on American society and our understanding of freedom.

July 15, 2025

June 25, 2025

In its recent nondecision in St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Catholic School v. Drummond, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand an obtuse Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling that excluded St. Isidore’s from the state charter school program. Notre Dame Law Professor Richard Garnett, in a fine article at Law & Liberty, explains why they got it wrong.

June 18, 2025

JMC Resident Historian Elliott Drago sat down with JMC Fellow Dr. Christina R. Bambrick to discuss her new book, Constitutionalizing the Private Sphere: A Comparative Inquiry (2025). Dr. Bambrick is assistant professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.

April 30, 2025

Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett comments on a Supreme Court case leaning in favor of an Oklahoma Catholic school being the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter institution.

April 16, 2025

Patrick Deneen spoke at the Tocqueville Center on Catholicism in America on April 15-16, 2024.

March 03, 2025

Patrick Deneen, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and Sam Moyn, a professor of law and history at Yale University, discussed illiberalism and post-liberal society, drawing upon examples of infringements on freedoms like free speech and decreased respect for democracy.