The visit began on Monday afternoon with Justice Scalia’s
participation in the Colloquium on Law and Religion, an
innovative new seminar directed by Professors
Mark L. Movsesian and
Marc O. DeGirolami of the Law School’s
Center for Law and Religion. The Colloquium brings leading law
and religion scholars to campus to discuss their work with selected
students. The students prepare short analytical papers in response
to the scholars’ writings and then engage the scholars in class.
Justice Scalia spoke about several of the Court’s recent religion
clause cases and fielded questions on subjects like the original
meaning of the religion clauses, the effectiveness of history as a
check on the Court and the balance the Constitution strikes between
public religiosity and minority rights. “I came to law school
excited about the opportunity to debate constitutional law with my
classmates,” said Yosefa Heber, one of the students in the
Colloquium. “I never imagined that I would get the opportunity to
discuss the cases with one of the Justices himself. It was
fascinating to hear Justice Scalia express his views on the meaning
of the religion clauses and respond to student questions and
criticisms of his approach.” Professor Movsesian added: “I was so
proud of our students. They asked great, thoughtful questions and
were ready when the Justice came back with some of his own. The
Justice remarked to me afterwards how impressed he was with the
students’ abilities.
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