Legal ethics professor Leslie Griffin to deliver the 10th Annual McElroy Lecture on law & religion
University of Houston Legal Ethics Professor
Leslie Griffin will be the guest speaker for University of Detroit
Mercy School of Law's 10th Annual McElroy Lecture on Law and
Religion. The lecture will be held on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at
5:30 p.m. at St. Peter and Paul's Church, with a reception in the
Law School Atrium following the event.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides: "Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof." What if the drafters used
the words "practice of religion" instead of "religion" How would
this change the jurisprudence surrounding this part of our
Constitution? Griffin will address this compelling question,
focusing on government funding for religious organizations, public
school prayer and free exercise claims.
Professor Griffin is the inaugural holder of University of
Houston's Larry and Joanne Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics, and
teaches constitutional law, torts and legal ethics. She is the
author of Law and Religion: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press,
2007), which combines her academic interests in law and religion.
The book offers an interdisciplinary approach to both law and
religion. It combines a thorough academic review of broad legal
coverage extending beyond the Supreme Court's First Amendment cases
to other federal and state cases about a wide range of religious
issues.
Griffin holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Yale University
and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. She has been a visiting
professor at the George Washington University Law School, the
University of Alabama School of Law, the University of Utah College
of Law, and Georgetown University Law Center, and has held research
fellowships at the Harvard University Program in Ethics and the
Professions as well as the Emory University School of Law Center
for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion. Prior to joining the
Houston faculty, she clerked for the Honorable Mary M. Schroeder of
the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and was an assistant
counsel in the Department of Justice's Office of Professional
Responsibility. Griffin was elected to the American Law Institute
in 2002.
UDM's annual McElroy Lecture is made possible through a major
gift from the Philip J. McElroy estate to establish the Center of
Law and Religion at UDM's school of Law. Philip J. McElroy was a
recognized corporate and civic leader and received his bachelor,
master, and doctor of law degrees from the University. In 1948 he
established a law firm in Farmington Hills, presently known and
McElroy and Pheney. He passed away in February 1993. Throughout his
life, Mr. McElroy maintained a steady commitment to his alma
mater.
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