A panel with Julie Byrne (Hofstra University), Jonathan Calvillo (Boston University), and Mary Anne Case (University of Chicago). Moderated by Katherine Franke (Columbia Law).
The recent appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court generated a good deal of media coverage on her Catholic faith, especially her associations with the Catholic charismatic renewal. Barrett, though, is only one of six justices on the court who identify as Catholic, and as long ago as 2008 the political scientist Barbara Perry referred to the Supreme Court as “the Catholic Court.” Yet what might this mean, and how—if at all—can we trace the influences of Catholicism on judicial reasoning? The aim of this panel is to bring together scholars working across a range of fields—including law, history, critical race theory, and gender studies—to reflect on this question in relation to the Court’s recent past, present, and future.
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Julie Byrne holds the Monsignor Thomas J. Hartman Chair in Catholic Studies and is Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Religion at Hofstra University. In 2018 she was awarded a grant by the Public Scholars program of the National Endowment for the Humanities for work on her third book, on memory of 9/11 and tristate suburban Catholicism. Her second book, The Other Catholics: Remaking America’s Largest Religion, and first book, O God of Players: The Story of the Immaculata Mighty Macs, were published by Columbia University Press in 2016 and 2003, respectively. Byrne writes and teaches widely on subjects related to US religion and culture.
Jonathan Calvillo is Assistant Professor of Sociology of Religion at Boston University School of Theology. His scholarship examines religion, racial and ethnic formation, migration, and urban cultural movements, among Latinx populations. A sociologist by training, Dr. Calvillo integrates ethnographic research with historical research to better understand how Latinxs in the US today are shaped by Latinx histories from generations past. Dr. Calvillo’s recently published book, The Saints of Santa Ana, examines the ethnic identity formation of Catholic and Evangelical Mexican immigrants; he is especially interested in the patterns of engagement between Catholics and Protestants.
Mary Anne Case is the Arnold I. Shure Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. She studied at the University of Munich; litigated for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; and was professor of law and Class of 1966 Research Professor at the University of Virginia before joining the University of Chicago. The subjects she has taught include feminist jurisprudence, constitutional law, regulation of sexuality, marriage, family law, sex discrimination, religious freedom, and European legal systems. While her diverse research interests include German contract law, theological anthropology, and the First Amendment, her scholarship to date has concentrated on the regulation of sex, gender, sexuality, religion, and family; and the early history of feminism.
Katherine Franke is the Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and directs the Open University Project at Columbia Law School, a venture that works to depolarize and deepen the discussion of Israel/Palestine on U.S. campuses. She is also on the Executive Committees of Columbia’s Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality, and the Center for Palestine Studies. She is among the nation's leading scholars writing on law, gender, religion, and academic freedom, drawing from feminist, queer, and critical race theory. In addition to her academic work she is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Center for Constitutional Rights.