Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

A distinctive
feature of social and
cultural life at CMC

 

Freedom from Religion or Freedom for Religion? Natural Rights and the American Constitution

Wed, February 7, 2024
Dinner Program
Vincent Phillip Muñoz '93

Does the First Amendment guarantee us the right to be free from religion in the public square? Does it guarantee religious individuals and institutions the right to be exempt from otherwise valid laws that burden their religious beliefs and practices? In his lecture, Dr. Vincent Phillip Muñoz '93, will explore our “first freedom” in light of the thought of America’s founding fathers.

Vincent Phillip Muñoz '93, is the Tocqueville Professor of Political Science and Concurrent Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. He is the Founding Director of ND’s Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government. Under his leadership the programs have raised nearly $20,000,000 in grants, gifts, and pledges. Prior to his faculty appointment at Notre Dame, he was the 1992-93 RA of Beckett Hall and a student worker at the Salvatori Center!

Dr. Muñoz writes and teaches across the fields of constitutional law, American politics, and political philosophy with a focus on religious liberty and the American Founding. He won a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to support his most recent book, Religious Liberty and the American Founding: Natural Rights and the Original Meanings of the First Amendment Religion Clauses, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2022.

An award-winning teacher and a popular lecturer, Dr. Muñoz has spoken at nearly 100 colleges and universities in the past several years.

Dr. Muñoz' Athenaeum visit is co-sponsored by the Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World at CMC. Dr. Muñoz' talk is also part of the Athenaeum's 40th Anniversary Series, which celebrates the achievements of CMC alumni from across the years and invites them to return home to Claremont.

Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

Claremont McKenna College
385 E. Eighth Street
Claremont, CA 91711

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