The Becket Fund FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

The Stanford Law School Religious Liberty Clinic is the newest addition to the school’s distinguished program of clinical legal education organized under the Mills Legal Clinic. It is the only law school clinic in the country dedicated exclusively to religious liberty issues, offering students the opportunity to represent clients in disputes arising from a wide range of beliefs, practices, and customs.

The Religious Liberty Clinic will be housed within Stanford’s Mills Legal Clinic, and is the latest addition to the law school’s distinguished program of clinical legal education. The clinic was made possible, in part, by a generous $1.6M gift from the Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The clinic’s founding director is James A. Sonne, an experienced teacher and practitioner with particular expertise in law and religion.

Stanford Law School officially launched the Religious Liberty Clinic on January 14, 2013. The inauguration event included an expert panel discussion on the future of religious liberty featuring Jim Sonne; Judge Carlos T. Bea, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; Michael W. McConnell, Richard and Frances Mallery Professor of Law and director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center; Amardeep Singh, co-founder and director of programs at the Sikh Coalition; Hannah Smith, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; and Rabbi Dr. Meir Y. Soloveichik, director of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. Douglas Laycock, Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law, gave the keynote speech.

Watch a video of the panel discussion below:

James A. Sonne, Director of the Religious Liberty Clinic and Lecturer in Law, Stanford Law School

Jim Sonne joined Stanford Law School in 2012 to direct the new Religious Liberty Clinic of the Mills Legal Clinic, the only one of its kind in the country.

Mr. Sonne is an experienced teacher and practitioner, with expertise in law and religion issues, particularly related to the workplace. Prior to coming to Stanford, he was an associate professor of law at Ave Maria School of Law.

He also worked as a labor and employment lawyer for McGuireWoods LLP and an appellate lawyer for Horvitz & Levy LLP. Mr. Sonne received his B.A. with honors from Duke University and his J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School. He is a former law clerk to Judge Edith Brown Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

See Jim Sonne and Clinic Featured in National Law Journal. 

During the term, students can expect to handle a discrete accommodation project—e.g., represent a prisoner, student, or employee facing obstacles in the exercise of his or her faith—and likely also participate in a longer-term project involving religion in the public square—e.g., represent a small church, synagogue, or mosque with zoning issues, or a faith-based group seeking access to public facilities.

Opportunities to draft amicus briefs may also arise.  The clinic will involve administrative, trial, and appellate practice—though time constraints may not permit each student to work in all areas—united under the theme of “religious liberty for all.”

Because the clinic is a new and unique venture, students may also help in marketing and outreach efforts to the religious and wider communities.

Amicus Briefs:

Brief of Christian Legal Society as Amicus Curiae in Support of Plaintiff- Appellant William E. Chance, Jr., and Reversal of the District Court

Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic Inaugural Event

Stanford Law School officially launched the Religious Liberty Clinic on January 14, 2013. Access information about the inaugural event below, including a video of the event’s expert panel discussion on the future of religious liberty.

Statements of Support

The establishment of the Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic could not have come at a more timely moment.   With religious freedom facing a host of novel challenges, it is heartening to know that the resources of a great law school are now available to defend it and to heighten awareness of its centrality to our democratic experiment.

Mary Ann Glendon
Learned Hand Professor of Law
Harvard University

What a blessing that there finally will be a religious liberty clinic!

 Philip Hamburger
Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law
Columbia Law School

My sincere congratulations to Stanford Law School on the establishment of a new clinic devoted to safeguarding “religious liberty for all.”

Akhil Reed Amar
Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science
Yale University

The new Religious Liberty Clinic will provide a unique opportunity for law students to work on pressing issues at the often uneasy intersections of church and state, freedom and equality, and faith and reason. It is further evidence of Stanford’s leading role in clinical legal education.

Jeffrey Selbin
Clinical Professor of Law
Faculty Director, East Bay Community Law Center
Executive Committee Member,
Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice
Berkeley Law School

Religious liberties are often forgotten in the array of just causes around which law students mobilize and legal education is centered. The Stanford Clinic is pioneering and welcome.

Prof. JHH Weiler
University Professor
Director, Tikvah Center for Law and Jewish Civilization
NYU School of Law

Anyone who respects religious liberty, and appreciates the value of clinical legal education, should be thrilled at the opening of Stanford Law School’s new, first-of-its-kind Religious Liberty Clinic.  Good luck to its instructors and first group of students, and kudos to the Becket Fund — as always, on the vanguard of this field — for its generous and visionary support.

Ira C. Lupu
F. Elwood and Eleanor Davis Professor Emeritus of Law
George Washington University Law School

The Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic will play a unique and important role, not just in legal education, but also in the protection of the first freedom included in the Bill of Rights.  So long as faith matters, we should cherish the work of the Clinic.

 John Garvey
President
Catholic University of America

The Religious Liberty Clinic is a tremendously impressive initiative which will fill a much needed gap.  No other law school in the country has a clinic focused on legal assistance to religious individuals and organizations.  By involving students in the defense of religious rights, the Religious Liberty Clinic provides helpful resources on these important issues and also trains students who can continue the pro bono defense of religious rights after graduation.  The Religious Liberty Clinic should make a significant contribution to increasing religious liberty in the United States.

Professor Elizabeth A. Clark
Associate Director
International Center for Law and Religion Studies
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Brigham Young University

The Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic is an exciting and promising development.  It will give students a valuable opportunity to “learn by doing,” in a cutting-edge context and on problems that really matter.  The Clinic’s focus is both timely and timeless.

Richard W. Garnett
Professor of Law and Associate Dean
Notre Dame Law School

The faculty of the Pepperdine University School of Law applauds and congratulates Stanford Law School for establishing the Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic.  Challenges to religious liberty abound in society and the public policy issues of our day.  It is incumbent upon legal education to place emphasis on the importance of these issues and to provide opportunities for law students to hone their analytical and litigation skills confronting the challenges of religious liberty cases.   This new clinic models the intersection of practice and doctrine that is central to good legal education and will serve as a leader in pursuing the noble cause of religious liberty in this nation.

Deanell Reece Tacha
Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean
Pepperdine University School of Law

I wish we had such a clinic at George Mason!  Congratulations to Stanford Law for the Religious Liberty Clinic.

 Michael I. Krauss
Professor of Law
George Mason University School of Law

At a time when the volume and significance of religious freedom issues are constantly increasing, the opening of Stanford’s Religious Liberty Clinic is a particularly welcome development.  The talent of Stanford’s students, Stanford’s eminence in clinical legal education, and the ability of those in the program to access the expertise of Professor Michael McConnell (among other luminaries on Stanford’s faculty) all combine to give this program remarkable promise.  Not only will the Clinic give students extraordinary experience; it will allow them to play a significant role in litigation and in the broader dialogue concerning our nation’s first freedom.

W. Cole Durham, Jr.
Susa Young Gates University Professor of Law and Director,
International Center for Law and Religion Studies,
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Brigham Young University

The Religious Liberty Clinic is a powerful recognition that religious freedom is necessary to the common good of society. It will give students a magnificent opportunity to serve individuals and institutions facing unique challenges: in essence, the challenge of living out faith commitments in an intensely pluralistic environment.

Angela C. Carmella
Professor of Law
Seton Hall University School of Law

If there is a God, finding and obeying him (or her) is probably the most important thing that people do on this earth.  Stanford’s work in protecting people’s efforts to do these things may be the most important work going on in legal education anywhere.  It may be of, well, eternal significance.  Congratulations to Stanford and the Becket Fund for this new venture.

Robert F. Cochran, Jr.
Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law
Director, Herbert and Elinor Nootbaar
Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics
Pepperdine University School of Law

Religious liberty is a precious civil right: constitutionally and philosophically, it is our First Freedom.  The Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic will preserve the ability of many individuals and groups to practice their faith and will train generations of talented law students in this endeavor.  Congratulations and best wishes to the clinic staff, Stanford Law School, and the Becket Fund.

 Thomas C. Berg
James L. Oberstar Professor of Law and Public Policy
University of St. Thomas School of Law

The preservation of religious liberty requires not just knowledge and persuasive arguments but also equipped and savvy religious organizations–and thus lawyers with practical insight and skills. The Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic will be a great asset for faith-based services that face expanding restrictions.

Stanley Carlson-Thies
President and Founder
Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance

Hard as it is to believe, America’s law schools have run clinics on every subject under the sun … except America’s “first freedom.” Thanks to Stanford Law School and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty that is about to change. Kudos to all who have contributed to this moment — surely a corner turning in the history of American legal education.

Thomas F. Farr
Director,
The Religious Freedom Project
Georgetown University’s
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs

As a law and religion comparativist, for most of the past twenty years, it has seemed self-evident that the most urgent and perplexing issues in this area were international in character.  But over roughly the same period it has become clear that all is not quiet on the home front. The past decade in particular has seen the rise in the U.S. of an aggressive, sometimes intolerant secularism, devoted not to creating constitutional space for the free exercise of religion and belief both for those who believe in God and those who don’t, but to creating an ever-expanding public space that is a religion free zone.  Thus the advent of the Stanford Law and Religion Clinic is not only a timely development, it reflects a pressing need.

Brett G. Scharffs
Francis R Kirkham Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School
Associate Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies,
Brigham Young University

The Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic will doubtless quickly emerge as a major force in the defense of our First Freedom, at a time in our nation’s history when such work is sorely needed.  Perhaps more importantly, it will become an engine of formation for new lawyers who will carry this fight into the future.

O. Carter Snead
William P. and Hazel B. White Director, Center for Ethics and Culture
Professor of Law
University of Notre Dame

Religious liberty is at the heart of the American experience. The Stanford Law School’s new Religious Liberty Clinic is an important step in assuring that our country’s future attorneys are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to defend this most essential of American freedoms. I applaud this program and wish all success to its participants.

Anuttama Dasa
Governing Body Commissioner
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)

Coming from the perspective of a religious rights advocate, I know the name of the Becket Fund is gold.  Coming from the perspective of an attorney, I know the name of the Stanford University Law School is gold.  The marriage of the two in the form of the Religious Liberty Clinic is ideal. I look forward to years of groundbreaking work in support of our country’s First Freedom.

Amardeep Singh
Sikh Coalition

Congratulations upon the inauguration of the Religious Liberty Clinic at Stanford Law School….This is a momentous occasion and exiting event not only for the broader American religious community but for all who hold our Constitution dear.

Rabbi David Niederman
President
United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg

Congratulations to Stanford Law School for hosting the only Religious Liberty Clinic in the country. All of those who care for religious liberty should rejoice that law students at Stanford will be dedicating themselves to this important cause.

 Dr. Osama Bahloul
Imam of the Islamic Center in Murfreesboro

Religious liberty is a unique blessing in the history and culture of the United States and this liberty is also a universal human right for all people in all places. The eyes of the world are on the US in this unique season where the preservation & promotion of this spiritual treasure is in question. The Religious Liberty Clinic at Stanford Law School is the first and only of its kind, and will become a primary hinge that keeps the door to Religious Liberty open and welcoming to all.

 Dr. Jo Anne Lyon
General Superintendent
The Wesleyan Church

Religious liberty will be a defining issue for the course of American life over the next generation.  The good news is that the Becket Fund’s record of defending religious freedom is distinguished not merely by its effectiveness but also by its foresight.  The Religious Liberty Clinic at Stanford University — made possible in part by support from the Becket Fund, and the only such clinic in the United States — continues the Becket Fund’s tremendous service to the cause of protecting the ‘first freedom’ of our nation’s founding principles.”

 +Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Philadelphia

islawmix welcomes news of the founding of the nation’s first Religious Liberty Clinic to give students the opportunity to learn about and engage with laws affecting religious liberty. The Clinic is timely and will be of great benefit to many communities as well as the broader principles of law important for upholding the Constitution for all.

Umbreen Bhatti
Director
IsLawMix Scholars

At a time when religious Liberty is becoming an ever more urgent issue both at home and abroad, I am deeply grateful that Stanford Law School is launching the nation’s first religious liberty clinic, and especially so given the quality of its personnel.

Paul Marshall
Senior Fellow
Center for Religious Freedom
Hudson Institute

Religious Liberty is such a key discipline in today’s world and yet sadly is so often ignored. I am thrilled that Stanford Law School in Partnership with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty are about to redress that situation by running a clinic on this vital subject.  I hope that others might take note and adopt similar programs of their own.

Mervyn Thomas
CEO Christian Solidarity Worldwide

God bless your initiative on protecting the inalienable, God-given right of every human being to worship as his heart and soul dictate! It is surprising that in the USA, where this right is fundamental to our society, that it has taken so long for such an effort to be made. May your work prosper in showing to all the world that civilized society cannot possibly exist without religious liberty.

Bishop Andrew
Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church of America

Congratulations to Stanford Law School on its decision to inaugurate the only Religious Liberties Clinic in the United States. All of us must do whatever we can to ensure that our constitutionally-protected religious liberties are neither violated nor infringed upon, and this clinic will, I trust, be a blessing in this regard.

Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan
Archbishop of New York

None of us can avoid confronting questions about the value of life and the best way to live. Whether the answers we give to them are religious or not, having the freedom to answer them and to live our lives in accord with our answers is fundamental for a good society. I wish the Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic every success as it joins the effort to deepen understanding of the nature of religious freedom and its importance for every civilised society.

George Cardinal Pell
Archbishop of Sydney, Australia

NBC Bay Area, Stanford Law Students Help Seventh-day Adventist, March 30, 2013

New York Times, At Stanford, Clinical Training for Defense of Religious Liberty, January 22, 2013

World Magazine, To Litigate and Protect, January 18, 2013

National Catholic Register, Stanford Inaugurates Nation’s First Legal Clinic for Religious Freedom, January 17, 2013

Catholic News Agency, Stanford Law School launches religious liberty clinic, January 14, 2013

NPR’s ‘To the Point’ featuring Jim Sonne, Executive Director, Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic

National Law Journal, Stanford to Start New Religious Liberty Law Clinic, December 27, 2012

Center for Law and Religion Forum at St. John’s University School of Law, Conversations: Stanford’s Religious Liberty Clinic, December 13, 2012