The Work Continues: Religious Liberty Fellows Take Action at Home - By Tanner Bean

 As published at: https://jrcls.org/articles/the-work-continues-religious-liberty-fellows-take-action-at-home

Roughly three months after the 2020 J. Reuben Clark Law Society’s Religious Liberty Fellows convened for a jam-packed day of religious liberty instruction, their plans to further religious liberty in their communities move forward. Representing different areas of the globe and the diversity of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith traditions, the Fellows’ action plans are uniquely geared toward their specific communities. 

Ashley Boiteux, of the Dale E. Fowler School of Law at Chapman University, arranged for an interfaith youth activity bringing together Latter-day Saints, Muslims, and Hindus to learn about a world of faith. Cate Grantham and Anna Bryner, of Brigham Young University and its J. Reuben Clark Law School, are neck-deep in a religious liberty website that will provide an accessible video curriculum for undergraduate students across the U.S. Their classmate, Kody Richardson, plans to join forces with them and the BYU Freedom of Religion or Belief Club to launch a social media initiative centered on real-life religious liberty stories. And in Caçador, Santa Catarina, Brazil, Cláudio Antônio Klaus Júnior, of the Universidade Alto Vale do Rio do Peixe, convened a human rights discussion group at his university, the first of many dialogues he hopes to initiate.  

On the east coast, Mark Gillespie of Harvard Law School is nearing completion on a full-length law review article regarding judicial interpretation of COVID-19 restrictions upon religious worship. His classmate, Nayab Khan, plans to create a lecture series at Harvard on similar religious liberty topics. Nearby at the University of Virginia School of Law, Hayley Hahn is moving forward with her efforts to save a sacred site of the Monacan Indian Nation. Additional plans by other Fellows continue.

Inspiration for the Fellows’ plans is partly drawn from their Fellowship instruction last October. Fellows heard from, and networked with, an impressive line-up of thought leaders, including:

• Professor Steven Collis, University of Texas at Austin School of Law 
• Brian Grim, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation
• Professor Robin Fretwell Wilson, University of Illinois College of Law 
• Jennie Lichter, White House Domestic Policy Counsel 
• Tanner Bean, Fabian VanCott
• a panel of current and former congressional staffers from both parties: 
  • Celeste Maloy, Rep. Chris Stewart’s office
  • Ryan Leavitt, Barker Leavitt
  • Matt McGhie, U.S. Senate Assistant Legislative Counsel
  • Tomicah Tilleman, Digital Impact and Governance Initiative at New America
• Eric Baxter, Becket Fund
• Judge Ryan D. Nelson, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals 
• Brady Early, BYU Freedom of Religion or Belief Club

Emely Pérez, one of the 2020 Fellows, current JRCLS LLM student, and La Ceiba City Councilwoman in Honduras, regards the Fellowship among her “greatest honors” and recounts that it gave her “a broader understanding of what religious liberty entails.” Another Fellow, David Banta, of the University of Iowa College of Law, reported he had a “first-rate experience with the Fellowship.” He felt the “presenters were fantastic and varied” and appreciated “the perspective of nonprofits, businesses, and all three branches of government.” Anna Bryner left the Fellowship with the impression that while she still has much to learn, she was “not only inspired but confident [she could] be involved now in promoting religious liberty.” Fellow Cate Grantham called the Fellowship an “an incredible, well-rounded experience” with speakers representing “a broad spectrum of careers and ideologies” and was unaware of any other “fellowship that facilitates small group interaction with many of ‘the greats’ in religious liberty work.”

Held each October in Washington, D.C., the Fellowship is a continuing effort of the Law Society to equip law students and recent law graduates with the tools and networks needed to make a difference for religious liberty in their communities. Fellows are drawn from a broad pool of applicants, primarily from the United States, as the Fellowship focuses on U.S. religious liberty law and policy. 

Source: https://jrcls.org/articles/the-work-continues-religious-liberty-fellows-take-action-at-home