CCCG Director, Professor Vincent Phillip Muñoz, discusses his newest book, Religious Liberty and the American Founding: Natural Rights and the Original Meanings of the First Amendment Religion Clauses on We the People, a podcast hosted by Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center. They are joined by Professor Michael McConnell of Stanford Law School.
Religious Liberty and the American Founding explores the Founders’ understanding of religious liberty as a natural right. Muñoz explains the original meanings of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment, and concludes the book with a focus on the impact of natural rights constructions of those clauses. He demonstrates that a hermeneutic adherence to the Founders’ political philosophy would yield neither consistently conservative nor consistently liberal results. Rather, adopting the Founders’ understanding would lead to a minimalist church-state jurisprudence that would frequently return authority from the judiciary to the American people.
Upon its release, Religious Liberty and the American Founding was listed by Amazon as the #1 new release in Civil Rights, the #2 new release in Political History, and the #10 new release in Political Science.
Originally published by at constudies.nd.edu on January 10, 2023.