Religious Liberty and Human Flourishing: The Clinical Witness

In March 2023, Stanford Law School and the John Templeton Foundation celebrated the tenth anniversary of an extraordinary partnership. Together, we've established a landmark clinic in religious liberty at the nation's top-ranked law school and sparked a movement at other elite schools across the country. Since its founding, the Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic has become a campus fixture and one of its institution's most popular offerings. The Clinic's director has been raised to full professor, with a rich record of scholarship and public engagement; its talented and diverse students are thriving, serving clients of all faiths and setting legal precedent; its alumni are securing prominent positions in the field (including in top law firms, government posts, judicial clerkships, and the academy); and it's leading a transformative network of partner clinics in its image. Our foundational work, however, is not yet complete. It must go deeper and wider. Namely, we must now elevate, expand, and mine the "why" behind our success and offer it as a global beacon of light - and in contrast to impoverished understandings of religious liberty that persist in contemporary law and culture. Our mission, stature, and record provide an unparalleled opportunity to advance this new project. In carrying it out, we'll use as a platform our continued flourishing as a clinic and movement leader, with innovative additions that include interdisciplinary exploration of our human-centered approach in law and culture, as well as a docket expansion to matters with overlapping free-speech and international dynamics. From there, we'll study, analyze, and promote through scholarship and other public witness the Clinic's vision and methods as a laboratory framework for understanding and advancing religious liberty as a universal and uniting value in any legal or cultural setting. Forever grateful for the progress we've made, we look forward to taking our partnership to even greater heights.