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Event details

May
9

A License to Discriminate? Masterpiece Cakeshop, the First Amendment, and Antidiscrimination Law

Masterpiece Cakeshop Poster
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Virtually everyone supports religious liberty and opposes discrimination. But how do we handle the hard questions that arise when exercises of religious liberty seem to discriminate unjustly? How do we promote the common good while respecting conscience in a diverse society? Using the pending Supreme Court case Masterpiece Cakeshop as a case study, Ryan T. Anderson, John Corvino, and Sherif Girgis will explore these questions, followed by responses from Christopher Tollefsen and Kevin Vallier.

Ryan T. Anderson ’04 is the William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation and the founder and editor of Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute. He is the author of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment and _Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom; _he is the co-author of What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense (with Sherif Girgis and Robert P. George, 2012) and Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination (with John Corvino and Sherif Girgis, 2017). His research has been cited by two U.S. Supreme Court justices, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, the _Washington Post_, the _WallStreet Journal_, the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Harvard Health Policy Review, the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Weekly Standard, and National Review. He received his B.A. from Princeton University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude, and he received his Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Notre Dame.

John Corvino is Professor of Philosophy and incoming Dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Debating Same-Sex Marriage (with Maggie Gallagher, 2012), What’s Wrong with Homosexuality? (2013), and, most recently, Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination (with Ryan T. Anderson and Sherif Girgis, 2017)—all from Oxford University Press. In addition to his academic writing, he has contributed to the New York Times, the Detroit Free Press, Slate, and various other popular venues. An award-winning teacher, he has lectured at over 250 campuses on ethics, sexuality, and marriage. Professor Corvino received his B.A. from St. John’s University and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas. His full biography is available at johncorvino.com.

Sherif Girgis ‘08, Research Scholar at the Witherspoon Institute, is completing his Ph.D. in philosophy at Princeton, having just finished his J.D. at Yale Law School, where he edited the Yale Law Journal. He is co-author of the book, What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, cited by Justice Alito in United States v. Windsor. His latest book, co-authored with Ryan Anderson and John Corvino, is Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination (Oxford University Press, 2017). He has spoken on moral, political, and legal issues at more than 100 lectures, conferences, and debates, and has published in academic and popular outlets including the New York Times, the Yale Law Journal, the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Wall Street Journal, National Review, and Commonweal. He is a 2008 Phi Beta Kappa and _summa cum laude _graduate of Princeton University, from which he went on to earn a master's degree in moral, political, and legal philosophy from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

Christopher Tollefsen is College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina; he has twice been a Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University. He is the author, co-author, or editor of six books, including most recently Lying and Christian Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2014). His book Embryo: A Defense of Human Life, co-authored with Robert P. George, was reviewed positively in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. Professor Tollefsen is a member of the editorial boards of _The Journal of Medicin_e and Philosophy, and Christian Bioethics, and is a regular contributor to Public Discourse. He received his B.A. from Saint Anselm College and his Ph.D. from Emory University.

Kevin Vallier is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University and Director of BGSU's program in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law (PPEL). Professor Vallier is the author of Liberal Politics and Public Faith: Beyond Separation (Routledge, 2014) and Must Politics Be War? Restoring Our Trust in the Open Society (Oxford, 2018), as well as thirty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Professor Vallier received his B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.

Event Details

University programs and activities are open to all eligible participants without regard to identity or other protected characteristics. Sponsorship of an event does not constitute institutional endorsement of external speakers or views presented.

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Date

May 9, 2018

Time

4:30 p.m.
Princeton University

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Equal Opportunity and Non-discrimination at Princeton University: Princeton University believes that commitment to equal opportunity for all is favorable to the free and open exchange of ideas, and the University seeks to reach out as widely as possible in order to attract the most qualified individuals as students, faculty, and staff. In applying this policy, the University is committed to nondiscrimination on the basis of personal beliefs or characteristics such as political views, religion, national origin, ancestry, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy and related conditions, age, marital or domestic partnership status, veteran status, disability and/or other characteristics protected by applicable law in any phase of its education or employment programs or activities. In addition, pursuant to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and supporting regulations, Princeton does not discriminate on the basis of sex in the education programs or activities that it operates; this extends to admission and employment. Inquiries about the application of Title IX and its supporting regulations may be directed to the University’s Sexual Misconduct/Title IX Coordinator or to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education. See Princeton’s full Equal Opportunity Policy and Nondiscrimination Statement.

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