Douglas Laycock
| Douglas Laycock | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Michigan State University University of Chicago Law School |
| Occupation | University professor |
| Spouse(s) | Teresa A. Sullivan |
Douglas Laycock is Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, and a leading scholar in the areas of religious liberty and the law of remedies. He also currently serves as the 2nd Vice President of the American Law Institute and is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Laycock received his bachelor's degree from Michigan State University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.
He was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, the University of Texas School of Law, and the University of Michigan Law School, before he joined the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Law in the fall of 2010.
He was a member of the Panel of Academic Contributors for Black's Law Dictionary 8th ed. (West Group, 2004) (). In addition, he was elected to the American Law Institute in 1983 and was elected to the ALI Council in May 2001. In 2008 and again in 2011, he was elected to three-year terms as ALI's 2nd Vice President.
Laycock was one of the people who testified in favor of the Religious Liberty Protection Act of 1998. Furthermore, he argues that exempting religious practices from regulation is constitutionally a good thing. But he acknowledges limits to such exemptions; he has said that "Of course religious believers have no constitutional right to inflict significant harm on nonconsenting others."
He has represented parties in four Supreme Court cases on religious liberty. He represented the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, successfully defending its right to sacrifice small animals in religious ceremonies. He represented the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Antonio in an unsuccessful defense of Congress's power to enact the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and apply it to the states. And he represented anonymous parents and students in their successful objection to school-sponsored prayer at high school football games. Most recently, he successfully represented Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Church in a case establishing the constitutional status of the ministerial exception.
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