Leslie C. Griffin
William S. Boyd Professor of Law

Areas of expertise:
Constitutional Law, First Amendment, Law and Religion, Bioethics
Bio:
Dr. Leslie C. Griffin is the William S. Boyd Professor of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law. Professor Griffin, who teaches constitutional law, is known for her interdisciplinary work in law and religion. She holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Yale University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. She is author of the Foundation Press casebook Law and Religion: Cases and Materials (5th edition, 2022) with Andrew L. Seidel. Practicing Bioethics Law (2d ed. 2021) is co-authored with Joan H. Krause, Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law. She and University of Pennsylvania Professor Marci Hamilton published Learning Constitutional Law (Cognella Press, 2023).
A recent article is What Did Those Sixteen Justices Say?, 58 Willamette L. Rev. 163 (2022). A book chapter entitled Rewritten Opinion, Means v. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is in the book Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Health Law Opinions (S. Mohapatra & L. Wiley, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2022). Other recent articles include What is Ethical Discharge?, 10:3 Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics 193 (2020); What Can We Expect of Law and Religion in 2020?, 79 SMU L. Rev. F. 73 (2020); Traumatic Brain Injury: Compassionate Care, Not Clinical Nihilism, 6:2 Journal of Hospital Ethics 87 (Fall 2019) (with Carole S. Anhalt); Conquering Brain Injury, 34:5 Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation 366 (2019), Religious Freedom, Human Rights, and Peaceful Coexistence, 50 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 77 (2018), Pre-or Post Mortem?, 18 Nevada Law Journal 221 (2017). Her rewritten opinion about the abortion funding case, Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980), is in Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court (L. Berger, B. Crawford & K. Stanchi, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2016).
Griffin has written numerous amicus briefs defending children's and employees' religious freedom. She blogs for Justia's Verdict column, and posts occasionally on Petrie-Flom’s health law blog.
Other writings include Marriage Rights and Religious Exemptions in the United States, Oxford Handbooks Online (2017), Beyond the Basketball Court: How Brittney Griner’s In My Skin Illustrates Title IX’s Failure to Protect LGBT Athletes at Religious Institutions, 34 Law and Inequality 489 (2016), A Word of Warning from A Woman: Arbitrary, Categorical, and Hidden Religious Exemptions Threaten LGBT Rights, 7 Ala. C.R. & C.L.L. Rev. 97 (2015), and The Catholic Bishops vs. the Contraceptive Mandate, Religions 2015, 6, 1411–1432.
In the News
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May 31, 2023Verdict
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May 3, 2023Verdict
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April 7, 2023Verdict
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February 23, 2023Center for Constitutional Studies
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December 22, 2022Petrie-Flom Center Blog at Harvard Law School
Faculty Notable
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August 10, 2022The fifth edition of Law and Religion: Cases and Materials is available, co-authored by Leslie C. Griffin and Andrew L. Seidel.
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August 1, 2022Professor Griffin reviews three recent lawsuits against religious employers on Justia's Verdict page.
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June 30, 2022Professor Leslie Griffin reviews David Kertzer's excellent new book, The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler, and its implications for the church's morality on sexual abuse.
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June 28, 2022Professor Leslie Griffin argues that the majority deleted the Establishment Clause from the Constitution in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the case about the public school football coach's prayers.
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June 10, 2022Canopy Forum on the Interactions of Law and Religion posted the "Prayer is Everywhere" essay, where Professor Leslie Griffin argues that government prayer, whether by its coaches, judges or city officials, should not take place at any of its events.