Douglas Laycock is the 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 serves as the second vice president of the American Law Institute and is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Education

Laycock received his bachelor's degree from Michigan State University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

Academic career

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) (ISBN 0-314-15199-0). 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.

Legal work and writings on religious liberty

Laycock testified in favor of the Religious Liberty Protection Act of 1998. He has argued that exempting religious practices from regulation is constitutionally permissable, while also acknowledging limits to such exemptions. In his view, "religious believers have no constitutional right to inflict significant harm on nonconsenting others."

He has represented parties in four Supreme Court cases concerning religious liberty. He represented the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye in a successful challenge affirming the church's right to conduct animal sacrifice as part of its religious ceremonies. He represented the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Antonio in an unsuccessful defense of Congress's authority to enact the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and apply it to the states. He also represented parents and students in a 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.

He is one of three co-editors of the book Same Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty. His own chapter in that volume argues that it is desirable, and usually possible, to protect the liberty of same-sex couples and also protect the liberty of religious conservatives who do not wish to support or facilitate same-sex marriages.

In the field of remedies, he is the author of a casebook, Modern American Remedies, and a monograph, The Death of the Irreparable Injury Rule. He has also written a history of the field.

Awards

In 2012, the International Center for Law and Religion Studies and J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University presented Laycock their International Religious Liberty Award.

Personal life

He is married to Teresa A. Sullivan, who served as the first female president of the University of Virginia from 2010 to 2018.

Bibliography

  • Laycock, Douglas (2015–2018). Religious liberty. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
  • — (January 2023). . Commonweal. 150 (1): 11–13.

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