Sherif Girgis
Professor of Law
Sherif Girgis, a professor of law at the Notre Dame Law School, studies one of the central questions of American law: how judges should read the Constitution.
The Supreme Court increasingly looks to history and tradition to apply Americans' most contested rights—free speech, religious liberty, privacy, Second Amendment rights, and more. Professor Girgis uses philosophical tools to clarify the value as well as the limits of this approach. His scholarship explores how courts can honor the promises made at our Founding while taking seriously the needs of the present, guarding both liberty and the rule of law.
For the first time in America's history, a majority of the Supreme Court explicitly embraces a specific philosophy of judging—originalism, which tries to apply the original meaning of the Constitution. In moving from a dissenting philosophy to a governing one, originalism has faced new challenges, theoretical and practical. That creates exciting opportunities for scholars to shape the conversations that in turn shape our law.
“Catholics have been thinking systematically about law and justice for 2,000 years,” he said. “To join a conversation populated by intellectual and moral giants—to develop their insights and bring them to bear on the pressing questions of our own public life is a huge honor. And to get to do it while working with colleagues and students I love and admire is really more than I deserve.”
