Tulane Law McGlinchey Lecture features constitutional scholars March 21

The legal tenet of “orthodoxy” – that is, a citizen’s right to be free from government orthodoxy –  often cited in judicial opinions on federal issues, is the subject of the Tulane Law McGlinchey Lecture on Federal Litigation March 21.

The McGlinchey Lecture, which begins at 5 p.m. in the law school’s John Giffen Weinmann Hall, Room 110, will host two scholars from Boston University School of Law, James Fleming and Linda McClain, whose expertise intersect in the areas of constitutional and family law.

A reception will follow the lecture in the Marian Mayer Berkett multipurpose room.

Fleming and McClain’s lecture is titled,  A “Fixed” or Exploding Star in our Constitutional Constellation?: West Virginia v. Barnette and Battles over “What Shall be Orthodox.” It will focus on the 1943 seminal case where the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a compulsory flag salute in public schools. Of particular importance was Justice Jackson’s judicial opinion which stated,  “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”

The two lecturers argue that this passage warding off governmental “orthodoxy” has been a staple in controversies over education and curriculum, most recently in the wave of state laws banning schools teaching about racism (and Critical Race Theory) and sexism. Business owners objecting to serving same-sex couples because of their religious beliefs also invoke the right to be free from compelled “orthodoxy.” The authors contend that the case is often misread and ignores other components that government “may require teaching by instruction and study” about history, civics, and “the guarantees of civil liberty.”

The McGlinchey Lecture was established in 1996 by the law firm of McGlinchey Stafford, to honor its founder, the late Dermot S. McGlinchey, a distinguished Tulane Law School graduate (L'57). Mr. McGlinchey was a dedicated supporter of the law school, and his many charitable contributions included service as the chairman of the school's building fund. He devoted much of his life to promoting equal access to the courts, and he revitalized the Louisiana Bar Foundation