Carl H. Esbeck is R.B. Price Professor and Isabelle Wade & Paul C. Lyda Professor of Law emeritus at the University of Missouri. After attending Cornell University School of Law where he served as an editor on the Cornell Law Review, he held a judicial clerkship with the Honorable Howard C. Bratton, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in New Mexico.
Professor Esbeck publishes widely in the area of religious liberty and church-state relations. He is recognized as the progenitor of "Charitable Choice," an integral part of the 1996 Federal Welfare Reform Act, later made a part of the faith-based initiative and equal-treatment regulations under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. In addition, he has taken the lead in recognizing that the modern Supreme Court has applied the Establishment Clause not as a personal right, but as a structural limit on the government's authority in disputes involving church governance. While on leave from 1999 to 2002, Professor Esbeck directed the Center for Law & Religious Freedom (CLRF) and later served as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. While directing the CLRF, Professor Esbeck was a central part of the congressional advocacy behind the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA). While at the Department of Justice one of his duties was to direct a task force to remove barriers to the equal-treatment of faith-based organizations applying for social service grants.
Disestablishment and Religious Dissent
St. Louis Lawyers Chapter
Saint Louis Club7701 Forsyth Boulevard
Clayton, MO 63105
Courthouse Steps: Trump v. Hawaii Decided
International & National Security Law and Religious Liberties Practice Group Teleforum
Teleforum
Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia V. Comer CLE
Thomas F. Eagleton United States Courthouse 111 South 10th StreetSt. Louis, Missouri 63102
Federalism and Religious Liberties
2016 Annual Florida Chapters Conference
Disney's BoardWalk Inn2101 North Epcot Resorts Boulevard
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
The Establishment Clause: Its Original Public Meaning and What We Can Learn From the Plain Text
Federalist Society Review, Volume 22
Modern times in church-state relations began in 1947 with the Supreme Court’s decision in Everson...
After Espinoza, What’s Left of the Establishment Clause?
Federalist Society Review, Volume 21
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
The Bladensburg WWI Memorial Cross
Government Expression of Religious Content and the Establishment Clause
On February 27, 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral argument in...
Courthouse Steps: Trump v. Hawaii Decided
International & National Security Law and Religious Liberties Practice Group Teleforum
Trump v. Hawaii is the latest iteration of Hawaii’s challenge to President Trump’s Executive Order...
The President's Immigration Travel Ban: What Trump v. Hawaii Has to Say About Stating a Claim Under the Establishment Clause
It is little appreciated that the United States Supreme Court’s decision today in Trump v. Hawaii,...