Nicole Stelle Garnett is the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School, where she also serves as the Associate Dean for External Engagement and directs the Notre Dame Education Law Project. Her teaching and research focus on education law and policy, religious liberty, and topics related to property law (especially land use and urban development policies). In addition to dozens of articles on these subjects, she is the author of Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools' Importance in Urban America (University of Chicago Press, 2014) and Ordering the City: Land Use, Policing and the Restoration of Urban America (Yale University Press, 2009).
Garnett received her B.A. with distinction in Political Science from Stanford University and her J.D. from Yale Law School. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Morris S. Arnold of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and for Associate Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States. Before joining the law school faculty in 1999, she worked for two years as a staff attorney at the Institute for Justice, a non-profit public-interest law firm in Washington, D.C., where she helped to defend the constitutionality of the nation's first private-school-choice programs.
At Notre Dame, Garnett is a faculty fellow in the Institute for Educational Initiatives, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate, and deNicola Center for Ethics and Culture. She also is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
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How Did the Founders View the Role of Education?
The Founders Gave Us the Tools Series
Plenary Panel 4: Justice Alito’s Impact on Religious Liberties & Speech
An Examination of the Jurisprudence of Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito
University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School3501 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Panel 2: Federalism, Freedom, and the Future of the Classroom: A Review of the Florida Model of Education Policy and Jurisprudence
2026 Florida Chapters Conference
Lake Buena Vista, FLThe Future of Family Autonomy after Mahmoud
Education Practice Group & Family and Parental Rights Network
Washington, DCHow Did the Founders View the Role of Education?
The Founders Gave Us the Tools Series
In this Federalist Society America 250 series, experts analyze modern legal and policy debates through...
Plenary Panel 4: Justice Alito’s Impact on Religious Liberties & Speech
An Examination of the Jurisprudence of Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito
This panel will analyze Justice Alito’s contributions to the Supreme Court’s religious liberty and free...
Plenary Panel 4: Justice Alito’s Impact on Religious Liberties & Speech
An Examination of the Jurisprudence of Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito
This panel will analyze Justice Alito’s contributions to the Supreme Court’s religious liberty and free...
The Future of Family Autonomy after Mahmoud
Education Practice Group & Family and Parental Rights Network
With Mahmoud v. Taylor setting new boundaries on parental rights, the future of family law...
Tracking and Ending Religious Discrimination
A new project sponsored by a coalition of organizations seeks to track the various ways...