author
Steven D. Smith
b. 1951
A leading scholar of law and religion, this longtime professor writes about religious freedom, constitutional interpretation, and the moral questions that sit behind legal systems. His books are known for taking big ideas seriously while keeping the argument clear and readable.
1 Audiobook
Bailey's Dam
by Steven D. Smith, George J. Castille
About the author
He is the Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego, where he also helps lead the university’s institutes focused on law and religion and on law and philosophy. Before joining San Diego in 2002, he taught at Notre Dame, Colorado, and Idaho, and he has also served as a visiting professor at Michigan and Virginia.
His work often explores the relationship between law, belief, and public life. Across books including The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom, Fictions, Lies, and the Authority of Law, and The Disintegrating Conscience and the Decline of Modernity, he returns to questions about how legal systems gain authority and how modern societies handle religion and conscience.
Known especially in legal and intellectual circles, he writes for readers who enjoy thoughtful arguments about freedom, tradition, and the deeper assumptions built into modern law. His background in both constitutional law and political philosophy gives his work a wide reach beyond the classroom.