Why have you chosen Law and Religion as your area of focus?
Since childhood I have been interested in protecting the rights of religious minorities and preventing government from imposing the dominant religion on people. In some respects, I approach law and religion from a civil rights perspective rather than a purely civil liberties perspective. I am also fascinated by a wide range of religious traditions and their internal legal systems.
What else defines your scholarship?
Judicial interpretation. My interest in that arose from the study of philosophical hermeneutics of Hans Georg Gadamer. His theories explain how the legal obsession with objectivity and subjectivity create a false dichotomy because all interpreters are influenced by their culture. While this prevents pure objectivity, it also prevents pure subjectivity, at least within similar cultures.
Also, Japanese Law, which I became interested in when I was a Fulbright Scholar on the Faculty of Law at Doshisha University and began to study the Japanese Constitution.
I also have expertise in the field of judicial interpretation as it relates to Japanese Constitutional Law.
What are your most recent books?
I have a major book coming out in 2027 called, Unprincipled: How the Roberts Court Has Used History and Deception to Disempower Americans (Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2027).
The Fifth Edition of my casebook with Larry Cata Backer will be published soon. Entitled Law and Religion: Cases and Materials, 5th Ed. (West Academic 2026). This book is part of the American Casebook Series.
In 2025, The Japanese Legal System, 2nd Ed. (West 2025) (with Colin P. Jones and Koji Higashikawa) was published. It is part of the West Hornbook collection.
Also, in 2025 my book, Advanced Introduction to Law and Religion (Edward Elgar 2025) was published. I was honored to be asked to write for this invitation-only series.
Why did you start a Substack series and YouTube channel?
My entry into Substack and YouTube is brand new. I post weekly to Substack and every few weeks to YouTube. I do this because I am very concerned about the state of democracy and the rise of Christian Nationalism in the U.S. The culture wars are influenced more than ever by a Supreme Court with no regard for precedent and a government hell bent on suppressing free speech.
True, this happened in past governments under both parties, but not to the same extreme level as today).
Because I have a platform to explain various battles in the culture wars, I can’t sit back. I must lend my voice to fighting against Christian Nationalism and the brazen attacks on freedom of speech.
To be clear, I opposed attacks on freedom of speech when they came from the left as well, but those attacks were never as brazen as what is happening now.
What difference do you hope to make in society?
I hope to build bridges, educate people about their rights and the threats to those rights, call out the current Supreme Court supermajority on its brazen manipulation of law and of history, and teach students who will be great lawyers and are also able to converse calmly with those who they disagree with.
What role, if any, do student play in your research?
I sometimes have a student research assistant. This depends on the projects I am working on at any given time.
When I hire a research assistant, I generally look for a student on Michigan State Law Review, who has a GPA of 3.5 or above, has some background or interest in religion and/or philosophy. If I hire someone for my Japanese law research the ability to research in Japanese is important because I speak Japanese, so I usually focus on original sources. I do not hire a research assistant every year as it tends to be project dependent.