Steven K. Green
Professor of Law; Director of the Center for Religion, Law & Democracy
- J.D. University of Texas
- Ph.D. University of North Carolina
- M.A. University of North Carolina
- B.A. Texas Christian University, Phi Beta Kappa
Professor Steven K. Green joined the Willamette faculty in August 2001, after serving for nine years as general counsel and director of policy for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a national public interest organization in Washington, D.C., that concentrates on First Amendment issues. Professor Green has extensive litigation and appellate experience in First Amendment law involving issues such as school-prayer, public funding of religious institutions, public religious displays, religious discrimination, religious free exercise and freedom of speech. He has participated in several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), the Cleveland school vouchers case, Mitchell v. Helms (2000), authorizing state-paid computers and educational equipment to religious schools, and Santa Fe Ind. Sch. Dist. v. Doe (2000), striking prayer at public school football games.
Professor Green also has extensive legislative experience, having testified before Congress and several state legislatures. He helped draft federal and state laws affecting religious liberty interests, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (1993) and the Religious Land-Use and Institutionalized Persons Protection Act (2000). Professor Green is a widely sought speaker at national conferences and a prolific author whose writings have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts. He is a prolific scholar and, in addition to the publications listed below, Professor Green is a contributor to the Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties and the Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law. He is currently writing a case book on church-state law to be published by Baylor University Press.
Professor Green holds a Ph.D. in American Constitutional and Religious History and an M.A. in American Religious and Constitutional History from the University of North Carolina, a J.D. from the University of Texas, and a B.A. in History and Political Science, Phi Beta Kappa, from Texas Christian University. He also took post-graduate study at Duke Law and Divinity Schools.
Professor Green serves on the Public Policy Board of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and the Board of Directors of the American Constitution Society, Oregon Chapter. He also serves on the Religious Liberty Committee of the National Council of Churches, the Editorial Council of the Journal of Church and State, and the Legal Advisory Committee of the National Center for Science Education. He previously served as Recorder for the Oregon Law Commission’s study of the Faith-Based Initiative in Oregon.
Professor Green teaches Constitutional Law I and II, First Amendment Law, Legal History, the Lawmaking Process, Administrative Law and Criminal Law. He also serves as director of the Center for Religion, Law and Democracy.
In April 2006, Professor Green received the Robert L. Misner Award for Excellence in Scholarship, which was established in memory of former College of Law Dean and Professor Robert L. Misner. The award recognizes outstanding faculty scholarship.
Recent Publications
- Religious Freedom and the Courts (Baylor University Press, 2008), with Ronald B. Flowers and Melissa Rogers.
- Church and State in the Nineteenth Century, in Derek H. Davis, ed., Oxford Handbook on Church and State in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2008).
- In Bad Faith: The Corruption of Charitable Choice, in Marci Hamilton, ed., Fundamentalism and the Rule of Law (MacMillan Pub., 2008).
- Reconciling the Irreconcilable: Military Chaplains and the First Amendment, 110 West Virginia Law Review __ (2007).
- Religious Liberty as a Positive and Negative Right, 70 Albany Law Review 101 (2007).
- A "Spacious Conception": Separationism as an Idea, 85 Oregon Law Review 443 (2006).
- Religion Clause Federalism: State Flexibility over Religious Matters and the "One-Way Ratchet", 56 Emory Law Journal 107 (2006).
- "Bad History": The Lure of History in Establishment Clause Adjudication, 81 Notre Dame Law Review 101 (2006).
- A "Legacy of Discrimination?" The Rhetoric and Reality of the Faith Based Initiative: Oregon as a Case Study, 84 Oregon Law Review 725 (2005).
- Federalism and the Establishment Clause: A Reassessment, 38 Creighton Law Review 761 (June 2005).
- Locke v. Davey and the Limits to Neutrality Theory, 77 Temple Law Review 913 (Winter 2004).
- "Blaming Blaine": The Mixed Legacy of the Blaine Amendment, 2 First Amendment Law Review 107 (Winter 2003).
- Seminal or Symbolic: The Meaning of Zelman v. Simmons-Harris and its Future Impact, in Paul Peterson, ed., What's Next for School Vouchers (Hoover Institute Press/Stanford University Press, 2003).
- Book review of Clergy Malpractice in America, by Mark A. Weitz, in 45 Journal of Church and State 189 (Winter 2003).
- Religious Discrimination, Public Funding, and Constitutional Values, 30 Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 1 (Fall 2002).
- Of (Un)Equal Jurisprudential Pedigree: Rectifying the Imbalance between Separation and Neutrality, 43 Boston College Law Review 1111(Sept. 2002).
- The Illusionary Aspect of "Private Choice," 38 Willamette Law Review 549 (Fall 2002).
- Critical Legal Issues Involving Vouchers, 75 St. John’s Univ. Law Review 209 (Spring 2001).
- The Constitutionality of Vouchers After Mitchell v. Helms, 57 N.Y.U. Annual Survey of American Law 57 (2001).
- Charitable Choice and Neutrality, 57 N.Y.U. Annual Survey of American Law 33 (2001).
- The Ambiguity of Neutrality, 86 Cornell Law Review 101 (March 2001).
