Steven K Green

Steven K. Green is the Fred H. Paulus Professor of Law and Affiliated Professor of History and Religious Studies at Willamette University where he teaches courses in Constitutional Law, First Amendment, Legal History, Jurisprudence, and Education Law in the College of Law, and Legal History and American Religious History in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Professor Green joined the Willamette faculty in August 2001, after serving for 10 years as legal director and special counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, DC, public interest organization 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. He has authored and collaborated on more than 25 amicus curiae (friend-of-the- court) briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court, most recently in Carson v. Makin (2022), Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022), Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2019), American Legion v. American Humanist Association (2019), Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018), Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer (2017), and Hobby Lobby v. Burwell (2014).

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 the author of six books, the most recent being Separating Church and State: A History (Cornell University Press, 2022).  He is the author of more than 50 law review articles and book chapters, appearing in the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, Cornell Law Review, Notre DameLaw Review, Emory Law Journal, and Boston College Law Review, among others. Green’s latest book, The Grand Collaboration: Thomas Jefferson,James Madison, and the Invention of American Religious Freedom, will be published by University of Virginia Press in 2024.