“Free Exercise: America’s Story of Religious Liberty”
Free Exercise: America’s Story of Religious Liberty is a new documentary narrated by award-winning historian Richard Brookhiser that tells the story of the greatest experiment in religious freedom the world has ever known. Directed by Leo Eaton and John Paulson, the film explores the development of the Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause, primarily through the eyes of six American faith communities—Quakers, Baptists, Black churches, Catholics, Mormons, and Jews—before widening its focus and turning to more contemporary challenges that continue to be the cause of contentious and even violent debate. While the Free Exercise Clause is an epochal principle, the American experience shows that this principle is not self-enacting—it must be understood and upheld for all in every generation.
Following the documentary, the film’s executive producer and several experts in religious liberty will hold a panel discussion with an audience Q&A. Tours of the museum’s Impact of the Bible exhibit will also be offered.
Free to Attend
This event is free with a general admission ticket to the museum, but registration is required. Get tickets to the museum and register for the screening using the buttons below.
Schedule
1:00–3:00 p.m.
Introduction and Film Screening
3:00–3:30 p.m.
Panel Discussion and Q&A
3:30–5:00 p.m.
Tours of the Impact of the Bible Exhibit
Speakers
Thomas D. Lehrman
Thomas D. Lehrman is managing partner of Teamworthy Ventures and executive producer of Free Exercise: America’s Story of Religious Liberty. Mr. Lehrman was formerly co-founder and former co-chief executive officer of Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) and has been involved as a founding or seed investor in numerous early stage ventures. Mr. Lehrman previously served as a director of the Office of WMD Terrorism at the US Department of State and as a member of the professional staff on the President’s WMD Commission. Earlier in his career, he worked as a financial analyst at Tiger Management. Mr. Lehrman has been a board member of several educational institutions, including KIPP NYC Public Charter Schools, Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Mr. Lehrman graduated from Duke University and Yale Law School and his writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Mark L. Rienzi
Mark L. Rienzi is a professor at the Catholic University of America (CUA), Columbus School of Law. Professor Rienzi teaches constitutional law, religious liberty, torts, and evidence. He has been voted Teacher of the Year three times by the student bar association.
Professor Rienzi's litigation and research interests focus on the First and Fourteenth Amendments, with an emphasis on free speech and the free exercise of religion. His scholarship on these issues has appeared in a variety of prestigious journals, including the Harvard Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Emory Law Journal, Notre Dame Law Review, and George Mason Law Review.
As a litigator, Professor Rienzi has represented a range of parties asserting First Amendment claims in courts across the country. For 14 years, Professor Rienzi represented parties challenging the Massachusetts abortion clinic buffer zone, finally prevailing in a 9-0 decision at the Supreme Court in McCullen v. Coakley (2014). Professor Rienzi also successfully represented pharmacists challenging an Illinois law forcing all pharmacists to sell the week-after pill and morning-after pill, and pro-life pregnancy centers challenging speech regulations.
Professor Rienzi is also Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit, non-partisan religious liberties law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious faiths. At the Becket Fund, Professor Rienzi has successfully represented a variety of parties at the Supreme Court, including in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Sebelius (emergency order, 2014), Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014), Wheaton College v. Burwell (emergency order, 2014), and Holt v. Hobbs (2015). Professor Rienzi is currently representing the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious petitioners in Zubik v. Burwell, which the Court will hear in March 2016.
Professor Rienzi is a widely sought after speaker on constitutional issues, particularly concerning abortion and the First Amendment. Professor Rienzi has been invited to discuss these issues at schools across the country, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and Georgetown Law Schools. His writings on constitutional issues have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Times, USA Today, Roll Call, U.S. News & World Report, National Review Online, The New York Daily News, The Chicago Sun-Times, and the National Catholic Register. He has appeared on various television and radio programs, including CNN, NBC, ABC, FOX News, and NPR.
Prior to joining CUA, Professor Rienzi served as counsel in the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Group at Wilmer Hale LLP. Prior to joining Wilmer Hale, he served as law clerk to the Hon. Stephen F. Williams, senior circuit judge for the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Professor Rienzi was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He earned his JD from Harvard Law School and BA from Princeton University, both with honors.
Asma T. Uddin
Asma T. Uddin is a professor, author, and lawyer specializing in religious liberty. Her recent major publications include When Islam Is Not a Religion (2019), The Politics of Vulnerability (2021), and numerous scholarly articles utilizing social science theories to map depolarization strategies for the US Supreme Court.
Uddin is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at the Catholic University of America, where she teaches family law, international human rights, gender, law, and policy, and the religious liberty clinic. She has also taught the religious liberty clinic at Harvard Law School. After graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, Uddin served as legal counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. While there, she helped litigate religious liberty cases in both international and domestic tribunals, including the US Supreme Court.
Uddin is also a Fellow with the Aspen Institute's Religion & Society Program in Washington, DC, where she created a data-based approach to reducing Muslim-Christian polarization in the US. Her work on depolarization has been supported by the Fetzer Institute, Pew Charitable Trusts, M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust, and the Templeton Religion Trust.
Uddin served two terms as an expert advisor on religious liberty to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), was a term-member of the Council on Foreign Relations, has held fellowships at Harvard, Georgetown, and UCLA, and currently sits on the board of advisors for Notre Dame University's Religious Liberty Initiative.
Uddin’s extensive public writings on religion, politics, and polarization have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Al Jazeera America, Flipboard, Refinery29, Teen Vogue, and numerous other outlets. In 2022, Deseret Magazine named Uddin a “new reformer”: one of 20 faith leaders who “are challenging the conservative movement to change.”
From 2009 to 2016, Uddin founded and edited a web magazine, altMuslimah, which covered a wide range of issues at the intersection of gender and Islam. The web magazine had a content partnership with the Washington Post, hosted multiple conferences at Princeton University, and was featured in media workshops abroad. Uddin has also advised media projects on American Muslims, including as executive producer for the Emmy- and Peabody-nominated docuseries, The Secret Life of Muslims.