The prominent scholar of philosophy and the law and longtime Columbia University Professor dies at 86.
R. Kent Greenawalt ’63, a renowned authority on constitutional law and legal philosophy who wrote prolifically and profoundly about religion, freedom of speech, and constitutional theory over the course of his five-decade-long career as a Columbia Law School professor, died on January 27, 2023. He was 86.
Greenawalt, who served as deputy solicitor general in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1971 to 1972, was revered for his ability to apply legal reasoning and analytical thinking to controversial and charged subjects, such as people’s religious beliefs, as well as for his ability to do so with empathy and kindness. His own faith, which he once described as having “uncertainty and tentativeness,” guided him in those efforts as a member of what he admitted is a “pervasively secular discipline.”
“My convictions tell me that no aspect of life should be wholly untouched by the transcendent reality in which I believe, yet a basic premise of common legal argument is that any reference to such perspective is out of bounds,” Greenawalt wrote in his 1988 book, Religious Convictions and Political Choice. “This personal and professional dilemma helps explain my concern with the place of religious convictions in the process by which laws are made.”
Greenawalt—who held the prestigious title University Professor, Columbia University’s highest academic honor—made lasting contributions...
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