Participants at the October 5, 2014 opening session of the 21st Annual International Law and Religion Symposium were pleased to hear a Keynote Address from Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Also at the opening session, held in the Moot Court Room of the J. Reuben Clark Law School on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr., Director of the Symposium’s sponsoring organization, the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, presented the Center’s Distinguished Service Award to Senator Hatch.
In commenting upon the selection of Senator Hatch as a recipient of the award, BYU Law School Associate Dean and ICLRS Associate Director Brett G. Scharffs said, “Over his lengthy career, Senator Hatch has been a consistent and articulate defender of religious freedom. From his work on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which is the most important legislation in the last half century dealing with freedom of religion,…