People
Joshua McDaniel
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Harvard Clinic Helps Prisoners with Religion at Supreme Court
January 24, 2022
Religion isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when looking at the Supreme Court’s latest criminal-sentencing dispute. But it’s “lurking in the background,” Joshua McDaniel said on Bloomberg Law’s Cases and Controversies podcast. Harvard Law’s religious-freedom clinic director explained what the new clinic does and how it got involved in that sentencing case, Concepcion v. United States. The clinic’s amicus brief highlighted spiritual growth and conversion as powerful evidence of rehabilitation for prisoners seeking resentencing under the First Step Act.
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‘Why Can’t I Hold His Hand?’ The Supreme Court Will Decide What Comforts a Pastor Can Offer During an Execution
November 5, 2021
Dana Moore likes to get on the road by 3:30 am. It takes roughly five hours to drive from Corpus Christi to Livingston, Texas, and he tries to beat the morning traffic. He watches dawn slowly break, and stops at the same Buc-ee’s convenience store halfway on his journey to grab coffee and gas. By 8:30 he hopes to have reached the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, a prison in Livingston, where he starts his day: ministering to men on Texas’ death row. ... The ruling could potentially impact prisoners’ religious-accommodation claims more generally, adds Joshua C. McDaniel, the director of Harvard Law School’s Religious Freedom Clinic, which collaborated on a brief in support of Ramirez. Numerous organizations spanning the ideological spectrum, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops, have also filed briefs urging the court to grant Ramirez’s request.
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Supreme Court preview: Ramirez v. Collier
October 20, 2021
Josh McDaniel, director of Harvard’s Religious Freedom Clinic, explains the Supreme Court's upcoming Free Exercise case — and how his clinic is involved.
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Faculty on the move
September 1, 2021
With the start of the academic year, a look at nine faculty who have joined Harvard Law School, been promoted, or taken on new roles in 2021.