The Blackstone Legal Fellowship is an American legal training and summer internship program for Christian law students, developed and facilitated by the

Evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

legal group

Alliance Defending Freedom Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF, formerly Alliance Defense Fund) is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to curtail rights for LGBTQ people; expand Christian practices within public schools and in government; and ...

(ADF). About 1,900 law students have participated in the program. Its main campus is in Scottsdale, Arizona. Among its faculty are Missouri U.S. Senator

Josh Hawley Joshua David Hawley (born December 31, 1979) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the junior United States senator from Missouri since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Hawley served as the 42nd attorney general of Mi ...

and U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice

Amy Coney Barrett Amy Vivian Coney Barrett (born January 28, 1972) is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The fifth woman to serve on the court, she was nominated by President Donald Trump and has served since October 27, 2020. ...

. ADF co-founder and president

Alan Sears Alan E. Sears is an American lawyer. He served as the president, CEO, and general counsel of the Alliance Defending Freedom until January 2017. Sears was also the staff executive director of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, popula ...

said that the program's goal was to put Christian lawyers into "positions of influence, thereby impacting the legal culture and keeping the door open for the Gospel."

Overview

Blackstone Legal Fellowship was founded in 2000 with a class of 24 interns. In 2012, when Sears was asked about the major achievements of ADF, he said "among the things I am most thankful for are our Blackstone Legal Fellowship graduates." The program is named for

Sir William Blackstone Sir William Blackstone (10 July 1723 – 14 February 1780) was an English jurist, judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century. He is most noted for writing the ''Commentaries on the Laws of England''. Born into a middle-class family in ...

, the eighteenth century English legal scholar and jurist whose commentaries on the common law had, according to some legal scholars, a profound impact on the founders of the United States. Blackstone training program promotes the doctrine of "

natural law Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...

." ADF, which runs the Blackstone program, requires its employees to profess "adherence to the inspired, infallible, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God in Scripture." Its mission is to "keep the door open for the gospel" by seeking to bring United States law in line with their Christian beliefs. The organization seeks to spread a belief in "the framers' original intent for the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights as it reflects God's natural law and God's higher law."

Training

The Blackstone Fellowship consists of three phases. Students spend two weeks in classes on ethics, theology and jurisprudence. They are then assigned to a six-week "field placement" in the United States or abroad, with placements at "public-interest law firms, attorneys, law professors, think tanks, and public-policy organizations." Placements are based on students' aptitude and career goals. Finally, the students return to ADF headquarters in Scottsdale for a week of presentations focusing on career development and professional networking, and given an orientation to the Blackstone alumni network. Students attending the training program receive a $6,300 scholarship for participating, and some receive additional money for expenses during their field placements.

Coney Barrett controversy

In 2017, President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

's nominee to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts: * Central District of Illinois * Northern District of ...

, was criticized by Senator

Al Franken Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American comedian, politician, media personality, and author who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018. He gained fame as a writer and performer on the television comed ...

for teaching constitutional law at Blackstone. In her Senate committee hearing he referred to ADF as a "hate group." Barrett responded that the hate group label is "controversial." Barrett was confirmed to the court by the Senate.

People

The following is a list of notable people who affiliated with Blackstone. *

, taught constitutional law at Blackstone. Currently associate justice on the United States Supreme Court. * J. Budziszewski, professor, member of Advisory Board of Blackstone *

Robert P. George Robert Peter George (born July 10, 1955) is an American legal scholar, political philosopher, and public intellectual who serves as the sixth McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and ...

, legal scholar, member of Blackstone Advisory Board *

Mary Ann Glendon Mary Ann Glendon (born October 7, 1938) is the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a former United States Ambassador to the Holy See. She teaches and writes on bioethics, comparative constitutional law, property, and human rig ...

, former U. S. Ambassador to the Holy See, current member of Blackstone Advisory Board * Edwin Meese, former Attorney General of the United States, currently member of Blackstone Advisory Board * Charles E. Rice, former legal scholar and member of Blackstone Advisory Board *

Andrew Sandlin P. Andrew Sandlin is a Christian minister, cultural theologian, and author; the founder and president of thCenter for Cultural Leadershipin Coulterville, California; De Yong Distinguished Visiting Professor of Culture and Theology at Edinburg Th ...

, Christian minister and theologian, faculty member at Blackstone

References

External links