Thomas Messner

Thomas M. Messner researches and writes about religious liberty, right of conscience, nondiscrimination laws and the definition of marriage, among other issues, as a visiting fellow in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.

Messner earned his law degree from Notre Dame Law School and his bachelor of arts degree from Grove City College in Pennsylvania. After law school, Messner clerked for Judge William H. Pryor Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and practiced law in Washington, D.C.  

All Publications by Thomas Messner
  • Backgrounder posted January 26, 2012 by Thomas Messner Protecting Religious Staffing by Religious Organizations: A Wise and Just Public Policy

    Abstract: Religious staffing by religious organizations is an established, baseline position in federal law that deserves continued support. Most fundamentally, religious staffing by religious organizations is socially desirable conduct that benefits individuals and society, not unjust discrimination that should be eradicated through law. In… Read more

  • Backgrounder posted July 29, 2011 by Thomas Messner Same-Sex Marriage and Threats to Religious Freedom: How Nondiscrimination Laws Factor In

    Abstract: Proponents of religious freedom have firmly established that same-sex marriage threatens religious freedom in a number of ways. In response, some have argued that certain threats to religious freedom discussed in this context have more to do with nondiscrimination laws than with the… Read more

  • Backgrounder posted April 13, 2011 by Thomas Messner From Culture Wars to Conscience Wars: Emerging Threats to Conscience

    Abstract: Today, religious liberty issues are more complicated than simply freedom from government interference in religious worship or teaching. Threats to religious liberty and respect for conscience are emerging in the health care field, in the area of institutional religious freedom, and in the… Read more

  • Backgrounder posted July 20, 2010 by Thomas Messner Religion and Morality in the Same-Sex Marriage Debate

    Abstract : Some same-sex marriage activists might wish to exclude certain moral and religious viewpoints from the same-sex marriage debate. Evidence shows, however, that religion… Read more

  • Backgrounder posted October 22, 2009 by Thomas Messner The Price of Prop 8

    Abstract: Supporters of Proposition 8 in California have been subjected to harassment, intimidation, vandalism, racial scapegoating, blacklisting, loss of employment, economic hardships, angry protests, violence, at least one death threat, and gross expressions of anti-religious bigotry. Arguments for same-sex marriage are based fundamentally on the idea that limiting marriage to… Read more

  • Executive Summary posted October 22, 2009 by Thomas Messner Executive Summary: The Price of Prop 8

    Support for Proposition 8, the democratically established marriage amendment in California, has come with a heavy price for many individuals and institutions that think that marriage should remain the union of husband and wife. Publicly available sources, including evidence submitted in a federal lawsuit in California, show that expressions of sup­port for Prop 8 have… Read more

  • Executive Summary posted September 18, 2009 by Thomas Messner Executive Summary: ENDA and the Path to Same-Sex Marriage

    Individuals who support marriage as the union of husband and wife have strong reasons to be concerned about nondiscrimination proposals like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). ENDA would elevate sexual orientation to a pro­tected status under workplace nondiscrimination laws. Proponents often argue that ENDA and simi­lar laws at the state and local levels are focused exclusively… Read more

  • Backgrounder posted September 18, 2009 by Thomas Messner ENDA and the Path to Same-Sex Marriage

    Abstract: A significant body of evidence suggests that sexual orientation nondiscrimination laws like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) can function as important incremental steps toward same-sex marriage. This evidence, which shows how effective a step-by-step strategy can be for redefining marriage, provides substantial cause for individuals who support marriage as the union of husband and… Read more

  • Special Report posted January 13, 2009 by Thomas Messner, Jennifer Marshall Defending Marriage: A Memo to President-elect Obama

    I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. -Barack Obama, Saddleback Presidential Candidates Forum, August 17, 2008[1] I do not support gay marriage. Marriage has religious and social connotations, and I consider marriage to be between a man and a woman. -Barack Obama, Response to 2008… Read more

  • Special Report posted December 16, 2008 by Ryan Messmore, D.Phil., Thomas Messner Protecting and Strengthening Religious Freedom: A Memo to President-elect Obama

    Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King--indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history--were not only motivated by faith but repeatedly used religious… Read more