R. Kent Greenawalt

R. Kent Greenawalt (June 25, 1936 — January 27, 2023 ) was a legal scholar who was University Professor at Columbia Law School. His primary interests involved constitutional law, especially First Amendment jurisprudence, and legal philosophy.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, he received a B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1958, a B.Phil. from Oxford University in 1960 and an LL.B. from Columbia Law School in 1963. After law school, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice John Harlan. He joined the Columbia faculty in 1965. Greenawalt married Elaine Pagels in June 1995. He was also the chief reporter for revisions to the Model Penal Code in 1970s.

Personal life Greenawalt had three sons ranging in age from twenty-four to seventeen in 1995. He was widowed in 1988 after the passing of his wife Sanja Milić Greenawalt. He married Elaine Pagels, a scholar in religion and a widow with two children, in June 1995.

Selected publications Conflicts of Law and Morality (1987) Religious Convictions and Political Choice (1988) Speech, Crime, and the Uses of Language (1989) Law and Objectivity (1992) Fighting Words (1995) Rationales for Freedom of Speech (1995) Private Consciences and Public Reasons (1995) Does God Belong in Public Schools? (2005)