October 2026
Volume 4, Issue 2

American Democracy on the Eve of the Midterms 

As law students, you are studying the institutions, principles, and legal frameworks that make self-government possible. At the same time, we are living through a period in which our democratic institutions face significant challenges. Public trust in government and elected officials is strained, political divisions run deep, and debates over the meaning of the rule of law and constitutional governance are highly contested. 

Yet the history of American democracy is not simply a story of institutions. It is a story of citizens choosing to participate. Democracy depends on people who vote, who stay informed, who engage respectfully across differences, and who are willing to contribute their talents and skills to public life. Lawyers have always played an especially important role in that work. Whether serving as advocates, public officials, election administrators, judges, community leaders, or engaged citizens, lawyers help ensure that democratic processes remain fair, accessible, and worthy of public confidence. 

I encourage each of you to find ways to participate in this election season. Vote. Volunteer. Learn about the issues and candidates. As law students, there are also many ways to contribute beyond casting a ballot. You can serve as poll workers, support voter-registration efforts, participate in election-protection programs, assist election administrators, and help ensure that every eligible voter has an opportunity to participate in our democracy. These experiences offer a powerful reminder that your legal education equips you to strengthen democratic institutions and expand opportunities for civic engagement throughout your career. 

As you reflect upon this moment and the paths to a more perfect union, I invite you to join me on October 12 for a conversation with, Richard Pildes, the Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law, on “American Democracy on the Eve of the Midterms.” A former clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall, Pildes is a nationally recognized authority on voting rights, elections, political polarization, and the structure of democratic institutions. His scholarship helped define the modern field of election law, and he has argued voting rights and election cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Our conversation will explore the fragmentation of American politics and the legal issues shaping the upcoming election. Register here to be part of the conversation.

The College of Law has long been committed to preparing not only highly skilled lawyers, but lawyers who serve their communities and strengthen the institutions upon which our democracy depends. As we enter an important election season, I hope you will embrace that tradition of service and engagement. 

Go Green, 

Michael Sant'Ambrogio
Dean and Red Cedar Distinguished Professor
Michigan State University College of Law

This month's Faculty Spotlight features Asma Uddin. If you would like to be highlighted in this new feature, email Aaryn Richard, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, at aarynr@law.msu.edu. 

Sharia addresses the things we would expect a religious tradition to address, from prayer and charity to family relationships and business ethics. For most American Muslims, following Sharia simply means trying to live an ethical Muslim life.

There is also a misconception that Muslims want to replace American law with Sharia. American law does allow people to resolve certain private disputes through religious arbitration, but that is not unique to Muslims. Jews use beth din tribunals, and Christians use religious arbitration as well. Those agreements operate within the American legal system, and civil courts ultimately determine whether they are legally enforceable.

To what do you attribute this level of opposition to Islam?

Part of it is unfamiliarity. Islam is still foreign to many Americans in a way that Christianity is not, and unfamiliar religious practices can easily be presented as threatening.

There is also a long history of treating Islam as a kind of bogeyman, particularly after 9/11. Islam became associated with terrorism and national security rather than with the ordinary lives of Muslim Americans. Twenty-five years later, that association remains powerful: in a 2026 Pew survey, 51% of U.S. adults said Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence.

At certain moments, that fear also becomes politically useful. We are seeing that again now, as Muslim faith and Sharia have become part of political attacks on Muslim public officials and candidates.

How can work such as your scholarship improve the situation for Muslims and for all Americans?

A lot of my work is about making visible the gap between the principles Americans say they believe in and what happens when those principles are tested by an unpopular minority.

My scholarship looks at how the law treats Muslims and asks whether that treatment is consistent with our commitments to religious liberty. I hope that work helps us better understand what those commitments require—not only for Muslims, but for everyone.

How do you describe your scholarship? What led you to this course of study?

My scholarship focuses broadly on law and religion. I am especially interested in the legal rules governing religious liberty and in how those rules operate when religious freedom comes into tension with other important interests.

I was drawn to the field because those conflicts raise some of the hardest questions in constitutional law. How much room should people have to live according to their religious commitments? When can government limit that freedom? And how do we protect religious liberty in a deeply pluralistic society? Those questions have taken my work in a number of directions, including significant work on the legal treatment of Muslims.

Referring to your book, when is Islam not a religion? Or put another way, is it ever not a religion?

Islam is obviously a religion. But one of the things I examine in my work is the effort to characterize Islam as something else—as a political ideology or a threat.

That matters legally. If Islam can be recast as something political or dangerous, actions directed at Muslims can be defended as responses to a threat rather than as discrimination based on religion. So the question “When is Islam not a religion?” is really about something broader: who gets the benefit of religious-freedom protections and what happens when we begin defining certain beliefs out of the category of religion.

What concerns you most about the period we’re in?

What concerns me most is the ease with which fear can narrow our commitment to rights that seem secure in the abstract. That is certainly happening in some of the rhetoric surrounding Muslims and Sharia today, but the concern is much broader than Islam.

Religious liberty is built for a pluralistic society. It requires us to protect the freedom of people whose beliefs we may not share and may sometimes strongly disagree with. I worry when our commitment to that principle starts depending on who is asking for its protection.

Asma Uddin's recent news publications

• Was featured in The Conversation examining how ordinary Muslim religious practices in Texas are increasingly being treated as political threats. Read more.
• She was quoted in Religion News Service on continued opposition to new mosque construction nationwide, drawing parallels to the historical treatment of Catholic and Jewish communities. Read more.
• The Texas Tribune featured her insights on Texas’s proposed rewrite of high school social studies standards. Read more.
• The Associated Press covered her analysis of a wave of anti-Sharia political rhetoric from Republican leaders, including comments from Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott. Read more.

He was also featured in The Washington Post, analyzing whether Lindsay Clancy could face a retrial. Bronsther drew on a 1955 Buffalo case to argue that prosecutors could pursue a manslaughter charge by focusing on the defendant’s earlier choices. Read more.

MSU faculty and administrators can strengthen their skills for interviews, public engagement and working with journalists through University Communications and Marketing’s media training workshops. Each session runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon and covers messaging, difficult questions and today’s media landscape. The first workshop is Oct. 9, with three additional sessions offered through April. Sign up for the date that works best for you.

SUPPORT STAFF AWARD NOMINATIONS ARE NOW OPEN

Nominate your colleague for Michigan State University's prestigious awards. Nominations are due by October 26, 2026. Learn more here.