Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, delivered the fall 2016 David C. Baum Memorial Lecture on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights on October 18, 2016 at the University of Illinois College of Law.

In his talk, "Gay Rights, Nondiscrimination, and Religious Liberty: Can We Avoid a Train Wreck?," he discussed how Americans can frame our strong commitment to nondiscrimination in a way that leaves room for social compromise.

Rauch is one of the country’s most versatile and original writers on government, public policy, and gay marriage, among other subjects. A guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, he is the author of five books and many articles and has received the magazine industry’s two leading prizes—the National Magazine Award (the industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) and the National Headliner Award.