Presenters
Prof. Teresa Collett
University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minneapolis) Teresa Collett, J.D., is professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, where she serves as director of the school's Prolife Center. Collett received her law degree at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. As a well-known advocate for the protection of human life and the family, Collett specializes in the subjects of religion, bioethics, and human sexuality in her research. She regularly teaches Property, Constitutional Litigation, and a course in Catholic Social Thought and the United Nations. Collett has published numerous legal articles and is the co-author of a law casebook on professional responsibility and co-editor of a collection of essays exploring “catholic” and “Catholic” perspectives on American law. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has testified before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as before legislative committees in several states. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Collett to a five-year term on the Pontifical Council for the Family. Her appointment was renewed by His Holiness Pope Francis until 2016 when the responsibilities of the Council were assumed by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life. In 2013, she served as a delegate to the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) for the Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations. Collett is often asked to represent the interests of government officials before federal appellate courts. She has served as special attorney general for the states of Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as assisting other state attorneys general in defending laws protecting human life and marriage. Most recently she represented the Governor of South Dakota and 239 women professionals and academics seeking to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the false notion that abortion advances the interests of women. She has represented Congressman Ron Paul and various medical groups in the defense of the U.S. federal ban of partial-birth abortion, as well as the governors of Minnesota and North Dakota defending states requirement of parental involvement prior to performance of an abortion on a minor. She is currently representing victims of intimate partner violence and their viable unborn children in challenging certain provisions of the New York Reproductive Health Act. |