Protecting the Religious Right and Left to Be Wrong

At the end of 1992, Kevin Hasson's career was at a crossroads. He was enjoying his work at a large Washington, D.C., law firm and the financial security that came with it. But a long-held dream of dedicating his legal training to defending religious liberty kept creeping in, obscuring his current path.

A devout Catholic, Hasson retreated to Rome just after Christmas to visit the catacombs, St. Peter's Basilica and other sacred sites to pray and sort out what he should do.

"The conviction came back very strongly that I should go ahead and start the public interest law firm," he recalled in a recent interview. "I called my wife from a pay phone across the street from St. Peter's and told her I wanted to start a public interest law firm to defend all religions for free."