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Constitutional scholar, attorney, and historical political analyst Frederick Lane, author of The Court and the Cross: The Religious Right's Crusade to Reshape the Supreme Court, will lecture on the 2008 election, the Supreme Court, and church-state issues at the All Souls Unitarian Church, 80th and Lexington Ave., New York, on November 13, 2008 , from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Inquiry "Voices of Reason" lecture series and the All Souls Unitarian Church. There will be a reception from 6:30 to 7:00, and a booksigning will follow. Admission is $10 (free to Friends of the Center for Inquiry).
Lane will discussing the impact of the 2008 election on the Supreme Court, particularly in light of the Democratic pick-up of several Senate seats. Among the topics that Lane will address are:
* Why religious conservatives are still campaigning against the Warren Court, 40 years later.
* This year's morality and religion cases: FCC v. Fox and Summum v. Pleasant Grove City, Utah
* Is President-Elect Obama the next ... Woodrow Wilson? Con Law Professors in the Oval Office
* The Rule of 55 and its impact on Supreme Court Nominations
* Whither the Court?
"As so many have observed, there is an excellent chance that President-elect Obama will have the opportunity to nominate two and perhaps three people to the U.S. Supreme Court in his first term alone," Lane said. "The goal of the new administration should be to identify potential jurists who understand that the U.S. Constitution provides a framework for identifying and protecting fundamental human freedoms."
Leaders of the Religious Right recycled their allegations that an Obama presidency would mean more "legislating from the bench," but those claims were drowned out by the cacophany of bad news from Wall Street and from an emerging consensus that the Warren Court's rulings on equal rights, school prayer, evolution, and personal privacy was not so radical.
"There is a clear role for the Supreme Court," Lane contends, "to identify the fundamental values of our society that are protected by the U.S. Constitution. Among other things, that's what the Warren Court did in 1954, when it ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that separate facilities for whites and blacks are not equal under the law."
Lane noted that it took another decade for the U.S. Congress to step forward and passed the Civil Rights Act, and a year later, the Voting Rights Act.
"Without the courageous decision of nine Supreme Court justices," Lane said, "it's hard to imagine that those laws would have been passed even that quickly. And it's equally hard to imagine that without both Brown and those landmark pieces of legislation, President-elect Obama would be on the verge of becoming the nation's first African-American president a little over four decades later."
Published in June 2008, The Court and the Cross has been praised as:
* "a colorful and compelling book" — Anthony Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gideon's Trumpet and Freedom for the Thought We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment;
* "illuminating [and] important" -- Michelle Goldberg, author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism;
* "a commendable and sobering account of the scope and significance of the Christian Right's incessant efforts to make a mockery of core constitutional principle" -- Rev. Barry Lynn, author of Piety & Politics and Executive Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State;
* "[a] timely and disturbing book [filled] with wit, legal erudition and political acumen" -- Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason and Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism;
* "an exceptional, insightful work" -- Derek Beres, PopMatters
The Court and the Cross is Lane's fourth book. His previous titles include The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture (Prometheus Books 2006), which led to an appearance on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"; The Naked Employee: How Technology Is Compromising Workplace Privacy (Amacom 2003); and Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Privacy in the Cyber Age (Routledge 2000).
In addition to "The Daily Show," he has also appeared on a variety of other national television programs, including ABC's "Good Morning America Weekend"; NBC's "Weekend Today"; ABC's "Nightline"; CBS's "60 Minutes"; CNN's "Glenn Beck Show" and "Newsroom"; and assorted CBC and BBC documentaries. Lane's next book is entitled People in Glass Houses: American Law, Technology, and the Right to Privacy, and is scheduled for publication in spring 2009 by Beacon. Lane is also a contributor to Beacon Press's blog, The Beacon Broadside (www.beaconbroadside.com).
Author Availability
Lane is a resident of Burlington, VT, and is available for interviews by phone, e-mail, or by remote feed from one of the many radio and television studios in the Burlington area. In addition, Lane will be available for in-person and on-camera interviews in New York City on November 13th and 14th.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, INTERVIEWS, OR REVIEW COPIES, PLEASE CONTACT:
Frederick Lane
FSLane3@gmail.com
802-318-4604
www.FrederickLane.com
Caitlin Meyer
Publicist
Beacon Press
25 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108
617-948-6584
cmeyer@beacon.org
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