The Freethought Society (FS) and the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia (EHSP) are pleased to cohost Jay Wexler, noted Professor of Law at Boston University and award-winning author and humorist, who will present his “Holy Hullabaloos and Beyond: The State of Church/State Law in the United States (and maybe some other things)” at the July 1, 2013 gathering.
Jay Wexler’s humorous, lively and revealing presentation is based on his best-selling book Holy Hullabaloos: A Road Trip to the Battlegrounds of the Church/State Wars.
“In the fall of 2007, I spent about six months traveling to all sorts of interesting places where big church-state Supreme Court cases came from,” Wexler said. “I wanted to visit the people who were involved in the cases and see the places where they actually happened. I went to an Amish farm, a high school football game in East Texas, the U.S. Senate, a community of really Orthodox Jews in New York State, a Santeria get-together in South Florida, and downtown Cleveland.”
Wexler has received many great reviews, including this from Publishers Weekly:
“Wexler’s lucid explications of difficult constitutional concepts and the vagaries of Supreme Court rulings are superb, providing readers a deeper understanding of the First Amendment and Supreme Court jurisprudence. But that’s only half the story. Wexler is laugh-out-loud funny as he narrates his odyssey through battleground sites from rural Wisconsin through Texas to the chambers of the U.S. Senate. Along the way he happily and with a usually generous spirit skewers Supreme Court justices, legislators, educators, law school professors and pretty much anyone else, including himself, who has ever taken a position on the enduring American controversies surrounding prayer in schools, religious displays on public property, or the teaching of evolution. This is a rare treat, a combination of thoughtful analysis and quirky humor that illuminates an issue that rarely elicits a laugh.”
Wexler is also the author of The Odd Clauses: Understanding the Constitution Through Ten of Its Most Curious Provisions, and his first book of fiction, The Adventures of Ed Tuttle: Associate Justice and Other Stories, and has written numerous academic articles, essays, reviews and stories for the Boston Globe, Huffington Post, National Geographic NewsWatch, Slate, Salon, Spy, and several other publications.
Hear Jay Wexler give his funny and revealing presentation at 7:00 PM on July 1, 2013 at the Ethical Society, 1906 S. Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. It is free and open to the public, but a $5 donation is requested to offset expenses.
RSVP via the FS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/264369357035058/ or the FS Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/Freethought-Society-Meetup/events/124257472/
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