Marci Hamilton
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Marci Hamilton is the Paul R. Verkuil Chair of Public Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a widely-regarded scholar in constitutional law. She is an expert on and advocate for the U.S. Constitution's required separation of church and state.[1]
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[edit] Background
Hamilton received her Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University in 1979. She then earned a Master's degree at Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Law Review.
Hamilton served as a law clerk for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States[citation needed] and Chief Judge Edward R. Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit[citation needed].
She was the lead counsel for the city of Boerne, Texas, in Boerne v. Flores before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hamilton is a critic of the Utah Attorney General's office for not vigorously prosecuting polygamists in the state. She indicated that arguments against prosecution based on due process violations and alleged violations of religious freedom had no merit.[2] However, this position has been criticized as one based on legal theory that ignores the reality of limited amounts of evidence and limited government resources.[3]
Her children are William Kuzma and Alexandra Kuzma.
[edit] Media Appearance and Scholarly Controversy
Hamilton appeared on The Daily Show in 2005 to discuss her book God vs. the Gavel.[4] She advocates for the removal of religious exemptions[5] for medical neglect, where Christian Scientists and others are permitted to only pray for children who are dying of easily curable diseases.
However, God vs. the Gavel also drew stern academic criticism from Professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia Law School. Laycock is well known for defending religious liberty before the United States Supreme Court, including his successful defense of the Santeria religion in Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993) against city ordinances that discriminated based on religion (the so-called "chicken sacrifice" case) and of a religious school in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v. EEOC (2012) against the EEOC's attempt to apply federal anti-discrimination law to a ministerial employee, where Hamilton participated as an amicus curiae in opposition to Laycock's prevailing position. In a law review article entitled A Syllabus of Errors, Professor Laycock wrote: “Occasional errors are inevitable, but [in God vs. the Gavel ] the extraordinary number of errors, often with reference to famous cases and basic doctrines, implies a reckless disregard for truth. I document these errors for a reason. No one should cite this book. No one should rely on it for any purpose. You might use its footnotes as leads to other sources, but take nothing from this book without independent verification. . . . Legal scholars may be advocates, and they may reach out to nonscholarly audiences, but every scholar has a minimum obligation of factual accuracy and intellectual honesty. God vs. the Gavel does not come close to meeting either standard. . . . Its many footnotes offer the patina of scholarship, but there is no substance of scholarship. This book is unworthy of the Cambridge University Press and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.” Douglas Laycock, A Syllabus of Errors, 105 Mich. L. Rev. 1169, 1187-88 (2007).
[edit] Books
[edit] Legal/Social Commentary
- God vs. the Gavel (2007), ISBN 0-521-70338-7
- Justice Denied (2008), ISBN 0-521-88621-X
[edit] Reviews
Laycock's positions on these issues are known to be the polar opposite of Hamilton's--they often debate publicly, and spar in law reviews as well. The on-going Debate between Professor Laycock and Professor Hamilton continues. Her response to his aggressive, and borderline personal review of her book is available here:http://www.cardozo.yu.edu/uploadedFiles/Cardozo/Profiles/hamilton02-447/A%20RESPONSE%20TO%20PROFESSOR%20LAYCOCK.pdf
