Scholar, Author Stephen Carter to Speak at UB at 25th Martin Luther King, Jr., Commemoration

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Stephen L. Carter -- scholar, author and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University -- will speak at the University at Buffalo on March 13 at the 25th Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration.

Carter will speak as part of 15th annual Distinguished Speakers Series at 8 p.m. in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Called "one of the nation's leading public intellectuals" by The New York Times, Carter grapples with the nation's thorniest political, social and business challenges in a manner that speaks to Americans of every race, class and ideology. He teaches constitutional law and law and religion at Yale.

His work is informed by his faith and experience, as well as his scholarship, as clearly defined in his first book, "Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby." In his book "Civility: Manners, Morals and the Etiquette of Democracy," he argues that civility is disintegrating because people have forgotten the obligations we owe each other, and are consumed with self-indulgence. "Integrity," praised by such leaders as the late John Cardinal O'Conner and Children's Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, was written with his children foremost in his mind.

In "The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion," Carter argues that religion can play a role in the nation's politics, law and culture while maintaining its separation from state. Its sequel, "God's Name in Vain: How Religion Should and Should Not Be Involved in Politics," maintains that American politics is unimaginable without America's religious voice.

Carter's books are so highly revered in both the publishing and the book-reading world that Knopf Publishing Group, in an unexpectedly intense and high-bidding auction among 12 publishing rivals, recently acquired the rights to publish two novels by Carter. The first, "Emperor of Ocean Park," is the story of a conservative federal judge who dies under suspicious

circumstances, and the investigation of his death and legacy by the judge's son, an African-American law professor. It is scheduled to be published this May

A graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School, Carter clerked for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. He recently was named by President George W. Bush to the President's Council on Bioethics.

He is a frequent contributor to law reviews and has published articles in such major mass media as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New Republic, the New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly.

UB and the Don Davis Auto World Lectureship Fund will present the King lecture. Lecture sponsors are the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration and The James Fenton Lecture Foundation.

Tickets at prices ranging from $12-$22 are available at the Center for the Arts box office from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and at all Ticketmaster locations.