As Wexler notes in this blog post, his recent book Holy Hullabaloos: A Road Trip to the Battlegrounds of the Church/State Wars, has been widely lauded. For example
Publisher's Weekly said the book'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."
In a recent debate with her Democratic opponent, Chris Coons, O'Donnell appeared to find it news that the First Amendment guarantees a separation of church and state. As The News Journal, a Delaware daily, noted the crowd of mostly law professors and students at Widener School of Law "gasped" when O'Donnell maintained that the First Amendment does not require a separation of church and state. She called the principle a "myth."
Wexler writes:
I've watched the footage, and I think that probably she was trying inartfully to make the old point that the First Amendment does not actually include the phrase "separation of church and state." This is true, but irrelevant. The First Amendment says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The Supreme Court has long interpreted these two clauses (the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause) to require a certain amount of separation between church and state, with the details of what exactly that means with respect to various specific controversies worked out over time through lots of cases examining particular facts.
So Wexler has offered some help. "I have written a book about exactly what the religion clauses mean, in a way that I think even she could understand," Wexler says. "So, here's my offer to you, Ms. O'Donnell. If you would like a copy of my book Holy Hullabaloos: A Road Trip to the Battleground of the Church/State Wars, to help you prepare for your next political debate, I would be absolutely delighted to send it to you free of charge, and I'll even pay for the postage."
For more information about Wexler's book, see his ACS Book Talk post here.
