Marci Hamilton

MARCI A. HAMILTON is one of the United States' leading constitutional law scholars, specializing in church/state issues. She is the author of JUSTICE DENIED: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge 2008, 2012) and GOD VS. THE GAVEL: Religion and the Rule of Law (Cambridge 2005, 2007).

Hamilton is regularly cited in The New York Times, The Associated Press, MSNBC, and other news outlets; she is a columnist for The Huffington Post and FindLaw.com. Her website is www.sol-reform.com

Hamilton is frequently asked to advise Congress and state legislatures on the constitutionality of pending legislation and to consult in cases involving important constitutional issues. She is the First Amendment and constitutional law advisor for victims in many clergy abuse cases involving many religious institutions, including the federal bankruptcies filed by the Portland Archdiocese, Spokane Diocese, and San Diego Diocese. She was also lead counsel for the City of Boerne, Texas, in Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997), before the Supreme Court in its seminal federalism and church/state case holding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act unconstitutional.

A former clerk for Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Hamilton holds the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. She lives in Philadelphia and New York.