Stephen L. Carter
Biography
Stephen L. Carter
Stephen L. Carter
BIO
Stephen L. Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law
at Yale, where he has taught for almost thirty years. He is also
the author of seven acclaimed works of nonfiction, and three
bestselling novels.
He was the second of five children of Lisle and Emily Carter. Born
in Washington, D.C., Carter was educated in the public schools of
Washington, New York City, and Ithaca, New York.
He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford in
1976, graduating with Honors and Distinction. In 1979, he received
his law degree from Yale, where he was a Notes Editor of the
Yale Law Journal. Following law school, he served as a law
clerk for Judge Spottswood W. Robinson, III, of the United States
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and then to
Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court of the United
States.
At Yale, Carter teaches courses on law and religion, intellectual
property, contracts, professional responsibility, lying and
secrets, and the ethics of warfare. He has published dozens of
articles in law reviews, and many op-ed columns in the
nation’s leading newspapers. He appears frequently on radio
and television.
Among his nonfiction books are THE CULTURE OF DISBELIEF: How
American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion (1993);
CIVILITY: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy (1998);
and GOD'S NAME IN VAIN: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion in
Politics (2000).
His first novel, THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK (2002), spent eleven
weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. His fourth
novel, JERICHOS FALL, will be published in July of 2009.
Professor Carter is a member of numerous learned societies. He has
received eight honorary degrees. He and his wife Enola G. Aird have
two children, now in their twenties.
Stephen L. Carter
