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Wendy Kaminer

Wendy Kaminer is a former senior correspondent for The American Prospect and a contributing editor at The Atlantic Monthly. She also serves on the national board of the American Civil Liberties Union.

A lawyer, social critic, and former Guggenheim Fellow, she writes about law, liberty, feminism, religion, and popular culture. Her latest book is Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today. Other books she has written include Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety; True Love Waits: Essays and Criticism; It's All the Rage: Crime and Culture; I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions; and A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight from Equality. Kaminer's articles and reviews have appeared in many other publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, and Newsweek, and her commentaries have aired on National Public Radio.

Before embarking on her writing career, Kaminer practiced law as a staff attorney in the New York Legal Aid Society and the New York City Mayor's Office.

Wendy Kaminer retains copyrights to all her articles.

Recent Articles

Speech for Free

Wendy KaminerDec 19, 2001



Few institutions demand more protection of intellectual property than do corporate media. Eager to exploit the digital age but fearful of the ease with which copyrighted material can be borrowed or stolen, major media companies have successfully pressured Congress into enhancing penalties for copyright violations. The Motion Picture Association of America has gone to court to stop people from de-encrypting DVDs. Recording companies have declared war on Napster in a paroxysm of outrage over the pirating of CDs.



The Spiritual is Political

Wendy KaminerDec 19, 2001




Confronted with low voter participation rates and high levels of ignorance about politics and policy, many of us regularly bemoan the apparently apathetic American electorate. But we're mostly concerned with the apathy of people whom we imagine as potential political allies. When right-wing Christians made a dramatic entrance onto the political stage some 20 years ago, through organizations like the Moral Majority, they weren't exactly welcomed by liberals and lauded as exemplars of good citizenship.



Unholy Alliance

Wendy KaminerDec 19, 2001




"Faith-based activism" is very much in vogue, and some church-run programs may be effective at alleviating urban ills. But funding these programs with government money raises troubling constitutional issues. Is there a reasonable middle ground?

See "Can the Churches Save the Cities? Faith-Based Services and the Constitution," by Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore.

The Joy of Sects

Wendy KaminerDec 19, 2001

Now that the election has finally ended, politicians may be less preoccupied with declaring their allegiance to God, but efforts to involve Him in public policy show no sign of abating. Most Republicans and many Democrats have enthusiastically advocated federally funded, sectarian social service programs, which were promoted initially by the religious right. George W. has even proposed establishing a new federal "Office of Faith-Based Action" (in other words, an Office of Sectarian Initiatives).

Faith-Based Favoritism

Wendy KaminerDec 19, 2001

I'm not gracious enough to resist saying, "I told you so," when I see rival
religious groups fighting over federal funds. Only a few weeks after President
George W. Bush announced a federal initiative to fund sectarian religious
organizations, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was reportedly pressuring the
administration--with some success--not to underwrite the Nation of Islam.
According to The New York Times, ADL representatives left a meeting with
John J. DiIulio, Jr., director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives, "reassured that the president would not allow financing for the
Nation of Islam's programs."

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