Jay Wexler
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Jay D. Wexler (born April 12, 1969) is an American legal scholar known for being the first to study laughter at the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
. His work also focuses on church-state issues, constitutional law, and environmental law. Wexler is a professor of law at the Boston University School of Law.


Biography

Wexler earned a B.A., ''
magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...
'' in East Asian Studies from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1991, his M.A. in religious studies from the
University of Chicago Divinity School The University of Chicago Divinity School is a private graduate institution at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries. Formed under Baptist auspices, the school today lacks any s ...
in 1993, and his J.D. from
Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...
in 1997, where he was a notes editor on the ''
Stanford Law Review The ''Stanford Law Review'' (SLR) is a legal journal produced independently by Stanford Law School students. The journal was established in 1948 with future U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher as its first president. The review produces s ...
'' and a Semifinalist in the Kirkwood Moot Court competition. After law school, Wexler clerked for Judge David Tatel on the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...
and for Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; ; March 15, 1933September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President ...
at the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
. He was an attorney advisor at the Department of Justice
Office of Legal Counsel The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is an office in the United States Department of Justice that assists the Attorney General's position as legal adviser to the President and all executive branch agencies. It drafts legal opinions of the Attorney ...
from 1999 to 2001. Wexler began teaching at Boston University School of Law in 2001 and became a tenured professor in 2007.Jay D. Wexler
Boston University School of Law, retrieved March 15, 2019
Wexler has appeared on National Public Radio's ''
All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
'' and ''On Point'',
CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
,
C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...
, '' State of Belief'', the ''Brian Lehrer Show'',
New Hampshire Public Radio New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) is the National Public Radio member network serving the state of New Hampshire. NHPR is based in Concord and operates eight transmitters and six translators covering nearly the whole state, as well as portions of ...
's ''Word of Mouth'', and has been featured in '' Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath'' and '' Hail Satan?'' He is admitted to the bar in Illinois and Massachusetts.


Supreme Court laughter

In 2005, Wexler's pioneering research counted the number of times each
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
justice generated laughter in the courtroom, as indicated in the official transcript, as well as each Justice's "Laughter Episodes Instigated Per Argument Average," by dividing each justice's total laughs for the 2004–2005 term by the number of oral arguments he or she attended.Tonja Jacobi and Matthew Sag
''Taking Laughter Seriously at the Supreme Court''
March 9, 2019, retrieved March 15, 2019
This lighthearted inquiry to determine "the relative funniness of the Justices" was replicated by Wexler in 2007. Since then, other scholars have built on these initial studies and seriously examined how laughter is used by the justices at the Supreme Court.


Publications

In addition to laughter during sessions of the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
, Wexler's research focuses on church-state issues and environmental law. He also writes legal fiction.


Books


''Our Non-Christian Nation: How Wiccans, Satanists, Atheists, and Other Non-Christians are Demanding their Rightful Place in American Public Life'' (2019)

The book examines how a smaller portion of the United States population identifies as Christian than in the past, and how the growing non-Christian religions are using the law to assert themselves and create a more diverse public square. Wexler travels the country to obtain first hand accounts of the religious disputes of the Summum in Salt Lake City,
Wicca Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was ...
ns in Wisconsin,
Atheists Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
in Greece, New York, and Muslims in North Carolina.


''When God isn't Green: A World-Wide Journey to Places Where Religious Practice and Environmentalism Collide'' (2016)

The book details his trips to sites where religious practices negatively impact the environment. Because large groups of people engage in these practices, it is the harm caused by the cumulative practice that needs to be weighed against religious freedom.


''Tuttle in the Balance'' (2015)

Wexler's first novel follows a United States Supreme Court Justice during a midlife crisis. Although the story is
satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
, it also examines serious legal issues such as filming Supreme Court arguments. Ultimately, the story is a reminder that Supreme Court justices are ordinary people.


''The Adventures of Ed Tuttle, Associate Justice: and Other Stories'' (2012)

Wexler's first collection of short stories takes readers to disparate places: a zoo where all of the animals are black and white, a children's camp where they have to collect clams, Justice
Sonia Sotomayor Sonia Maria Sotomayor (, ; born June 25, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and has served since ...
's confirmation hearing run by the 1977
Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...
, and
Henry Clay Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state, al ...
's advice to various people. The title story about Justice Ed Tuttle trying to pick up women while on vacation was expanded into Wexler's novel, ''Tuttle in the Balance''.


''The Odd Clauses: Understanding the Constitution Through Ten of its Most Curious Provisions'' (2012)

The book discusses ten of the lesser known parts of the
United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
. He examines provisions regarding incompatibility, weights and measures,
recess appointment In the United States, a recess appointment is an appointment by the president of a federal official when the U.S. Senate is in recess. Under the U.S. Constitution's Appointments Clause, the President is empowered to nominate, and with the advi ...
s,
original jurisdiction In common law legal systems original jurisdiction of a court is the power to hear a case for the first time, as opposed to appellate jurisdiction, when a higher court has the power to review a lower court's decision. India In India, the S ...
, natural-born citizens, the Twenty-First Amendment, letters of marque and reprisal, titles of nobility,
bills of attainder A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attai ...
, and the Third Amendment. This book, like much of Wexler's work, seeks to educate and entertain, and while some enjoy this "fresh vantage point," others find it distracting. Wexler also authored a blog called Odd Clauses Watch with news about other odd clauses that did not make the book.


''Holy Hullabaloos: A Road Trip to the Battlegrounds of the Church/State Wars'' (2009)

This book details his journey to the sites of recent
separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...
judicial opinions.


Humor publications

In addition to studying which justices are funny, Wexler has authored numerous humor pieces. His first foray into humor publishing explained how it is possible to get 100% of one's daily recommended allowance of vitamins and minerals by eating mass quantities of junk food. Wexler frequently writes about the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
, including his clerkship with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and alternate reality confirmation hearings for the justices. Wexler also writes about legal oddities, including how legislation limits Woodsy the Owl's effectiveness. Although most of Wexler's humor writings are law-related, he has also written general humor pieces.


Academic articles

Wexler has written numerous academic articles examining constitutional law, law and religion, environmental law, and intersections thereof. He has made significant contributions to the discourse surrounding the teaching of religion, particularly intelligent design, in American public schools. Wexler's work has been published in journals such as the ''
Journal of Interdisciplinary History The ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the MIT Press. It covers a broad range of historical themes and periods, linking history to other academic fields. Contents The journal featur ...
'', the ''Journal of Legal Metrics'', ''New England Law Review'', and ''
Texas Law Review The ''Texas Law Review'' is a student-edited and -produced law review affiliated with the University of Texas School of Law (Austin). It ranks number 6 on Washington & Lee University's list, number 11 on Google Scholar's list of top publications i ...
''. His work has been cited by two federal circuit courts, two federal district courts, and the Vermont Supreme Court. His most cited articles include * "Defending the Middle Way: Intermediate Scrutiny as Judicial Minimalism", 66 ''George Washington Law Review'' 298 (1998): Wexler illustrates the merits of Cass Sunstein's judicial minimalism, discusses the intermediate scrutiny standard, argues that it is better than a sliding-scale approach, but acknowledges the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
can manipulate this standard. * "Darwin, Design, and Disestablishment: Teaching the Evolution Controversy in Public Schools", 56 ''Vanderbilt Law Review'' 751 (2003): Wexler examines the
Santorum Amendment The Santorum Amendment was a failed proposed amendment to the 2001 education funding bill (which became known as the No Child Left Behind Act) that promoted the teaching of intelligent design while questioning the academic standing of evolution ...
to the
No Child Left Behind Act The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based education ...
and finds that teaching
intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for its bold attempt to ...
in public schools would violate the
Establishment Clause In United States law, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, together with that Amendment's Free Exercise Clause, form the constitutional right of freedom of religion. The relevant constitutional text ...
. * "Of Pandas, People, and the First Amendment: The Constitutionality of Teaching Intelligent Design in the Public Schools", 49 ''Stanford Law Review'' 439 (1997): Wexler was one of the first legal scholars to contend that intelligent design is a religious belief and that teaching it in public schools would violate the Establishment Clause. He argued intelligent design should be considered religious belief regardless of whether it is evaluated under a "content-based" or a "functional" definition of religion. Wexler noted that intelligent design could also be considered scientific, but that the religious nature of the theory should preclude it being taught in public schools. Conversely, he argued that evolution is scientific and should not be considered a religious belief because " does not address the question of origins nor does it postulate the meaning of life. It deals only with proximate causes, not ultimate ones." * "Preparing for the Clothed Public Square: Teaching about Religion, Civic Education, and the Constitution", 43 ''William and Mary Law Review'' 1159 (2001-2002): Wexler distinguishes teaching about religion from teaching religious beliefs, and argues children should be taught about various religions that exert significant influence in societies around the world.


Honors and awards

Wexler received numerous awards as a student at
Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...
. He was awarded the Steven M. Block Civil Liberties Award and the Irving J. Hellmann Jr. Award for his student note published in the ''
Stanford Law Review The ''Stanford Law Review'' (SLR) is a legal journal produced independently by Stanford Law School students. The journal was established in 1948 with future U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher as its first president. The review produces s ...
''. Wexler is a two-time Fulbright Scholar (2007-2008 and 2014-2015), and was selected for the Michael Melton Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2009.


See also

*
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 6) A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
List of works on intelligent design This is a list of works addressing the subject or the themes of intelligent design. Non-fiction Supportive non-fiction Supportive non-fiction books * * * Michael J. Behe. '' Darwin's Black Box'': ''The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution'', ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wexler, Jay 1969 births Living people American scholars of constitutional law American legal writers American legal scholars Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Boston University School of Law faculty Stanford Law School alumni University of Chicago Divinity School alumni Harvard College alumni Illinois lawyers Massachusetts lawyers