Stephen Carter, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale School of Law, will deliver the University of Nebraska College of Law’s Winthrop and Frances Lane Foundation Lecture at noon Friday, Nov. 1 at the college’s Hamann Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Carter’s lecture, “The Current Situation in Church and State,” will address the confusion in efforts to patrol the wall of separation between church and state. Carter will review recent developments, and also explain how a greater attention to both history and game theory will help us reach a richer understanding of how and why to protect the wall of separation.

“We are delighted to host Professor Carter as this year’s Lane Lecturer,” Dean Susan Poser said. “He is very respected and we are fortunate to have the support of the Lane Foundation so that speakers of his caliber can be brought to our academic community.”

Carter has taught at Yale since 1982. Among his courses are law and religion, the ethics of war, contracts, evidence, and professional responsibility. His most recent book is The Violence of Peace: America’s Wars in the Age of Obama (2011). Among his other books on law and politics are God’s Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion in Politics; Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy; The Dissent of the Governed: A Meditation on Law, Religion, and Loyalty; The Confirmation Mess: Cleaning up the Federal Appointments Process; and The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion. Carter writes a column for Bloomberg View and is a regular contributor to Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

He also writes fiction. His novel The Emperor of Ocean Park spent eleven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. His novella The Hereditary Thurifer recently appeared in the crime anthology The Dark End of the Street.

Carter was formerly a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, as well as for Judge Spottswood W. Robinson III, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School and has received eight honorary degrees.

The Winthrop and Frances Lane Foundation provides scholarships to students at the College of Law and Creighton Law School. The foundation also provides grants to support law faculty research and to underwrite the Lane Foundation Lecture. Winthrop Lane was born in Omaha in 1889 and attended Harvard Law School. He was a partner in the firm of Rose, Wells, Martin and Lane, a predecessor to the present Baird Holm law firm in Omaha.