Wendy Kaminer

Lawyer and social critic

Wendy Kaminer, a lawyer and social critic, writes about law, liberty, feminism, religion, and popular culture. A former Guggenheim fellow and recipient of the Smith College Medal, she is the author of a number books, including Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today (2002); Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety (1999); True Love Waits: Essays and Criticism (1999); and It’s All the Rage: Crime and Culture (1999).

Her articles and reviews, dating back to the 1980s, have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, The American Prospect, Dissent, The Nation, The Wilson Quarterly, Free Inquiry, Slate.com, thefreeforall.net and spiked magazine. Her commentaries have aired on National Public Radio.

Before embarking on her writing career, Kaminer briefly practised law, as a criminal defence attorney for the New York Legal Aid Society and a staff attorney in the New York City Mayor’s Office. Law has remained one of her primary subjects, and her writings on such apparently disparate topics as feminism, criminal justice, free speech, religion, spirituality, and popular culture are shaped by common concerns for liberty, individualism, ethics, and rationality. A former board member of the American Civil Liberties Union, Kaminer is an ardent civil libertarian and currently serves on the advisory boards of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the Secular Coalition for America.