Stephen L. Carter (b. 1954) is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where he has taught since 1982. A graduate of the school, he clerked for Judge Spottswood W. Robinson III of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and then for US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Though his academic work focuses on law, American politics, and religion, Carter is also a New York Times bestselling author of fiction for The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002). Other works include Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby (1991), The Culture of Disbelief (1991), Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy (1999), and God’s Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion in Politics (2001).