Presented at the American Humanist Association 74th Annual Conference, May 7-10, 2015, in Denver, Colorado. #ahacon15 Speakers: AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt (Master of Ceremonies), David Diskin (Camp Quest West), Marci Hamilton (Religious Liberty Award), and Lawrence Krauss (Humanist of the Year). Marci A. Hamilton is one of the United States’ leading church/state scholars and holds the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. She specializes in religious organizations and individuals who violate the law; the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses; the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and its state counterparts; and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). Hamilton clerked for United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Judge Edward R. Becker. She successfully challenged the constitutionality of RFRA at the Supreme Court in Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997), and is considered the leading national scholar and advocate for the victims of the RFRAs and RLUIPA. Hamilton is the author of God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty (Cambridge University Press 2014); Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect its Children (Cambridge University Press 2008); and the co-editor of Fundamentalism, Politics and the Law (Palgrave Macmillan with Mark Rozell 2011). She has been honored with the American National Crime Victim Bar Association’s Frank Carrington Champion of Civil Justice Award, 2012; the E. Nathaniel Gates Award for outstanding public advocacy and scholarship, 2008; and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Pro Bono Legal Service to veterans groups, 2001. She also was honored as one of the 2012 Pennsylvania Women of the Year. Hamilton is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, B.A., summa cum laude; Pennsylvania State University, M.A. (English, fiction writing, High Honors); M.A. (Philosophy); and the University of Pennsylvania, J.D., magna cum laude, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Order of the Coif. --------------- Lawrence M. Krauss is Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics Department, and Inaugural Director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1982), then joined the Harvard Society of Fellows. In 1985 he joined the faculty of the departments of Physics and Astronomy at Yale University. Krauss is the author of over 300 scientific publications, as well as numerous popular articles on physics and astronomy. He is the author of ten popular books, including the international bestseller The Physics of Star Trek (1995) and most recently A Universe from Nothing (2012), a New York Times bestseller. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his research and writing and is the only physicist to have received the major awards from all three U.S Physics Societies. His Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize from the American Physical Society (2001) summarizes his impact “For outstanding contributions to the understanding of the early universe, and extraordinary achievement in communicating the essence of physical science to the general public.” In 2005 he was also awarded the Joseph P. Burton Forum Award from the American Physical Society for his work on issues of science and society. In 2012, he was awarded The National Science Board’s prestigious national Public Service Award for his many contributions to public education and understanding of science around the world. Hailed by Scientific American as a rare scientific public intellectual, he frequently contributes to newspapers, including the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, and was a jury member at the Sundance Film Festival.

• published: 28 May 2015
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