Stephen D. Solomon

Stephen D. Solomon's most recent book, Ellery's Protest: How One Young Man Defied Tradition and Sparked the Battle Over School Prayer, was published in July 2007 by the University of Michigan Press. The book explores the landmark 1963 case (Abington School District v. Schempp) in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in the public schools violated the First Amendment. The case still inflames passions today as Americans on the right and left debate what role, if any, that religion, prayer, creationism, intelligent design, and the Ten Commandments should play in the public schools. Solomon is an associate professor at New York University (NYU) and the director of graduate studies in the Department of Journalism. He is also the founder and director of the NYU Master of Arts program in Business and Economic Reporting. He received his B.A. degree from Pennsylvania State University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. His academic specialty is First Amendment law; he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Journalism as well as in the freshman honors program in the College of Arts and Science. He was awarded NYU's Golden Dozen Award for excellence in teaching. Solomon was a writer at Fortune magazine and has written for many other national publications including The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, and The Nation. His articles have won the two most prestigious awards for business writing, the Gerald Loeb Award and the John Hancock Award for Excellence, as well as the Sidney Hillman Prize. Professor Solomon is also co-author of Building 6: The Tragedy at Bridesburg, an investigation of the working conditions that caused the deaths of 54 men from respiratory cancer at Rohm and Haas, a Fortune 500 chemical company in Philadelphia. The revelations in the book led to legal action by victims' families against the company, and they received a multi-million dollar settlement.