Weed Rules: Blazing the Way to a Just and Joyful Marijuana Policy

With full legalization seeming inevitable, it's time to shift the conversation--from whether recreational cannabis should be legalized to how. &nbsp; Weed Rules argues that it's time for states to abandon their "grudging tolerance" approach to legal weed and to embrace "careful exuberance." In this thorough and witty book, law professor Jay Wexler invites policy makers to responsibly embrace the enormous benefits of cannabis, including the joy and euphoria it brings to those who use it. &nbsp; The "grudging tolerance" approach has led to restrictions that are too strict in some cases--limiting how and where cannabis can be used, cultivated, marketed, and sold--and far too loose in others, allowing employers and police to discriminate against users. This book shows how focusing on joy and community can lead us to an equitable marijuana policy in which minority communities, most harmed by the war on drugs, play a leading role in the industry. Centering pleasure and fun as legitimate policy goals, Weed Rules puts forth specific policies to advocate for a more just, sensible, and joyous post-legalization society.

Politics & Social Sciences

Wexler, Jay

Social Sciences

University of California Press

Our Non-Christian Nation: How Atheists, Satanists, Pagans, and Others Are Demanding Their Rightful Place in Public Life

Less and less Christian demographically, America is now home to an ever-larger number of people who say they identify with no religion at all. These non-Christians have increasingly been demanding their full participation in public life, bringing their arguments all the way to the Supreme Court. The law is on their side, but that doesn't mean that their attempts are not met with suspicion or outright hostility. In Our Non-Christian Nation, Jay Wexler travels the country to engage the non-Christians who have called on us to maintain our ideals of inclusivity and diversity. With his characteristic sympathy and humor, he introduces us to the Summum and their Seven Aphorisms, a Wiccan priestess who would deck her City Hall with a pagan holiday wreath, and other determined champions of free religious expression. As Wexler reminds us, anyone who cares about pluralism, equality, and fairness should support a public square filled with a variety of religious and nonreligious voices. The stakes are nothing short of long-term social peace.

History

World

Redwood Press

An innovative, insightful, often humorous look at the Constitution’’s lesser-known clauses, offering a fresh perspective on the document’s relevance today For a variety of reasons, many of the Constitution’s more obscure passages never make it to any court and therefore never make headlines or even law school classrooms, which teach from judicial decisions. In this captivating and witty book, Jay Wexler draws on his extensive professional and educational backgrounds in constitutional law to demonstrate how these “odd clauses” have incredible relevance to our lives, our government’s structure, and the integrity of our democracy.

The Odd Clauses: Understanding the Constitution Through Ten of Its Most Curious Provisions

Legal History

Beacon Press

If the United States Constitution were a zoo, and the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth amendments were a lion, a giraffe, and a panda bear, respectively, then The Odd Clauses would be a special exhibit of shrews, wombats, and bat-eared foxes. Past the ever-popular monkey house and lion cages, Boston University law professor Jay Wexler leads us on a tour of the lesser-known clauses of the Constitution, the clauses that, like the yeti crab or platypus, rarely draw the big audiences but are worth a closer look. Just as ecologists remind us that even a weird little creature like a shrew can make all the difference between a healthy environment and an unhealthy one, understanding the odd clauses offers readers a healthier appreciation for our constitutional system. With Wexler as your expert guide through this jurisprudence jungle, you’ll see the Constitution like you’ve never seen it before. Including its twenty-seven amendments, the Constitution contains about eight thousand words, but the well-known parts make up only a tiny percentage of the entire document. The rest is a hodgepodge of provisions, clauses, and rules, including some historically anachronistic, some absurdly detailed, and some crucially important but too subtle or complex to get popular attention. This book is about constitutional provisions like Section 2 of the Twenty-first Amendment, the letters of marque and reprisal clause, and the titles of nobility clauses—those that promote key democratic functions in very specific, and therefore seemingly quite odd, ways. Each of the book’s ten chapters shines a much-deserved light on one of the Constitution’s odd clauses—its history, its stories, its controversies, its possible future. The Odd Clauses puts these intriguing beasts on display and allows them to exhibit their relevance to our lives, our government’s structure, and the integrity of our democracy.

In this lively, round-the-world trip, law professor and humorist Jay Wexler explores the intersection of religion and the environment. Did you know that • In Hong Kong and Singapore, Taoists burn paper money to appease “hungry ghosts,” filling the air with smoke and dangerous toxins? • In Mumbai, Hindus carry twenty-foot-tall plaster of Paris idols of the elephant god Ganesh into the sea and leave them on the ocean floor to symbolize the impermanence of life, further polluting the scarce water resources of western India? • In Taiwan, Buddhists practicing “mercy release” capture millions of small animals and release them into inappropriate habitats, killing many of the animals and destroying ecosystems? • In Central America, palm frond sales to US customers for Palm Sunday celebrations have helped decimate the rain forests of Guatemala and southern Mexico? • In New York, Miami, and other large US cities, Santeria followers sprinkle mercury in their apartments to fend off witches, poisoning those homes for years to come? • In Israel, on Lag B’omer, a holiday commemorating a famous rabbi, Jews make so many bonfires that the smoke can be seen from space, and trips to the emergency room for asthma and other pulmonary conditions spike? Law professor and humorist Jay Wexler travels the globe in order to understand the complexity of these problems and learn how society can best address them. He feasts on whale blubber in northern Alaska, bumps along in the back of a battered jeep in Guatemala, clambers down the crowded beaches of Mumbai, and learns how to pluck a dead eagle in Colorado, all to answer the question “Can religious practice and environmental protection coexist?”

When God Isn't Green: A World-Wide Journey to Places Where Religious Practice and Environmentalism Collide

Business & Money

Economics

Review\n"Timely, trenchant, and tremendously engaging, Our Non-Christian Nation is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the contemporary battles over religion's role in our national politics and culture." -- Phil Zuckerman ― author of Living the Secular Life\n"In this brilliantly erudite and hugely entertaining romp through recent religious and legal history, Jay Wexler shows why, as our country becomes more religiously diverse, non-Christians need to get their voices heard and Christians need to help repair the wall between church and state. A marvelous read." -- Michael Shermer ― Skeptic magazine\n"What would it mean to take seriously the idea of religious diversity in the public sphere? Jay Wexler tells the stories of Wiccans, Muslims, and other religious and non-religious groups outside the mainstream who show what existing constitutional doctrine means in practice. The picture he paints provokes us to think differently about what that doctrine should be." -- Mark Tushnet ― Harvard Law School\n"In this fine book, Jay Wexler urges humanists, atheists, Satanists, and members of minority religious traditions to take advantage of a fascinating new phenomenon: the opening of public space to a variety of beliefs and institutions. His compelling account of 'belief' in public life will be of interest to the deeply religious as well as those who cringe at the very thought of religion. I highly recommend it." -- Anthony B. Pinn ― author of Humanism: Essays on Race, Religion and Cultural Production\n"A zesty, opinionated assessment of how non-Christians should actually behave....With curiosity and openness, Wexler performs the action that he advocates: that is, making heard a 'cacophony' of voices in public life so that different viewpoints get brought to the fore." -- Dan Friedman ― Los Angeles Review of Books\n"A fascinating read, and a wonderfully hopeful one...For anyone who feels marginalized as a pagan, nonbeliever, or just not a Christian, it's a manifesto for effective and often hilarious resistance." -- Houston Chronicle\n"Wexler...has made a timely, at times funny, and compelling piece of reportage looking at a variety of religious groups, as well as a strong argument for the importance of a pluralistic society." -- The Boston Globe\n"[T]his book was written for the general public, which often struggles to understand the jurisprudence surrounding religious freedom. Even professors of religious studies often need help in this area....Wexler's writing makes this book ideal for getting undergraduates interested in these issues." -- Joseph Laycock ― Journal of the American Academy of Religion\n"[An] artfully presented, quite accessible, guide to major legal issues faced by minority faiths in America...recommended for all interested in such topics." -- James T. Richardson ― Nova Religio\n"Wexler's greatest strength is his ability to describe current case law in readily digestible terms, making his work an ideal resource for undergraduates interested in religion and American politics. . .[T]his work can serve as an ideal entry point into important classroom conversations regarding the place of religions, especially minorities, in American law, as well as how both public and legal discourses have shaped the role of religion in American life." -- Savannah Finver ― Religious Studies Review\nLess and less Christian demographically, America is now home to an ever-larger number of people who say they identify with no religion at all. These non-Christians have increasingly been demanding their full participation in public life, bringing their arguments all the way to the Supreme Court. The law is on their side, but that doesn't mean that their attempts are not met with suspicion or outright hostility. In Our Non-Christian Nation, Jay Wexler travels the country to engage the non-Christians who have called on us to maintain our ideals of inclusivity and diversity. With his characteristic sympathy a

A zoo with only black and white animals. A camp where children are forced to gather clams or face a trip to the “hot box.” A Supreme Court Justice’s confirmation hearing presided over by the 1977 Kansas City Royals. The Adventures of Ed Tuttle, Associate Justice, and Other Stories transports the reader to these hilarious places and beyond. This is a world, according to Dan Kennedy, host of The Moth Storytelling Podcast, “where corporate cafeteria lunch servers blurt out Kierkegaard quotes to soften the hard luck of a low supply of the ‘lunch beans’ that two raging alcoholic white collar workers crave daily; a world where an HMO in-network dentist hovers over patients and instead of asking about their flossing habits or aches, asks what it is that they like best about him; a world where television sitcoms are set on death row. That’s nothing—that’s the tip of the iceberg.” These stories, illustrations, and other errata are as funny as they are strange, as wonderful as they are wacky. “This is funny stuff, and I hope that Jay Wexler will donate his brain to neuroscience so we can see what’s up with it.” — Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works “Jay Wexler is my kind of writer—that is to say, a weird one, and a wry one, and one who isn't afraid to act silly in a sort of bait-and-switch that, to the reader's surprise, moves him as much as it makes him laugh. Like all the best comedians, Wexler is clearly nursing a heart that the world broke a long time ago. Ed Tuttle is a book that can't decide what it wants to be when it grows up, but as with most cases of arrested development, there’s something very serious going on behind all the antics. Plus, there are pictures.”  — Ron Currie, Jr., author of Everything Matters! “With a smart, irreverent style that never fails to delight, Jay Wexler is the 1977 Kansas City Royals of humor writing.” — Christopher Monks, author of The Ultimate Game Guide to Your Life and Editor, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency “Jay Wexler writes as if he has the ghost of James Thurber haunting him. These stories and sketches will hurt your gut and then tickle your brain. You need this humor. It'll be a hard week without it.” — William Giraldi, author of Busy Monsters “This feels something like the high-spirited whimsy of Wodehouse crashing into the joyously surreal lyrics of a Robyn Hitchcock song and the meticulous hilarious detail of Steve Martin's fiction. Wexler's stories are refreshingly original; forthright, inventive, and whimsical without being precocious; and like all great comedy, almost subliminally laced with a hint of the things we all struggle with like love and death. It was just plain fun to read this, so much so that I'm sure I'll do it again.”  — Dan Kennedy, author of Loser Goes First and Rock On: An Office Power Ballad; host of The Moth Storytelling Podcast

The Adventures of Ed Tuttle, Associate Justice, and Other Stories

Literature & Fiction

Short Stories & Anthologies

Quid Pro, LLC

Like many men his age, Ed Tuttle is having a mid-life crisis. He is bored with his job, uncertain about his faith, and unable to find love in the wake of divorce. Unlike most other men his age, however, Ed Tuttle is a justice on the United States Supreme Court. As the swing vote in one of the most contentious terms in recent memory, Justice Tuttle holds the future of the nation in his hands, a tall order for someone who can barely make it through a weekend without making a monumental life mistake. In this hilarious and poignant debut novel, Jay Wexler—law professor, humor writer, and former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—reminds us that power is wielded by real, often emotionally fragile people and that nobody, regardless of how successful, powerful, rich, intelligent, lucky, or influential they may be, is immune from the feelings of restlessness, doubt, and anxiety that are inherent in living in the modern world.

Tuttle in the Balance

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Ankerwycke

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wexler, Jay. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Wexler, Jay

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wexler, Jay. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Weed Rules: Blazing the Way to a Just and Joyful Marijuana Policy

Weed Rules: Blazing the Way to a Just and Joyful Marijuana Policy

Our Non-Christian Nation: How Atheists, Satanists, Pagans, and Others Are Demanding Their Rightful Place in Public Life

The Odd Clauses: Understanding the Constitution Through Ten of Its Most Curious Provisions

The Odd Clauses: Understanding the Constitution Through Ten of Its Most Curious Provisions

When God Isn't Green: A World-Wide Journey to Places Where Religious Practice and Environmentalism Collide

Our Non-Christian Nation: How Atheists, Satanists, Pagans, and Others Are Demanding Their Rightful Place in Public Life

The Adventures of Ed Tuttle, Associate Justice, and Other Stories

Tuttle in the Balance