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Legal scholar Doug Kmiec will be a guest on The Colbert Report on Thursday, April 16 on Comedy Central. Kmiec is the author of last year's Can A Catholic Support Him? Asking the Big Questions About Barack Obama, a groundbreaking argument on abortion, the Catholic Church, and the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama.

Douglas W. Kmiec's provocative book on Catholics and Barack Obama, Can A Catholic Support Him?, is drawing attention on the campaign trail. Yesterday's feature piece by Mary Schmich in the Chicago Tribune explains Kmiec's support for Obama based on the "social gospel side of my faith." In Sunday's New York Times, David Kirkpatrick examines the fight among Catholics over which party reflects Church teachings."

The author of Can a Catholic Support Him?, legal scholar Douglas W. Kmiec, presents the Catholic case for Barack Obama in this newly released video. Kmiec's new book is also the subject of a thoughtful review by Michael Sean Winters in America Magazine: The National Catholic Weekly: "This book is a great help for those Catholics who are wrestling with their voting decision, not only in this election, but in all elections. While Kmiec focuses on Obama, the issues are perennial and will come up so long as Catholics are engaged in public life. His final chapter on "Catholic Officials and Catholic Voters – When Law and Morality Disagree" is a short, concise introduction to an enormously complicated topic. In short, this book is a must read for all serious Catholics. You may agree with Kmiec or not, but you cannot ignore his arguments."

On April 18, 2008, Douglas W. Kmiec was denied Communion at a Catholic Mass in Westlake, California. Ironically, Kmiec had been invited by a Catholic business group to give a dinner address on the Bishop’s teaching of “Faithful Citizenship.” Kmiec had served as head of the Office of Legal Counsel for both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. But now, he found himself rejected by his faith—simply for endorsing the presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama. In a new book just released by Overlook, Can a Catholic Support Him?, Kmiec offers us a thoughtful explanation of his rationale. He addresses the difficult questions at the core of his decision: Can a Catholic support a Pro-Choice candidate? Can there be a reverence for life that embraces a larger set of values? How does a Catholic citizen balance his obligations to the Church and to community? In asking these questions, he challenges those whose partisan interests are provoking a false rift between the Catholic Church and the Democratic party. This inquiry could hardly be more timely. Catholics have been on the side of the top vote-getter in the last nine presidential elections, and make up roughly one fourth of the electorate. This provocative book—at once a legal and religious treatise and a sincere and personal journey of faith—will be an irreplaceable contribution to the conversation, in 2008 and beyond.