Topics: Scholars

• Aaron Caplan

  Aaron Caplan is a First Amendment scholar who has focused on Internet free speech cases and has litigated for the ACLU. He teaches at Loyola Law School...

• Alexander Bickel

  Alexander Bickel, a well-known legal scholar, was the attorney for the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case that advanced First Amendment press freedom...

• Alexander Meiklejohn

  Alexander Meiklejohn argued that the First Amendment’s primary purpose is to ensure that voters are free to debate in order to make informed choices about...

• Andrea Dworkin

  Andrea Dworkin, a radical feminist writer and theorist, rejected First Amendment protections for pornography, arguing that pornography encourages violence...

• C. Edwin Baker

  C. Edwin Baker was a leading First Amendment scholar who wrote Human Liberty and Freedom of Speech. He described the liberty model justification for freedom of...

• Catharine MacKinnon

  Feminist legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon argues that pornography should be illegal as it perpetuates sexual inequality. She has faced pushback from First...

• Charles Haynes
• Clay Calvert

  Clay Calvert is a First Amendment scholar who has authored First Amendment law articles on topics including broadcast indecency and recording of police...

• Erwin Chemerinsky

  Erwin Chemerinsky, one of the foremost constitutional law scholars and Supreme Court lawyers, writes on First Amendment issues and argues First Amendment cases...

• Erwin Griswold

  As solicitor general, Erwin Griswold unsuccessfully argued that the security concerns of the Pentagon Papers outweighed the First Amendment rights of a free...

• Eugene Volokh

  Eugene Volokh is one of the nation’s most prolific writers and commentators on the First Amendment. He is founder of a popular blog on free expression and...

• Frederick Schauer

  Frederick Schauer's First Amendment writings are notable for their philosophical rigor, passionately favoring free speech but critiquing arguments for it...

• Geoffrey Stone

  Geoffrey Stone is a First Amendment scholar and a law professor at the University of Chicago who has written and edited numerous books on free expression...

• Harry Kalven, Jr.

  Harry Kalven Jr. was University of Chicago law professor best known for advocacy of and thoughtful writings about First Amendment freedom of speech and...

• Harry Weinberger

  Harry Weinberger was a litigator for numerous civil liberties and First Amendment causes in the early 1900s, including theater censorship and the military draft...

• Herbert Wechsler

  Herbert Wechsler was a leading lawyer and legal scholar best known in First Amendment circles for arguing the landmark libel case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan...

• John Ely

  A prominent legal scholar, John Hart Ely contributed to First Amendment jurisprudence. He argues against strict absolutism in interpreting the Constitution...

• Kevin O'Neill

  Kevin F. O’Neill is a law professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law who writes frequently on First Amendment issues. He oversaw First Amendment cases at...

• Laurence Tribe

  Laurence Tribe, a professor at Harvard Law School, is regarded as one of the preeminent scholars in the field of constitutional law and First Amendment...

• Leo Pfeffer

  Leo Pfeffer, one of the twentieth century’s most active litigators on church-state issues, participated in several First Amendment cases before the U.S....

• Leonard Levy

  Leonard W. Levy was an influential scholar and historian whose works on the Constitution and Bill of Rights have been cited in numerous First Amendment cases...

• Norman Dorsen

  Norman Dorsen was a leading civil liberties lawyer. He made many of his contributions to First Amendment jurisprudence during his career at the American Civil...

• Paul Freund

  Paul Abraham Freund, a law professor at Harvard University, played a critical part in the movement to better protect the individual liberties of the First...

• Paul Murphy

  Paul Murphy was an advocate of First Amendment freedoms and a leader in the fields of civil liberties. He was known for studying the First Amendment in World...

• Richard Posner

  Richard Allen Posner, one of the most influential jurists and legal theorists in the United States today, has written numerous First Amendment opinions as an...

• Robert Bork

  Judge Robert Bork, who served as solicitor general for President Nixon, believed the First Amendment free speech protection only applied to political speech...

• Robert O'Neil

  Robert O'Neil (1934-2018) was an authority on First Amendment issues, writing several books and amicus curiae briefs on First Amendment cases that reached the...

• Rodney Smolla

  Rodney Smolla is an influential First Amendment attorney and scholar who has argued cases before the Supreme Court, including the Virginia cross-burning case...

• Ronald Collins

  Ronald Collins is a First Amendment scholar, author and advocate who has written widely on First Amendment issues. He is currently editor of First Amendment...

• Stephen Barnett

  Stephen Barnett was a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley known for his passion for the First Amendment and his fearlessness in combatting...

• Thomas Cooley

  Thomas Cooley was a prominent jurist and legal writer during the second half of the nineteenth century who strongly defended property rights and First Amendment...

• Thomas Emerson

  Thomas Emerson was arguably the foremost First Amendment scholar of his generation. Emerson’s book on free speech remains one of the seminal works in First...

• William Blackstone

  In his Commentaries on the Laws of England, Sir William Blackstone outlined the principles of liberty that were later the foundations of the First Amendment...

• Zechariah Chafee Jr.

  Zechariah Chafee Jr. achieved prominence during World War I and its aftermath, when he argued forcefully for broader protection of free speech rights...