Jonathan Turley (born May 6, 1961) is an American lawyer, legal scholar, writer, commentator, and legal analyst in broadcast and print journalism. He is currently a professor of law at The George Washington University Law School.
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Turley received his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1983 and his law degree from Northwestern University School of Law in 1987.[1]
He served as a House leadership page in 1977 and 1978 under the sponsorship of Illinois Democrat Sidney Yates.[2]
In 2008, he was awarded a Doctorate of Law (Hon.) from John Marshall Law School in recognition of his career as an advocate of civil liberties and constitutional rights.[3]
Turley currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Leslie.
Currently Turley holds the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Washington University Law School where he he teaches torts, criminal procedure, and environmental law. He runs the Project for Older Prisoners (POPS),[4][5] the Environmental Law Clinic, and the Environmental Legislation Project.[1] In the classroom, he is known for his self-deprecating humor and for his engaging teaching style, in which he uses entertaining stories drawn from his real-world experiences.
Prior to joining the George Washington University, he was one of the youngest professors to be offered tenure at the Tulane University Law School.[1]
His articles on legal and policy issues appear regularly in national publications with over a thousand articles in such newspapers as the New York Times,[6] Washington Post,[7] USA Today,[8] Los Angeles Times,[4] and Wall Street Journal.[9] He frequently appears in the national media as a commentator on a multitude of subjects[10][11] ranging from the 2000 Presidential Election Controversy to the Terri Schiavo case in 2005.[12] He is often a guest on Sunday talk shows[10] with over two-dozen appearances on Meet the Press, ABC This Week, Face the Nation, and Fox News Sunday. He serves as a contributor on Countdown with Keith Olbermann which now airs on Current TV[13] and appears occasionally on Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now!.[14]
Since the 1990s, he has worked under contract as the on-air Legal Analyst for NBC News and CBS News to cover stories that ranged from the Clinton impeachment to the presidential elections.[1] He is on the Board of Contributors of USA Today.[15]
Turley is frequently regarded as a champion of liberal and progressive causes, especially on issues such as separation of church and state, environmental law,[16][10] civil rights,[7][17] and the legality of torture[18][19][20][21]—as someone who speaks truth to power.[22] In fact Politico has referred to Turley as a "liberal law professor and longtime civil libertarian.[23]
In numerous appearances on Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow Show, he has called for criminal prosecution of Bush administration officials for war crimes, especially including torture.[24]
Commenting on the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which, among other things, does away with habeas corpus, Turley says, "It’s something that no one thought—certainly I didn’t think—was possible in the United States. And I am not too sure how we got to this point. But people clearly don’t realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country. What happened today changed us."[21]
He is a critic of special treatment for the church in law, asking why there are laws that "expressly exempt faith-based actions that result in harm"[25]
Turley disagrees with the theory that dealing with bullies is just a part of growing up, saying, "They are no more a natural part of learning than is parental abuse a natural part of growing up." He argues, "While many will chafe at the notion of moving from hall monitors to personal injury lawyers, litigation could succeed in forcing schools to take bullying more seriously."[26]
He has written extensively about the justice of the death penalty noting that, "Human error remains a principal cause of botched executions" and opining that "eventually society will be forced to deal directly with a fundamental moral question: Has death itself become the intolerable element of the death penalty?"[27]
He worries that the Supreme Court is injecting itself into partisan politics.[28] He has frequently expressed the view that recent nominees to the court hold extreme views.[29][30]
However, Turley has a strong libertarian streak and sometimes infuriates the left[10] with a contrarian position.[22] For instance, he has said, “It is hard to read the Second Amendment and not honestly conclude that the Framers intended gun ownership to be an individual right.”[8] In May 2009 the Daily Kos said that, "Jonathan Turley is an embarrassment!" because Turley had suggested that supreme court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor was not "brilliant" enough for the job.[22][31] Moreover, Turley testified in favor of the Clinton impeachment.[32]
In another commentary that outraged progressives, Turley defended Judge Henry E. Hudson's ruling declaring the individual mandate unconstitutional for violating the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, saying: "It’s very thoughtful—not a screed. I don’t see any evidence this is motivated by Judge Hudson’s personal beliefs. . . . Anybody who’s dismissing this opinion as a political screed has obviously not read the opinion."[23]
The conceptual thread running through many of the issues taken on by Turley is that they involve claims of Executive Privilege. For example, he said, "the president’s claim of executive authority based on Article II would put our system on a slippery slope."[33] He has argued against national security exceptions to fundamental constitutional rights.[29][34]
He is a frequent witness before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues.[35][36] as well as tort reform legislation.[1]
Turley has testified in Congress against President Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program and was lead counsel in a case challenging it. In regard to warrantless wiretaps he noted that, "Judge Anna Diggs Taylor chastised the government for a flagrant abuse of the Constitution and, in a direct message to the president, observed that there are no hereditary kings in America."[37]
When Congressional Democrats asked the justice department to investigate the CIA's destruction of terrorist interrogation tapes Turley said, "these are very serious allegations, that raise as many as six identifiable crimes ranging from contempt of Congress, to contempt of Justice, to perjury, to false statements."[38]
In October 2006, in an interview by Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, he expressed strong disapproval of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.[21]
When the U. S. Senate was about to vote on Michael Mukasey for U.S. attorney general, Turley said, "The attorney general nominee's evasive remarks on 'water-boarding' should disqualify him from the job."[19] On the treatment of terrorism suspect Jose Padilla Turley says, "The treatment of Padilla ranks as one of the most serious abuses after 9/11...This is a case that would have shocked the Framers. This is precisely what many of the drafters of the Constitution had in mind when they tried to create a system of checks and balances." This is important because, "Padilla's treatment by the military could happen to others."[17]
Turley, in his capacity as a constitutional scholar,[39] testified in favor of the Clinton impeachment.[32][40] He was extensively quoted by congressman James Rogan during the Impeachment of Bill Clinton[41]
In 2005, Turley was given the Columnist of the Year award for Single-Issue Advocacy for his columns on civil liberties by the Aspen Institute[1] and The Week Magazine.[42]
He was ranked among the nation's top 500 lawyers in 2008.[43] Turley was found to be the second most cited law professor in the country as well as being ranked as one of the top ten military lawyers.[1]
In 2008 his blog was ranked as the top law professor blog and legal theory blog by the American Bar Association Journal's survey of the top 100 blogs.[44][45]
Turley was ranked as 38th in the top 100 most cited “public intellectuals” in a recent study by Judge Richard Posner.[46]
In addition to maintaining a widely read blog,[47] Professor Turley has served as counsel in some of the most notable cases in the last two decades—representing whistleblowers, military personnel, and a wide range of other clients. Among them:
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