Jeffrey Rosen

Jeffrey Rosen in February 2008

Jeffrey Rosen (born February 13, 1964)^[1] is an American academic and commentator on legal affairs. Legal historian David Garrow has called him "the nation's most widely read and influential legal commentator".^[2] Since 2013, he has served as the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Biography

Rosen is the son of Sidney and Estelle Rosen, both of whom are psychiatrists.^[3] He has been married to Christine Rosen (formerly Stolba), a historian, since 2003. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University and was a Marshall scholar at Oxford University, from which he received a second bachelor's degree. He also has a law degree from Yale Law School.^[3]

He is a professor of law at George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., and has been the commentator on legal affairs for The New Republic since 1992. Rosen is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he speaks and writes about technology and the future of democracy.^[4] He often appears as a guest on National Public Radio, and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine.^[5]

Journalism

Rosen has written frequently about the United States Supreme Court. He has interviewed Chief Justice John Roberts,^[6] Justice John Paul Stevens,^[7] and Justice Stephen Breyer.^[8] Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg credited his early support for her Supreme Court candidacy as a factor in her nomination.^[9] More recently, an essay posted on The New Republic website about Sonia Sotomayor, the then-potential nominee for the Supreme Court,^[10] provoked controversy for using anonymous sources.^[11][12] However, other media outlets, including the New York Times, had relied upon similar sources.^[13][14] Rosen has known Justice Elena Kagan for many years and is the brother-in-law of Neal Katyal, the acting Solicitor General.^[15] In an opinion piece published after Kagan's nomination hearings and before the Senate's vote on her confirmation, Rosen encouraged Kagan to look to the late Justice Louis Brandeis as a model "to develop a positive vision of progressive jurisprudence in an age of economic crisis, financial power and technological change".^[15]

Rosen's articles assessing the Supreme Court have been ideologically unpredictable. He strongly denounced Bush v. Gore,^[16] but supported the nomination of Chief Justice Roberts, while opposing that of Justice Alito.^[17] He supported Sotomayor's confirmation,^[18] and has written stories for the New York Times Magazine about the Court's pro-business,^[19] anti-regulatory agenda.^[20]

Rosen also writes frequently about the effects of technology on privacy and liberty, including articles about the Fourth Amendment implications of pre-flight screening by the TSA,^[21] free speech on the Internet,^[22] privacy in the Internet Age,^[23] surveillance cameras in Britain,^[24] data mining in Silicon Valley,^[25] technology and the Constitution,^[26] the effect of neuroscience on the law,^[27] DNA databases and genetic surveillance,^[28] and Google and the future of free speech.^[29]

Bibliography

• The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America, New York: Times Books, 2007. ISBN 0-8050-8182-8.
• The Most Democratic Branch: How the Courts Serve America, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19-517443-7.
• The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age, New York: Random House, 2004. ISBN 0-375-50800-7.
• The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in America, New York: Random House, 2000. ISBN 0-679-44546-3.

Notes

References

• Rosen, Jeffrey (2004). "About the Author". The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age (1st Trade Paperback ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-75985-9. 

External links

• A film clip "The Open Mind - A New Age of Surveillance (September 27, 2007)" is available for free download at the Internet Archive