Please join us to engage with Jonathan Turley on the subject of free speech at a time when it is under attack both in the United States and abroad. How can free speech survive a global movement to criminalize speech, particularly in the West? What is the meaning and the future of free speech in higher education? Turley has been at the forefront of the effort to restore free speech as a human right.

The Center for Freedom and Western Civilization welcomes Jonathan Turley, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University Law School, for a lecture and discussion on “Free Speech in an Age of Rage.” Register via Zoom to join the event virtually.

Professor Jonathan Turley is a nationally recognized legal scholar who has written extensively in areas ranging from constitutional law to legal theory to tort law. He has written over three dozen academic articles that have appeared in a variety of leading law journals at Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Northwestern, University of Chicago, and other schools.

He is the author of the best-selling and award-winning book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage (Simon & Schuster 2024). After a stint at Tulane Law School, Professor Turley joined the George Washington faculty in 1990 and, in 1998, was given the prestigious Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law, the youngest chaired professor in the school’s history. In addition to his extensive publications, Professor Turley has served as counsel in some of the most notable cases in the last two decades, including the representation of whistleblowers, military personnel, former cabinet members, judges, members of Congress, and a wide range of other clients. He is also one of the few attorneys to successfully challenge both a federal and a state law.

In 2010, Professor Turley represented Judge G. Thomas Porteous in his impeachment trial. The trial before all 100 U.S. Senators was only the 14th time in the history of the country that such a trial of a judge has reached the Senate floor. In November 2014, Turley served as lead counsel to the United States House of Representatives in its successful constitutional challenge to changes ordered by President Obama to the Affordable Care Act. He has also represented four former attorneys general and high-ranking members of all three branches of government. He has also served as lead counsel in some of the most famous espionage and national security cases in the last two decades, including the Area 51 litigation and the Daniel King espionage case. He was also lead counsel in the World Bank protest case, leading to the largest settlement in history for the one-day arrests of journalists and observers. Professor Turley testified over 100 times before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues, including the Senate confirmation hearings of cabinet members and jurists like Justice Neil Gorsuch.

He appeared as an expert witness in both the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. He also testified in the hearing on the basis for a Biden impeachment. In the Trump impeachment, he was the only witness called by the Republicans. In the hearing, Professor Turley opposed the proposed articles of impeachments on bribery, extortion, campaign finance violations or obstruction of justice as legally flawed. The committee ultimately rejected those articles and adopted the only two articles that Professor Turley said could be legitimately advanced: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. However, Turley opposed impeachment on this record as incomplete and insufficient for submission to the Senate. Professor Turley’s scholarship was cited by both the House Managers and the White House counsel in their Senate trial, including the showing of videotaped remarks on the interpretation of the constitutional standard. In 2024, the Washingtonian featured Professor Turley as one of the most influential persons in public policy in its annual review.

He is also a nationally recognized legal commentator. Professor Turley was ranked 38th in the top 100 most cited “public intellectuals” (and second most cited law professor) in the study by Judge Richard Posner. He has been repeatedly ranked in the nation’s top 500 lawyers in annual surveys. In prior years, he was ranked as one of the nation’s top ten lawyers in military law cases. He has been ranked among the world’s top lawyers and legal experts on various international surveys, as well as one of the 100 best-known law professors in history.

Professor Turley was called the “dean of legal analysts” by the Washington Post who has worked for various networks and newspapers for over three decades. He is currently the legal analyst for Fox News. He has previously worked as a legal analyst for NBC, CBS, BBC, and Fox News. He is also a columnist for USA Today, The Hill, and other national newspapers. Professor Turley’s columns on legal and policy issues appear regularly in national publications with hundreds of articles in such newspapers as the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal. His award-winning blog is routinely ranked among the most popular legal blogs. His blog has received various awards and, in 2013, the ABA Journal inducted the Turley Blog (Res Ipsa) into its Hall of Fame. Professor Turley has also received various free speech and columnist awards.

Professor Turley received his B.A. at the University of Chicago and his J.D. at Northwestern. In 2008, he was given an honorary Doctorate of Law from John Marshall Law School for his contributions to civil liberties and the public interest.