Ronald K. L. Collins

Before he retired, Ronald K. L. Collins was the Harold S. Shefelman Scholar at the University of Washington Law School and prior to that was a scholar at the Washington, D.C. office of the Newseum鈥檚 First Amendment Center. He was a law clerk for Justice Hans A. Linde on the Oregon Supreme Court and a Supreme Court Fellow under Chief Justice Warren Burger.
Collins has written constitutional briefs presented to the Supreme Court and various other federal and state high courts. In addition to the nine books that he co-authored with David Skover, he is the editor of "Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Free Speech Reader" (2010) and co-author with Sam Chaltain of "We Must Not Be Afraid to Be Free" (2011). He also authored "Nuanced Absolutism: Floyd Abrams and the First Amendment" (2013). His latest book is "Tragedy on Trial: The Story of the Infamous Emmett Till Murder Trial" (2024).
Collins鈥 other books on free speech include: "The Death of Discourse鈥 (3rd ed. 2023); "The Trials of Lenny Bruce: The Fall & Rise of an American Icon" (2002 and 2012); "On Dissent: Its Meaning in America" (2013); "When Money Speaks: The McCutcheon Decision, Campaign Finance Laws, and the First Amendment" (2014); "The People v. Ferlinghetti: The Fight to Publish Allen Ginsberg鈥檚 HOWL" (2019); and "Robotica: Speech Rights & Artificial Intelligence" (2018).
He coauthored a college text entitled "First Things First 鈥 A Modern Coursebook on Free Speech Fundamentals" (with Will Creeley, David Hudson, Jr., and Jackie Farmer, 2019).
Collins is the book editor of SCOTUSblog and writes a weekly blog (First Amendment News), which appears on the FIREwebsite.
His scholarly articles have appeared in numerous journals including the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Michigan Law Review, and the Supreme Court Review, among other publications.
Collins is co-founder and co-director of The First Amendment Salons (Wash. D.C. and N.Y.C.) and the co-founder of The History Book Festival.
Recent Writings
- James Goodale on Trump: 鈥楬e鈥檇聽sue everybody . . . in the media business鈥 and their 鈥榬esponse has been pathetic鈥櫬犫斅燜irst Amendment News 460,
- Alex Kozinski on JD Vance鈥檚 censorship speech 鈥 First Amendment News 459 ,
- Ilya Shapiro is back . . . with a new book 鈥斅燜irst Amendment News 458,
- Timothy Zick鈥檚聽鈥楨xecutive Watch鈥: Introduction 鈥 First Amendment News 457,
- Coming soon: 鈥楨xecutive Watch鈥 鈥 Tracking the Trump Administration鈥檚 free speech record 鈥斅燜irst Amendment News 456,
- Eight free expression cases pending on SCOTUS docket 鈥斅燜irst Amendment News 455,
- Trump鈥檚 stated promise: 鈥楽top all government censorship鈥 and his free speech Executive Order 鈥斅燜irst Amendment News 454,
- 鈥楾he lawsuit is the punishment鈥: Reflections on聽Trump v. Selzer聽鈥 First Amendment News 453,
- Stephen Rohde: Federal court rejects lawsuit by Jewish parents and teachers that labelled an ethnic studies curriculum 鈥榓nti-Semitic鈥 and 鈥榓nti-Zionist鈥 鈥 First Amendment News 452,
- Media on the run: A sign of things to come in Trump times? 鈥 First Amendment News 451,

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