James Lindgren (born 1952) is a professor of law at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

. Born in 1952 in

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, Winnebago and Ogle County, Illinois, Ogle counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located in far northern Illinois on the banks of the Rock River (Mississippi River tributary), Rock River, Rockfor ...

, Lindgren graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

(1974,

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

) and the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time facul ...

(1977), where he was an editor of the ''

University of Chicago Law Review The ''University of Chicago Law Review'' ( Maroonbook abbreviation: ''U Chi L Rev'') is the flagship law journal published by the University of Chicago Law School. Up until 2020, it utilized a different citation system than most law journals—the ...

''. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 2009. After two years of private practice in estate planning and litigation in Chicago, Lindgren became a Project Director at the

American Bar Foundation The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is a nonprofit research institute established in 1952 and located in Chicago, United States. The American Bar Foundation is located in the same building as Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in do ...

, a think tank specializing in Law & Society. Before coming to the Northwestern faculty in 1996, Lindgren taught at several law schools, including the Universities of Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, and Chicago, and Chicago Kent College of Law. Lindgren has published in most major law reviews, including the ''

Yale Law Journal ''The Yale Law Journal'' (YLJ) is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students at Yale Law School. The journal is one ...

'' and the ''Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, California, Northwestern, Georgetown, UCLA, University of Pennsylvania'', and ''University of Chicago Law Reviews''. Lindgren's work spans a broad range of fields, though the majority of his recent work involves empirical research, public opinion, viewpoint diversity, estates, probate, aging, or retirement. His articles, ''Counting Guns in Early America'' and ''Fall from Grace'', both of which involve detailed analyses of the physical culture of early America as revealed in probate records, are among the most downloaded law review articles ever published. His historical and doctrinal work on

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

was adopted by the Supreme Court in ''United States v. Evans'' (1992), which held that bribery behavior could be punished as extortion under the federal

Hobbs Act The Hobbs Act, codified at , is a United States federal law enacted in 1946 that prohibits actual or attempted robbery or extortion that affects interstate or foreign commerce, as well as conspiracies to do so. The Act is named for United Stat ...

. Lindgren is a cofounder of the Section on Scholarship of the Association of American Law Schools and a former chair of its Section on Social Science and the Law. Lindgren was a leading critic and investigator of charges of scholarly impropriety against historian Michael Bellesiles, who eventually resigned and had his

Bancroft Prize The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, d ...

rescinded. Later he investigated charges about a single-sentence claim in anti-gun-control scholar John Lott's book, '' More Guns, Less Crime'', concluding that Lott's behavior was "troubling". Lindgren blogs at the weblog '' The Volokh Conspiracy'', where he primarily blogs about politics from a libertarian perspective. Lindgren has long supported abortion rights and legally recognizing same-sex marriages. James Lindgren's work on extortion laws was cited by the United States Supreme Court in Evans v. United States, 504 U.S. 255 Evans v. United States, 504 U.S. 255
/ref> where the Court said " we explained above, our construction of the statute is informed by the common law tradition from which the term of art was drawn and understood. We hold today that the Government need only show that a public official has obtained a payment to which he was not entitled, knowing that the payment was made in return for official acts."

References

External links

Northwestern website''Fall From Grace: Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal'', ''Yale Law Journal'' (2002)
− the final version of the 56-page review documenting problems with ''Arming America'', at

SSRN The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is an open access research platform that functions as a repository for sharing early-stage research and the rapid dissemination of scholarly research in the social sciences, humanities, life sciences, ...

''Counting Guns in Early America, Wm. & Mary Law Review'' (2002)
at

The Volokh Conspiracy
a group weblog to which Lindgren contributes {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindgren, James 1952 births Living people Writers from Rockford, Illinois Yale College alumni University of Chicago Law School alumni Northwestern University faculty American bloggers American legal scholars