Ronald Kenneth Leo Collins (born July 31, 1949) is the co-founder and co-director (emeritus) of the History Book Festival and co-founder and co-chair of the First Amendment Salons. He is the editor of the weekly online blog ''First Amendment News'' and editor of ''Attention'' (an online journal on the life and legacy of

Simone Weil Simone Adolphine Weil ( ; ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic and political activist. Despite her short life, her ideas concerning religion, spirituality, and politics have remained widely influential in cont ...

). He is also the Lewes Public Library's Distinguished Lecturer.

Biography

Collins was born in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

in 1949. graduated from the

University of California at Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joine ...

with a B.A. degree. He received a J.D. degree from

Loyola Law School Loyola Law School is the law school of Loyola Marymount University, a private Jesuit university in Los Angeles, California. Loyola was established in 1920. Academics Degrees offered include the Juris Doctor (JD); Master of Science in Legal ...

in Los Angeles. After graduating from law school, he worked as a law clerk to

Hans A. Linde Hans Arthur Linde (April 15, 1924 – August 31, 2020) was a German Jewish American legal scholar who served as a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from 1977 to 1990. Born in Berlin, Germany, Justice Linde relocated with his family to Denmark i ...

on the Oregon Supreme Court and was a judicial fellow under Chief Justice Warren Burger. He is the recipient of Supreme Court Fellows Alumni Association’s Administration of Justice Award for legal scholarship (February 2011). After teaching at Syracuse Law School and George Washington Law School, he was a scholar at the Newseum's First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C. for six years. Thereafter, he was the Harold S. Shefelman Scholar at the

University of Washington School of Law The University of Washington School of Law is the law school of the University of Washington, located on the northwest corner of the main campus in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. The school is fully accredited by the American Bar Asso ...

. In 2011, Collins became the book editor for

SCOTUSblog ''SCOTUSblog'' is a law blog written by lawyers, legal scholars, and law students about the Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes abbreviation, abbreviated "SCOTUS"). Formerly sponsored by Bloomberg Law and now owned by ''The Dispatch'' ...

. He has written, edited and co-authored (with

David Skover David Michael Skover is the former Fredric C. Tausend Professor of Law at the Seattle University School of Law. He taught, wrote, and lectured in the fields of federal constitutional law, federal courts, free speech & the internet, and mass com ...

) books related to law, freedom of speech and justice in the United States. These include ''A Declaration of Duties Toward Humankind: A Critical Companion to Simone Weil's The Need for Roots'' (co-edited with Eric Springsted) and ''Tragedy on Trial: The Story of the Infamous Emmett Till Murder Trial'', Collins was selected as a Norman Mailer Fellow in fiction writing with a residence in Provincetown (Winter 2010). He has written scholarly articles for ''

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of ...

'', ''

Stanford Law Review The ''Stanford Law Review'' (SLR) is a legal journal produced independently by Stanford Law School students. The journal was established in 1948 with future U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher as its first president. The review produce ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', ''

Supreme Court Review ''The Supreme Court Review'' is an annual peer-reviewed law journal covering the legal implications of decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States. It is published by the University of Chicago Press and was established in 1960. The journal ...

'', and ''

Michigan Law Review The ''Michigan Law Review'' is an American law review and the flagship law journal of the University of Michigan Law School. History The ''Michigan Law Review'' was established in 1902, after Gustavus Ohlinger, a student in the Law Department ...

'', among other publications. His popular press articles or reviews have appeared in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'', ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...

'', ''

The Forward ''The Forward'' (), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ''The New York Times'' reported that Set ...

'', and ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

''.

Bibliography

* ''Tragedy on Trial'' (2024) * ''A Declaration of Duties Toward Humankind: A Critical Companion to Simone Weil's The Need for Roots'' (2024) * ''First Things First: A Modern Coursebook on Free Speech Fundamentals'' (2019) * ''The People v. Ferlinghetti: The Fight to Publish Allen Ginsberg's Howl'' (2019) * ''Robotica: Speech Rights and Artificial Intelligence'' (2018) * ''The Judge: 26 Machiavellian Lessons'' (2019) * ''On Dissent: Its Meaning in America'' (2015) * ''When Money Speaks: The McCutcheon Decision, Campaign Finance Laws, and the First Amendment'' (2014) * ''Mania: The Story of the Outraged and Outrageous Lives That Launched a Cultural Revolution'' (2013) * ''Nuanced Absolutism: Floyd Abrams and the First Amendment'' (2013) * ''The Trials of Lenny Bruce'' (2012) * ''The Fundamental Holmes: A Free Speech Chronicle and Reader'' (2010) * ''The Death of Discourse'' (1996) * ''The Death of Contract: 2nd Edition'' (1995) * ''Constitutional Government in America'' (1980)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Ronald K. L. Lawyers from Washington, D.C. American legal writers University of California, Santa Barbara alumni First Amendment scholars Temple University faculty George Washington University faculty 1949 births Living people University of Washington School of Law faculty Lawyers from Santa Monica, California Loyola Law School alumni