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). 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 with a B.A. degree. He received a
J.D. degree from
Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. After graduating from law school, he worked as a law clerk to
Hans A. Linde 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.
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) 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'', ''
University of Chicago Law Review'', ''
Supreme Court Review'', and ''
Michigan Law Review'', 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