JONATHAN TURLEY
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
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.
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, 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 — leading to courts striking down the federal Elizabeth Morgan law as well as the state criminalization of cohabitation.
In 2010, Professor Turley represented Judge G. Thomas Porteous in his impeachment trial. After a trial before the Senate, Professor Turley (on December 7, 2010) argued both the motions and gave the final argument to all 100 U.S. Senators from the well of the Senate floor — only the 14th time in history of the country that such a trial of a judge has reached the Senate floor. Judge Porteous was convicted of four articles of impeachments, including the acceptance of $2000 from an attorney and using a false name on a bankruptcy filing.
In 2011, Professor Turley filed a challenge to the Libyan War on behalf of ten members of Congress, including Representatives Roscoe Bartlett (R., Md); Dan Burton (R., Ind.); Mike Capuano (D., Mass.); Howard Coble (R., N.C.); John Conyers (D., Mich.); John J. Duncan (R., Tenn.); Tim Johnson (R., Ill.); Walter Jones (R., N.C.); Dennis Kucinich (D., Ohio); and Ron Paul (R., Tx). The lawsuit was before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
In November 2014, Turley agreed to serve as lead counsel to the United States House of Representatives in its constitutional challenge to changes ordered by President Obama to the Affordable Care Act. The litigation was approved by the House of Representatives to seek judicial review of the claims under the separation of powers. On May 12, 2016, the federal court handed down a historic victory for the House and ruled that the Obama Administration violated the separation of powers in ordering billions to be paid to insurance companies without an appropriation of Congress.
Other cases include his representation of the Area 51 workers at a secret air base in Nevada; the nuclear couriers at Oak Ridge, Tennessee; the Rocky Flats grand jury in Colorado; Dr. Eric Foretich, the husband in the famous Elizabeth Morgan custody controversy; and four former United States Attorneys General during the Clinton impeachment litigation. In the Foretich case, Turley succeeded recently in reversing a trial court and striking down a federal statute through a rare “bill of attainder” challenge. Professor Turley has also served as counsel in a variety of national security cases, including espionage cases like that of Jim Nicholson, the highest ranking CIA officer ever accused of espionage. Turley also served as lead defense counsel in the successful defense of Petty Officer Daniel King, who faced the death penalty for alleged spying for Russia. Turley also served as defense counsel in the case of Dr. Tom Butler, who is faced criminal charges dealing with the importation and handling of thirty vials of plague in Texas. He also served as counsel to Larry Hanauer, the House Intelligence Committee staffer accused of leaking a classified Presidential National Intelligence Estimate to the New York Times. (Hanauer was cleared of all allegations).
Among his current cases, Professor Turley represents Dr. Ali Al-Timimi, who was convicted in Virginia in 2005 of violent speech against the United States. In 2020, the federal court found that there merit in the challenges raised by Professor Turley and his co-counsel Tom Huff. Accordingly, the judge ordered his release to protect him from Covit-19 while the Court prepared a decision on the challenges. Pursuant to a court order, Dr. Al-Timimi was released from the Supermax in Colorado and the two drove across the country so that he could be placed into home confinement. He also represented Dr. Sami Al-Arian, who was accused of being the American leader of a terrorist organization while he was a university professor in Florida. Turley represented Dr. Al-Arian for eight years, much of which was in a determined defense against an indictment for criminal contempt. The case centered on the alleged violation of a plea bargain by the Justice Department after Dr. Al-Arian was largely exonerated of terrorism charges in Tampa, Florida. On June 27, 2014, all charges were dropped against Dr. Al-Arian. He also represented pilots approaching or over the age of 60 in their challenge to the mandatory retirement age of the FAA. He also represented David Murphee Faulk, the whistleblower who disclosed abuses in the surveillance operations at NSA’s Fort Gordon facility in Georgia.
Professor Turley also agreed to serve as lead counsel representing the Brown family from the TLC “Sister Wives, a reality show on plural marriage or polygamy. On December 13, 2013, the federal court in Utah struck down the criminalization of polygamy — the first such decision in history — on free exercise and due process grounds. On September 26, 2014, the court also ruled in favor of the Browns under Section 1983 — giving them a clean sweep on all of the statutory and constitutional claims. In April 2015, a panel reversed the decision on standing grounds and that decision is now on appeal.
Professor Turley was also lead counsel in the World Bank protest case stemming from the mass arrest of people in 2002 by the federal and district governments during demonstrations of the IMF and World Bank. Turley and his co-lead counsel Dan Schwartz (and the law firm of Bryan Cave) were the first to file and represented student journalists arrested without probable cause. In April 2015, after 13 years of intense litigation, the case was settled for $2.8 million, including $115,000 for each arrestee — a record damage award in a case of this kind and over twice the amount of prior damages for individual protesters. The case also exposed government destruction and withholding of evidence as well as the admitted mass arrest of hundreds of people without probable cause.
Professor Turley also served as the legal expert in the review of polygamy laws in the British of Columbia (Canada) Supreme Court. In the latter case, he argued for the decriminalization of plural union and conjugal unions. In 2012, Turley also represented the makers of “Five Wives Vodka” (Ogden’s Own Distillery) in challenging an effective ban on the product in Idaho after officials declared the product to be offensive to Mormons. After opposing to the ban on free speech and other grounds, the state of Idaho issued a letter apologizing for public statements made by officials and lifting the ban on sale for “Five Wives Vodka.”
Turley has served as a consultant on homeland security and constitutional issues, including the Florida House of Representatives. He also served as the consultant to the Puerto Rico House of Representatives on the impeachment of Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá.
Professor Turley is a frequent witness before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues as well as tort reform legislation. That testimony includes the confirmation hearings of Attorney General nominees Loretta Lynch and William Barr as well as Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. Professor Turley is also a nationally recognized legal commentator. Professor Turley was ranked as 38th in the top 100 most cited “public intellectuals” in the recent study by Judge Richard Posner. Turley was also found to be the second most cited law professor in the country. He has been repeatedly ranked in the nation’s top 500 lawyers in annual surveys (including in the latest rankings by LawDragon) – one of only a handful of academics. In prior years, he was ranked as one of the nation’s top ten lawyers in military law cases as well as one of the top 40 lawyers under 40. He was also selected in the last five years as one of the 100 top Irish lawyers in the world. In 2016, he was ranked as one of the 100 most famous (past and present) law professors.
Professor Turley is one of only two academics to testify at both the Clinton and Trump impeachment hearings. In December 2019, Professor Turley was called as the one Republican witness in the House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings. He appeared with three Democratic witnesses. Professor Turley disagreed with this fellow witnesses in opposing the proposed articles of impeachments on bribery, extortion, campaign finance violations or obstruction of justice. He argued that these alleged impeachable acts were at odds with controlling definitions of those crimes and that Congress has historically looked to the criminal code and cases for guidance on such allegations. The committee ultimately rejected those articles and adopted the only two articles that Professor Turley said could be legitimately advanced: abuse of power, obstruction of Congress. Chairman Jerrold Nadler even ended the hearing by quoting his position on abuse of power. However, Turley opposed impeachment on this record as incomplete and insufficient for submission to the Senate. He argued for the House to wait and complete the record by seeking to compel key witnesses like former National Security Adviser John Bolton. His testimony was later relied upon in the impeachment floor debate by various House members and he was cited by both the White House and House managers in their arguments before the United States Senate in the Trump impeachment trial, including videotaped remarks played at the trial.
Professor Turley’s articles 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. He is a columnist for USA Today and writes regularly for the Washington Post. In 2005, Turley was given the Columnist of the Year award for Single-Issue Advocacy for his columns on civil liberties by the Aspen Institute and the Week Magazine. Professor Turley also appears regularly as a legal expert on all of the major television networks. Since the 1990s, he has worked under contract as the on-air Legal Analyst for NBC News, CBS News, BBC and Fox News. Professor Turley has been a repeated guest on Sunday talk shows with over two-dozen appearances on Meet the Press, ABC This Week, Face the Nation, and Fox Sunday. Professor Turley has taught courses on constitutional law, constitutional criminal law, environmental law, litigation, and torts. He is the founder and executive director of the Project for Older Prisoners (POPS). His work with older prisoners has been honored in various states, including his selection as the 2011 recipient of the Dr. Mary Ann Quaranta Elder Justice Award at Fordham University.
His award-winning blog is routinely ranked as one of the most popular legal blogs by AVVO. His blog was selected as the top News/Analysis site in 2013, the top Legal Opinion Blog in 2011 as well as prior selections as the top Law Professor Blog and Legal Theory Blog. It was also ranked in the top 20 constitutional law blog in 2018. It has been regularly ranked by the ABA Journal in the top 100 blogs in the world. In 2012, Turley has selected as one of the top 20 legal experts on Twitter by Business Insider. In 2013, the ABA Journal inducted the Turley Blog into its Hall of Fame.
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.
For further information: Mr. Seth Tate – 202-994-0537
Icon made by DinosoftLabs from Flaticon
THE MAGNITUDE OF MUSLIM ATROCITIES – I
The world famous historian, Will Durant has written in his Story of Civilisation that �the Mohammedan conquest of India was probably the bloodiest story in history�.
Islamic imperialism came with a different code – the Sunnah of the Prophet. It required its warriors to fall upon the helpless civil population after a decisive victory had been won on the battlefield. It required them to sack and burn down villages and towns after the defenders had died fighting or had fled. The cows, the Brahmins, and the Bhikshus invited their special attention in mass murders of non-combatants. The temples and monasteries were their special targets in an orgy of pillage and arson. Those whom they did not kill, they captured and sold as slaves. The magnitude of the booty looted even from the bodies of the dead, was a measure of the success of a military mission. And they did all this as mujãhids (holy warriors) and ghãzîs (kãfir-killers) in the service of Allah and his Last Prophet.
Hindus found it very hard to understand the sickness of this new invader. For the first time in their history, Hindus were witnessing a scene which was described by KãnhaDade Prabandha (1456 AD) in the following words: �The conquering army burnt villages, devastated the land, plundered people�s wealth, took Brahmins and children and women of all classes captive, flogged with thongs of raw hide, carried a moving prison with it, and converted the prisoners into obsequious Turks.� That was written in remembrance of Alauddin Khalji�s invasion of Gujarat in the year 1298 AD. But the gruesome game had started three centuries earlier when Mahmud Ghaznavi had vowed to invade India every year in order to destroy idolatry, kill the kãfirs, capture prisoners of war, and plunder vast wealth for which India was well-known.
zakimar, even the most far leftists here now understand how utterly clueless and hateful you are to everyone you disagree with, which is obviously 98% of America.
your “prophet” by his desire of and “marriage to” to a six year old child when he was a 53 year old man destroyed the lives of tens of millions of children born after he was dust in the soil. to this day throughout the world his selfish action has set the stage for another 2,000 years of children being abused by foolish old men believing GOD thinks it proper they marry children.
and in your mind what your “prophet” has done to the lives of TENS OF MILLIONS of children is to be ignored, perhaps even celebrated, while you profess outrage over the rape of a 14 year old Iraqi.
Zakimar,
Not letting ourselves be distracted by a obvious attempt at sidetracking the debate is hardly “supporting” rape. You’re trying to use a Red Herring style tactic, and getting mad that it’s not working. The in your anger you’re trying to use your Red Herring as a basis for a Ad Homenin attact. Further more You’re trying to use an inductive argument to do it, which is pretty much the first logical fallacy anyone learns (some rectangles are squares, therefor all rectangles are squares). I would be a lot more inclined to address your points if a)they had anything to do with the topic at hand and b) they weren’t such obvious logical fallacies.
First of all, I couldn’t care less that you’re a Jew, but at least have the honesty to admit that you are also a Zionist. As I have mentioned to MS, and you also chose to ignore, I’ve spoken about a courageous and honorable Jew, Rachael Corrie (for whom I have nothing but love and respect and called a hero) and Muslim Jews with no positive comment from you and the EVIL that is Zionism with no negative comment from you.
I also note that you had no response to the following story, which I pointed out to gygyes/hussa’n who are, so “proud of their family and friends” in the military, that he like you also had nothing negative to say about their conduct.
The 14 year old girl that was gang raped, burned and murdered by six American soldiers was Abeer Qassim al-Janabi;
her 34 year old mother was named Fakhriyah;
her 45 year old father was named Qasim;
and her 7 year old sister Hadil.
The six “friends and family” of Gyges that came to Iraq to bring this little girl ‘Freedom, Democracy, Horror, Rape and Death’ were Jesse SPIELMAN, Steven GREEN, Bryan HOWARD, James Barker, Paul Cortez, Anthony Yribe.
I note that you have begun to automatically take a contrary view of whatever I say to the point of parroting my quotes with nothing to add. You post a negative comment to my suggestion that some people may require medication, and have no opinion on six American soldiers who rape and kill a 14 year old girl, her 7 year old sister and the rest of her family. So you see how I would find your statements above to be quite hypocritical. Just admit that you’re a Zionist so that we all know where you truly stand.
zakimar,
I find your hatred of Jews extremely troubling. My priorities are in good working order. You call people friends of rapists, evil Zionists, etc. That has no basis in fact. Your saying it does not make it so.
There are people on this site that support Zionism, child rape and murder! I would politely suggest that you get your priorities straight when it comes to things that cause you to be “deeply troubled”.
I am deeply troubled by ALL the references to psychiatric conditions and medications made on this blog. If someone has a medical disorder this does not mean they are stupid, incapable of rational argument or have nothing of value to add to a conversation.
The inability to engage in a rational discussion exists in people who do and do not have medical conditons. These psychiatric references seem to be consistently used in place of sound arguments. They are ad hominim attacks unworthy of any person who is serious about a free exchange of ideas.
For those who don’t read their labels, schizophrenics and bipolars respectively.
I guess some bloggers need Stelazine, some Lithium and some obviously require both.
Hussa’n,
Prof. Turley believes in Zakimar’s right to express himself. I agree, no matter how much I disagree with his opinion on some subjects. I think one of the most American things that someone can do is say “I disagree” without saying “You can’t say that.”
Of course that’s just because I’m a big fan of that darn “Bill of Rights”
Russ,
So you apparently are the only one that knows better then the experts? How did you come by this information, years of painstaking textual research and archaeological digs? Because that’s how the “experts” came by their theory. I know archeology and history are hardly hard science, but they are generally regarded as sciences. Which means that in order to get your theory accepted by the wider community, you have to show some pretty convincing and verifiable proofs.
So anyway, you got proof of your theory?
We ALL know your one of the original three whiners, I’m guessing J Mark or Gyges. Ignorant calls for censorship don’t carry much weight when it comes from someone who supports child rapists and murders.
Mr. Turley, isn’t time to delete this lunatic anti-american anti-jewish anti-anything-not-muslim clowns posts?
Or do you approve of the rantings of a mad man such as he?
Millions of Americans have sons & daughters in the armed forces that have freed hundreds of millions from tyranny.
zakimar obviously sides with those that are murdering civilians and America has called them out on it.
Mr. turley, delete this clowns posts.
Either way, your genuine sympathy for a Muslim, Arab girl is much appreciated.
I think you meant poor Abeer, and she never had a chance to get married. The troubled “old” men were three American Jews and three American Christians in their 20s. I can’t image the horror if any of these American soldiers were Muslims.
The 14 year old girl that was gang raped, burned and murdered by American soldiers (or are they all just called heroes now) was Abeer Qassim al-Janabi;
her 34 year old mother was named Fakhriyah;
her 45 year old father was named Qasim;
and her 7 year old sister Hadil.
The six United States of America soldiers that came to Iraq to bring this “poor little girl” ‘Freedom, Democracy, Horror, Rape and Death’ were Jesse SPIELMAN, Steven GREEN, Bryan HOWARD, James Barker, Paul Cortez, and Anthony Yribe.
Poor little A’isha, child bride of a troubled old man.
I ges my words 2 u wer 2 hard. aks ur mommy 2 go 2 GOOGLE and press, the kees in this way: MUSLIM (space) CONTRIBUTION hav hur reed sum 2 u. then go bak 2 skool and finish grd 6. cum bak wen u no how 2 reeserch.
Zakimar: and your point is what? That Muslims have done a very good job of taking credit for the accomplishments of others that they viciously conquered. That is my point exactly. Muslims have done a VERY good job of hiding the fact they have taken credit wher none is due. They have done such a good job that it is extremely hard not to find “experts” in the world that will most vociferously agree with that idea.
Of course, when Publishers dare not print a book about Muhammed’s 6 year old bride for fear of vicous reprisals, is it any wonder few challenge this idea of Islamic contributions to society?????
I don’t know if your ignorant or just a bigot, but why don’t you try to make a contribution to your own knowledge. Start by researching ANY of the following (and by research I mean, “re•search: NOUN: 1. a detailed study of a subject, especially in order to discover (new) information or reach a (new) understanding”).
Abul Hasan; Kutbi; Mir Fatehullah Khan; Ibn al-Hashem; Muhammad Musa; Abu Solet Umayya; Al-Masudi; Jabir Ibn Afiah; Razi(Rhazes); Ibn Sina(Avicenna); Abu Ali al-Hasan(Alhazen); AlJabar; Al-Khwarizmi; Omar Khayyam; Al-Battani…
In the time it took to write your nonsense, you could have typed, ‘Muslim contribution’ into Google and educated yourself BEFORE you made yourself look foolish. Since you were obviously a poor student in grade school I’m sure you have no concept of Algebra.
You’re welcome.
Russ,
Care to list some sources for that theory?
I mean if you’re going to something that contradicts what most people understand history to be you really should list a source.
After a couple quick checks of Wikipedia (I know, Wikipedia isn’t the best source in the world, but it’s good for a quick refresher) to make sure I was right I can give you this list of things that were developed by Muslims during the Islamic Golden Age: hospitals (versus temples where the ill were treated), diplomas (the oldest university to give diplomas is in Fez), the decimal point, algebra, and lot of other things I’m to lazy to list.
How many of the Roman Empire’s accomplishments were “side effects, not the planned outcome of a positively” Roman “strategy?” What does that even mean? Do you think that the Romans all sat down together and said “You know, it’d be nice if we created an Empire to spread our ideas about the rule of law. Oh we could also build roads all over the place. We’d SAY they were to speed up troop movement so we could better control our Empire, but REALLY they’d help aid trade and the spread of ideas.” I’m betting it probably went more like this “We can conquer those people, then we’ll have more people paying tribute to us, which means more wealth. Oh and we should build roads, not only will they help us control our Empire, but they’d make trade easier, and we could make more off of taxes that way.”
Michael Spindal:
In direct opposition to your opinioni, Islams contributions to the world are much in doubt.
Islam contributed nothing directly to the advancement of humanity. Peoples who coincidentally were conquered by Muslims contributed art, science and literature which Islam then claimed credit for.
The only accomplishment of Islam is it helped the advance of culture in general because of its teaching of Arabic reading and writing. Arabic became a medium for the spreading of ideas, just as Latin was in European Chistendom and English is today.
All the positive effects of Islam in its golden age were side-effects, not the planned outcome of a positively Islamic strategy. As I indicated in my first paragraph, much of what the Islamic world contributed was done by the rediscovery, translation and circulation of documents and ideas by those they had conquered.