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
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russ, I second that.
zakimar, I pity those that surround you.
McCain’s people fed him the questions while McCain was outside the building in his “Cone of Silence”. I have to hand it to the Republicans, they are great at cheating.
CNN is replaying the Saddleback Forum tonight. John McCain SMOKED Obama. Everybody with a bit of honesty freely confesses that McCain was in TOP FORM and Obama lacked his teleprompter…..
Hi Mary; 39 minutes after I posted, “The neocons are going to say McCain “won” and the normal people are going to say Obama “won” just like on this blog”, the resident neocon, Zionist Republikan, proved me correct with his babble. What does “at a 10” or “at a 1” mean anyway? If Americans don’t destroy PNAC, it will destroy their country. Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz and the like will never answer for their crimes because by the time America is defeated, they’ll all be long dead. Stalin killed more people than Churchill, Hitler and Roosevelt combined but since Hitler lost the Battle, the other three War Criminals never answered for their crimes.
uram; I suspected that hassan was gyges, but Former Muslim is probably right. After Dr. Turley told FM to ‘shut it’ (not in those words of course) hassan sprung up with the same hate and intellect. Comparing hassan to animals is an insult to livestock. I think hassan was a bully at school and like all bullies he is a coward. He is also a Zionist and like all of them, he wants others, particularly Americans to fight for them so that no Israeli Jews will be killed. Israel with all of its nuclear weapons is afraid to attack Iran so they get neocon Jews like those in PNAC to press the US to do it for them. When the US is finally destroyed or goes bankrupt it will be because of Israel at which point the US Jews will begin to look for another host country. Germany and the Middle East are out of course, and China, Japan and Russia wouldn’t tolerate them, so I suspect it will be Argentina or elsewhere in Latin America.
And uram, I know that people like hassan use that kind of talk because they are bullies, but I don’t respond in kind, not because I’m above that sort of thing, but because of the decent people like Mary Leon who unlike hassan didn’t grow up with that sort of language from their parents. So I thank you for the choice words, obviously some people don’t listen to polite reason.
ura mofo:
I don’t understand why people are playing mind games.
This website belongs to Mr. Turley; not some crazy nutbags that come here spewing complete and utter hatred.
I may not like McCain, Bush or Cheney, but here they are on earth, and I have to accept that they have their supporters. I hate what Bush and Cheney have done to our country, but I know that if they don’t pay here they will ‘pay’ in eternity, and that the worst thing that could happen would be for McCain to be president. I don’t like them, but I would like to see them held responsible for what they have done.
I first posted here to give my regards to Mr. Turley, then this person named ‘russ’ gave me his opinion; that’s why I started to respond to those misguided and foolish Republickans.
All this other stuff about Jews/Muslims is getting too much. I don’t need to come here and read all this hate; I can watch the consequences of hate on the news or read about it in the papers. If you hate each other so much, you should go somewhere else and play your ‘hate’ games!
Zakimar, even Mary Leon, the most clueless & far leftist here, now understands how utterly hateful you are to everyone you disagree with.
Your own “prophet” by his desire and subsequent “marriage” to a 6 year old child when he was a 53 year old man destroyed the lives of tens of millions of children since then. The world fears that for the next 2,000 years children will continue being abused by foolish old men believing GOD thinks it proper they marry children.
To add insult to this, in your mind what your “prophet” has done to the lives of a hundred million children is to be ignored, perhaps even celebrated, while you profess outrage over the rape of a 14 year old Iraqi.
hassan:
I don’t know who you are, but I definitely do NOT share your praises or enthusiasm of John McCain. Why I would NOT give ‘honor and respect for a great man’ is easy. McCain is a big fat hypocrite adulterer who left his first wife after she was disfigured in an accident so he didn’t have to be seen with her. McCain is an old ‘flip flopper’ who has changed his course since 2000 and will be another Bush, in that he wants to keep the Invasion of Iraq going forever and he wants to Invade Iran because he thinks (like Bush and Cheney do) that the people in the Middle East are dumb, backward, and living in the Dark Ages. This is such a big mistake that these Republickans don’t understand that this is where Civilization began, and that this region of the world is where Jerusalem was chosen to be the city of all nations.
I have NO respect for people who, with all the money they now have, still want more, more, more money and don’t care how many people have to die, just so they can have one dollar more than the fellow down the street. Who would ever respect anyone like that???
zakimar:
I guess you’re right about that. I’ve never heard of Krauthammer, but I know Kristol is the (in)famous dork who wrote that now ‘unavailable’ Project for the New American Century. I wonder how many people have died because of this ‘Project’? Too bad we can’t make those people like Kristol donate all their money they’ve made on this ‘Project’ to the families of the Innocent Iraqis and US troops who have died for this ‘sham’ of a war.
Nothing would please me more than to see Bush and Cheney being sued by families from the US and Iraq. (Because we all know that the Congress will Never Impeach them, and that they will run away to Paraguay rather than face any kind of charges in the US or the World Court). The only sad part is, even if these families sue them in Civil Court, they will not get one penny from Bush or Cheney, BUT they will have the satisfaction of knowing that Bush and Cheney are legally Responsible for their loved ones’ deaths.
Too bad those people who support Bush and Cheney don’t feel guilt in their responsibility of electing Bush and allowing him and Cheney to start this Invasion of Iraq. They opened a can of worms that will make the past wars of this world pale by comparison…
Senator John McCain was at a 10
Barry Obama was at a 1
If you don’t believe me, check with the journalists at CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, etc. Even those in bed with Obama are having a hard time defending his stupid statement about a decision on when life begins is “above his paygrade”. If he is unable to decide when life begins, he should not have been voting to encourage more abortions later in pregnancy his whole political life.
I encourage you to watch the whole two hours. You may find that your support for Obama is gone and you will discover new honor & respect for a great man – Senator John McCain.
Obama’s most visible problem was taking 5 minutes to answer each question so he could say down the road “that is not what I said”. As the media says today, all his answers were “nuanced”.
Senator Mccain answered so many questions so concisely and clearly that they were a full 15 minutes ahead of schedule and the host joked about having time to play a hand of poker.
Hi Mary; I didn’t watch it and will probably just catch the highlights on MSNBC or YouTube. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t care who wins, which frees me up to do more important things.
The neocons are going to say McCain “won” and the normal people are going to say Obama “won” just like on this blog. Fox and CNN will have Murdoch’s lackeys Kristol and Krauthammer anal-yzing everything Obama said and giving a pass to McCain. Blah, blah, blah.
What’s going on here?
I wish everyone would just drop all this talk about Jews/Zionists/Muslims already.
I did not get a chance to watch that discussion yesterday with both Barack Obama and John McCain talking to that minister.
Did anyone watch it, and what did you think? Did Obama or McCain make the best impression on the audience?
I’m curious, because I know that a lot of evangelicals vote Republican, but this minister is more ‘up to date’ and not such a hardliner as the older evangelicals who hate everything that has to do with Liberal thinking.
I thought you (Gyges) or J Mark promised to keep it shut. We know, Islam is bad, Zionism is good, God Bless A@#$%^&a, God Bless I*&^%$l. Blah, blah, blah.
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.
UN Resolution 3379 (1975), “Determines that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination”, with a majority of world nations supporting the Resolution. It took Bush Sr. and US arm-twisting to have that Resolution revoked in 1991 without any change in the Palestinian condition. Bush Jr. had the phrase “Zionism is racism” omitted from the World Conference against Racism 2001 (ironically) in Durban, South Africa. The US left delegation left however, when Israel was equated with Apartheid.
So it took the esteemed Bush family and US arm-twisting to remove what the majority of countries felt was right. However, what made Zionism racism in 1947 and 1975 did not change in 1991 or 2001. Jimmy Carter knows a great deal more about the topic that either Bush, you or I and he recognized that Israel is an Apartheid State.
So if you’re a Zionist, you’re a racist, PERIOD.
The only real problem you have with me is that I denounce Zionism for what it is, EVIL. You are a Zionist without the courage to try to justify your “philosophy” because you know that no decent person will support you and that racism.
“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”.”
Zakie,
Your constant mention of psychotropic drugs and referral to mental illnesses, might lead one to believe you have more than a casual experience with both. This is underlined with you obsessiveness and with the hatred you expound. Jill is right you need to either chill or get some help to make your life even more perfect than as you claim it is.
Schizophrenic?
Hassan,
Zakimar is not the entirety of Islam. You shouldn’t ascribe every act committed in the name of his religion to him any more then he should ascribe ever act committed of your religion to you.
Every culture has black spots in its history. You can’t tell me that a conquering European empire has never sacked villages, looted bodies and sold the captured as slaves. How do you think the Roman Empire was created? Or for that matter the Spanish, Portuguese, or British Empire? The last three are far more recent then the Islamic Golden Age.
Yes Gyges/hassan/Zionist, we all know you hate Muslims and love America. Blah, blah, blah.