Praxis Circle Contributor Jonathan Turley is a nationally recognized attorney, legal scholar, author, and commentator. He is the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University Law School and the best-selling author of The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage (2024). Turley has served as counsel in some of the most notable cases in the last two decades and frequently testifies as a witness before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues as well as tort reform legislation. Praxis Circle interviewed Jonathan because of his broadly recognized leadership in the American courtroom and media and his unwavering commitment to the First Amendment, the cornerstone of Western law, freedom, education, and humanism.
Originally from Chicago, Turley received a B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1983, and his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 1987. After a stint at Tulane Law School, Turley joined the George Washington faculty in 1990 and, in 1998, became the youngest chaired professor in the school’s history. He is also the Director of the Environmental Law Advocacy Center and the Founder/Executive Director of the Project for Older Prisoners at George Washington.
Turley has served as legal counsel and represented various 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. He has also testified over 100 times in Congress, and is one of only two academics to testify at both the Clinton and Trump impeachment hearings.
Turley has written extensively and his dozens of academic articles have appeared in a variety of leading law journals at Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Northwestern, the University of Chicago, and other schools. He also is a nationally sought-out legal commentator and has been a legal analyst for NBC News, CBS News, the BBC and Fox News since the 1990s. In addition to his articles and commentary, he is the best-selling author of The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage (2024) and the forthcoming Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution (2026).
In 2001, Turley was ranked as 38th in the top 100 most cited “public intellectuals” and the second most cited law professor in the country by a study done by Judge Richard Posner. In 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of law from John Marshall Law School in recognition of his career as an advocate of civil liberties and constitutional rights. That same year, his blog was ranked as the top law professor blog and legal theory blog by the American Bar Association Journal survey of the top 100 blogs. In 2024 the Washingtonian recognized Turley as one of the most influential persons in shaping policy.
Today, Turley lives in the Washington, D.C. area and is married with four grown children.
