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. He is the author of the best-selling and award-winning book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage (Simon & Schuster 2024), and the forthcoming book, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution (Simon & Schuster 2026).
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 university’s history. Professor Turley has also served as counsel in some of the most notable cases in the last two decades, including the representation of whistleblowers, military personnel, former cabinet members, 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.
In 2010, Professor Turley represented Judge G. Thomas Porteous in his impeachment trial. The trial before all 100 U.S. Senators was only the 14th time in the country’s history that such a trial of a judge has reached the Senate floor. In November 2014, Turley served as lead counsel to the United States House of Representatives in its successful constitutional challenge to changes ordered by President Obama to the Affordable Care Act. He has also represented four former attorneys general and high-ranking members of all three branches of government. He has also served as lead counsel in some of the most famous espionage and national security cases in the last two decades, including the Area 51 litigation and the Daniel King espionage case. He was also lead counsel in the World Bank protest case, leading to the largest settlement in history for the one-day arrests of journalists and observers.
Professor Turley testified over 100 times before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues, including the Senate confirmation hearings of cabinet members and jurists like Justice Neil Gorsuch. He appeared as an expert witness in both the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. He also testified in the hearing on the basis for a Biden impeachment.
In 2024, the Washingtonian featured Professor Turley as one of the most influential persons in public policy in its annual review. He is also a nationally recognized legal commentator. Professor Turley was ranked 38th in the top 100 most cited “public intellectuals” (and second most cited law professor) in the study by Judge Richard Posner.
Professor Turley was called the “dean of legal analysts” by the Washington Post, who has worked for various networks and newspapers for over three decades. He is currently the legal analyst for Fox News. He has previously worked as a legal analyst for NBC, CBS, BBC, and Fox News. He is also a columnist for USA Today, The Hill, and other national newspapers. Professor Turley’s columns 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. His award-winning blog is routinely ranked among the most popular legal blogs.
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.