First Amendment scholar Ron Collins joins FIRE’s Advisory Council

Ronald Collins, a retired law professor and longtime First Amendment scholar, has joined FIRE’s Advisory Council.

Collins most recently taught at the University of Washington School of Law, where he held the Harold S. Shefelman Scholar chair. Early in his career, he clerked for Justice Hans A. Linde on the Oregon Supreme Court and served as a Supreme Court fellow under Chief Justice Warren Burger. He later spent six years as a scholar at the Newseum’s First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C.

In the years since, Collins has become a leading voice on free expression. He served as book editor for SCOTUSblog and went on to found and edit First Amendment News, which recently published its 500th post under FIRE’s banner. In 2003, he partnered with Robert Corn-Revere to secure a posthumous pardon for comedian Lenny Bruce — because sometimes the First Amendment wins, even if it’s fashionably late.

Collins is the author or coauthor of 13 books spanning topics from free speech and campaign finance to cultural and legal biographies, including works on Lenny Bruce, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Justice Holmes. His scholarship has appeared in leading journals such as the Harvard Law Review and Stanford Law Review, while his commentary has been featured in major outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.

He is also a co-founder of the History Book Festival, the Washington Independent Review of Books, and the First Amendment Salons, and was a Norman Mailer Fellow in fiction writing.

FIRE is pleased to welcome Ronald Collins to its Advisory Council.