First Things First

Ronald K.L. Collins is the Harold S. Shefelman Scholar at the University of Washington School of Law. He specializes in First Amendment law and in constitutional law. Before coming to the University of Washington in 2010, he was a scholar at the Newseum's First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C., where he continues to serve as a fellow. In 2011 he received the Administration of Justice award from the Supreme Court Fellows Alumni Association "in recognition of his scholarly and professional achievements in advancing the rule of law."

Collins clerked for Justice Hans A. Linde on the Oregon Supreme Court and was a Supreme Court Fellow under Chief Justice Warren Burger. After working with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, he was a teaching fellow at Stanford Law School. Thereafter, he taught constitutional law and commercial law at George Washington University Law Center and Temple Law School.

He is the editor of The Fundamental Holmes: A Free Speech Chronicle and Reader (2010), and the coauthor, with Sam Chaltain, of We Must Not Be Afraid to Be Free: Stories about Free Speech in America (2011). His other coauthored works include The Death of Discourse (1996, 2005), The Trials of Lenny Bruce (2002, 2012), Mania (2013), and On Dissent (2013), all with David M. Skover. He is also the author of Nuanced Absolutism: Floyd Abrams & the First Amendment (2013) and the editor of The Death of Contract (1995) and Constitutional Government in America (1980).

His numerous articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including the Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, and Texas Law Reviews and in the Supreme Court Review. He has also published in various newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Baltimore Sun as well as in The Nation and in the Columbia Journalism Review.