Jonathan Turley (born May 6, 1961) is an American attorney, legal scholar, writer, commentator, and legal analyst in broadcast and print journalism. A professor at George Washington University Law School, he has testified in United States congressional proceedings about constitutional and statutory issues. He has also testified in multiple impeachment hearings and removal trials in Congress, including the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and both the first and second impeachments of President Donald Trump. Turley is a First Amendment advocate and writes frequently on free speech restrictions in the private and public sectors. He is the author of the book The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, as well as Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.
As an attorney, Turley has worked on notable cases in civil rights defense including the defenses of Sami Al-Arian, NSA whistleblower David Faulk, protesters at the World Bank/IMF demonstrations in 2000, and the Brown family in their challenge to Utah polygamy laws. Turley has also served as counsel on prominent federal cases including the defense of Area 51 workers, and as lead counsel in the 2014 challenge to the Affordable Care Act.
Early life and education Turley grew up in a politically active Chicago family as the youngest of five children. His father, John (Jack) Turley was an international architect, partner at Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, and the former associate of famed modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Turley has written about his father's influence on his constitutional theories. His mother, Angela Piazza Turley, was a social worker and activist who was the former president of Jane Addams Hull-House in Chicago. He is of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is the author of the book The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.
Turley served as a House leadership page in 1977 and 1978 under the sponsorship of Illinois Democrat Sidney Yates.
Turley graduated from the Latin School of Chicago. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1983, and a Juris Doctor degree from Northwestern University School of Law in 1987. He served as Executive Articles Editor of Northwestern University Law Review.
During the Reagan Administration, Turley worked as an intern with the general counsel's office of the National Security Agency (NSA).
Career Turley holds the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Washington University Law School, where he teaches torts, criminal procedure, and constitutional law. He is the youngest person to receive an academic chair in the school's history. He runs the Project for Older Prisoners (POP), the Environmental Law Clinic, and the Environmental Legislation Project.
Prior to joining George Washington University, he was on the faculty of Tulane University Law School.
His articles on legal and policy issues have appeared in national publications; he has had articles published in The New York Times, The Washington Post,The Free World Bars Free Speech , Jonathan Turley, The Washington Post, April 12, 2009 USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal.Perjury Isn't a Political Decision , Jonathan Turley, The Wall Street Journal, September 14, 1998 He frequently appears in the national media as a commentator on a multitude of subjectsJonathan Turley at MSNBC Jonathan Turley at MSNBC ranging from the 2000 U.S. presidential election controversy to the Terri Schiavo case in 2005. He often is a guest on Sunday talk shows, with more than two-dozen appearances on Meet the Press, ABC This Week, Face the Nation, and Fox News Sunday. He served as a contributor on Countdown with Keith Olbermann from 2003 until 2011 on MSNBC, and later on Current TVAt New Network, Olbermann Sets Sights on MSNBC , The New York Times, June 19, 2011 in 2011 and early 2012.
Since the 1990s, he has been a legal analyst for NBC News, CBS News, the BBC and Fox News, covering stories that ranged from the Clinton impeachment to presidential elections. He is on the board of contributors of USA TodayUSA Today's Board of Contributors , USA Today, March 22, 2011 and is a columnist with The Hill. He is currently a legal analyst with Fox News. Due to his decades of work as a columnist and network analyst, media reporter Paul Farhi, writing in the Washington Post, has described Turley as "the Dean" of legal analysts.
On October 11, 2016, Libertarian Party candidate for president, Gary Johnson, announced that if he was elected president, Turley would be one of his two top choices for the Supreme Court seat that remained open following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Turley has been repeatedly named as a top pick for the Court by libertarian presidential candidates, including in 2020.
Views
Executive Power/War on Terror
In appearances on Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow Show, he called for criminal prosecution of Bush administration officials for war crimes, including torture.Rachel Maddow Show: Jonathan Turley on War Crimes , Video, January 10, 2009
In October 2006, in an interview by Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, he expressed strong disapproval of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.National yawn as our rights evaporate , New law redefines habeas corpus law professor explains, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, October 17, 2006 Commenting on the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which he contends does away with habeas corpus, Turley says, "It's something that no one thought—certainly I didn't think—was possible in the United States. And I am not too sure how we got to this point. But people clearly don't realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country. What happened today changed us."
When the U.S. Senate was about to vote on Michael Mukasey for U.S. attorney general, Turley said, "The attorney general nominee's evasive remarks on 'water-boarding' should disqualify him from the job."Mukasey's confirmation: a vote about torture , Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2007 On the treatment of terrorism suspect José Padilla, Turley says, "The treatment of Padilla ranks as one of the most serious abuses after 9/11... This is a case that would have shocked the Framers. This is precisely what many of the drafters of the Constitution had in mind when they tried to create a system of checks and balances." Turley considers the case of great import on the grounds that "Padilla's treatment by the military could happen to others."In Padilla interrogation, no checks or balances , Christian Science Monitor, September 4, 2007
When Congressional Democrats asked the Justice Department to investigate the CIA's destruction of terrorist interrogation tapes Turley said, "these are very serious allegations, that raise as many as six identifiable crimes ranging from contempt of Congress, to contempt of Justice, to perjury, to false statements."CIA, US Justice Dept. to Investigate Destruction of Interrogation Tapes, Voice of America News, December 8, 2007
In a 2017 column for The Hill, Turley was critical of military intervention in the Middle East and questioned its constitutionality.
Other Views
In USA Today in October 2004, he argued for the legalization of polygamy,"Polygamy laws expose our own hypocrisy" . USA Today. Published: October 3, 2004. provoking responses from writers such as Stanley Kurtz."Polygamy vs. Democracy". The Weekly Standard. June 5, 2006."The Floodgates Open: USA Today Promotes Polygamy" .
Turley has said, "It is hard to read the Second Amendment and not honestly conclude that the Framers intended gun ownership to be an individual right."
Turley disagrees with the theory that dealing with bullies is just a part of growing up, claiming that they are "no more a natural part of learning than is parental abuse a natural part of growing up" and believes that "litigation could succeed in forcing schools to take bullying more seriously"."Bullying's Day in Court ", USA Today, July 15, 2008
He has written extensively in opposition to the death penalty, noting, "Human error remains a principal cause of botched executions... eventually society will be forced to deal directly with a fundamental moral question: Has death itself become the intolerable element of the death penalty?"The Punishment Fits the Times ", USA Today, January 16, 2008.
He is a critic of special treatment for the church in law, asking why there are laws that "expressly exempt faith-based actions that result in harm."When a child dies, faith is no defense. Why do courts give believers a pass? , The Washington Post, November 16, 2009
In the wake of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Turley argued that, despite his doubts that fraud existed, Americans should welcome the involvement of the courts to vet and validate the election results.
Obama administration views In another commentary, Turley defended Judge Henry E. Hudson's ruling declaring the individual mandate in health insurance unconstitutional for violating the Commerce Clause of the Constitution: "It's very thoughtful—not a screed. I don't see any evidence this is motivated by Judge Hudson's personal beliefs... Anybody who's dismissing this opinion as a political screed has obviously not read the opinion."Health-law judge's prosecutor past, Josh Gerstein, Politico, December 13, 2010
Turley described U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in an op-ed as President Barack Obama's sin-eater, writing:
In a December 2013 congressional hearing, responding to a question from Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) about presidential power in the Obama administration, Turley said:
On November 21, 2014, Turley agreed to represent House Speaker John Boehner and the Republican Party in a suit filed against the Obama administration alleging unconstitutional implementation of the Affordable Care Act, specifically the individual mandate. In 2016, the federal court ruled that the Obama Administration violated the separation of powers in ordering billions to be paid to insurance companies without an appropriation of Congress.
Testimony before Congress The conceptual thread running through many of the issues taken on by Turley is that they involve claims of executive privilege. For example, he said that the president's claim of executive authority based on Article Two "would put our system on a slippery slope." He has argued against national security exceptions to fundamental constitutional rights."Troubling Times, a Troubling Nominee ", USA Today, January 9, 2006
He is a frequent witness before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues, as well as tort reform legislation.
Turley has testified regularly during national controversies. He testified at the confirmation hearings of Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Attorney General William Barr. He also testified during the Clinton impeachment hearings. Turley, in his capacity as a constitutional scholar, testified in favor of the Clinton impeachment.Clinton Impeachment Testimony House Judiciary Committee, August 20, 2007 He was quoted extensively by congressman James Rogan during the Clinton impeachment hearings.
Turley also testified in Congress against President George W. Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program and was lead counsel in a case challenging it. In regard to warrantless wiretaps he noted that, "Judge Anna Diggs Taylor chastised the government for a flagrant abuse of the Constitution and, in a direct message to the president, observed that there are no hereditary kings in America."
Views on Trump impeachments On December 4, 2019, Turley testified before the House Judiciary Committee regarding the constitutional grounds for presidential impeachment in the impeachment inquiry against then-President Donald Trump, arguing against a Trump impeachment.