Ronald K. L. Collins

He is the author, co-author (with David Skover), or editor of 12 books on a variety of topics such as constitutional law, First Amendment law, robotics and artificial intelligence, popular culture, dissent, campaign finance laws, contract law, and judging. These and other books included works on Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Simone Weil, Lenny Bruce, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Floyd Abrams. His latest two books are A Declaration of Duties Toward Humankind: A Critical Companion to Simone Weil's The Need for Roots (2023, co-edited with Eric Springsted) and Tragedy on Trial (2023), a work on the 1955 Emmett Till murder trial. His scholarly articles have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Supreme Court Review, and the Michigan Law Review, among others. His popular press articles or reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, The Forward, and The Nation.

Ronald Kenneth Leo Collins (born July 31, 1949) is the co-founder and co-director of the History Book Festival and co-founder and co-chair of the First Amendment Salons. He served as a law clerk to Justice Hans Linde on the Oregon Supreme Court and was a Supreme Court fellow under Chief Justice Warren Burger. He was the Harold S. Shefelman Scholar at the University of Washington School of Law. In 2011, Collins became the book editor for SCOTUSblog. He is the editor of the weekly online blog First Amendment News and editor of Attention (an online journal on the life and legacy of Simone Weil). He is also the Lewes Public Library's Distinguished Lecturer.