Stephen Rohde is a retired constitutional lawyer, lecturer, writer, and political activist. He is immediate past chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and immediate past National Chair of Bend the Arc, a Jewish Partnership for Justice. He is a founder and current chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace; and a Vice President of Death Penalty Focus. Mr. Rohde is the author of American Words of Freedom and Freedom of Assembly (part of the American Rights series); and numerous articles and book reviews on civil liberties and constitutional history for Los Angeles Review of Books, American Prospect, Los Angeles Times, Truth Out, L A Progressive, Variety, and other publications. He is also co-author of Foundations of Freedom published by the Constitutional Rights Foundation. Mr. Rohde was a recipient of Bend the Arc’s “Pursuit of Justice” Award and his work has been recognized by the ACLU and American Bar Association. Mr. Rohde received his BA degree in Political Science from Northwestern University and his JD degree from Columbia Law School. For almost 50 years, he practiced civil litigation, appellate, intellectual property, and civil rights law.
CONTRIBUTOR ARTICLES
Free Speech and the Question of Race
Stephen Rohde looks at three recent books on the First Amendment....
Grab Your Shovels as the Elephant Leaves the Tent
What to do with Trump? Stephen Rohde reviews Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith's "After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency."...
The Prosecution of Julian Assange and the Threat to Freedom of the Press and Human Rights
The prosecution and extradition of Assange raise important legal and constitutional issues which deserve greater attention than they have received....
John Yoo Tortures History and Law to Defend Donald Trump
Stephen Rohde reviews John Yoo's "Defender in Chief: Donald Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power."...
Life and Death in the Rage of Trump
Stephen Rohde reviews “Rage,” Bob Woodward’s look into the Trump White House....
Charlottesville Three Years Later: The First Amendment Confronts Hate and Violence
Stephen Rohde and Nadine Strossen consider the way forward for free speech and First Amendment rights in the wake of Charlottesville....
A Constitution, If You Can Keep It
Stephen Rohde looks at Ellis Cose’s “Democracy, If We Can Keep It: The ACLU’s 100-Year Fight for Rights in America.”...
Have We Weaponized Virtue?
Stephen Rohde considers "The Tyranny of Virtue," a new book by Robert Boyers....
A Failed Case Against Free Speech
Stephen Rohde objects to “The Case Against Free Speech” by P. E. Moskowitz....
A Century of Fighting for Civil Liberties
Stephen Rohde reviews "Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases."...
One Nation, Not Under God
Stephen Rohde reviews "The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American" by Andrew L. Seidel....
A Prosecutor’s Guide to the Just and Fair: On Preet Bharara’s “Doing Justice”
Stephen Rohde offers his take on Preet Bharara's book, "Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law."...
Echoes of Fascism
Stephen Rohde reviews Henry A. Giroux's new book, "The Terror of the Unforeseen."...
Freedom of the Press Under Attack
Stephen Rohde looks at three new reports that detail assaults to freedom of the press and freedom of speech over the past year....
The Mueller Report: “Oh My God. This Is Terrible. This Is the End of My Presidency. I’m Fucked.”
Stephen Rohde reads the Mueller Report and looks at past impeachment proceedings to determine where we go from here....
The Hundred Years’ War Over Free Speech
"The Free Speech Century" is a rich buffet of intellectual delicacies, which need not be gorged in one sitting but can be enjoyably sampled at leisure....
A Justice for All Seasons
Stephen Rohde delivers a speech on the judicial legacy of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg....
“A Republic or a Monarchy?” A Citizen’s Guide to Impeachment
Should Donald Trump be impeached? Stephen Rohde reads Cass Sunstein to find out....
Hate Speech: An Imaginary Debate
Stephen Rohde offers an imaginary debate between Nadine Strossen and Richard Delgado....
Higher Loyalty? James Comey and the Failure of Leadership
Unintentionally, "A Higher Loyalty" teaches us more about “ethical leadership” by showing not what Comey has done in his career but what he has failed to do....
Press Versus Privacy: Does the Right to Be Left Alone Override the Public’s Right to Know?
On "Newsworthy: The Supreme Court Battle Over Privacy and Press Freedom."...
More Speech or Enforced Silence? Stephen Rohde Reviews Two Recent Books on the Subject of Free Speech on Campus
How to protect free speech on campus....
A President Out of Control
Stephen Rohde on Katy Tur's "Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History."...
The United States — A Model for the Nazis
Stephen Rohde looks at how the American race laws inspired the Nazis....
Banality of Evil Redux
Imagine Adolf Eichmann was never prosecuted for his war crimes. Instead, he wrote a book....
Big Brother Is Watching You: Is America Becoming Orwell’s Nightmare?
Is America at risk of becoming Orwell's nightmare?...
What Do You Have to Lose? Mark Danner on the Forever War
Mark Danner delivers eloquent and brutally direct assessments of the war policies of both Bush and Obama....
Free Speech in the Post-Gutenberg World
Stephen Rohde on Timothy Garton Ash's "Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World."...
Radio Hour: Will California End the Death Penalty with Proposition 62?
Discussing Proposition 62 and Proposition 66 with legal experts from Los Angeles....
The Machinery of Death
Stephen Rohde discusses the possible elimination of the death penalty....
First and Last, the First Amendment
Stephen Rohde’s reflection on his career as an LA civil rights lawyer, particularly regarding the First Amendment....
A Stronger Constitution: Carol Berkin’s “The Bill of Rights”
Stephen Rohde reviews a book on of one of our nation’s most important political and historical documents: The Bill of Rights....
The Importance of Dissent
The very first dissent was written by Justice Thomas Johnson in the long forgotten case of "Georgia v. Brailsford" (1793)....
A Lawyer for Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Beyond his impressive legal career, Charles Rembar wrote three fascinating books, which have just been released in ebook format....
From Discontented Barons to Predator Drones
It's the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta....
Spying on Students
Patriotic Betrayal is a cautionary tale about how our government compromises well-meaning people in the name of fighting “our enemies.”...
Is the First Amendment Poetic?
While paying lip service to the “poetry” of the First Amendment, Burt Neuborne turns his book into an argument in favor of less First Amendment protection....
Dead Man Walking
Jake Heggie talks with LARB's Stephen Rohde about his opera, "Dead Man Walking" and its treatment, musically and dramatically, of the death penalty....
Freedom from Religion
Why would a pluralistic and secular society single out for special treatment any system of belief?...
An Illiberal Reading of the Constitution
Stephen Rohde parses Richard A. Epstein's preference for the “classical liberal” interpretation of the US Constitution....
Flip-flopping on Free Speech
Oliver Wendell Holmes changed all our minds about the 1st Amendment....
Taking Over the Judiciary: The Impact of the Federalist Society
John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito are all current or former members of the Society....
“A Pall Is Cast over the Classroom”: Legislating Academic Freedom
AMERICAN HISTORY IS STAINED by recurring periods when our founding ideals — of an open society that upholds the free marketplace of ...
Is a Taco a Sandwich?: Interpreting the Law
SHOULD THE TERM "sandwiches" in a commercial lease include "tacos, burritos and quesadillas"? Does the U.S. Constitution include a right ...
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