Jonathan Turley - Politics

Politics

Professor Turley is widely regarded as a champion of the Rule of law; his stated positions in many cases and his self-proclaimed "...socially liberal agenda..." have led liberal and progressive thinkers to also consider him a champion for their causes, especially on issues such as separation of church and state, environmental law, civil rights, and the illegality of torture. Politico has referred to Turley as a "liberal law professor and longtime civil libertarian. Turley has nevertheless exhibited his disagreement with rigid ideological stances in contradiction to the established law with other stated and published opinions.

In numerous appearances on Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow Show, he has called for criminal prosecution of Bush administration officials for war crimes, including torture.

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."

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"

Turley disagrees with the theory that dealing with bullies is just a part of growing up, saying, "They are no more a natural part of learning than is parental abuse a natural part of growing up." He argues, "While many will chafe at the notion of moving from hall monitors to personal injury lawyers, litigation could succeed in forcing schools to take bullying more seriously."

He has written extensively about the injustice of the death penalty noting that, "Human error remains a principal cause of botched executions" and opining that "eventually society will be forced to deal directly with a fundamental moral question: Has death itself become the intolerable element of the death penalty?"

He worries that the Supreme Court is injecting itself into partisan politics. He has frequently expressed the view that recent nominees to the court hold extreme views.

However, Turley has a strong libertarian streak and sometimes infuriates the left with a contrarian position. For instance, he 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.” In May 2009 the Daily Kos said that, "Jonathan Turley is an embarrassment!" because Turley had suggested that supreme court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor was not "brilliant" enough for the job. Moreover, Turley testified in favor of the Clinton impeachment.

In another commentary that outraged progressives, Turley defended Judge Henry E. Hudson's ruling declaring the individual mandate unconstitutional for violating the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, saying: "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."