Biography
Born in Santa Monica, California, Collins grew up in Southern California. He graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a degree in political philosophy and received a law degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles where he was a member of the Law Review. Afterwards, Collins served as a law clerk to Justice Hans A. Linde on the Oregon Supreme Court and was a Supreme Court Fellow under United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger. In 2009, he served as the president of the Supreme Court Fellows Alumni Association, and in 2011 he received the Association's Administration of Justice award "in recognition of his scholarly and professional achievements in advancing the rule of law." In 2012, Collins received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the editors of the Washington Law Review.
After working with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, Collins was a teaching fellow at Stanford Law School. Thereafter, he taught constitutional law and commercial law at Temple Law School and The George Washington University Law School and other schools. He has published in numerous scholarly journals such as the Supreme Court Review and the Harvard and Stanford law reviews. His writings have also in the Columbia Journalism Review, The Nation,The New York Times, The Forward, and The Washington Post.
In 2002, the Los Angeles Times selected The Trials of Lenny Bruce (co-auhored with David Skover) as one of the best books of the year. The following year, Collins and Skover successfully petitioned the governor of New York to posthumously pardon Lenny Bruce. In 2004, they received the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award.
In Spring, 2010, Collins was a fellow in residence at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He is also on the board of editors for the Washington Independent Review of Books.
He is on the advisory board of Collaboration on Government Secrecy, a non-partisan, non-profit group dedicated to fostering openness in government.
In 2011, Collins became the book editor for SCOTUSblog, a blog devoted to news and analysis concerning the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2012, the American Society of Legal Writers awarded him a Scribes Book Award (bronze) for We Must not be Afraid to be Free (written with Sam Chaltain). In 2013, Mania, a book co-authored with David Skover, was selected by the San Francisco Book Festival as runner up in the best book of American History category.
As a young man, back in the summer of 1967, Collins was on the Dating Game and was the bachelor selected. (This is an honor he holds in common with Judge Alex Kozinski.)
His is married to Susan A. Cohen and is the father of Dylan L. Collins.
Read more about this topic: Ronald K. L. Collins
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