Feature

Eugene Volokh, UCLA School of Law

By Rebecca Neely Eugene Volokh, pronounced Volk, teaches free speech law, criminal law, tort law, religious freedom law, and church-state relations law at UCLA School of Law, where he has also often taught copyright law and a seminar on firearms regulation policy. Before coming to UCLA, he clerked for Justice Sandra Day OConnor on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Alex Kozinski on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Volokh is the author of the textbooks, The First Amendment and Related Statutes (3d ed. 2008), The Religion Clauses and Related Statutes (2005), and Academic Legal Writing (4th ed. 2010), as well as over 60 law review articles and over 80 oped pieces. He is a member of The American Law Institute, a member of the American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel, and the founder and co-author of The Volokh Conspiracy, a collaborative weblog providing analysis of developments in the US legal system and courts, as well as of recent news and events. One of his recent blog postings includes a review on his book, Academic Legal Writing. In the blog, Prof. Norman Garland praises Volokh, saying that he has done an enormous service for academics like myself who struggle to help students and young colleagues to learn the art of writing in the legal domain. Another recent blog posting, entitled, When I Hear Pure Vermont, Racial Purity is the First Thing that Comes to Mind. In the blog he says, Presumably, the slogan refers to Vermonts agricultural products and environmental legacy. But for many Vermonters, these words denote racial, religious and cultural oppression. They imply that Vermont is a place reserved for white Christians. In another recent blog posting, entitled, DePaul University Says No to Pro-Marijuana Legalization Group, Volokh

comments, saying, I rather doubt that recognizing such a group would materially affect the level of marijuana use by DePaul students. But denying recognition would affect the amount of debate about marijuana policy that takes place. Sounds like unhealthy decision-making on the universitys part to me. Volokh is among the five most cited under-45 faculty members listed in the Top 25 Law Faculties in Scholarly Impact, 20052009 study, and among the forty most cited faculty members on that list without regard to age. Six of his law review articles have been cited by opinions of the Supreme Court Justices; twenty-one of his works have been cited by federal circuit courts; and several others have been cited by district courts or state courts. Volokh is also an Academic Affiliate for the Mayer Brown LLP law firm. He generally consults on other lawyers cases, but he briefed and argued Ingram v. Battaglia / Rush v. Frank before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and State v. Drahota before the Nebraska Supreme Court. Volokh worked for 12 years as a computer programmer, and is still partner in a small software company which sells HP 3000 software that he wrote. He graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in math-computer science at age 15. He has also written many articles on computer software. Volokh was born in the USSR. His family emigrated to the U.S. when he was seven years old.

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