Peter Irons

{{Infobox person

|name = Peter Irons

|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1940|8|11}}

|birth_place =

|death_date =

|death_place =

|education = Antioch College (BA)
Boston University (MA, PhD)
Harvard University (JD)

}}

Peter H. Irons (born August 11, 1940) is an American political activist, civil rights attorney, legal scholar, and professor emeritus of political science. He has written many books on the U.S. Supreme Court and constitutional litigation.

Education

Irons graduated from Antioch College (an early incubator of progressive politics).

He embarked on his current path in 1963 when he was sentenced to three years imprisonment at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut for refusing military induction on the ground that the Federal government perpetuated racial discrimination. While serving most of that sentence, he began corresponding with Howard Zinn, who sent him books on civil liberties and American politics. His conviction was ultimately reversed by a federal judge on the ground of prosecutorial misconduct. Later, President Gerald Ford granted him a pardon for refusing induction.

Career

Irons completed a PhD at Boston University in 1973.

{{cite web

|title = Peter H. Irons

|publisher = University of California, San Diego

|url = http://polisci.ucsd.edu/faculty/irons.html

|accessdate = November 25, 2012

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130428041557/http://polisci.ucsd.edu/faculty/irons.html

|archivedate = April 28, 2013

|df = mdy-all

}} Afterwards, Zinn helped arrange for him to work at a law firm defending Daniel Ellsberg, who was under federal prosecution at the time for stealing the Pentagon Papers. His work at the law firm would later serve as motivation for him to pursue a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, which he received in 1978.

Upon graduating, he taught at Boston College Law School and the University of Massachusetts before moving to the University of California, San Diego. There in 1982 he established the Earl Warren Bill of Rights Project, of which he is the director. He was chosen in 1988 as the first Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished Visiting Professor of Human Rights at Rutgers University.{{cite web

|title = Peter Irons appointed as the Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished Visiting Professor of Human Rights at Rutgers

|publisher = University of California, San Diego

|url = http://libraries.ucsd.edu/historyofucsd/newsreleases/1987/19870720.html

|date = July 20, 1987

|accessdate = November 25, 2012

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130114144541/https://libraries.ucsd.edu/historyofucsd/newsreleases/1987/19870720.html

|archive-date = January 14, 2013

|url-status = dead

|df = mdy-all

}} He has lectured on constitutional law and civil liberties at the law schools of Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Stanford, and more than 20 other schools.

He was also elected to two terms on the national board of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In addition to teaching and authoring several books, he has also helped reopen the wartime internment cases of Fred Korematsu, Minoru Yasui, and Gordon Hirabayashi. Judge Marilyn Hall Patel heard the Korematsu case.

He is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego and an author on legal history. He retired from the university in 2004 and now devotes some of his time to causes that interest him. He has undertaken some legal work in issues of the separation of church and state and written some articles for the Montana Law Review.

Starting in 1989, Irons represented the plaintiffs in the Mount Soledad case in San Diego, pro bono. He discontinued his involvement in the case in 1998 when threats made him fear for the safety of his two daughters.{{cite AV media |last1=Irons|first1=Peter|authorlink= Peter Irons |date=July 27, 2007 |title=Peter Irons - God on Trial |medium=podcast |language=English |url=http://www.pointofinquiry.org/peter_irons_god_on_trial/ |access-date=29 July 2017|time= 9:20 |location=New York City |publisher=Center for Inquiry}}

Awards

1984 – Durfee Award

{{cite web

|title = Peter Irons receives Durfee Award

|publisher = University of California, San Diego

|url = http://libraries.ucsd.edu/historyofucsd/newsreleases/1984/19841121.html

|date = November 21, 1984

|accessdate = November 25, 2012

|archive-url = https://archive.today/20121215014725/http://libraries.ucsd.edu/historyofucsd/newsreleases/1984/19841121.html

|archive-date = December 15, 2012

|url-status = dead

|df = mdy-all

}}

1986 – UCSD certificate of excellence{{cite web

|title = Chancellor's Associates honor Alan F. Hofmann for excellence in research; David R. Miller for excellent in teaching; and Peter Irons for excellence in community service

|publisher = University of California, San Diego

|url = http://libraries.ucsd.edu/historyofucsd/newsreleases/1986/19861202.html

|date = December 2, 1986

|accessdate = November 25, 2012

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130114161555/https://libraries.ucsd.edu/historyofucsd/newsreleases/1986/19861202.html

|archive-date = January 14, 2013

|url-status = dead

|df = mdy-all

}}

1989 – Ceil Podoloff Award by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

{{cite web

|title = Professor Peter Irons from UCSD receives ACLU Award

|publisher = University of California, San Diego

|url = http://libraries.ucsd.edu/historyofucsd/newsreleases/1989/19890303a.html

|date = March 3, 1989

|accessdate = November 25, 2012

|archive-url = https://archive.today/20121215013844/http://libraries.ucsd.edu/historyofucsd/newsreleases/1989/19890303a.html

|archive-date = December 15, 2012

|url-status = dead

|df = mdy-all

}}

1989 – American Bar Association Certificate of Merit award The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the U.S. Supreme Court

{{cite web

|title = UCSD professor receives American Bar Association Award

|publisher = University of California, San Diego

|url = http://libraries.ucsd.edu/historyofucsd/newsreleases/1989/19890717.html

|date = June 17, 1989

|accessdate = November 25, 2012

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20120614225449/http://libraries.ucsd.edu/historyofucsd/newsreleases/1989/19890717.html

|archivedate = June 14, 2012

|df = mdy-all

}}

Works

= Books =

{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = The New Deal lawyers | publisher = Princeton University Press | location = Princeton, N.J | year = 1982 | isbn = 0-691-04688-3}}
{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = Justice at war | url = https://archive.org/details/justiceatwar00pete | url-access = registration | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford Oxfordshire | year = 1983 | isbn = 0-19-503273-X}}
{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court | publisher = Free Press | location = New York | year = 1988 | isbn = 0-02-915670-X | url = https://archive.org/details/courageoftheirco00iron_0 }}
{{cite book | author=Irons, Peter H. | title=Justice delayed: the record of the Japanese American internment cases | url=https://archive.org/details/justicedelayedre00iron | url-access=registration |publisher=Wesleyan University Press | location=Middletown, Conn | year=1989 | isbn=0-8195-6175-4}}
{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = Making Law: The Case for Judicial Activism | publisher = Free Press | year = 1991 | isbn = 0-02-915671-8}}
{{cite book | author1=Stephanie Guitton | author2=Irons, Peter H. | title=May It Please the Court: The Most Significant Oral Arguments Made Before the Supreme Court Since 1955 | publisher=New Press | location=New York | year=1993 | isbn=1-56584-036-4 | url=https://archive.org/details/mayitpleasecourt00iron }}
{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = Brennan vs. Rehnquist: the battle for the Constitution | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf, Inc | location = New York | year = 1994 | isbn = 0-679-42436-9 | url = https://archive.org/details/brennanvsrehnqui00iron }}
{{cite book |author1=Irons, Peter H. |author2=Stephanie Guitton | title = May It Please the Court: Arguments on Abortion/Book and 2 Cassettes | publisher = New Press | location = New York | year = 1995 | isbn = 1-56584-223-5}}
{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = May It Please The Court: The First Amendment | publisher = Diane Pub Co | year = 1997 | isbn = 0-7567-7619-8}}
{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = A People's History of the Supreme Court | publisher = Viking | location = New York, N.Y | year = 1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bHqh7_LrLS8C | isbn = 0-670-87006-4}}

:[https://web.archive.org/web/20000919233308/http://www.abanet.org/publiced/gavel/00merit.html 2000 Silver Gavel Award Honorable Mention]

{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = May it please the court: courts, kids, and the constitution | publisher = New Press | location = New York | year = 2000 | isbn = 1-56584-613-3 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/mayitpleasecourt0000unse }}
{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = Jim Crow's children: the broken promise of the Brown decision | publisher = Viking | location = New York, N.Y | year = 2002 | isbn = 0-670-88918-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/jimcrowschildren00iron }}

:[https://web.archive.org/web/20080709002450/http://www.abanet.org/publiced/gavel/win03.html 2003 Silver Gavel Award Winner]

{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = Cases and Controversies : Civil Rights and Liberties in Context | publisher = Prentice Hall | location = Englewood Cliffs, N.J | year = 2004 | isbn = 0-13-045624-1}}
{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = War powers: how the imperial presidency hijacked the Constitution | url = https://archive.org/details/warpowershowimpeiro00iron | url-access = registration | publisher = Metropolitan Books | location = New York | year = 2005 | isbn = 0-8050-7593-3}}
{{cite book | author = Irons, Peter H. | title = God on Trial: Dispatches from America's Religious Battlefields | publisher = Viking Adult | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-670-03851-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/godontrialdispat00iron }}

= Video courses =

{{Cite journal | title = Civil Liberties and the Bill of Rights & History of the Supreme Court | first1 = Peter | last1 = Irons | first2 = John E. | last2 = Finn | publisher = The Teaching Company | url = http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=8531&pc=Professor284 | accessdate = 2007-10-11 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://archive.today/20070812054106/http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=8531&pc=Professor284 | archivedate = August 12, 2007 | df = mdy-all }}
{{Cite journal | title = History of the Supreme Court | first = Peter | last = Irons | publisher = The Teaching Company | url = http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=8570&pc=Professor284 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130204025949/http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=8570&pc=Professor284 | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2013-02-04 | accessdate = 2007-10-11 }}

= Articles =

{{Cite journal | title = Disaster in Dover: The Trials (and Tribulations) of Intelligent Design | first = Peter | last = Irons | journal = Montana Law Review | year = 2007 | volume = 68 | issue = 1 | url = http://www.umt.edu/mlr/Irons%20Response.pdf | accessdate = 2008-04-10 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927044343/http://www.umt.edu/mlr/Irons%20Response.pdf | archivedate = September 27, 2007 | df = mdy-all }}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20130428041557/http://polisci.ucsd.edu/faculty/irons.html University of California, San Diego]Peter H. Irons
{{C-SPAN|31898}}
{{cite web | url = http://polisci.ucsd.edu/faculty/irons.htm | title = Peter H. Irons | accessdate = 2007-11-04 | publisher = Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20071017104619/http://polisci.ucsd.edu/faculty/irons.htm |archivedate = October 17, 2007}}
{{cite web | url = http://www.abanet.org/publiced/gavel/gavel03.pdf | title = An Interview with Peter Irons| publisher = American Bar Association | work = 2003 Silver Gavel Awards for media and the arts | year = 2003 | accessdate = 2007-11-04 |archiveurl =https://web.archive.org/web/20071128234557/http://www.abanet.org/publiced/gavel/gavel03.pdf |archivedate = November 28, 2007}}
{{cite news| url = http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=107769 | title = Out of Irons, Into the Dock |accessdate = 2007-11-04 | author = Gay Seidman | date = December 12, 1975 | work = The Harvard Crimson}}
{{cite news | url = http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=151004 | title = Law Student Gets Presidential Pardon: Ford Clears Draft Resistor | accessdate = 2007-11-04 | author = Gay Seidman | date = January 31, 1977 | work = The Harvard Crimson | archive-date = April 12, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090412180742/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=151004 | url-status = dead }}
{{Cite news | title = 'War Powers': Original Intent | first = Emily | last = Bazelon | date = August 21, 2005 |newspaper = The New York Times | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/books/review/21BAZELON.html }}