Rush to Judgment

{{Short description|1966 book by American lawyer Mark Lane}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox book

| name = Rush to Judgment

| image = File:Rush_to_Judgment_book_cover.jpg

| image_size = 200

| caption = Cover of first American edition

| author = Mark Lane

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| translator =

| illustrator =

| cover_artist =

| country = United States

| language =

| series =

| subject = Assassination of John F. Kennedy

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| publisher = Holt, Rinehart & Winston

| pub_date = August 1966

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| media_type = Print (hardcover)

| pages = 478 pp.

| isbn =

| oclc = 4215197

| dewey =

| congress = E842.9 .L3 1966a

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| followed_by =

}}

Rush to Judgment: A Critique of the Warren Commission's Inquiry into the Murders of President John F. Kennedy, Officer J.D. Tippit and Lee Harvey Oswald is a 1966 book by American lawyer Mark Lane. It is about the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy and takes issue with the investigatory methods and conclusions of the Warren Commission.{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836375-2,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104024942/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836375-2,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 4, 2012|title=Essay: Autopsy on the Warren Commission|publisher=Time Magazine|date=September 16, 1966}}{{cite web|url=http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/1992/9204/9204FIL.cfm|title=Oliver Stone's JFK in Historical Perspective|author=James N. Giglio|publisher=American Historical Association|date=April 1992}} The book's introduction is by Hugh Trevor-Roper, Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford.{{cite news |last=Cassidy |first=Claudi |author-link=Claudia Cassidy |date=May 23, 1966 |title=On the Aisle: Preview of Mark Lane's 'Rush to Judgment,' In Inquiry into the Evidence's Other Side|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1966/05/23/page/47/article/on-the-aisle |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |at=Section 2, p. 5 |access-date=July 24, 2015}} Although it was preceded by a few self-published or small press books, Rush to Judgment was the first mass market hardcover book to confront the findings of the Warren Commission.{{cite news |last=Hoover |first=Bob |date=November 2, 2013 |title=The Next Page: The JFK assassination conspiracy circus |url=http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2013/11/03/The-Next-Page-The-conspiracy-circus/stories/201311030074 |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |accessdate=August 14, 2014}}Prior authors included Harold Weisberg and Sylvia Meagher

The title of the book was taken from Lord Chancellor Thomas Erskine's defense of James Hadfield, who had attempted to assassinate King George III in 1800. According to Alex Raskin of the Los Angeles Times, "Rush to Judgment opened the floodgate for Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories".{{cite news |last=Raksin |first=Alex |date=December 29, 1991 |title=Nonfiction |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-29-bk-1707-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |location=Los Angeles |access-date=May 4, 2015}}

Bertrand Russell, who is thanked in the acknowledgements section of the book for being "kind enough to read the manuscript and make suggestions",{{cite book |last1=Lane |first1=Mark |title=Rush to Judgment |date=1992 |publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press |page=25}} set up the Who Killed Kennedy? Committee in response to the book. This committee, in Russell's words, was set up "for the purpose of making known the material [Lane] has uncovered and his further findings".{{cite book |last1=Ayer |first1=A.J. |title=Bertrand Russell |date=1988 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=26}}{{cite book |last1=Russell |first1=Bertrand |title=The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell, Volume 2 The Public Years 1914-1970 |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |page=576}} Arnold J. Toynbee is also thanked in the acknowledgements section for the same reason.