Professor Rosen Receives Distinguished Public Service Award


May 21, 2020

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Professor Jeffrey Rosen has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 Award for Distinguished Public Service by the Association of American Publishers (AAP)

The award “honors individuals who have made important contributions to the public good by advancing laws or policies that respect the value, creation, and publication of original works of authorship.” Previous recipients include Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.)

“The very best law professors are the ones who convey both the rigor and passion that are required of the profession. Using that as a yardstick I would count Jeffrey Rosen’s law students as lucky indeed,” said Maria Pallante, President and CEO of the Association of American Publishers. “There is no one more committed to educating the public at large about our Constitutional framework, and his books, essays, and scholarly works underscore the fact that experts, philosophers, and dreamers are also needed. In giving this award, American publishers applaud the Professor’s outsized contributions to legal discourse and his commitment to training the next generation of public servants.”

Professor Rosen will address AAP’s membership during its virtual annual meeting on June 1, 2020. I’m honored to receive this Award for Public Service and grateful to have the chance to talk with America’s publishers about the importance of deep reading and reflection in these challenging times,” said Rosen. “The American Founders believed that only through Stoic self-mastery can we achieve personal and political self-government. It is urgently important to preserve the vitality of the publishing industry, and of educational institutions at every level, which make that learning and self-mastery possible.”

In addition to teaching at GW Law, Professor Rosen is the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He is the author of six books, including, most recently, Conversations with RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law. His other books include William Howard Taft, part of the American Presidents Series; Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet, published on the 100th anniversary of Justice Brandeis’ Supreme Court confirmation; The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America, the best-selling companion book to the award-winning PBS series; The Most Democratic Branch: How the Courts Serve America; The Naked Crowd: Freedom and Security in an Anxious Age; and The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in America. He also is co-editor, with Benjamin Wittes, of Constitution 3.0: Freedom and Technological Change.

Professor Rosen hosts the weekly “We the People” podcast. His essays and commentaries have appeared in The New York Times Magazine; on NPR; in the New Republic, where he was the legal affairs editor; and in The New Yorker, where he was a staff writer. The Chicago Tribune named him one of the 10 best magazine journalists in America, and the Los Angeles Times called him “the nation's most widely read and influential legal commentator.”