Peter H. Irons

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Peter H. Irons is an American political activist, civil rights attorney, legal scholar, and professor of political science. He embarked on his current path in 1963 when he was issued a 3 year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut for refusing military induction. It was while serving his sentence as Inmate No. 21341 that he became associated with another famous activist, Howard Zinn. He wrote to Zinn, who wrote back, sending him books on civil liberties and American politics.

Irons would go on to complete his doctorate at Boston University in 1973. Afterwards, Dr. Zinn helped arrange for Irons 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 law degree from Harvard Law School.

Upon graduating, he taught at Boston College Law School and the University of Massachusetts before moving to the University of California at San Diego in 1982 where he would establish the Earl Warren Bill of Rights Project, of which he is the director. In addition to teaching and authoring several books, he has also helped reopen the wartime internment cases of Fred Korematsu, Min Yasui, and Gordon Hirabayashi.

He is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego and an author on legal history. His Jim Crow's Children won the Silver Gavel Award given by the American Bar Association. He also wrote Justice at War and A People's History of the Supreme Court which was awarded a Silver Gavel Certificate of Merit. He has been awarded a total of five Silver Gavel awards from the American Bar Association. Irons has also recorded a lecture series entitled History of the Supreme Court for The Teaching Company.

[edit] Works

"The New Deal Lawyers"
"Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases"
"The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court"
"Justice Delayed: The Record of the Japanese American Internment Cases"
"May It Please The Court"- Editor and Narrator
"Brennan vs. Rehnquist: The Battle for the Constitution"
A People's History of the Supreme Court
"Jim Crow's Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision"
"Cases and Controversies: 'civil Rights and Liberties in Context"
"War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution"