Mari Frank Interviews Marjorie Cohn, Professor, Attorney, and Author

Professor Cohn is president of the National Lawyers Guild. She lectures throughout the world on international human rights and U.S. foreign policy. A news consultant for CBS News, and a legal analyst for Court TV, she also provides legal and political commentary on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, Air America and Pacifica Radio. Professor Cohn is the author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law and co-author of Cameras in the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice. Her new book, Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent, will be published in winter 2009. Her articles have appeared in numerous journals such as Fordham Law Review, Hastings Law Journal and Virginia Journal of International Law, as well as The National Law Journal, Christian Science Monitor and Chicago Tribune. Professor Cohn is a contributing editor to Jurist, MWC News and Guild Practitioner and her weekly columns appear on AlterNet, Counterpunch, CommonDreams, HuffingtonPost, OpedNews, AtlanticFreePress, AfterDowningStreet, ZNet, and GlobalResearch, and are archived at http://www.marjoriecohn.com/. She has been a criminal defense attorney at the trial and appellate levels for many years, and was staff counsel to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Professor Cohn is the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the Association of American Jurists. The recipient of the San Diego County Bar Association's 2005 Service to Legal Education Award, Professor Cohn was recognized as one of San Diego's Top Attorneys in Academics for 2006 and 2008, was given the 2007 Bernard E. Witkin, Esq. Award for Excellence in the Teaching of the Law by the San Diego Law Library Justice Foundation, and received the 2008 Peace Scholar of the Year Award from the Peace and Justice Studies Association. She sits on the Advisory Board of the US Human Rights Network, the Advisory Committee of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego and the Advisory Board for the Haywood Burns Memorial Fellowships for Social and Economic Justice, and serves on the Roster of Experts at the Institute for Public Accuracy. Professor Cohn testified in 2008 about government torture policy before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. She was a legal observer in Iran on behalf of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers in 1978 and she has participated in delegations to Cuba, China and Yugoslavia. She lived in Mexico and is fluent in Spanish. Professor Cohn has taught at Thomas Jefferson School of Law since 1991. www.marjoriecohn.com