Alan Dershowitz

In Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence, author Alan Dershowitz proves that no relation exists between the Declaration of Independence's "Creator and "Nature's God," on the one hand, and the Judeo-Christian God of the Old and New Testaments, on the other hand. Learn about the religious right's goal to Christianize America by using the Declaration of Independence and arguing that this document proves that the United States was founded on Biblical law. Understand everything from the argument to the documentation that Dershowitz uses to disprove this historical distortion.

In Dershowitz on Killing: How the Law Decides Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die, Alan Dershowitz--New York Times bestselling author and one of America's most respected legal scholars--examines the subjects of death, life, and the law. Alan Dershowitz has been called "one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America" by Politico and "the nation's most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights" by Newsweek. His legal career as a criminal defense lawyer has been deeply involved with death and life decisions. Dershowitz on Killing is a timely examination of issues and questions that are front and center in today's society. Employing a philosophical, moral, religious, and cultural lens to the legal aspects surrounding death and life, Dershowitz elucidates the role of government to determine who shall live and who shall die in declaring wars, ordering executions, authorizing deadly force, permitting or denying abortions, providing or mandating vaccines, controlling climate change, allowing or refusing asylum for endangered migrants, and other life and death rulings. He notes that when the government decides these choices, it is asked to do so by first determining whether a "right" is involved, because rights trump mere interest, just as constitutional restrictions trump legislative and executive actions. Dershowitz on Killing asserts that the rules governing death and life decisions should reflect the irreversibility of death. It is essential reading for anyone interested in or concerned about how these decisions are allocated among state and federal; executive, legislative, and judicial; private and governmental; religious and secular institutions--and how people in a democracy, through the power of the ballot, have the ultimate say in these critical decisions.

In his fiftieth book, The Price of Principle: Why Integrity Is Worth the Consequences, Alan Dershowitz--#1 New York Times bestselling author and one of America's most influential legal scholars--explores the implications of the increasing tendency in politics, academia, media, and even the courts of law to punish principle and reward partisan hypocrisy. Alan Dershowitz has been called "one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America" by Politico, and "the nation's most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights" by Newsweek. Yet, he has come under intense criticism for living by his principles and applying his famed "shoe on the other foot test." The Price of Principle is about efforts to cancel Alan Dershowitz and his career because he has insisted on sticking to his principles instead of choosing sides in the current culture and political war dividing our country. He explains that principled people are actively punished for not being sufficiently partisan. Principle has become the vice and partisanship the virtue in an age when partisan ends justify unprincipled means, such as denial of due process and free speech in the interest of achieving partisan or ideological goals. Throughout his narrative, Dershowitz focuses on three sets of principles that have guided his life: 1) freedom of expression and conscience; 2) due process, fundamental fairness, and the adversary system of seeking justice; and 3) basic equality and meritocracy. He documents the attacks on him and others like him for being "guilty" of refusing to compromise important principles to promote partisanship. He names names and points fingers of accusation at those who have led us down this dangerous road. In the end, The Price of Principle represents an icon in the defense of free speech and due process reckoning with the challenges of unprincipled attacks--a new brand of McCarthyism--and insisting that we ask hard questions about our own moral principles.

In Cancel Culture, Alan Dershowitz--New York Times bestselling author and one of America's most respected legal scholars--makes an argument for free speech, due process, and restraint against the often overeager impulse to completely cancel individuals and institutions at the ever-changing whims of social media-driven crowds. Alan Dershowitz has been called "one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America" by Politico and "the nation's most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights" by Newsweek. Yet he has come under intense criticism for his steadfast and consistent championing of those same principles, and his famed "shoe-on-the-other-foot test," to those who have been "cancelled" for any number of faults, both real and imagined. Cancel Culture is a defense of due process, free speech, and even-handedness in the application of judgment. It makes the case for restraint and care in decisions about whom and what to cancel, boycott, deplatform, and bar from public life, and offers recommendations for when, why, and to what degree these steps may be appropriate, as long as objective, fair-minded criteria can be determined and met. While Dershowitz argues against the worst excesses of cancel culture--the rush to judgment and the devastating results it can have on those who may be innocent, the power of social media to effect punishment without a thorough examination of evidence, the idea that historical events can be viewed through the same lens as actions in the present day--he also acknowledges that its defenders ostensibly try to use it to create meaningful, positive change, and notes that cancelling may itself be a constitutionally protected form of free speech. In the end, Cancel Culture represents an icon in the defense of free speech and due process reckoning with the greatest challenge and threat to these rights since the rise of McCarthyism. It is essential reading for anyone interested in or concerned about cancel culture, its effects on our society, and its significance in a greater historical and political context.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author, Harvard Law School professor, and tireless defender of civil liberties unearths a little-known letter by his hero, Thomas Jefferson, and shares its secrets. The letter illuminates Jefferson’s views on freedom of speech in a way that has important implications for the country today, particularly in the struggle against terrorism. This book is about the remarkable letter Dershowitz found, how he found it, and why it matters not only to him, but to us today.

In Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence, author Alan Dershowitz proves that no relation exists between the Declaration of Independence's "Creator and "Nature's God," on the one hand, and the Judeo-Christian God of the Old and New Testaments, on the other hand. Learn about the religious right's goal to Christianize America by using the Declaration of Independence and arguing that this document proves that the United States was founded on Biblical law. Understand everything from the argument to the documentation that Dershowitz uses to disprove this historical distortion.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author, Harvard Law School professor, and tireless defender of civil liberties unearths a little-known letter by his hero, Thomas Jefferson, and shares its secrets. The letter illuminates Jefferson's views on freedom of speech in a way that has important implications for the country today, particularly in the struggle against terrorism. This book is about the remarkable letter Dershowitz found, how he found it, and why it matters not only to him, but to us today.

According to renowned defense attorney and Harvard law professor Alan M. Dershowitz, "abuse excuses" are enabling people to get away with murder - literally. From the Menendez brothers to Lorena Bobbitt, more and more Americans accused of violent crimes are admitting to the charges, but arguing that they shouldn't be held legally responsible. The reason: they're victims - of an abusive parent, a violent spouse, a traumatic experience, ethnic hatred, society at large, or anything else - who struck back at a real or perceived oppressor. And they couldn't help themselves, they say. In this provocative and important collection of essays, Dershowitz reviews a wide range of recent cases - including those of O. J. Simpson, Tonya Harding, and Woody Allen - and argues that the current vogue in victim defenses is antithetical to the ideals of our constitutional democracy. For Dershowitz, the foundations of American society are individual responsibility and the rule of law. And people who claim to be above the law - whatever the excuse - are no more than vigilantes.

Nothing could be more partisan or political today as the issue of whether President Donald Trump could or should serve a third term. Most Americans are convinced that the Twenty-second Amendment to the US Constitution categorically prohibits a two-term president from serving a third term. Professor Alan Dershowitz provides objective, non-partisan, and astute constitutional analysis that not only challenges this belief but lays out exactly how Trump could become the forty-eighth president of the United States.

Jewish Blood Is No Longer Cheap draws stark parallels between current threats to Jews and Israel and the pre-Holocaust era in 1930s Germany. Invoking the Talmud's directive to preemptively defend against killers, it criticizes historical Jewish underreactions due to fears of overreacting, citing figures like Rabbi Stephen Wise and Felix Frankfurter. Professor Alan Dershowitz argues that Israel's military response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacres—killing over 1,400 Israelis—was a justified overreaction to centuries of cheap Jewish blood, emphasizing deterrence over proportionality. It rejects genocide accusations, contrasting Israel's collateral civilian deaths with Nazi extermination and Allied WWII bombings. The text explores the civilian-combatant continuum in Gaza, questioning the innocence of massacre supporters and doubting Hamas's casualty figures. It advocates population transfers for peace, citing post-WWII examples like Sudetenland and Königsberg, proposing a demilitarized, rebuilt Gaza as a "Singapore on the Mediterranean." Dilemmas of hostage retrieval in democracies are examined, weighing military needs against family pressures. Israel is urged to prioritize security over public relations, amid global bias, and embody both Sparta's military prowess and Athens's technological and intellectual strength to counter threats like Iran's nuclear ambitions. Dershowitz calls for adapting morality preemptively against immoral foes to prevent recurrence. He warns of a pincer attack from right-wing (e.g., Tucker Carlson) and left-wing extremists (e.g., The Squad), posing political dilemmas for Jews, and advocates proactive steps to avert future disasters.

"You shall thank Alan Dershowitz for writing this [valuable] book."—Stephen Breyer, Former Associate Justice of the Supreme CourtIf reliable but uncertain intelligence predicted a mass casualty terrorist attack and indicated likely suspects,what preventive actions would be constitutionally authorized? Detention? Interrogation? Torture? What if the attack involved a weaponized virus? Should the government compel widespread inoculation that might kill hundreds of people while saving millions? What if an article describing how to circumvent the inoculation mandate was about to be published? Should censorship of the article be authorized?These are the sorts of questions Alan Dershowitz has been asking for more than 60 years, in his teaching, writing, and litigation. Now, at age 86, he has written his magnum opus. In it, he suggests an overarching jurisprudential framework that would set limits to the ballooning power of what he calls “the preventive state.” This important book offers unprecedented insights into one of the most underexamined developments of our age: the growing magnitude and frequency of cataclysmic threats, coupled with the increasingly effective—but increasingly intrusive—tools intended to predict and prevent them. Dershowitz responds to the urgent need for a jurisprudence that provides balance and accountability as both dangers and preventive capabilities increase, threatening our security and our liberties. This masterful analysis should be read by everyone who cares about security, liberty, and democracy.

President Donald Trump has declared war against elite American universities, such as Harvard, and has threatened to cut off federal funding, end tax exemptions, and limit foreign student visas. Harvard has filed lawsuits and threatened additional legal action. The nation is deeply divided over this conflict. How should Americans who care deeply about universities, about antisemitism, and about the proper role of government respond to this dangerous rift? Alan Dershowitz poses four basic questions about the decision whether to defund or otherwise punish universities that discriminate against--or apply a double standard to--Jews as victims of discrimination.Is it ever permissible, as a matter of policy and academic freedom, to weaponize governmental funding of universities in an effort to influence their policies?Is it constitutional or otherwise legal to cut off governmental funding based on the content of university speech or policies?Is the Trump administration justified in defunding universities such as Harvard and Columbia for their failures to deal effectively with growing antisemitism on their campuses?Can the government deny student (or faculty) visas to individuals who advocate or promote antisemitism or other actions that violate American policies?Among the reforms Dershowitz advocates are a return to meritocratic admissions and hiring; a return to rigorous blind grading; the end of the non-meritocratic diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucracies; the application of a single standard of free speech, academic freedom, and discipline; and the end of ethnic, gender, regional, religious, sexual preference, and other identity-based departments, studies, programs, and other advocacy centers that have become incubators for anti-Jewish bigotry.

Palestinianism is not only the newest manifestation of anti-Semitism; it also poses grave threats to peace, human rights, and democratic values. Its dangers must be exposed and challenged in the marketplace of ideas. It is the purpose of this book to pose that challenge and to put Palestinianism on trial for the moral crimes of bigotry, incitement to violence, and destroying any prospects for peace. By “Palestinianism,” Alan Dershowitz does not mean merely supporting a Palestinian state or the rights and well-being of the Palestinian people. Those are entirely reasonable positions to take. He means only the obsessive focus on the claims of Palestinians and their supporters—to the exclusion or minimization of the claims of other, more deserving, groups. This singular focus on the “rights” of Palestinians is coupled with an equivalent singular focus on the alleged “wrongs” of only one country—Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people. It is the coupling of these biases that constitutes the new “Palestinianism” that we are now experiencing on university campuses, in international organizations, among hard-left politicians, and in many media. In Palestinianism, Dershowitz explores the sources of contemporary Jew-hatred, Israel demonization, and other threats to Jewish communities around the world. He demonstrates why he believes things are likely to get worse, as they did in Germany during the late 1930s. He does not believe they will culminate in another genocidal holocaust but that when the young bigots who so fervently rally behind Palestinianism grow into influential adults, they will increase the hatred against Jews and their nation-state. He argues that Jews and their state must become more self-reliant, and less dependent on the approval, support, or selection by others.

The goal of The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies: And How to Refute Them with Truth is to contribute to the marketplace of ideas by offering truthful and well-documented facts that disprove the defamatory fictions--the big lies--that are pervasive in the current protests against Israel. The book's intended audiences are open-minded students and others who seek to hear fact-based information on all sides of the relevant issues. It is also designed to provide intellectual ammunition to pro-Israel students who seek to engage in exchanges with their anti-Israel interlocutors. It is hoped that this book, will help promote fact-based debate and dialogue about Israel and its enemies. As a lifelong Zionist and supporter--though often a critical supporter--of Israel, I am convinced that the unvarnished truth about all sides of the conflict will, if fairly assessed, refute the blood libels currently directed at the nation-state of the Jewish people. This book will demonstrate that the vast majority of accusations leveled by the anti-Israel protestors and professors are false. I will describe their ten central accusations about the past, the present, and the future, and then refute them with indisputable documentary, historical, and empirical evidence.

In War on Woke: Why the New McCarthyism Is More Dangerous Than the Old, Alan Dershowitz--#1 New York Times bestselling author and one of America's most respected legal scholars--warns of the danger to the future of civil liberties and equality in America. Alan Dershowitz has been called "one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America" by Politico and "the nation's most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights" by Newsweek. War on Woke exposes new McCarthyite tendencies and tactics of academia, the media, and the business community, especially high tech, that promote closed-minded intolerance. Dershowitz explains that the new woke McCarthyism challenges the basic tenets of the classic liberal (in the traditional sense) state: Freedom of expression; due process; presumption of innocence, right to counsel, equal application of the law; tolerance and respect for differing viewpoints, and that these bedrock principles are rejected by McCarthyite extremists on both the hard left and the hard right. Analyzing the impact of this new woke McCarthyism through the relentless attempts to "get" Trump, the attention on the Bidens, and even its international manifestation relative to anti-Semitism, Israel, and the world, Dershowitz investigates the role of media and asks whether the US Supreme Court can constrain this growing threat as new woke McCarthyism becomes mainstream Americanism--especially as the current generation of students and young professionals become our political, media, business, educational, religious, and "influencer" leaders.

Alan Dershowitz--the #1 New York Times bestselling author and one of America's most influential legal scholars--advocates for the Jewish homeland. Dershowitz has spent years advocating for his "most challenging client"―the state of Israel--and has been a staunch supporter both in public and in private, holding meetings with high-level international figures that include every US president and Israeli leader of the past forty years. Through personal insights and unreported details, Defending Israel is a comprehensive history of modern Israel from the perspective of one of the country's most important defenders and offers insights into the high-profile controversies and debates that Dershowitz has taken part in over the years. ​Defending Israel is a balanced defense of the Jewish homeland on numerous points, which includes Dershowitz's criticisms of Israeli decisions and policies that he believes to be unwise. At a time when Jewish Americans are increasingly uncertain as to who supports Israel and who doesn't, there is no better book to turn to for answers―and a pragmatic look toward the future.

In War Against the Jews: How to End Hamas Barbarism, Alan Dershowitz--#1 New York Times bestselling author and one of America's most respected legal scholars--explains why the horrific attack of Oct 7 and Israel's just response changes everything. It has changed the relationship between Israel and the United States, especially with regard to the possibility of direct American intervention. It has required Israel to consider its nuclear option as a last resort to assure its survival. It has revealed dangerous attitudes among America's future leaders on today's college campuses toward Israel's possible destruction. It has exposed media biases that have been exacerbated with Israel's vulnerabilities. It has united Israelis and Jews around the world as never before, despite the deep divisions among them politically, religiously, and ideologically. Nothing will ever be the same. It has clouded the future of peace between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbors and has diminished the proposals for a peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It has made predictions about the future of the region nearly impossible, except that imposing instability is inevitable. In this short book, Dershowitz analyzes these transforming events and suggests how to move forward.

In Get Trump: The Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law, Alan Dershowitz--#1 New York Times bestselling author and one of America's most respected legal scholars--analyses the unremitting efforts by political opponents of Donald Trump to "get" him--to stop him from running in 2024--at any cost. Alan Dershowitz has been called "one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America" by Politico and "the nation's most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights" by Newsweek. Get Trump makes clear that unconstitutional efforts to stop Trump from retaking the presidency challenge the very foundations of our liberty: due process, right to counsel, and free speech. Those who justify these dangerous departures from the rule of law argue that the threat posed by a second Trump presidency is "different" and "immediate," while the departures from constitutional norms are longer term and more abstract. Dershowitz explains that defenders of Trump's constitutional rights--even those like him who oppose Trump politically--are sought to be silenced; their free speech rights attacked, their integrity questioned, and their careers threatened. Much of the media substitutes advocacy against Trump for objective reporting, while many in academia petition and propagandize against rights they previously valued--all in the interest of getting Trump. The essence of justice is that it must be equally applicable to all, Dershowitz notes. No one is above the law but digging to find crimes in order to influence an election does not constitute the equal application of the law. In order to assure equal application in comparable situations, he proposes two criteria for indicting a likely candidate of the opposing party: the Richard Nixon standard and the Hillary Clinton standard--and most recently, the Joe Biden standard. Get Trump warns that regardless of whether this anti-democratic effort to stop Trump from running succeeds or fails, it is likely to create dangerous precedents that will lie around like loaded weapons ready to be deployed against other controversial candidates, officials, or citizens about whom it can be argued that the danger they pose "is different."

In The Case for Color-Blind Equality in an Age of Identity Politics?, Alan Dershowitz—New York Times bestselling author and one of America’s most respected legal scholars—analyzes the current battles over issues of diversity and our rapidly changing ideas about what true diversity is. Alan Dershowitz has been called “one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America” by Politico and “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights” by Newsweek. He is also a fair-minded and even-handed expert on civil liberties and constitutional rights, and in this book offers his knowledge and insight to help readers understand the war being waged against meritocracy and equal protection of the law by so-called progressive advocates. The Case for Color-Blind Equality in an Age of Identity Politics is an analysis of every aspect of the current fight against true diversity—diversity of philosophy, background, and opinion, rather than the more surface-level diversity of race, religion, and location. It examines the United States’s history of systemic racism, debates about affirmative action, and ongoing reckoning with issues of bigotry against groups such as Asians, Blacks, and Jews, with an eye toward fairly balancing the concerns of a diverse populace. In the end, The Case for Color-Blind Equality in an Age of Identity Politics represents an icon in American law and politics exploring the current rapidly changing attitudes toward meritocracy, personal identity, and the preservation of civil liberties for all citizens, regardless of background, race, class, or creed. It is essential reading for anyone interested in or concerned about identity politics, racial issues, and true diversity and fairness in America.