Harvey Silverglate

He was born in New York in 1942 and graduated from Bogota High School in New Jersey in 1960.⁠[1]

He describes himself as a Brooklyn native.⁠[2]

In 1960, as Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry freshmen, he and the future historian Alan Charles Kors met; the two describe themselves as best friends ever since.⁠[3]

He received an A.B. in history from Princeton in 1964 and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1967, then began practicing at a Boston firm.⁠[4]

In 1969, in one of his first major cases, he represented some 200 HarvardHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry students charged over an anti-Vietnam War demonstration that took over University Hall; the jury acquitted them.⁠[5]

From 1976 to 2013 he wrote a criminal law and civil liberties column, “Freedom Watch” (formerly “Brief Cases”), for The Real Paper and The Boston Phoenix.⁠[4]

He recalled that in 1985, while teaching a class at Harvard Law School, he was offered a tenure-track position but declined because he saw Harvard as increasingly run by bureaucrats; since the 1980s he has held “law tables” at Dunster House once a semester.⁠[5]

On March 9, 1998, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments in the case of the British au pair Louise Woodward; the defense asked it to erase her manslaughter conviction, while prosecutors sought reinstatement of the jury’s second-degree murder verdict.⁠[6]

He was on Woodward’s legal team and argued what he describes as the winning issue before that court; he says it led to his client’s release and remains confident of her innocence.⁠[2]

In October 1998 the Free Press published The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses, which he wrote with Kors.⁠[7]

The book opens with the 1993 “water buffalo” affair at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania, commonly called Penn, is a private research university and Ivy League member in Philadelphia. It traces its origins to a 1740 charity-school project; Benjamin Franklin proposed his academy in 1749, classes began in 1751, and a 1791 merger established the institution under its present name. Penn has 12 schools, with undergraduate education concentrated in arts and sciences, engineering, nursing and Wharton. Enrollment totaled 29,384 in fall 2025, and the fiscal 2025 endowment was $24.81 billion. As of October 2026, J. Larry Jameson was president, with his term scheduled to end on June 30, 2027.Open the full entry; Sheldon Hackney, Penn’s president at the time, called it “a polemic,” and the critic Carlin Romano faulted its one-sided opening chapter, while Kors replied that its contents were “true and documented.”⁠[3]

The book offers a detailed account of how universities allegedly ride roughshod over First Amendment rights in the name of curbing hate speech; Kirkus Reviews found it learned and often revealing but said its exaggerated rhetoric undermined confidence in its objectivity.⁠[8]

In 1999, a year after the book, he and Kors founded the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to educate about and advocate for student liberty; in 2022 the organization expanded its mission beyond campuses.⁠[9]

In 2009 he and fellow alumnus Robert Freedman ran by petition for Harvard’s Board of Overseers, the first petition candidates on the ballot since 1999; he said he was running to abolish Harvard’s speech codes.⁠[10]

He made the ballot that year but was not elected.⁠[11]

In September 2009 Encounter Books published his Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent.⁠[7]

The book argues that vague and expansive federal criminal laws mean ordinary people may unknowingly break federal law several times a day, letting prosecutors target almost anyone.⁠[12]

The Phoenix’s review called its thesis “a truly radical notion.”⁠[13]

From 2013 he was of counsel to Boston’s Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP.⁠[4]

In 2020 Conviction Machine, written with Sidney Powell, was published.⁠[4]

The publisher notes that Powell is a former federal prosecutor and says the book criticizes overzealous prosecutors, perjury traps and overabundant criminal statutes and offers a blueprint for reforming the Justice Department.⁠[14]

On May 30, 2020, his wife, the photographer Elsa Dorfman, known for her giant Polaroid portraits, died. When police had once tried to stop her selling photographs from a pushcart in Harvard Square, he successfully argued that photographs were an intellectual product protected by the First Amendment, needing no peddler’s license.⁠[15]

In 2023 he again ran as an outsider for Harvard’s Board of Overseers on a platform of sharply cutting administrators, lowering tuition and upholding free speech; as of January 31 he had 330 of the 3,000 signatures needed, and he blamed recent rule changes for making petition candidacies harder.⁠[11]

As of February 2, 2023, no petition candidates had qualified for the ballot, and he pursued a write-in campaign instead.⁠[16]

He appeared on episode 377 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, whose description calls him a free speech advocate and FIRE co-founder running for Harvard’s Board of Overseers on a free speech platform; topics included freedom of speech, university bureaucracy, public education, Jeffrey Epstein, Alan Dershowitz, Donald Trump, the FBI and the criminal justice system.⁠[17]

In early 2024, after Claudine Gay resigned as Harvard’s president, he launched a third run, needing 3,400 alumni signatures by January 31, on a platform of abolishing all speech codes, ensuring fair disciplinary proceedings, reducing bureaucracy and cutting tuition.⁠[18]

None of the seven write-in candidates of 2024 made the ballot; in January 2025 he said he would not run again and would focus on an upcoming book.⁠[19]

He served on FIRE’s board of directors for 26 years, until November 2025.⁠[1]

As of October 2026 his website describes him as a retired attorney, writer and nonprofit activist who has lived in Cambridge for nearly 50 years.⁠[2]

He served on the board of the ACLU of Massachusetts for over three decades, including two terms as board president, and is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.⁠[1]

He has taught at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, the University of Massachusetts College III program and Harvard Law School.⁠[20]

Personal website: Public link: https://www.harveysilverglate.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[17]

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression: Official website: https://www.thefire.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[17]

Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP: Official website: https://www.zalkindlaw.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14]

ACLU of Massachusetts: Official website: https://www.aclum.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[20]

Cato Institute: Official website: https://www.cato.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[7]