The Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech (Stanford Press, 2019)
Mary Anne Franks is an American legal scholar, author, activist, and media commentator. She is a professor of law and the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law atGeorge Washington University Law School, where her areas of expertise and teaching include First Amendment law, Second Amendment law, criminal law, criminal procedure, family law, and law and technology.[1] She also serves as president and Legislative and Technology Policy Director of theCyber Civil Rights Initiative.[2] Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington University Law School, Professor Franks was the Michael R. Klein Distinguished Scholar Chair and Professor of Law at theUniversity of Miami School of Law.[3]
Franks is the author ofThe Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech, which won a gold medal at the 2020Independent Publisher Book Awards as well as the 2020Association of American PublishersPROSE Award for Legal Studies and Excellence in Social Sciences.[4][5] Her second book,Fearless Speech, was published in 2024.[6]
Mary Anne Franks was born inIndiana to Kang Tu-Kwei, aTaiwanese woman, and Jesse Franks, an AmericanWorld War II veteran who died when Franks was two years old.[7][8] After her father's death, Franks spent most of her childhood inPine Bluff, Arkansas, a location that Franks described as "not the most racially sensitive place."[9][10] She attended Loyola University New Orleans, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1999 with a major in Philosophy and English Literature and minor in Classics.[11]
She was awarded aRhodes Scholarship in 1998.[11] At theUniversity of Oxford, she earned her MPhil in European literature, with distinction, in June 2001 and her DPhil in modern languages and literature in January 2004.[12] Her examination field of continental philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, gender theory, and political theory culminated in her doctoral thesis, "Enjoying Women: Sex, Psychoanalysis, and the Political."[12][13]
In 2007, Franks graduatedcum laude fromHarvard Law School, where she served as senior executive editor of theHarvard Journal of Law & Gender and executive editor of theHarvard Human Rights Journal. During her time in law school, she received several awards, including the Harvard Law School Association Alumnae Fellowship, Reginald Lewis International Internship, the Chayes International Public Service Fellow in 2005, and the National Association of Women Lawyers Outstanding Law School Student Award in 2007.[12]
Between 2004 and 2005, Franks taught courses in ethics, world religions, and introductory philosophy within the Department of Humanities atQuincy College inMassachusetts. During her time at Harvard Law School, Franks clerked for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. She also worked from 2005 to 2008 as a lecturer for the Department of Social Studies and as a teaching fellow for the government, philosophy, and English departments. From 2008 to 2010, she was a Bigelow Fellow and lecturer in law at theUniversity of Chicago Law School as well as a faculty affiliate for the Center for Gender Studies.
Franks taught at theUniversity of Miami School of Law from 2010 to 2023. Between 2010 and 2015, Franks served as an associate professor of law and was promoted to professor of law in 2015. In 2013, she served as a visiting professor at theUniversity of Navarra inPamplona, Spain.[1][14] In 2019, Franks was recognized as a Dean's Distinguished Scholar for the Profession, an honor bestowed upon University of Miami School of Law faculty members whose scholarly contributions to the legal profession are deemed significant and influential. In 2021, she was appointed to the Michael R. Klein Distinguished Scholar Chair "to recognize her substantial contributions and ongoing accomplishments in scholarship and advocacy at the confluence of civil rights and technology."[3]
Since 2013, Franks has worked in various capacities with theCyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), a nonprofit organization that seeks to combatcyber harassment, nonconsensual pornography, and online abuse through legislation, tech policy reform, and victim support. From 2014 to 2018, she served as CCRI's vice president. Since 2018, she has served as CCRI's president. In addition, she has served as CCRI's Legislative & Tech Policy Director since its founding.[2]
Franks is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia.[12]
In 2023, Franks joined the faculty ofGeorge Washington University Law School as the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law.[1]
Franks' scholarly work focuses on online harassment, free speech, discrimination, and violence. Franks also writes for various news media outlets, includingThe New York Times,The Washington Post,The Atlantic, andThe Guardian.[17][18][19][20] She was a regular contributor toThe Huffington Post.[21] As a frequent legal commentator in the media on cyberlaw and criminal law issues, Franks has been quoted in publications such asThe New York Times,The Wall Street Journal,The Washington Post, andThe New Yorker, and she has appeared on CNN, theToday show, and Vice News.[12] Franks is a co-producer of the 2015 filmHot Girls Wanted, a documentary produced by the actressRashida Jones that examines the "professional amateur" porn industry.[22][23]
Franks's work in advocating for legislative, technological, and social reform on the issue of nonconsensual pornography ("revenge porn") has been instrumental in drafting recent state legislation against the practice in theUnited States.[24] She has worked with CongresswomanJackie Speier on a federal criminal bill, theIntimate Privacy Protection Act (IPPA), which evolved into the ENOUGH Act, and again into the SHIELD Act.[25] The SHIELD Act is now part of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021, which the United States House of Representatives passed with bipartisan support in March 2021.[26][27] Franks also advises major tech companies on their privacy and abuse policies.[28] In 2015, several major tech companies, most notablyGoogle,[29] announced that they would be adding sexually explicit images published without consent to their privacy and removal policies.[30][31] In 2014, Franks was named one of "The Heroes in the Fight to Save the Internet" by the Daily Dot.[32]
In addition to her work in legal scholarship and activism, she is an instructor inKrav Maga, a self-defense system developed for the military inIsrael.[34][8] On the topic of women's empowerment through honing self-defense skills, Franks said, "Society puts a lot of focus on women as objects as opposed to women asserting their subject-hood. I’m concerned with ways that women can create a relationship with their bodies that’s about making them stronger, faster, as well as more secure." She is also a vocal proponent of hand-to-hand self-defense techniques over the use of firearms: "What troubles me about Florida when it comes to the psychology of self-defense is that our answer for defending ourselves is always a gun. Krav Maga is a nuanced approach to defending oneself and protecting one’s space. You can respond effectively, but no one gets shot, no one dies."[35]
Franks, Mary Anne (November 30, 2001)."The Need for Sexual Privacy Laws".Brookings Tech Tank. Brookings Institution.Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. RetrievedJuly 7, 2015.
Franks, Mary Anne (September 3, 2014)."Precautions and Privacy".nydailynews.com. New York Daily News.Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. RetrievedJuly 7, 2015.
Franks, Mary Anne (August 2014). "I Am/I Am Not: On Angela Harris's Race and Essentialism in Feminist Legal Theory".California Law Review.102 (4):1053–1068.SSRN2477961.
Franks, Mary Anne (September 18, 2014). "Real Men Advance, Real Women Retreat: Stand Your Ground, Battered Women's Syndrome, and Violence as Male Privilege".University of Miami Law Review.68 (4).SSRN2498180.
Franks, Mary Anne (January 18, 2012). "When Bad Speech Does Good".Loyola University Chicago Law Journal.43.SSRN1987855.
Franks, Mary Anne (December 2011). "Lies, Damned Lies, and Judicial Empathy".Washburn Law Journal.51 (1).SSRN2019755.
Franks, Mary Anne (2007). "Guantanamo Forever: United States Sovereignty and the Unending State of Exception".Harvard Law and Policy Review.1.SSRN1369355.
Franks, Mary Anne (August 17, 2015). "Drafting an Effective 'Revenge Porn' Law: A Guide for Legislators".SSRN.SSRN2468823.
