Tabatha Abu El-Haj

Tabatha Abu El-Haj is Professor of Law at Drexel University’s Kline School of law and a leading expert on the First Amendment and American democracy. She has written about the right of assembly both historically and in relation to Occupy and Black Lives Matter.  Her publications include, “The Neglected Right of Assembly,” in the UCLA Law Review and “Changing the People: Legal Regulation and American Democracy,” in the NYU Law Review. Shorter pieces by Professor Abu El-Haj include “Public Unions Under First Amendment Fire,” in the Washington University Law Review and “‘Live Free or Die’ – Liberty and the First Amendment,” in the Ohio State Law Journal, and “Defining Peaceably: Policing the Line Between Constitutionally Protected Protest and Unlawful Assembly,” in the Missouri Law Review.

She is a member of the Scholars Strategy Network, which published her 2018 policy brief “Why Strengthening Citizen Ties – Not Unleashing Big Donors – is the Way to Revitalize U.S. Political Parties.” Her work on campaign finance has also appeared in Purchasing Power: The Brennan Center’s Money in Politics Blog and The Hill.

Before joining Drexel Law, Professor Abu El-Haj clerked for the Honorable Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She received a JD/PhD in Law and Society from New York University School of Law, where she was a Furman Fellow and graduated Order of the Coif.