Radley Balko
radley.responses-at-gmail.com

Overview
Writer and editor specializing in investigative writing on civil liberties, the drug war, and criminal justice issues. Also cover free trade and globalization, politics, and libertarianism.

Current Employment
Senior Editor, reason magazine.
Report, write and edit articles for reason magazine.

Previous Employment
Policy Analyst, Cato Institute.
Focused primarily on vice and civil liberties, including police militarization, alcohol and tobacco control, drug prohibition, obesity, gambling, and the Nanny State.

Publication Credits

• Wrote one paper on alcohol neoprohibition, and one ground-breaking study on police militarization for the Cato Institute.
• I’ve been published in Playboy, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Time, Worth, Reason, Slate, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and several other daily newspapers and Internet journals.
• My research and reporting on police militarization has been featured in the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court (Hudson v. Michigan, dissent, Breyer). I’ve also testified before Congress on the subjects of Internet gambling and police militarization.
• My reporting on the Cory Maye case was cited by the Mississippi Supreme Court (Mississippi v. Edmonds, concurring, Diaz), profiled in National Journal, and covered by blogs, newspapers, and online publications across the country. My reason magazine feature on the Maye case was a 2006 finalist for a Los Angeles Press Club award in investigative reporting.
• I’m also a biweekly columnist for FoxNews.com. I publish a personal weblog: www.theagitator.com, which averages about 10,000 unique daily visitors. I’ve been quoted in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, Slate, the BBC, the Economist, The American Prospect, and National Journal.

TV, Radio, Etc.
I’ve appeared on the BBC, MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, CNN, NPR, and dozens of radio stations around the country. I’ve been featured in two editions of CatoAudio, and on several Cato Institute podcasts.

Education
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
B.A. in journalism and political science, December 1997.

Interests
Avid sports fan, music buff and political junkie. I dabble in short fiction and photography, and love to travel.  I have a Sharpei/Lab named Harper and a bulldog-terrier mix named Isabel. They’re pretty stinkin’ cute.

Editors interested in commissioning articles or op-eds, please feel free to contact me.