James Weinstein’s areas of academic interest are Constitutional Law, especially Free Speech, as well as Jurisprudence, Federal Courts, Civil Procedure and Legal History. He is co-editor of Extreme Speech and Democracy, and has written numerous articles in law review symposia on a variety of free speech topics, including: obscenity doctrine, institutional review boards, commercial speech, database protection, campaign finance reform, the relationship between free speech and other constitutional rights, hate crimes, and campus speech codes. Professor Weinstein also has written several articles on the history of personal jurisdiction and its implication for modern doctrine. 

Professor Weinstein also has been a principal speaker at numerous national and international conferences on free speech issues.

During law school, he was a member of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review Board of Officers. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to James R. Browning, Chief Judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and then practiced civil litigation in Los Angeles for several years before joining the faculty in 1986. Professor Weinstein has litigated several significant free speech cases, primarily on behalf of the Arizona Civil Liberties Union.