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Staff > Radley Balko
Radley Balko 
Senior Editor
Radley Balko is a senior editor at Reason magazine and Reason.com.
Previously, Balko was a policy analyst for the Cato Institute specializing in civil liberties issues, where he published a paper on alcohol policy and a groundbreaking study on paramilitary police raids.
He is a columnist for FoxNews.com and has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Time, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Slate, Forbes, ESPN, the National Post, Worth and numerous other publications. Balko has also appeared on the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and NPR.
Balko's work on paramilitary raids and the overuse of SWAT teams was featured by John Tierney in The New York Times, has been praised by outlets ranging from Human Events to the Daily Kos, and was cited by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's dissent in the case Hudson v. Michigan.
Balko is also credited with bringing national attention to the case of Cory Maye, a black man who prior to Balko's work was on death row in Mississippi for shooting and killing a white police officer during a raid on Maye's home. Balko's Reason feature on Maye was also cited in an opinion by the Mississippi State Supreme Court. National Journal also profiled Balko's coverage of the case. Balko's November 2007 investigative report on Mississippi medical examiner Steven Hayne won second place in the investigative reporting category for the 2007 Los Angeles Press Club awards.
Balko publishes the personal blog, TheAgitator.com. He graduated from Indiana University in 1997 with a degree in journalism and political science.
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Contributions | Hit & Run Posts
- I, Toaster, Radley Balko, June 24, 2009
- The Top 10 Most Absurd Time Covers of The Past 40 Years, Jeff Winkler and Radley Balko, June 10, 2009
- Bogus Bodega Busts, Radley Balko, July 2009 Print Edition
- The Unrepentant D.A., Radley Balko, July 2009 Print Edition
- Who's in Charge of Your Health?, Radley Balko, May 26, 2009
- A Forensics Charlatan Gets Caught in the Act, Radley Balko, May 15, 2009
- Texas Justice on Trial, Radley Balko, May 8, 2009
- Information Wants To Be Kindled, Radley Balko, June 2009 Print Edition
- Sex Shop Scandal, Radley Balko, June 2009 Print Edition
- Putting MADD in Charge of America's Highways, Radley Balko, April 24, 2009
- Eyewitness Testimony on Trial, Radley Balko, April 8, 2009
- Briefly Noted: News That Stays News, Radley Balko, May 2009 Print Edition
- Conservation Theater, Radley Balko, May 2009 Print Edition
- Follow-Up, Radley Balko, May 2009 Print Edition
- Blowing the Whistle on the House of Death, Radley Balko, May 2009 Print Edition
- In Criminal Cases, Should Science Only Serve the State?, Radley Balko, March 25, 2009
- Why Did Obama Wimp Out on DNA Testing for Convicts?, Radley Balko, March 12, 2009
- Does the Constitution Grant a Right to DNA Testing That Could Prove Innocence?, Radley Balko, March 2, 2009
- Super Sperm, Radley Balko, April 2009 Print Edition
- Forensics Fraud?, Radley Balko, April 2009 Print Edition
- Briefly Noted: The Totalitarian Architect, Radley Balko, April 2009 Print Edition
- How to Bring Real Science Into the Courtroom, Radley Balko, February 20, 2009
- Manufacturing Guilt?, Radley Balko, February 19, 2009
- What Michael Phelps Should Have Said, Radley Balko, February 2, 2009
- Vanity Lair, Radley Balko, March 2009 Print Edition
- Attacking the Defense, Radley Balko, March 2009 Print Edition
- Eroding the Exclusionary Rule, Radley Balko, January 28, 2009
- The Drug War's Collateral Damage, Radley Balko, January 23, 2009
- Checkpoint Diego, Radley Balko, February 2009 Print Edition
- Rain Delay, Radley Balko, February 2009 Print Edition
- Let My Students Drink, Radley Balko, February 2009 Print Edition
- Briefly Noted: Bureaucracies at War, Radley Balko, February 2009 Print Edition
- Washington's Wealth Boom, Radley Balko, January 14, 2009
- The Good News From a Bad Year, Radley Balko, January 1, 2009
- Chicago Rules, Radley Balko, January 2009 Print Edition
- Death by SWAT, Radley Balko, January 2009 Print Edition
- Artifact: Transparency in Action, Radley Balko, January 2009 Print Edition
- The Right Man to Replace Obama, Radley Balko, December 17, 2008
- The Prosecution of Julie Amero, Radley Balko, December 12, 2008
- The Lessons of Prohibition, Radley Balko, December 3, 2008
- Change He Can Believe In, Radley Balko, November 19, 2008
- Obama Should Swear Off Executive Privilege, Radley Balko, November 14, 2008
- A Rigged System, Radley Balko, November 5, 2008
- Innocence Denied, Radley Balko, December 2008 Print Edition
- The Peacemaker, Radley Balko, December 2008 Print Edition
- Why the Republicans Must Lose, Radley Balko, October 22, 2008
- How Your Beer Bought John McCain's $500 Loafers, Radley Balko, October 15, 2008
- Obama's Destructive Crime Policy, Radley Balko, October 9, 2008
- Private Accounts Still Make Sense, Radley Balko, October 8, 2008
- Mississippi Fires Medical Examiner Steven Hayne, Radley Balko, November 2008 Print Edition