Adam Seth Cohen (born c. 1962)[1] is an American journalist, author, lawyer, and former assistant editorial page editor of The New York Times.

[3] While at the ACLU, he focused on school finance and educational equity issues and was part of the legal team that brought an Alabama state court class action in 1991, claiming that the public school system violated the state constitution by failing to provide an equitable, adequate or "liberal" education.

[4] In 1993 the state courts ruled in favor of the ACLU and the children plaintiffs in Harper v. Hunt, finding that poor schools were not equitably funded.

Calling the book "impressive and necessary", The New York Times praises Cohen's "sweeping review" as showing that "the Court has repeatedly engaged in judicial activism against the poor", aggressively exacerbating income inequality in the United States.

[19] "Cohen sums up the result of fifty years of jurisprudence in the areas he explores, writing that 'the post-1969 Court has been working unrelentingly to protect the wealthy and powerful, and to make [the United States] more hierarchical and exclusionary - and it has been succeeding.

'"[17] Asked to explain how he reconciles the post-Warren Court's progressive-leaning decisions on gay rights (marriage equality), curbing executive powers during wartime and (some) reproductive freedom decisions with his narrative of a reactionary court, Cohen responded, "Well, you might just say that in a capitalist system like ours, wealth and money and the current income and wealth distribution are really where the rubber hits the road.

"[20] In April 2023, in response to reports of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's failure to disclose a series of luxurious presents and benefits he received from conservative activist billionaire Harlan Crow, Cohen penned an Op Ed in The New York Times, drawing an unfavorable comparison to the bipartisan agreement on ethics that had marked the resignation of Justice Abe Fortas from the Supreme Court in 1969.