The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Libertarian Presidential Candidate Jo Jorgensen Releases "Liberty-Minded" SCOTUS Short List
Judge Willett, Eugene Volokh, Randy Barnett, and others make the cut.
Dr. Jo Jorgensen, the Libertarian Party candidate for the presidency, has released a SCOTUS list of "liberty-minded jurists." You will see many familiar names on the list:
Richard Epstein is a law professor and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University. A study published in The Journal of Legal Studies identified him as the 12th most often-cited legal scholar of the 20th century. He is known for his prolific writings on subjects pertaining to law, economics, classical liberalism, and libertarianism.
Judge Andrew Napolitano was a New Jersey Superior Court judge and hosted the daily TV talk show Freedom Watch on Fox Business News. He is a syndicated columnist published in Reason, The Washington Times and elsewhere and is a frequent commentator and news analyst on Fox.
Randy Barnett is on the faculty of the Georgetown University Law Center and a senior fellow at Cato Institute. His eleven published books include Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty. He was involved in the legal challenge to Obamacare — National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Sebelius.
Clint Bolick is an associate justice on the Arizona Supreme Court. In 1991 Bolick co-founded the Institute for Justice. In 2007, he became VP of Litigation at the Goldwater Institute where he was a frequent critic of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Eugene Volokh has been a UCLA law professor since 1994 and is the originator of the prominent legal blog, the Volokh Conspiracy. He clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski on the 9th Circuit and for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Janice Rogers Brown served as Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and was an associate justice of the California Supreme Court. In a speech to the University of Chicago Law School Federalist Society she said, "Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates, and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies."
Dana Berliner is the senior vice president and litigation director at the Institute for Justice. She was co-counsel representing the homeowner in Kelo v. New London, the notorious case where SCOTUS ruled that eminent domain could be used by a city for the sole reason of increasing its property tax base.
Anastasia Boden is a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation specializing in litigating against anti-competitive licensing laws and laws that restrict freedom of speech. She graduated from law school at Georgetown where she was Research Assistant to Professor Randy Barnett.
Timothy Sandefur is the vice president for litigation at the Goldwater Institute and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He's the author of numerous books including Frederick Douglas: Self Made Man and The Right to Earn a Living. He argued against Obamacare before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Scott Bullock is President and General Counsel of the Institute for Justice. He was co-counsel in Kelo v. New London.
James Ostrowski has practiced trial and appellate work for more than 35 years. He was an attorney for Ron Paul and is the chief organizer of libertymovement.org. He writes extensively on a variety of topics for the Mises Institute and has published four books, including Progressivism: a Primer on the Idea Destroying America.
Alan Gura was co-counsel for the plaintiff in District of Columbia v. Heller, which upheld the individual right to own a firearm. It was one of two landmark constitutional cases that he argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court. The National Law Journal named him one of the "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America."
Jonathan Turley teaches torts, criminal procedure and constitutional law at George Washington University Law School. He is ranked the 38th most cited public intellectual in a study by Judge Richard Posner. He received the columnist of the year award from the Aspen Institute and The Week for his columns on civil liberties.
Damien Schiff is a senior attorney at Pacific Law Foundation where he successfully argued the precedent-setting property rights case, Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency when he was 33 years old. He was nominated to the Court of Federal Claims but not confirmed.
Clark Neily was co-counsel for the plaintiff in District of Columbia v. Heller, which upheld the individual right to bear arms. He was a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice before joining the Cato Institute in 2017, where he is Vice President for Criminal Justice overseeing civil asset forfeiture, police accountability, gun rights, overcriminalization and constitutional law.
Alan Dershowitz became the youngest full professor in the history of Harvard Law School at the age of 28. He successfully defended Harry Reems, the actor in Deep Throat, arguing that consumption of pornography was not harmful. He served as defense counsel in numerous high-profile cases, including one against Julian Assange.
Nadine Strossen was the youngest person ever to head the ACLU. She is a staunch First Amendment advocate and a founder of Feminists for Free Expression. Among her books is "Hate: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship".
Jacob Hornberger was Director of Programs for the Foundation for Economic Education and founded the Future of Freedom Foundation where he serves as president He placed second in the delegate count for the 2020 LP nomination for president.
Don Willett serves on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and was previously a member of the Supreme Court of Texas. According to the outlet SCOTUSblog, "Willett views the role of judges as protecting individual liberty by striking down laws that infringe on it." Willett has also been named by President Donald Trump as a potential Supreme Court nominee.
Judge Willett may be the only person on the short list of two presidential candidates. Your move Biden.
