Ed Whelan

Ed Whelan is the President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Edward Whelan is the President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He directs EPPC’s program on The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture. His areas of expertise include constitutional law and the judicial confirmation process.

As a contributor to National Review Online’s Bench Memos blog, he has been a leading commentator on nominations to the Supreme Court and the lower courts and on issues of constitutional law. He has written essays and op-eds for leading newspapers (including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post), opinion journals, and academic symposia and law reviews.

In 2011, the National Law Journal named Mr. Whelan among its “Champions and Visionaries” in the practice of law in D.C. The National Law Journal praised Mr. Whelan for “pioneer[ing] the field of legal blogging” and for offering “commentary [that] infuses national debates over judicial nominees, Supreme Court ethics and appellate court decisions—so much so that, when a Senate Republican cites outside research into the record of an Obama nominee, it’s more likely than not that the handiwork is Whelan’s.”

Mr. Whelan, a lawyer and a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, has served in positions of responsibility in all three branches of the federal government. From just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, until joining EPPC in 2004, Mr. Whelan was the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. In that capacity, he advised the White House Counsel’s Office, the Attorney General and other senior DOJ officials, and Departments and agencies throughout the executive branch on difficult and sensitive legal questions. Mr. Whelan previously served on Capitol Hill as General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In addition to clerking for Justice Scalia, he was a law clerk to Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In 1981 Mr. Whelan graduated with honors from Harvard College and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1985 from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review.

The Latest

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—November 18

By Ed Whelan November 18, 2018

2003—By a vote of 4 to 3, the Massachusetts supreme court (in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health) imposes same-sex marriage on the benighted citizens of Massachusetts, as the court ...

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—November 17

By Ed Whelan November 17, 2018

2014—For the second month in a row, the Supreme Court (in Frost v. Van Boening) summarily and unanimously reverses an opinion authored by Ninth Circuit judge Sidney Thomas. Thomas, a ...

Law & the Courts

Justice Thomas vs. Justice Breyer on the Death Penalty

By Ed Whelan November 16, 2018

Justice Breyer’s statement on Tuesday regarding the denial of certiorari in a death-penalty case (Reynolds v. Florida) elicited a noteworthy response from Justice Thomas.

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—November 16

By Ed Whelan November 16, 2018

1993—In Steffan v. Perry, a trifecta of Carter appointees on theD.C. Circuit—Abner J. Mikva, Patricia M. Wald, and Harry T. Edwards—rules that Department of Defense Directives excluding homosexuals from military ...

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—November 15

By Ed Whelan November 15, 2018

2012—By Any Means Necessary, indeed. That phrase—a shorthand for the very long name of the group challenging Michigan’s Proposal 2—aptly describes the modus operandi of the en banc Sixth Circuit ...

Law & the Courts

OLC Opinion on Legality of Designation of Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General

By Ed Whelan November 14, 2018

In an opinion issued today, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel concludes that the “constitutionality of [Matthew] Whitaker’s designation as Acting Attorney General is supported by Supreme Court ...

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—November 14

By Ed Whelan November 14, 2018

2003—Demonstrating their particular animus against female nominees whom they regard as judicial conservatives, Senate Democrats filibuster President George W. Bush’s nominations of Judge Priscilla Owen to the Fifth Circuit, Judge ...

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—November 13

By Ed Whelan November 13, 2018

1980—Days after Ronald Reagan has defeated Jimmy Carter in his bid for re-election and after Republicans have won control of the incoming Senate, President Carter nominates Stephen G. Breyer, then serving as ...

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—November 12

By Ed Whelan November 12, 2018

1908—In Nashville, Illinois, the human fetus to become known as Harry A. Blackmun emerges safe and sound from his mother’s womb. Some sixty-five years later, Justice Blackmun authors the Supreme ...

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—November 11

By Ed Whelan November 11, 2018

2014—What could possibly explain notorious liberal activist Stephen Reinhardt’s seemingly amazing propensity to be selected to sit on important Ninth Circuit cases with a strong ideological valence? Buried in a ...