Ed Whelan

Ed Whelan is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and holds EPPC’s Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies. He is a regular contributor to NRO’s Bench Memos. He is co-editor of The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law.

Edward Whelan is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and holds EPPC’s Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies. 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, Mr. Whelan 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. The National Law Journal has named Mr. Whelan among its “Champions and Visionaries” in the practice of law in D.C.

Mr. Whelan is co-editor of three volumes of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s work: Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived (Crown Forum, 2017), a New York Times bestselling collection of speeches by Justice Scalia; On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer (Crown Forum, 2019), a collection of Justice Scalia’s writings on faith and religion; and The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law (Crown Forum, 2020), a collection of Justice Scalia’s views on legal issues.

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.

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—June 25

By Ed Whelan 8:00 AM

1962—“Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.” In Engel v. Vitale, the Supreme Court holds that ...

Law & the Courts

The Long Battle to Overturn Roe

By Ed Whelan June 24, 2022

Some reflections on the long, and now successful, battle to overturn Roe

Law & the Courts

Dobbs and Rational-Basis Review

By Ed Whelan June 24, 2022

In overruling Roe and Casey, the Court in Dobbs sets forth “rational-basis review” as the appropriate constitutional standard for review of challenges to abortion laws.

Law & the Courts

Supreme Court in Dobbs Overturns Roe

By Ed Whelan June 24, 2022

In a crowning achievement of the conservative legal movement, the Supreme Court has—at long last!—overturned Roe v. Wade and restored abortion policy to our democratic processes.

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—June 24

By Ed Whelan June 24, 2022

1992—In Lee v. Weisman, a 5-justice majority, in an opinion by Justice Kennedy, rules that a nondenominational prayer delivered by a rabbi at a public school graduation ceremony violated the ...

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—June 23

By Ed Whelan June 23, 2022

It’s hardly a surprise that justices who willy-nilly invent rights that aren’t in the Constitution ignore rights that are. 

Law & the Courts

Court’s Excellent Free-Exercise Ruling in Carson v. Makin

By Ed Whelan June 21, 2022

Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion, and the three liberal justices dissented.

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—June 21

By Ed Whelan June 21, 2022

In their dissents in Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, Justice Douglas reiterates his belief that obscenity is fully protected by the First Amendment.

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—June 20

By Ed Whelan June 20, 2022

Justice Scalia marvels at the majority’s ability to extract a ‘national consensus’ from the fact that 18 of the 38 states that permit capital punishment have recently enacted legislation barring execution . . .

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—June 19

By Ed Whelan June 19, 2022

A mere audience member at an American Constitution Society panel discussion on the forthcoming presidential election, Second Circuit judge Guido Calabresi can’t restrain himself.