Edward Whelan
Distinguished Senior Fellow and Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies
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 is the longest-serving President in EPPC’s history, having held that position from March 2004 through January 2021.
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 is the longest-serving President in EPPC’s history, having held that position from March 2004 through January 2021.
Mr. Whelan 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. In his Confirmation Tales newsletter, he draws lessons from his three decades of experience in judicial-confirmation battles.
Mr. Whelan 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 him 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 Justice 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.
For more on Mr. Whelan’s background, see this interview.
The Blankest Slate
Edward Whelan
In announcing his decision to nominate Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, President Obama hailed Kagan's supposed choice of the…
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National Review / June 7, 2010
Who Should Replace Justice Stevens?
Edward Whelan
President Obama has recently raised alarms about the supposed threat of conservative judicial activism — of Supreme Court majorities that…
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The Washington Post / April 12, 2010
Unsound and Unfit
Edward Whelan
This afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to conduct its confirmation hearing for Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu. Liu,…
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National Review Online / March 24, 2010
The Show Trial on Same-Sex Marriage
Edward Whelan
In an ongoing series of posts on National Review Online’s Bench Memos blog on the anti-Proposition 8 trial in California,…
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National Review Online / January 7, 2010
Staging a Show Trial on Same-Sex Marriage
Edward Whelan
Midday on December 31, a curious document suddenly appeared on the official website of the U.S. District Court for the…
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National Review Online / January 4, 2010
Lessons Learned
Edward Whelan
In the realm of the courts, the most important lesson from 2009 is the political triumph of judicial conservatism. When…
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National Review Online / December 30, 2009
A Higher Bar for Sotomayor
Edward Whelan
The 67 senators who voted in 1998 to confirm President Bill Clinton’s controversial nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the 2nd…
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Politico / June 4, 2009
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BENCH MEMOS
Justice Scalia’s 1997 Speech on Holocaust Remembrance Day
Published on 6 May, 2024
This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—May 6
Published on 6 May, 2024
This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—May 5
Published on 5 May, 2024
This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—May 4
Published on 4 May, 2024