
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, 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. 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 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.
Abortion and Precedent
Edward Whelan
Judge Roberts’s chief strategic objective in his confirmation hearing was to secure the support of Chairman Specter — a vocal…
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National Review Online / September 19, 2005
The Roberts Hearing
Edward Whelan
Today the Senate Judiciary Committee begins its hearing on President Bush’s nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to the…
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National Review Online / September 12, 2005
A Model of Judicial Restraint, Not Activism
Edward Whelan
THE DEATH OF Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and President Bush’s nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to succeed…
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Los Angeles Times / September 6, 2005
Quarreling About Quotas
Edward Whelan
Over the past two dozen years, John Roberts has advanced from being a junior lawyer in the attorney general’s office…
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National Review Online / August 5, 2005
Gross Distortions
Edward Whelan
From 1981 to 1982, John Roberts, fresh out of his clerkship with then-Justice Rehnquist, served as a special assistant to…
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National Review Online / July 29, 2005
The Ginsburg Record and Standard
Edward Whelan
At her 1993 confirmation hearing, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, invoking her ethical obligation as a judge to maintain both the fact…
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National Review Online / July 26, 2005
Abortion and Justice
Edward Whelan
Amidst all the speculation about John Roberts’s views on abortion, I am certain that Roberts will not be a “pro-life”…
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National Review Online / July 22, 2005
Are You an Originalist?
Edward Whelan
President Bush’s promise to appoint originalist justices like Scalia and Thomas invites the question: What is this peculiar creature, the…
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National Review Online / July 13, 2005
BENCH MEMOS
States Standing Against Biden’s Illegal Student-Debt Relief
Published on 7 February, 2023
FACE Act and Places of Religious Worship
Published on 7 February, 2023
Judge Kollar-Kotelly’s Grandstanding Abortion Folly
Published on 7 February, 2023
This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—February 7
Published on 7 February, 2023
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