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Richard Posner
Richard Allen Posner (/ˈpoʊznər/; born January 11, 1939) is an American legal scholar and retired United States circuit judge who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, Posner was identified in The Journal of Legal Studies as the most-cited legal scholar of the 20th century. As of 2021, he is also the most-cited American legal scholar of all time. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential legal scholars in the United States.
Posner is known for his scholarly range and for writing on topics outside of law. In his various writings and books, he has addressed animal rights, feminism, drug prohibition, same-sex marriage, Keynesian economics, law and literature, and academic moral philosophy, among other subjects.
Posner is the author of nearly 40 books on jurisprudence, economics, and several other topics, including Economic Analysis of Law, The Economics of Justice, The Problems of Jurisprudence, Sex and Reason, Law, Pragmatism and Democracy, and The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy. Posner has generally been identified as being politically conservative; in recent years, however, he has distanced himself from the positions of the Republican Party, authoring more liberal rulings involving same-sex marriage and abortion. In A Failure of Capitalism, he writes that the 2008 financial crisis caused him to question the rational-choice, laissez-faire economic model that lies at the heart of his law and economics theory.
Richard Allen Posner was born on January 11, 1939, in New York City, to Blanche (Hofrichter) and Max Posner. His father's family were of Romanian Jewish descent, and his mother's family were Ashkenazi Jews from Galicia in the Austrian Empire.
After high school, Posner studied English literature at Yale University, graduating in 1959 with a B.A., summa cum laude, and membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated in 1962 ranked first in his class with an LL.B., magna cum laude.
After law school, Posner was a law clerk for Justice William J. Brennan Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1962 to 1963. He then served as an attorney-advisor to Commissioner Philip Elman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC); he would later argue that the FTC ought to be abolished. Posner went on to work in the Office of the Solicitor General in the United States Department of Justice, under Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall.
In 1968, Posner accepted a position teaching at Stanford Law School. In 1969, Posner moved to the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School. He was a founding editor of The Journal of Legal Studies in 1972.
On October 27, 1981, Posner was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated by Judge Philip Willis Tone. Posner was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 24, 1981, and received his commission on December 1, 1981. He served as Chief Judge of that court from 1993 to 2000 but remained a part-time senior lecturer at the University of Chicago. Judge Posner retired from the federal bench on September 2, 2017. Posner stated that he had originally planned to retire at the age of 80, but instead retired at 78 due to disputes with other judges on the Seventh Circuit over treatment of pro se litigants.
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Richard Posner
Richard Allen Posner (/ˈpoʊznər/; born January 11, 1939) is an American legal scholar and retired United States circuit judge who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, Posner was identified in The Journal of Legal Studies as the most-cited legal scholar of the 20th century. As of 2021, he is also the most-cited American legal scholar of all time. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential legal scholars in the United States.
Posner is known for his scholarly range and for writing on topics outside of law. In his various writings and books, he has addressed animal rights, feminism, drug prohibition, same-sex marriage, Keynesian economics, law and literature, and academic moral philosophy, among other subjects.
Posner is the author of nearly 40 books on jurisprudence, economics, and several other topics, including Economic Analysis of Law, The Economics of Justice, The Problems of Jurisprudence, Sex and Reason, Law, Pragmatism and Democracy, and The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy. Posner has generally been identified as being politically conservative; in recent years, however, he has distanced himself from the positions of the Republican Party, authoring more liberal rulings involving same-sex marriage and abortion. In A Failure of Capitalism, he writes that the 2008 financial crisis caused him to question the rational-choice, laissez-faire economic model that lies at the heart of his law and economics theory.
Richard Allen Posner was born on January 11, 1939, in New York City, to Blanche (Hofrichter) and Max Posner. His father's family were of Romanian Jewish descent, and his mother's family were Ashkenazi Jews from Galicia in the Austrian Empire.
After high school, Posner studied English literature at Yale University, graduating in 1959 with a B.A., summa cum laude, and membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated in 1962 ranked first in his class with an LL.B., magna cum laude.
After law school, Posner was a law clerk for Justice William J. Brennan Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1962 to 1963. He then served as an attorney-advisor to Commissioner Philip Elman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC); he would later argue that the FTC ought to be abolished. Posner went on to work in the Office of the Solicitor General in the United States Department of Justice, under Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall.
In 1968, Posner accepted a position teaching at Stanford Law School. In 1969, Posner moved to the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School. He was a founding editor of The Journal of Legal Studies in 1972.
On October 27, 1981, Posner was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated by Judge Philip Willis Tone. Posner was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 24, 1981, and received his commission on December 1, 1981. He served as Chief Judge of that court from 1993 to 2000 but remained a part-time senior lecturer at the University of Chicago. Judge Posner retired from the federal bench on September 2, 2017. Posner stated that he had originally planned to retire at the age of 80, but instead retired at 78 due to disputes with other judges on the Seventh Circuit over treatment of pro se litigants.