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Eugene Volokh (Template:IPAc-en;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> born Yevhen Volodymyrovych Volokh (Template:Langx); February 29, 1968)<ref name="uclamag">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is an American legal scholar known for his scholarship in American constitutional law and libertarianism as well as his prominent legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. Volokh is regarded as an expert on the First Amendment, and the Second Amendment.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
He is currently the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an affiliate at the law firm Schaerr Jaffe.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="schaerrjaffe20230215" />
Early life and educationEdit
Volokh was born in the Soviet Union to a Jewish family residing in Kyiv, Ukraine.<ref name="Yeah, I'm Jewish too">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Interview with Eugene Volokh, Un-American Legal Conspirator">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He emigrated with his family to the United States at the age of seven.<ref name=uclatoday19980518>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Volokh exhibited extraordinary mathematical abilities from an early age. At the age of 9, he was attending university-level mathematics and calculus courses after he was found studying differential equations on his own.<ref name=lat19861018>Nancy Graham, "Professor's Gift Is Nurturing Gifted, Steering Them to UCLA", Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1986.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> When only 10 years 1 month old, he earned a 780 out of a possible 800 on the math portion of what is now called the SAT-I.<ref name=StanleyBenbow1983>Julian C. Stanley and Camilla P. Benbow, "Smpy's First Decade: Ten Years of Posing Problems and Solving Them" Template:Webarchive, The Journal of Special Education, Vol 17 Iss 1 1983. (Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY))</ref>
At the age of 12, he began working as a computer programmer and was enrolled as a sophomore at UCLA.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He attended the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As a junior at UCLA, he earned $480 a week as a programmer for 20th Century Fox.<ref name="time19820503">Template:Cite news</ref> During this period, Volokh's achievements were featured in an episode of OMNI: The New Frontier, a television series hosted by Peter Ustinov.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref> He graduated from UCLA at age 15 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science.<ref name="bruin">Template:Cite news</ref>
Volokh later attended the UCLA Law School, where he was a managing editor of the UCLA Law Review. He graduated in 1992 with a Juris Doctor.<ref name="bruin"/>
CareerEdit
After law school, Volokh clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, then for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court.<ref name=cjhsla20170918>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Upon completing his Supreme Court clerkship in 1994, UCLA hired Volokh as a professor of law. As of 2018, he also held the position of Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law,<ref name=UCLAfaculty20180323>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and was an academic affiliate at the law firm Mayer Brown.<ref name=mayerbrown20180612>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As of 2023, he was an affiliate of trial and appellate law firm Schaerr Jaffe.<ref name=schaerrjaffe20230215>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2024, Volokh retired from UCLA, becoming a Professor of Law Emeritus, and moved to the Hoover Institution at Stanford, where he is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow.<ref name=":0" />
PoliticsEdit
Volokh is commonly described as politically conservative or libertarian.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2012, one commentator described Volokh's politics as "soft libertarian", and Volokh as an "unpredictable libertarian-leaning" writer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He has been a longtime member of the Federalist Society since he first joined in the 1980s.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In the 2008 presidential election, Volokh supported former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, saying Thompson had good instincts on legal issues and that he preferred Thompson's positions on the First Amendment and political speech to John McCain's sponsorship of campaign finance reform. Volokh also liked Thompson's position in favor of individual gun ownership.<ref name=Thompson>Bazelon, Emily (November 26, 2007) On the advice of counsel Template:Webarchive, Slate.com; accessed February 27, 2018.</ref> He noted that Thompson "takes federalism seriously, and he seems to have a fairly deep-seated sense that there is a real difference between state and federal power."<ref name=Thompson/>
Volokh is a supporter of same-sex marriage.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
WritingEdit
Volokh's article about "The Commonplace Second Amendment" (1998),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was cited by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion in the landmark Second Amendment case of District of Columbia v. Heller,<ref>128 S. Ct. 2783, 2789.</ref> and he has been quoted in the media on gun laws.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His article, "Might Federal Preemption of Speech-Protective State Laws Violate the First Amendment?" (2021) was cited by Justice Clarence Thomas in a concurring opinion for Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump (2021), with Thomas arguing that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act might be unconstitutional and that Twitter should be regulated as a common carrier.<ref>Hasen, Richard L. (2022). Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons our Politics-And How to Cure It. Yale University Press. pp. 122-125. Template:ISBN.Template:OCLC.</ref>
Volokh advocates free speech on campus, religious freedom, and other First Amendment issues, and has been widely quoted as an expert.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He opposes affirmative action, having worked as a legal advisor to California's Proposition 209 campaign. Volokh is a critic of what he sees as the overly broad operation of American workplace harassment laws, including those relating to sexual harassment.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
On his weblog, Volokh addresses a wide variety of issues, with a focus on politics and law.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Volokh's non-academic work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Slate, and other publications. He was a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post from 2005-2012.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
FamilyEdit
Volokh's brother, Alexander "Sasha" Volokh, is a law professor at Emory University.<ref>cite web|title=The Man Behind the ‘Conspiracy’: Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law Professor|url=https://www.thefire.org/news/man-behind-conspiracy-eugene-volokh-ucla-law-professor-video</ref><ref>cite web|url=https://law.emory.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/volokh-profile.html</ref> Like Eugene, Alexander also clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court, although Alexander clerked for Justice Alito as well.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Selected worksEdit
BooksEdit
ArticlesEdit
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