Clint Bolick

Clint Bolick (born December 26, 1957) is an American attorney and the director of the Goldwater Institute's Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation in Phoenix, Arizona.^[1]

Bolick has defended state-based school choice programs in state and federal courts in cases concerning school choice. Cases have been held in the Supreme Courts of Wisconsin, Ohio, and Arizona, as well as in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Early life

Bolick was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey.^[2] He graduated from Drew University in 1979 and received his J.D. from the University of California, Davis in 1982.^[2]

Career

Bolick previously served as the president and general counsel of the Alliance for School Choice, a national non-profit educational policy group advocating school choice programs across the United States. He is a co-founder and former vice president of the libertarian public interest law firm Institute for Justice.^[1] He is also a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

While working for the Landmark Legal Foundation, Bolick defended the first Wisconsin school voucher program in court.

Bolick was an assistant at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when current Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was EEOC chairman. Bolick successfully argued Granholm v. Heald, the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case striking down regulatory barriers to direct interstate shipment of wine to consumers.^[3]

In 2006, Bolick was the recipient of a Bradley Prize, an honor bestowed annually on public intellectuals and academics by the Lynne and Harry Bradley Foundation^[4] for excellence in the Foundation's stated mission of "strengthening American democratic capitalism."

Bolick also served as Of Counsel to the Rose Law Group^[5] in Scottsdale, Arizona

Bolick has also served as the director of the Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation at the Goldwater Institute, a pro-free-market organization which seeks to advance freedom in the states. Bolick helped draft model legislation known as the 'Health Care Freedom Act' that seeks to preserve the right of individuals to pay for health care directly instead of being compelled to enroll in a government-sponsored insurance plan. Arizona and Oklahoma voters approved a version of the Health Care Freedom Act in their respective November 2010 general elections. Also in November 2010, voters in Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah adopted a Bolick-drafted measure called Save Our Secret Ballot, which guarantees workers the right to a secret-ballot vote in union-organizing elections.^{[citation needed]}

Awards

Bolick was named one of three Lawyers of the Year in 2003 by American Lawyer. His book, David’s Hammer, was chosen for the June 2007 Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty. In 2008 he received the Champion of Law and Liberty award from the Legal Times.

Writings

Bolick is the author of Voucher Wars: Waging the Legal Battle Over School Choice,^[6] The Affirmative Action Fraud: Can We Restore the American Civil Rights Vision?^[7] and David’s Hammer: The Case for an Activist Judiciary^[8] all published by the Cato Institute. In 2012 he wrote Two-Fer: Electing a President and a Supreme Court.^[9] (Hoover Institution, April 2012). Bolick's novel, Nicki’s Girl, was published in 2007.

References

External links

• Horizon Video Bolick debates the school-choice issue with ASU law professor Paul Bender.
• Goldwater Institute Center for Constitutional Litigation
• Roberts, Russ (October 31, 2006). "Clint Bolick Defends Judicial Activism". EconTalk. Library of Economics and Liberty.