John Peter Sophocleus is an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

and libertarian political activist.

Career in economics

Sophocleus has taught economics at

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enr ...

, Auburn University, and

Auburn University Montgomery Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM) is a public university in Montgomery, Alabama. Established by an act of the Alabama Legislature in 1967, it is governed by the Auburn University Board of Trustees as a member of the Auburn University system. ...

. He has been twice nominated to the '' Who's Who Among American Teachers''. He is an adjunct faculty member of the

Mises Institute Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, or Mises Institute, is a libertarian nonprofit think tank headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, United States. It is named after the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). It ...

and occasionally lectures there, usually on

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and pol ...

history. Sophocleus generally teaches the principles of microeconomics. His 1988 article "The Social Cost of Rent-seeking" with David Laband, published in ''

Public Choice Public choice, or public choice theory, is "the use of economic tools to deal with traditional problems of political science". Gordon Tullock, 9872008, "public choice," ''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics''. . Its content includes the s ...

'', has been cited by

Peter Leeson Peter T. Leeson (born July 29, 1979) is an American economist and the Duncan Black Professor of Economics and Law at George Mason University. The website Big Think listed him in 2012 among "Eight of the World's Top Young Economists". He is a Fello ...

Gordon Tullock Gordon Tullock (; February 13, 1922 – November 3, 2014) was an economist and professor of law and Economics at the George Mason University School of Law. He is best known for his work on public choice theory, the application of economic thinkin ...

and others.

Political efforts

In 1996, he was the

Libertarian Party Active parties by country Defunct parties by country Organizations associated with Libertarian parties See also * Liberal parties by country * List of libertarian organizations * Lists of political parties Lists of political part ...

candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Alabama's 3rd congressional district, opposing

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Bob Riley Robert Renfroe Riley (born October 3, 1944) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 52nd governor of Alabama from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he previously represented Alabama's 3rd district in the U. ...

. In 2002, Sophocleus entered the Alabama gubernatorial race on the Libertarian Party of Alabama's ticket against incumbent Don Siegelman and previous opponent Bob Riley. In the 2002 race, which was one of the closest in Alabama's history, Sophocleus received 23,242 votes (~2%), a number which was greater than the margin of victory in the race. According to a 16 November 2002 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' editorial by John J. Miller: On 8 June 2006, in the wake of Stephen P. Gordon's acceptance of a position with the national Libertarian Party and subsequent resignation from the LPA Executive Committee, Sophocleus was named Vice-Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Alabama. In May 2022, Sophocleus was nominated by the Libertarian Party for the 2022 United States Senate election in Alabama after the party gained ballot access in the general election.

Eminent domain conflict

Beginning in 1998, Sophocleus was involved in litigation

Writ of Certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of an English prerogative writ, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...

granted by the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

in case against AL Department of Transportation

/ref> with the State of Alabama, the Alabama Department of Transportation, and others over the

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

seizure of his US Highway 280 home, near

The Bottle, Alabama The Bottle is a community located in the northern corporate limits of Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Bottle is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 280 and Alabama Highway 147, north of downtown Auburn, and adjacent to the Auburn U ...

. Sophocleus contended that the state acted improperly by

evicting Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mortgage ...

him and allowing highway workers to live in his house for several months (while he still held legal title to the home) rather than immediately demolishing it as was stated would happen in

United States district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district co ...

Notes

External links

Mises.org media archive for John Sophocleus

* ttp://archive.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson59.html Article discussing 2002 gubernatorial campaign
Article discussing eminent domain fight
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sophocleus, John Peter American economics writers American male non-fiction writers Candidates in the 2022 United States Senate elections Clemson University faculty Auburn University faculty Living people Alabama Libertarians Year of birth missing (living people)