Richard Pildes
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Richard H. Pildes is the Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law at the
New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in N ...
and a leading expert on constitutional law, the Supreme Court, the system of government in the United States, and legal issues concerning the structure of democracy, including election law. He is one of the nation's leading scholars of public law and a specialist in legal issues affecting
democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...
.


Early life and education

The son of two
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
-area physicians, Pildes graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in chemistry from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1979 after completing a 74-page long senior thesis titled "Infrared Laser Induced Gas-Surface Interactions." He later received his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1983, where he was the Supreme Court Editor on the Harvard Law Review. He clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate co ...
and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the
U.S. 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 o ...
, after which he practiced law in Boston.


Academic career

He began his academic career at the
University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL ...
, where he was assistant and then full professor of law from 1988 until 1999, when he joined the
NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
School of Law faculty. He has been a visiting professor at the
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...
, Harvard Law School, and
Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
. In the area of legal issues concerning democracy, Pildes, along with the co-authors of his widely used casebook, ''The Law of Democracy'' (5th ed. 2016), helped to create a new field of study in law schools. Pildes is a leading scholar on the topics of the
Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement ...
, voting rights, political parties, campaign finance, alternative
voting systems An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections m ...
(such as
cumulative voting Cumulative voting (also accumulation voting, weighted voting or multi-voting) is a multiple-winner method intended to promote more proportional representation than winner-take-all elections such as block voting or first past the post. Cumulativ ...
), the history of
disfranchisement Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...
in the United States, and the general relationship between constitutional law and democratic politics in the design of democratic institutions themselves. He has also written extensive on the Supreme Court, the separation of powers, the powers of the President. His work in these areas has been frequently cited in
United States 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 o ...
and other court opinions. He has also contributed significantly in the area of legal theory, where he has written on expressive theories of law. In addition to his scholarship, Pildes is a frequent litigator in numerous major cases involving public law issues. He successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court a major case from Alabama involving the unconstitutional use of race in redistricting, and was also counsel before the Supreme Court in a successful challenge exposing secret judicial proceedings in the United States Tax Court. He was part of the legal team challenging before the Supreme Court partisan gerrymandering, in the recent Rucho v. Common Cause case out of North Carolina (2019). He represented all the living former Chairs of the SEC in defending the Sarbanes-Oxley Act before the Supreme Court. Professor Pildes is also a frequent public commentator and author on constitutional and election-law issues. He was part of the NBC Team, working with
Tom Brokaw Thomas John Brokaw (; born February 6, 1940) is an American retired network television journalist and author. He first served as the co-anchor of ''The Today Show'' from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anchor and managing editor of '' ...
, that was nominated for an Emmy for its coverage of the 2000 Presidential election United States presidential election. For the 2020 election, he has been retained as an Election Analyst for CNN. He is also an active public intellectual and has written frequently for the Washington Post, The New York Times'', ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'', ''
The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted t ...
, The Hill,
Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
, and other such publications. He was assisted with one of his casebooks by then-
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...
lecturer
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
. Pildes was elected as a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 2008 and as a member of the American Law Institute. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship and was honored as a Carnegie Scholar.


Representative bibliography

*''The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process'' with
Pamela S. Karlan Pamela Susan Karlan (born 1959) is an American legal scholar who is the principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. She is on a leave of absence from Stanford Law School. A ...
, Samuel Issacharoff. 2nd ed. (2001). *''When Elections Go Bad: The Law of Democracy and the Presidential Election of 2000'' with
Pamela S. Karlan Pamela Susan Karlan (born 1959) is an American legal scholar who is the principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. She is on a leave of absence from Stanford Law School. A ...
, Samuel Issacharoff. Rev. ed. (2001). *''The Future of the Voting Rights Act'' with David Epstein,
Rodolfo de la Garza Rodolfo O. de la Garza (August 17, 1942 – August 5, 2019) was an American political scientist. De la Garza was born in Tucson, Arizona, on August 17, 1942. He attended Tucson High School, graduating in 1960 and earned a doctorate from the Unive ...
and Sharyn O'Halloran. *"Separation of Parties, Not Powers." with Daryl Levinson. 119 '' Harvard Law Review'' 2311 (2006). *"The Supreme Court, 2003 Term- Foreword: The Constitutionalization of Democratic Politics." 118 ''Harvard Law Review'' 29 (2004). *"Democrats and Technocrats," with Cass Sunstein. ''Journees d'etudes juridiques Jean Dabin'' (2004). *"Competitive, Deliberative, and Rights-Oriented Democracy," 3 ''Election Law Journal'' 685 (2004).


See also

*
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 10) Law clerks have assisted the justices of the United States Supreme Court in various capacities since the first one was hired by Justice Horace Gray in 1882. Each justice is permitted to have between three and four law clerks per Court term. Mos ...
* '' Shaw v. Reno''


References


External links


NYU School of Law Faculty Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pildes, Richard American lawyers American legal scholars Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Living people New York University faculty New York University School of Law faculty Harvard Law School alumni Princeton University alumni University of Michigan Law School faculty Year of birth missing (living people)