Clint Bolick

Bolick was born on December 26, 1957 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Bolick grew up in nearby Hillside, New Jersey and graduated from Hillside High School in 1975.Bolick, Clint. [https://www.edreform.com/2006/07/remedial-education-clint-bolick/ "Remedial Education (Clint Bolick)"], Center for Education Reform. Accessed July 5, 2017. "I grew up in Hillside, a suburb of Newark, in a single-parent, working-class family. In 1975, Hillside High School graduated me with enough skills to secure a scholarship at an excellent college and go on to a successful career in law and public policy." He graduated from Drew University in 1979 and received his Juris Doctor from the University of California Davis School of Law in 1982. As a law student, he supported laws and legal rulings that knocked down racial discrimination (calling Brown v. Board of Education a "triumph of the principle of equality"{{cite book|last=Easton|first=Nina J.|title=Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Crusade|year=2000|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York City|isbn=0743203208|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gangoffiveleader00east/page/91 91]|url=https://archive.org/details/gangoffiveleader00east|url-access=registration|quote=triumph of the principle of equality.}}), and was a vocal opponent of Affirmative Action-based admission policies.Easton, p. 96

In 1980, he ran as a Libertarian for a seat in the California State Assembly. He lost to an incumbent Democrat but garnered 7.1% of the vote. (In that election, the Libertarian presidential ticket earned about 1% of the vote nationwide.)Easton, pp. 105–106

In 1982, he joined a public interest law firm, the Mountain States Legal Foundation in Denver, Colorado. He was hired by the foundation's acting president, William H. "Chip" Mellor.{{cite news|last=Rosen|first=Jeffrey|title=The Unregulated Offensive|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/17/magazine/17CONSTITUTION.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1|access-date=8 February 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|date=17 April 2005}} In 1984,Easton, pp. 193, 198 Mellor left the organization over a conflict with one of the foundation's sponsors. Bolick also left, believing that the foundation was more interested in protecting business interests than in promoting economic freedom. In 2005, he said:

Chip and I discovered that there is a world of difference between an organization that is pro-business and an organization that is pro-free enterprise.

After their break with Mountain States, they began planning a free-enterprise public interest law firm that would follow a philosophy of "economic liberty." These plans would lead to the founding of the Institute for Justice in 1991.

Bolick joined the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1985. While he only stayed at the EEOC for a year, he became friends with its chairman, future Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. (Thomas is the godfather to Bolick's second son.Easton, p. 196) Thomas helped convince him that removing economic barriers for the poor was more important than fighting race-based "reverse discrimination."{{cite news|last=Easton|first=Nina J.|title=Welcome to the Clint Bolick Revolution|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-04-20-tm-50490-story.html|access-date=8 February 2014|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times|date=20 April 1997}} In 1991, he would support adding punitive damages to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He explained "It seemed to me that if you didn't want quotas, you had to have tough remedies and punitive damages against recalcitrant discriminators ... That very much came out of Thomas."Easton, p. 197 Thomas also shaped his preferred remedy for inequality: removing laws and regulations he viewed as preventing the poor from starting small businesses. Thomas did this in part by telling Bolick about his grandfather, who began with a hand-built pushcart and built a profitable delivery service that comfortably supported his family, only to encounter threats from regulations designed to destroy Black-owned businesses.

Bolick left the EEOC to join the Justice Department in 1986. In 1988, he wrote his first book, Changing Course. In this book, he defined civil rights in part from the perspective of removing economic and regulatory barriers for the poor and disadvantaged.

In 1989, he left the Justice Department and, with a grant from the Landmark Legal Foundation, started a public advocacy law practice in Washington, D.C. In its first case, the Landmark Center for Civil Rights represented Washington shoeshine stand owner Ego Brown in his attempt to overturn a Jim Crow-era law against bootblack stands on public streets. The law was designed to restrict economic opportunities for African-Americans, but was still being enforced 85 years after its passage. He sued the District of Columbia on Brown's behalf, and the law was overturned in 1989.{{cite news|title=Shoeshine Businessman Standing Tall in Victory|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/19/us/washington-journal-shoeshine-businessman-standing-tall-in-victory.html|access-date=9 December 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=19 April 1989}}

While working for the Landmark Legal Foundation, he defended the first Wisconsin school voucher program in court.{{cite news|title=Blackboard Jungle|work=American Lawyer|date=May 2000}}{{cite news|work=Education Week|title=Bolick v. Chanin|first=Mark|last=Walsh|date=April 1, 1998|url=http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1998/04/01/29vouch.h17.html|access-date=May 19, 2016}}

He supported Thomas during his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court. On July 31, 1991, about 45 people from Thomas' hometown of Pin Point, Georgia visited Washington to show support for the nominee. At the time, Bolick told The Washington Post that the Landmark Center for Civil Rights raised $3,000 to pay for bus rental and contributed another $1,100 for hotel charges.{{cite news|last=LaFraniere|first=Sharon|author-link=Sharon LaFraniere|title=Hometown Wellwishers Take Bus To Breakfast With a Favorite Son; Supporters From Pin Point, Ga., Meet With Supreme Court Nominee|url=|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=1 August 1991}}

In 1991, Bolick and Chip Mellor (his former boss from the Mountain States Legal Foundation) co-founded the Institute for Justice with funding from billionaire Charles Koch.{{Cite book|title=Dark Money: the Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the rise of the radical right|last=Jane|first=Mayer|isbn=978-0385535601|edition= First|location=New York City|oclc=935638944|date = 2016}} He was the Vice President and Director of Litigation from 1991 until 2004. The organization litigates on behalf of small businesses faced with regulations that it views as unjustified or anti-competitive. It also promotes school choice, property rights, and free speech.{{cite news|last=Gillespie|first=Nick|title=Litigating for Liberty|url=http://reason.com/archives/2008/03/03/litigating-for-liberty|access-date=9 December 2013|newspaper=Reason|date=2 March 2008}}{{cite news|last=Levy|first=Collin|title=Litigating for Liberty|url=https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203513604577144902274972614|access-date=9 December 2013|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date=7 January 2012}}{{subscription required}} Bolick and the institute were active in defending a Cleveland, Ohio school voucher program, which was declared constitutional in a 2002 Supreme Court case, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris{{cite court |litigants=Zelman v. Simmons-Harris |vol=536 |reporter=U.S. |opinion=639 |pinpoint= |court= |date=2002 |url= |access-date= |quote=}} The court ruled in favor of a Cincinnati, Ohio school voucher program, allowing the use of public money to pay tuition at private and parochial schools.{{cite news|last=Elsasser|first=Glen|title=High court to rule on vouchers for religious schools|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2001/09/26/high-court-to-rule-on-vouchers-for-religious-schools/|access-date=22 December 2013|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=26 September 2001}}

He led the case Swedenburg v. Kelly while at the institute. This case was consolidated with Granholm v. Heald and considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. Bolick argued the case before the court, along with attorney Kathleen Sullivan.{{cite news|last=Mauro|first=Tony|title=High Court Victors Feel Grapes of Wrath|url=http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=900005451556|access-date=18 February 2014|newspaper=Legal Times|date=17 April 2006}} The court struck down regulatory barriers to direct interstate shipment of wine to consumers.[https://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2004/2004_03_1116/ Granholm v. Heald, 544 U.S. 460 (2005)], Oyez

In April 1993, he wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal opposing two appointments by the Clinton administration (Lani Guinier to assistant attorney general for civil rights and Norma V. Cantu to assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education). The Journal ran the piece under the headline "Clinton's Quota Queens."Easton, p. 262{{cite news|last=Bolick|first=Clint|title=Clinton's Quota Queens|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date=30 April 1993}} After the piece was published, he distributed information about Guinier's writings and interpreted them for reporters. He also appeared on Nightline and Crossfire to oppose her appointment. The article and Bolick's subsequent efforts were credited with helping end Guinier's appointment.Easton, p. 263 On June 3, 1993, President Bill Clinton withdrew her nomination. Clinton stated that he had not read Guinier's writings at the time of her nomination, and called some of them "anti-democratic".{{cite news|last=Locin|first=Mitchell|title=Clinton Dumps Nominee|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/06/04/clinton-dumps-nominee/|access-date=12 February 2014|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=4 June 1993}} Clinton went on to describe the effort to stop Guinier's appointment as "a campaign of right-wing distortion and vilification", and according to press reports referred to Bolick's editorial with "particular scorn".{{cite news|last=Apple|first=R.W.|title=THE GUINIER BATTLE: President Blames Himself for Furor Over Nominee|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/05/us/the-guinier-battle-president-blames-himself-for-furor-over-nominee.html|access-date=12 February 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|date=5 June 1993}} Other critics accused Bolick and conservatives who opposed Guinier of racism and sexism, often citing the phrase "quota queen" as evidence.Easton, p. 263{{cite news|last=Feldmann|first=Linda|title=Failure to Combat Labels Sunk Justice Nominee|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/1993/0607/07042.html|access-date=12 February 2014|newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor|date=7 June 1993}}{{cite news|title=Don't Let Guinier Choice Be Scuttled|url=http://articles.philly.com/1993-06-01/news/25974524_1_lani-guinier-cumulative-voting-quota-queen|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140224021951/http://articles.philly.com/1993-06-01/news/25974524_1_lani-guinier-cumulative-voting-quota-queen|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 24, 2014|access-date=12 February 2014|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=1 June 1993}}

In 2004, Bolick joined the Alliance for School Choice, a national non-profit educational policy group advocating school choice programs across the United States. He was this organization's first president and general counsel.{{cite news|last1=Dillon|first1=Sam|title=Florida Supreme Court Blocks School Vouchers|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/national/06florida.html?_r=0|access-date=30 April 2015|work=The New York Times|date=6 January 2006}}

File:Clint Bolick.jpg

In 2007, he became the Vice President for Litigation at the Goldwater Institute when that organization added a litigation group.{{cite news|last=Lacey|first=Marc|title=A Watchdog for Conservative Ideals|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/us/goldwater-institute-an-aggressive-conservative-watchdog.html|access-date=8 February 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|date=25 December 2011}}

Bolick helped to draft model legislation known as the 'Health Care Freedom Act' that would prohibit health insurers from accepting federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that trigger the employer mandate.{{cite web|url=http://66.160.145.48/kelly/pdfs/26/hjr0035_attachment_0002.pdf|title=The Health Care Freedom Act: Questions & Answers|publisher=The Goldwater Institute|access-date=May 20, 2022}} Arizona and Oklahoma voters approved a version of the Health Care Freedom Act in their respective November 2010 general elections.{{cite news|first=John|last=Hunnicutt|work=Arizona Daily Independent|date=January 22, 2016|title=The Verdict Should B Out On Bollick|url=https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2016/01/22/the-verdict-should-be-out-on-bolick/|access-date=May 19, 2016}}{{cite news|work=Natural Healing News|date=February 25, 2012|title=Health Care Freedom Act passes in Arizona, Oklahoma|url=http://www.naturalhealingnews.com/health-care-freedom-act-passes-in-arizona-oklahoma/|access-date=May 19, 2016}}} Also in November 2010, voters in Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah adopted a measure he drafted called Save Our Secret Ballot, which guarantees workers the right to a secret-ballot vote in union-organizing elections.{{cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government|first=Donald P.|last=Haider-Markel|publisher=OUP Oxford|date=Apr 3, 2014}}{{cite news|title=Federal Court Upholds "Save Our Secret Ballot" Amendment|work=Nevada News and Views|url=http://nevadanewsandviews.com/federal-court-upholds-save-our-secret-ballot-amendment/|date=September 6, 2012|access-date=May 19, 2016}}

In 2012, he was an attorney for a Mesa tattoo parlor that had been denied a business license by the city. The case resulted in the Arizona Supreme Court declaring tattoos Constitutionally protected free speech. Bolick marked his victory by getting a small tattoo of a scorpion on his index finger.{{Cite news|last=Lacey|first=Marc|date=December 26, 2011|title=A Watchdog for Conservative Ideals|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/us/goldwater-institute-an-aggressive-conservative-watchdog.html|access-date=November 30, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|last=Favate|first=Sam|date=September 10, 2012|title=Arizona Supreme Court Says Tattoos Are Free Speech|language=en-US|work=The Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-LB-43433|access-date=November 30, 2021|issn=0099-9660}}

On July 30, 2015, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for the deportation of all of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Bolick called Trump's idea "impractical and opposed by a large majority of Americans."{{cite news|first1=Jill|last1=Colvin|first2=Alicia A.|last2=Caldwell|agency=Associated Press|title=Trump calls for mass deportations: Wants all 11 million people living in the country illegally out|newspaper=Laredo Morning Times|date=July 31, 2015|pages=1, 14A}}

On January 6, 2016, Governor Doug Ducey appointed Bolick to the Arizona Supreme Court.{{Cite web|first=Wochit|last=Wockhit|url=https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2016/01/06/78358282/|title=Gov. Ducey appoints Clint Bolick to AZ Supreme Court|website=USA Today|date=January 6, 2016}} He won retention for a 6-year term in 2018 and again in 2024.https://reason.com/2018/11/07/clint-bolick-arizonas-libertarian-suprem/

• Changing Course: Civil Rights at the Crossroads (1988) {{ISBN|978-0887381799}}
• Unfinished Business: A Civil Rights Strategy for America's Third Century (1990) {{ISBN|978-0936488356}}
• Grassroots Tyranny: The Limits of Federalism (1993) {{ISBN|978-1882577019}}
• The Affirmative Action Fraud: Can We Restore the American Civil Rights Vision? (1996) {{ISBN|978-1882577279}}
• Transformation: The Promise and Politics of Empowerment (1998) {{ISBN|978-1558155060}}
• Voucher Wars: Waging the Legal Battle Over School Choice (2003) {{ISBN|978-1930865372}}
• ''Leviathan: The Growth of Local Government and the Erosion of Liberty (2004) {{ISBN|978-0817945527}}
• David's Hammer: The Case for an Activist Judiciary (2007) {{ISBN|978-1933995038}}
• Death Grip: Loosening the Law's Stranglehold over Economic Liberty (2011) {{ISBN|978-0817913144}}
• Two-Fer: Electing a President and a Supreme Court (2012) {{ISBN|978-0817914646}}
• Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution (Jeb Bush) (2013) {{ISBN|978-1476713458}}

• Nicki's Girl (2007) {{ISBN|978-1587367038}}

Bolick has authored and co-authored numerous other paperbacks, ebooks and audiobooks.

In 2006, he won one of the four Bradley Prizes. The Bradley Prize included a one-time $250,000 stipend.{{cite news|title=Dissenting voices rewarded|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/may/28/20060528-114100-1047r/|access-date=8 February 2014|newspaper=The Washington Times|date=28 May 2006}} He is currently a Research Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.{{cite web|title=Clint Bolick, Research Fellow|url=http://www.hoover.org/fellows/9719|work=The Hoover Institution web site|access-date=8 February 2014}} American Lawyer magazine named him one of three Lawyers of the Year in 2003. In 2009, Legal Times included him in their list of the "90 greatest Washington lawyers of the past 30 years".

Bolick is married to Arizona State Representative Shawnna Bolick.{{cite web |url=https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2017/11/08/shawnna-bolick-launches-third-run-for-state-legislature/ |title=Shawnna Bolick launches third run for state legislature |work=The Arizona Capitol Times |access-date=January 14, 2019 |date=November 8, 2017 |author=Pineda, Paulina}}{{Cite web|last=Fischer|first=Howard|date=January 30, 2021|title=Proposed law would allow Arizona Legislature to overturn presidential election results|url=https://tucson.com/news/state-and-regional/proposed-law-would-allow-arizona-legislature-to-overturn-presidential-election-results/article_c2a70681-59c0-512f-ba86-2bf23128f9ee.html|access-date=January 30, 2021|website=Arizona Daily Star|language=en}} They have two children.{{Cite news|last=Oxford|first=Andrew|title=Shawnna Bolick enters crowded race for Arizona secretary of state|url=https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/06/22/rep-shawnna-bolick-enters-crowded-race-arizona-secretary-state/5300926001/|date=June 22, 2021|access-date=June 25, 2021|website=The Arizona Republic|language=en-US}}

• Libertarian theories of law

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.oyez.org/advocates/clint_bolick Appearances at the U.S. Supreme Court] from the Oyez Project
• {{C-SPAN|1598}}
• {{cite web |last=Roberts |first=Russ |title=Clint Bolick Defends Judicial Activism |url=http://www.econtalk.org/archives/_featuring/clint_bolick/ |work=[EconTalk |publisher=Library of Economics and Liberty |author-link=Russ Roberts |date=October 31, 2006}}

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Category:1957 births

Category:Living people

Category:American legal writers

Category:American political writers

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:Justices of the Arizona Supreme Court

Category:California Libertarians

Category:Drew University alumni

Category:Hillside High School (New Jersey) alumni

Category:People from Hillside, New Jersey

Category:Politicians from Elizabeth, New Jersey

Category:University of California, Davis alumni

Category:20th-century American lawyers

Category:21st-century American judges

Category:Opposition to affirmative action

Category:American people of Serbian descent