John Hart Ely

Ely was born and raised in New York City.{{Sfn|Trei|2003}}{{Sfn|Bernstein|2003}} His father was John H. Ely Sr. and his mother was Elliott Payne.{{Cite news |date=1971-11-25 |title=Mrs. Duff Married To Prof. John Ely |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/11/25/archives/mrs-duff-married-to-prof-john-ely.html |access-date=2025-02-21 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} After graduating from Westhampton Beach High School in 1956,{{Cite web |title=Westhampton Beach UFSD Community {{!}} Wall of Fame |url=https://whbschools.org/community/wall_of_fame |access-date=November 24, 2022 |website=whbschools.org}} he enrolled at Princeton University, majoring in philosophy and earning a Bachelor of Arts,{{Sfn|Princeton Alumni Weekly|}} summa cum laude, with Phi Beta Kappa membership in 1960. He then attended Yale Law School, where he was the notes and comments editor of the Yale Law Journal, graduating in 1963 with an LL.B., magna cum laude, and membership in the Order of the Coif.{{Sfn|Warren Commission|1964|p=479}}{{sfn|Yale News|2003}}

While still a third-year student at Yale, Ely became a summer clerk at Arnold, Fortas, & Porter—a Washington, D.C. law firm.{{Sfn|Lewis|1989|p=127}} There, he assisted Abe Fortas in the landmark case of Gideon v. Wainwright, writing a first draft of a brief on behalf of the plaintiff, Clarence Earl Gideon.{{sfn|Princeton Alumni Weekly|}} Ely had been tasked with doing the basic research for the case, writing under pressure to produce a set of legal memoranda including a 25-page paper titled "Application, Ambiguities, and Weaknesses of the Special Counsel Rule" that examined the application of Betts v. Brady in state courts.{{Sfn|Lewis|1989|pp=127–128}}{{refn|In the final, published brief which encompassed Ely's research that had been signed by Abe Fortas, Abe Krash, and Ralph Temple; the group acknowledged Ely's "valuable assistance" in a footnote since Ely could not sign the document seeing as he had not yet passed the bar.{{sfn|Lewis|1989|p=144}}|group=note}}

After law school, Ely served as the youngest staff member of the Warren Commission, aiding its investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.{{Sfn|Liptak|2003}} From 1964 to 1965, Ely was a law clerk to Chief Justice Earl Warren of the U.S. Supreme Court. As a law clerk, Ely drafted the majority opinion in the landmark decision Hanna v. Plumer; he considered Warren his hero, later dedicating his landmark book, Democracy and Distrust, to him.{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1757}}{{Sfn|Liptak|2003}} Ely studied at the London School of Economics as a Fulbright scholar following his clerkship.{{Sfn|Yale News|2003}}{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1754}} Upon returning to the United States, he spent some time as part of the Military Police Corps and, despite being overqualified for the job, took a modest position as a public defender in San Diego.{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1754}}{{Sfn|Bernstein|2003}}

File:Stanford Law School November 2012.jpg (pictured)]]

In 1968, Ely joined the faculty of Yale Law School. For five years, he served as a professor at Yale before moving to teach at Harvard Law School in 1973—holding the school's first chair in constitutional law.{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1764}}{{Sfn|The Harvard Crimson|2003}} During this period, he wrote several influential law review articles, including his highly critical analysis of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade in an article entitled "The Wages of Crying Wolf," published in the Yale Law Journal. For a brief period, he took a year's leave to serve as general counsel to the U.S. Department of Transportation and spent a year at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution.{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1750}}{{Sfn|Ely|1980|p=vii}}

In 1982, Ely left his place at Harvard in order to serve as the dean of Stanford Law School,{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1761}} remaining with the faculty until 1996.{{sfn|Stanford Lawyer|2004|p=12}}{{sfn|Oliver|2003}} At Stanford, his tenure as dean was marked by a program to implement a loan forgiveness program for public interest lawyers and to revitalize the law school's curriculum—something he described as "a boring wasteland".{{Sfn|Stanford Lawyer|2004|p=12}} A liberal Democrat, he also worked to advance the university's social justice and diversity.{{Sfn|Stanford Lawyer|2004|p=12, 79}} At the end of his deanship in 1987, Ely continued teaching at Stanford as the university's Robert E. Paradise Professor of Law and developed an interest in subjects concerning congressional war powers.{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1750}}{{Sfn|Stanford News|1991}}

Prompted by his love of scuba diving, Ely visited the University of Miami School of Law in 1996.{{Sfn|Lynch|2004|p=976}} Upon discovering he liked the city and the faculty, he chose to stay and became the university's Richard A. Hausler Professor of Law{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1745}}—the law school's most distinguished chair.{{Sfn|The Harvard Crimson|2003}}{{Sfn|Lynch|2004|p=975}}

In 1973, Ely's article entitled "The Wages of Crying Wolf: A Comment on Roe v. Wade" was published in the Yale Law Journal. The article was a vociferous criticism of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade which had given a constitutional basis for a right to abortion.{{Sfn|Liptak|2003}} Despite his own personal views in support of the availability of abortions,{{Sfn|Ely|1973|p=923}}{{Sfn|Baude|2021}} Ely was critical of the Court's decision to utilize the doctrine of substantive due process,{{Sfn|Kalman|1994|p=728}} arguing that since the Court's ruling was untethered from the constitution's text, it had "no business imposing it."{{Sfn|Balkin|2007|p=291}}{{sfn|Ely|1973|p=949}} He further contended that justices of the Supreme Court had an obligation to establish constitutional rights "in some identifiable constitutional value" before barring states from imposing their own regulations on abortion:{{Sfn|Krotoszynski Jr.|2002|p=133}}

What is frightening about Roe is that this super-protected right is not inferable from the language of the Constitution, the framers' thinking respecting the specific problem in issue, any general value derivable from the provisions they included, or the nation's governmental structure. Nor is it explainable in terms of the unusual political impotence of the group judicially protected vis-à-vis the interest that legislatively prevailed over it.{{Sfn|Ely|1973|pp=935–936}}

Ely agreed that a right of privacy can be inferred from various provisions in the Constitution and that the right was grounded in its history, text, and theory. However, he saw no reason why it would have included a right to abortion, why that right would be fundamental, and why the countervailing interests of protecting the fetus did not count as part of a disenfranchised minority.{{Sfn|Richards|1989|p=219}}{{Sfn|Ely|1973|pp=933–935}} Towards the end of his article, he wrote:

It is, nevertheless, a very bad decision. Not because it will perceptibly weaken the Court—it won't; and not because it conflicts with either my idea of progress or what the evidence suggests is society's—it doesn't. It is bad because it is bad constitutional law, or rather because it is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be.{{Sfn|Ely|1973|p=947}}

While a professor at Harvard,{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1748}} Ely produced his most notable work: the book Democracy and Distrust: A Theory of Judicial Review, published in 1980.{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|pp=1749, 1763}}{{Sfn|Klarman|1991|p=747}} It would become one of the most influential works about American constitutional law and among the most praised for deconstructing—and defending—the doctrine of judicial review on procedural grounds.{{Sfn|Doerfler|Moyn|2022|pp=1–2}}{{Sfn|Liptak|2003}}{{Sfn|Yoo|2005|p=793}} Democracy and Distrust rejected theories which had no basis in the constitutional "text, history, or structure", using political theory as opposed to originalism to serve as argumentative foundations.{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1750}}

The book may be viewed as two separate books: one criticizing constitutionally ungrounded legal theories and the other providing a theory for judicial interventions.{{Sfn|Doerfler|Moyn|2022|p=3}} Ely expounds a theory of constitutional interpretation known as political process theory, suggesting that judges ought to focus on maintaining a well-functioning democratic process and guard against systematic biases in the legislative process.{{sfn|Klarman|1991|pp=748, 781–782}}{{Sfn|Koffler|1981|pp=405–406}}

Ely asserts that the Supreme Court should interpret the Constitution so as to reinforce democratic processes and popular self-government by ensuring equal representation in the political process (as in the Court's decision in Baker v. Carr). He argues that the Constitution's unenumerated rights (such as the Ninth Amendment and the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment) are procedural rather than substantive in nature and thus protect rights to democratic processes but are not rights of a substantive nature. Justice Stone's Footnote Four from United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938) is a chief inspiration for Ely's theory of judicial review.{{sfn|Klarman|1991|pp=781–782, 784}}

The initial release of Democracy and Distrust was controversial; it received a large amount of criticism from academics, including a dismissive piece from Laurence Tribe published in the Yale Law Journal.{{Sfn|Klarman|1991|p=747}}{{refn|In one example of such criticism, an early review of the book by Indiana University professor Stanley Conrad Fickle states that despite Ely's popularity, the book came across as "one of progressive disappointment".{{sfn|Fickle|1981|p=637}}|group=note}} However, a 1991 appraisal of the work by Michael J. Klarman concludes that "political process theory emerges relatively unscathed from attacks leveled by Ely's critics against its more global aspects."{{Sfn|Klarman|1991|p=782}} In a New York Times piece after Ely's death, Mark Tushnet called it "the most important work of constitutional scholarship in the two generations from the time it was published to now."{{Sfn|Liptak|2003}}

In 1993, Ely published his second book titled War and Responsibility: Constitutional Lessons of Vietnam and Its Aftermath, which criticized the Vietnam War and re-assessed the discussion of the War Powers Act.John Hart Ely. War and Responsibility. Princeton University Press. 1993. The book is presented in six chapters and the initial chapters put into question the constitutionality of the Vietnam War. Chapters four and five bring into question belligerent acts conducted by the United States against the states of Laos and Cambodia. Chapter six discusses the future of covert warfare as part of the government's diligence or lack of diligence in conducting its foreign affairs. The closing Appendix discusses the paramenters of the War Powers Act.John Hart Ely. War and Responsibility. Princeton University Press. 1993.

In 1971, Ely married Nancy Halliday Ely-Raphel, who would later become the United States Ambassador to Slovenia.{{Sfn|Stanford Lawyer|2004|p=12}} They had two sons: John and Robert.{{sfn|Marcus|2003}}{{sfn|New York Times|1998}} The two divorced and Ely married Gisela Cardonne Ely, a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge.{{Sfn|Princeton Alumni Weekly|}}

On October 25, 2003, Ely died in his Miami home at Coconut Grove after a long battle with cancer.{{Sfn|Bernstein|2003}} His funeral was held at Coral Gables Congregational Church.{{Sfn|The Harvard Crimson|2003}}

In 1981, Ely was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.{{Cite web |title=Member Directory |url=https://www.amacad.org/directory?field_class_section=All&field_class_section_1=All&field_deceased=All&sort_bef_combine=field_election_year_DESC&sort_by=field_election_year&sort_order=DESC&search_api_fulltext=&field_election_year=&field_affiliation=&page=237 |access-date=November 25, 2022 |website=American Academy of Arts and Sciences}} The next year, he received the 1982 Triennial Award of the Order of the Coif for Democracy and Distrust. As the primary subject of the Virginia Law Review, the journal dedicated its May 1991 issue to examining Ely's book in the decade since it had been published.{{Sfn|Stanford News|1991}}

Ely was the recipient of multiple honorary degrees including those from the University of San Diego and the Chicago-Kent College of Law.{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1754}} In 2003, Ely was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yale Law School;{{Sfn|Trei|2003}} the award's citation read: "Your work set the standard for constitutional scholarship for our generation."{{Sfn|Harvard Law Review|2004|p=1748}} Following his death in October of that same year, the school held a November symposium in his honor titled "On Democratic Ground: New Perspectives on John Hart Ely."{{Cite web |title=Symposium to Honor John Hart Ely '63, Nov. 12-13 |url=https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/symposium-honor-john-hart-ely-63-nov-12-13 |access-date=November 25, 2022 |website=law.yale.edu |language=en}}

In her 2011 book on Hans Kelsen, Sandrine Baume identified Ely as a significant defender of the "compatibility of judicial review with the very principles of democracy". Ely was listed alongside Ronald Dworkin as one of the foremost defenders of this principle in recent years.{{sfn|Baum|2012|pp=53–54}}

• {{Cite book |last=Ely |first=John Hart |title=Democracy and Distrust |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-0674196377 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |last=Ely |first=John |author-mask = 1 |title=War and Responsibility |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0691025520 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |last=Ely |first=John |author-mask = 1 |title=On Constitutional Ground |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0691025537 |language=en}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Ely |first1=John Hart |title=Legislative and Administrative Motivation in Constitutional Law |journal=Yale Law Journal |url=https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/3573 |date=1970 |volume=79 |issue=7 |pages=1205–1342 |doi=10.2307/795168 |jstor= 795168}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Ely |first1=John Hart |author-mask=1 |last2=Dershowitz |first2=Alan M. |authorlink2=Alan Dershowitz |title=Harris v. New York: Some Anxious Observations on the Candor and Logic of the Emerging Nixon Majority |journal=Yale Law Journal |url= http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17209651|date=1971 |volume=80 |issue=6 |pages=1198–1228 |doi=10.2307/795277 |jstor=795277 }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Ely |first1=John Hart |author-mask=1 |title=The Wages of Crying Wolf: A Comment on Roe v. Wade |journal=Yale Law Journal |url=https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/15536/50_82YaleLJ920_1972_1973_.pdf |date=1973 |volume=82 |issue=5 |pages=920–49 |doi=10.2307/795536 |jstor=795536 |pmid=11663374 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Ely |first=John Hart |author-mask = 1 |date=1974 |title=The Irrepressible Myth of Erie |journal=Harvard Law Review |volume=87 |issue=4 |pages=693–740 |doi=10.2307/1339870 |jstor=1339870}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Ely |first=John Hart |author-mask = 1 |date=1974 |title=The Constitutionality of Reverse Racial Discrimination |url=https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclrev/vol41/iss4/4 |journal=University of Chicago Law Review |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=723–41 |doi=10.2307/1599097 |jstor=1599097 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Ely |first=John Hart |author-mask = 1 |date=1975 |title=Flag Desecration: A Case Study in the Roles of Categorization and Balancing in First Amendment Analysis |journal=Harvard Law Review |volume=88 |issue=7 |pages=1482–1508 |doi=10.2307/1340121 |jstor=1340121}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Ely |first=John Hart |author-mask = 1 |date=1978 |title=Constitutional Interpretivism: Its Allure and Impossibility |journal=Indiana Law Journal |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=399–448 |url=https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol53/iss3/2/ }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Ely |first=John Hart |author-mask = 1 |date=1978 |title=The Supreme Court, 1977 Term — Foreword: On Discovering Fundamental Values |journal=Harvard Law Review |volume=92 |issue=1 |pages=5–55 |doi=10.2307/1340566 |jstor= 1340566}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Ely |first=John Hart |author-mask = 1 |date=1988 |title=Suppose Congress Wanted a War Powers Act That Worked |journal=Columbia Law Review |volume=88 |issue=7 |pages=1379–1431 |doi=10.2307/1122735 |jstor=1122735 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Ely |first=John Hart |author-mask = 1 |date=1991 |title=Another Such Victory: Constitutional Theory and Practice in a World Where Courts Are No Different from Legislatures |journal=Virginia Law Review |volume=77 |issue=4 |pages=833–879 |doi=10.2307/1073298 |jstor=1073298 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Ely |first=John Hart |author-mask = 1 |date=1997 |title=Standing to Challenge Pro-Minority Gerrymanders |journal=Harvard Law Review |volume=111 |issue=2 |pages=576–95 |doi=10.2307/1342059 |jstor=1342059 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Ely |first=John Hart |author-mask = 1 |date=1998 |title=Gerrymanders: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly |journal=Stanford Law Review |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=607–41 |doi=10.2307/1229319 |jstor=1229319 }}

• Doctrine of Absurdity
• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Chief Justice)

{{Reflist}}

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• {{Cite journal |last=Koffler |first=Judith S. |date=January 1981 |title=Constitutional Catarrh: Democracy and Distrust, by John Hart Ely |url=https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/plr/vol1/iss2/10 |journal=Pace Law Review |volume=1 |issue=2|page=403 |doi=10.58948/2331-3528.1692 |s2cid=56248380 |doi-access=free |url-access=subscription }}
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• {{Cite journal |last=Fickle |first=Stanley Conrad |date=Summer 1981 |title=The Dawn's Early Light: The Contributions of John Hart Ely to Constitutional Theory |url=https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3556&context=ilj |journal=Indiana Law Journal |volume=56 |issue=4}}
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• {{Cite journal |last=Shapiro |first=Fred R. |author-link=Fred R. Shapiro |date=April 1996 |title=The Most-Cited Law Review Articles Revisited |url=https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/vol71/iss3/3 |journal=Chicago-Kent Law Review |volume=71 |issue=3}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Krotoszynski Jr. |first=Ronald J. |date=2002 |title=The Wages of Crying Wolf Revisited |url=https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_articles/248 |journal=The Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy |volume=1 |issue=133}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Shapiro |first=Fred R. |date=January 2000 |title=The Most-Cited Legal Scholars |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/468080 |journal=The Journal of Legal Studies |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=409–426 |doi=10.1086/468080|s2cid=143676627 |url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite journal |title=Remembering Dean John Hart Ely |url=https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sl68_articles.pdf |access-date=November 27, 2019 |journal=Stanford Lawyer |issue=68 |publisher=Stanford Law School |date=Spring 2004 |pages=12–13 |ref={{harvid|Stanford Lawyer|2004}}}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Dershowitz |first1=Alan M. |author-link=Alan Dershowitz |last2=Gudridge |first2=Patrick O. |last3=Monaghan |first3=Henry Paul |author-link3=Henry P. Monaghan |last4=Parker |first4=Richard D. |author-link4=Richard Davies Parker |last5=Soifer |first5=Aviam |author-link5=Aviam Soifer |last6=Sullivan |first6=Kathleen M. |author-link6=Kathleen Sullivan (lawyer) |last7=Tribe |first7=Laurence H. |author-link7=Laurence Tribe |date=April 2004 |title=In Memoriam: John Hart Ely |journal=Harvard Law Review |volume=117 |issue=6 |pages=1743–1764 |ref={{harvid|Harvard Law Review|2004}}}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Lynch |first=Dennis O. |date=September 2004 |title=Remembering John Hart Ely |url=https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol58/iss4/9 |journal=University of Miami Law Review |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=975–977}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Regnier |first=Thomas |date=September 2004 |title=The Legacy of John Hart Ely |url=https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol58/iss4/11 |journal=University of Miami Law Review |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=981–983}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Schacter |first=Jane S. |author-link=Jane S. Schacter |date=December 2004 |title=Ely and the Idea of Democracy |journal=Stanford Law Review |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=737–760 |jstor=40040185}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Yoo |first=John C. |author-link=John Yoo |date=January 2005 |title=War, Responsibility, and the Age of Terrorism |journal=Stanford Law Review |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=793–823 |jstor=40040189 |ssrn=616062}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Balkin |first=Jack M. |author-link=Jack Balkin |year=2007 |title=Abortion and Original Meaning |journal=Constitutional Commentary |publisher=Yale Law School |volume=24 |issue=101}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Saif-Alden Wattad |first=Mohammed |date=Spring 2012 |title=John Hart Ely: An Influential Constitutional Scholar—Protecting "Flag Desecration" under the First Amendment |url=https://lawpublications.barry.edu/barrylrev/vol17/iss2/1 |journal=Barry Law Review |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=163–177}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Doerfler |first1=Ryan |last2=Moyn |first2=Samuel |year=2022 |title=The Ghost of John Hart Ely |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3970932 |journal=Vanderbilt Law Review |volume=75 |issue=769|ssrn=3970932 }}

• {{Cite news |date=May 1991 |title=Ely book focus of symposium 10 years later |work=Stanford News |publisher=Stanford University |url=https://news.stanford.edu/pr/91/910524Arc1358.html |url-status=live |access-date=November 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221127012143/https://news.stanford.edu/pr/91/910524Arc1358.html |archive-date=November 27, 2022 |ref={{harvid|Stanford News|1991}}}}
• {{Cite news |last=Bernstein |first=Adam |date=October 28, 2003 |title=Constitutional Scholar, Educator, Author John Hart Ely Dies at 64 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/10/28/constitutional-scholar-educator-author-john-hart-ely-dies-at-64/1e5e8d9f-c90e-4843-9247-f51570888444/ |access-date=November 20, 2022 }}
• {{Cite news |last=Liptak |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Liptak |date=October 27, 2003 |title=John Hart Ely, a Constitutional Scholar, Is Dead at 64 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/27/us/john-hart-ely-a-constitutional-scholar-is-dead-at-64.html}}
• {{cite news |last1=Marcus |first1=Noreen |title=Obituary: John Hart Ely, UM Law Professor, Author |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2003-10-28-0310280097-story.html |access-date=November 27, 2019 |work=South Florida Sun-Sentinel |date=October 28, 2003}}
• {{Cite news |last=C. Esensten |first=Andrew |date=October 29, 2003 |title=Constitutional Scholar, Former Law School Professor Dies at 64 |work=The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2003/10/29/constitutional-scholar-former-law-school-professor/ |access-date=November 25, 2022 |ref={{harvid|The Harvard Crimson|2003}}}}
• {{Cite news |last=Trei |first=Lisa |date=October 29, 2003 |title=Influential law scholar dies at 64 |work=Stanford Report |url=https://news.stanford.edu/news/2003/october29/elyobit-1029.html |access-date=November 24, 2022}}
• {{cite news |last=Oliver |first=Myrna |date=November 2, 2003 |title=John Hart Ely, 64; Constitutional Law Scholar and Author Was Often Cited by Legal Experts |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-nov-02-me-ely2-story.html |access-date=July 19, 2019}}
• {{cite news |date=August 9, 1998 |title=Weddings; Mary Jean Bonadonna, Robert Ely |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/09/style/weddings-mary-jean-bonadonna-robert-ely.html |access-date=December 31, 2014 |ref={{harvid|New York Times|1998}}}}
• {{cite web |title=Memorial: John Hart Ely '60 |url=https://paw.princeton.edu/memorial/john-hart-ely-%E2%80%9960 |website=Princeton University |publisher=Princeton Alumni Weekly |access-date=November 28, 2019 |ref={{harvid|Princeton Alumni Weekly}}}}
• {{cite web |title=Yale Bestows Eleven Honorary Degrees During Its 302nd Commencement |date=May 29, 2003 |url=http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id%3D5006 |access-date=January 29, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100713133901/http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=5006 |archive-date=July 13, 2010 |ref={{harvid|Yale News|2003}}}}
• {{Cite news |last=Baude |first=Will |author-link=William Baude |date=October 15, 2021 |title=Who is Today's John Hart Ely? |work=Reason |url=https://reason.com/volokh/2021/10/15/who-is-todays-john-hart-ely/ |access-date=November 25, 2022}}
• {{Cite news |last=Bazelon |first=Emily |author-link=Emily Bazelon |date=May 20, 2022 |title=America Almost Took a Different Path Toward Abortion Rights |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/magazine/roe-v-wade-abortion-rights.html |access-date=November 26, 2022}}

• Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. __ (2022)

• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hfru44OAk8 Federalist Society 1986 National Student Symposium: Address by Milton Friedman] (Ely speaks beginning at 9:12 until 12:15)
• John Hart Ely Papers (MS 1976). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
• [https://fedsoc.org/contributors/john-hart-ely Page at Federalist Society]
• [https://press.princeton.edu/our-authors/ely-john-hart Page at Princeton University Press]

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