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Eugene Volokh

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Eugene Volokh
Євге́н Володимирович Волох
Volokh in 2004
Born
Yevhen Volodymyrovych Volokh

(1968-02-29) February 29, 1968 (age 56)
Kyiv, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
EducationUniversity of California, Los Angeles (BS, JD)
Known forThe Volokh Conspiracy
SpouseLeslie Pereira[1]
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Eugene Volokh (/ˈvɒlək/;[2][3] born Yevhen Volodymyrovych Volokh (Ukrainian: Євге́н Володимирович Волох); February 29, 1968)[4] is an American legal scholar known for his scholarship in American constitutional law and libertarianism as well as his prominent legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. Volokh is regarded as an expert on the First Amendment, and the Second Amendment.[5][6] He is the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is an affiliate at the law firm Schaerr Jaffe.[7]

Early life and education

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Volokh was born in the Soviet Union to a Jewish family residing in Kyiv, Ukraine.[8][9] He emigrated with his family to the United States at the age of seven.[10] Volokh exhibited extraordinary mathematical abilities from an early age. At the age of 9, he was attending university-level mathematics and calculus courses after he was found studying differential equations on his own.[11][12] When only 10 years 1 month old, he earned a 780 out of a possible 800 on the math portion of what is now called the SAT-I.[13]

At the age of 12, he began working as a computer programmer and was enrolled as a sophomore at UCLA.[14] He attended the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics.[15] As a junior at UCLA, he earned $480 a week as a programmer for 20th Century Fox.[16] During this period, Volokh's achievements were featured in an episode of OMNI: The New Frontier, a television series hosted by Peter Ustinov.[17] He graduated from UCLA at age 15 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science.[18]

Volokh later attended the UCLA Law School, where he was a managing editor of the UCLA Law Review. He graduated in 1992 with a Juris Doctor.[18]

Career

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After law school, Volokh clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, then for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court.[19] Upon completing his Supreme Court clerkship in 1994, UCLA hired Volokh as a professor of law. He has remained there ever since. As of 2018, he also held the position of Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law,[20] and was an academic affiliate at the law firm Mayer Brown.[21] As of 2023, he was an affiliate of trial and appellate law firm Schaerr Jaffe.[7]

Politics

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Volokh is commonly described as politically conservative or libertarian.[22][23] In 2012, one commentator described Volokh's politics as "soft libertarian", and Volokh as an "unpredictable libertarian-leaning" writer.[24] He has been a longtime member of the Federalist Society since he first joined in the 1980s.[25]

In the 2008 presidential election, Volokh supported former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, saying Thompson had good instincts on legal issues and that he preferred Thompson's positions on the First Amendment and political speech to John McCain's sponsorship of campaign finance reform. Volokh also liked Thompson's position in favor of individual gun ownership.[26] He noted that Thompson "takes federalism seriously, and he seems to have a fairly deep-seated sense that there is a real difference between state and federal power."[26]

Volokh is a supporter of same-sex marriage.[27]

Writing

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Volokh's article about "The Commonplace Second Amendment" (1998),[28] was cited by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion in the landmark Second Amendment case of District of Columbia v. Heller,[29] and he has been quoted in the media on gun laws.[30][31] His article, "Might Federal Preemption of Speech-Protective State Laws Violate the First Amendment?" (2021) was cited by Justice Clarence Thomas in a concurring opinion for Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump (2021), with Thomas arguing that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act might be unconstitutional and that Twitter should be regulated as a common carrier.[32]

Volokh advocates free speech on campus, religious freedom, and other First Amendment issues, and has been widely quoted as an expert.[33][34][35][36][37] He opposes affirmative action, having worked as a legal advisor to California's Proposition 209 campaign. Volokh is a critic of what he sees as the overly broad operation of American workplace harassment laws, including those relating to sexual harassment.[38][39][40][41]

On his weblog, Volokh addresses a wide variety of issues, with a focus on politics and law.[42][43][44]

Volokh's non-academic work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Slate, and other publications. He was a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post from 2005-2012.[45]

Family

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Volokh's brother, Alexander "Sasha" Volokh, is a law professor at Emory University.[46][47] Like Eugene, Alexander also clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court, although Alexander clerked for Justice Alito as well.[48]

Selected works

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Books

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  • Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, and Seminar Papers. New York: Foundation Press. 2003. ISBN 978-1-58778-477-4.
  • The First Amendment: Problems, Cases and Policy Arguments. New York: Foundation Press. 2001. ISBN 978-1-58778-144-5.

Articles

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Logan, Christina (January 24, 2012). "First-Ever 'Pali Bee' Takes the Stage". Pacific Palisades Patch. Archived from the original on January 16, 2023. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  2. ^ "Pronouncing 'Volokh'". The Volokh Conspiracy. May 27, 2009. Archived from the original on August 15, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  3. ^ Sasha Volokh (July 20, 2016). "I'm finally attacked by name on the floor of the Senate". The Volokh Conspiracy. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 21, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2016. [S]he pauses for a second or two in her notes, carefully considering how to pronounce my last name before settling on [ˈvoʊlɒk] (rhymes with 'bow lock') – I don't object to that pronunciation, even though we use [ˈvɑːlək] (rhymes with 'frolic') and the Russian pronunciation is [ˈvoləx]
  4. ^ "UCLA Magazine". The Contrarian. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2006.
  5. ^ "Prominent Legal Scholar Eugene Volokh Joins The Hoover Institution". Hoover Institution. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
  6. ^ Tsesis, Alexander (2020-11-12). Free Speech in the Balance. Cambridge University Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-108-42400-4. Archived from the original on 2023-01-16. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  7. ^ a b "Our Firm : Eugene Volokh". schaerr-jaffe.com/. 15 February 2023. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  8. ^ Drezner, Daniel W. (March 9, 2005). "Yeah, I'm Jewish too". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on March 12, 2014. Retrieved September 21, 2014.
  9. ^ UCLA Today (18 May 1998). "Law Prof Outpaces Rest Of The World". NewMediaWire. Archived from the original on 2020-10-27. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  10. ^ Nancy Graham, "Professor's Gift Is Nurturing Gifted, Steering Them to UCLA", Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1986.
  11. ^ "Baby Einsteins : Education: An informal UCLA program accepts greatly gifted freshmen, some as young as 12". Los Angeles Times. 3 November 1991. Archived from the original on 2019-11-05. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  12. ^ Julian C. Stanley and Camilla P. Benbow, "Smpy's First Decade: Ten Years of Posing Problems and Solving Them" Archived 2020-08-05 at the Wayback Machine, The Journal of Special Education, Vol 17 Iss 1 1983. (Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY))
  13. ^ "Professor Gets the Best and the Brightest off to an Early Start". Los Angeles Times. 2 November 1986. Archived from the original on 2020-07-31. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  14. ^ "About our Alumni". hcssim.org. Archived from the original on 2017-04-19. Retrieved 2017-02-13.
  15. ^ Nash, J. Madeleine; Frederic Golden; Philip Faflick (May 3, 1982). "Here Come the Microkids". Time. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved February 23, 2011.
  16. ^ "Omni: The New Frontier (1989) trailer". Video Detective. Retrieved January 23, 2011.[permanent dead link]
  17. ^ a b Kirby, Fiona (January 28, 2014). "UCLA alum goes from programmer to law professor". Daily Bruin. Archived from the original on September 20, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  18. ^ "Threats to the First Amendment – Hon. Alex Kozinski and Prof. Eugene Volokh". Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. November 11, 2012. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  19. ^ "Biography Page". law.ucla.edu. Archived from the original on 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
  20. ^ "Volokh profile". mayerbrown.com. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
  21. ^ Beckett, Lois (October 15, 2016). "Milwaukee sheriff says it's 'pitchforks and torches time' and stands by Trump". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017. Eugene Volokh, a Libertarian second amendment scholar
  22. ^ Berrier, Justin (January 22, 2014). "The Volokh Conspiracy And Washington Post's Move To The Right". Media Matters for America blog. Archived from the original on October 11, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  23. ^ Brooks, David (November 20, 2012). "Election loss focuses attention on new conservative views". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on March 1, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  24. ^ Volokh, Eugene (April 25, 2014). "Federalist Society's second annual Executive Branch Review Conference". The Washington Post. I've been a member of the Federalist Society for over 25 years (since before I even went to law school), I'm involved with the Federalist Society's Free Speech & Election Law Practice Group, and I often give talks (which generally come with honoraria) at Federalist Society local chapters.
  25. ^ a b Bazelon, Emily (November 26, 2007) On the advice of counsel Archived 2011-08-19 at the Wayback Machine, Slate.com; accessed February 27, 2018.
  26. ^ "Freedom to Marry, Freedom to Dissent: Why We Must Have Both". April 22, 2014. Archived from the original on April 27, 2019. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  27. ^ "The Commonplace Second Amendment". Archived from the original on 2020-08-02.
  28. ^ 128 S. Ct. 2783, 2789.
  29. ^ "NRA Leader Pledges 'To Go On Offense' During Trump Years". San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. December 4, 2016. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  30. ^ Ha, Tu Thanh (December 17, 2012). "Legal hurdles get in the way of U.S. gun-control advocates". Toronto Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on January 16, 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  31. ^ Hasen, Richard L. (2022). Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons our Politics-And How to Cure It. Yale University Press. pp. 122-125. ISBN 9780300259377.OCLC 1262192857.
  32. ^ Egelko, Bob (February 2, 2017). "Milo Yiannopoulos' speech unwelcome in Berkeley, but protected by Constitution". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on September 18, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  33. ^ Saunders, Debra J. (March 13, 2015). "I Pledge Allegiance to the First Amendment". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  34. ^ Thanawala, Sudhin (May 5, 2017). "California students suspended for 'liking' racist posts launch lawsuit". Toronto Globe and Mail. Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 24, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  35. ^ Schoenberg, Tom (September 18, 2013). "Facebook 'Like' of Campaign Page Ruled Free Speech". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  36. ^ Rosenhall, Laurel (January 22, 2017). "Legislature Runs Afoul of First Amendment Advocates". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  37. ^ Schabner, Dean (August 15, 2017). "Was Racial Slur Anger or Hate Crime?". ABC News. Go.com. Archived from the original on September 21, 2017. Retrieved September 21, 2017. Eugene Volokh, a specialist in the First Amendment who was one of the legal advisors on California's Proposition 209 anti-race-preference ballot measure
  38. ^ Volokh, Eugene (1992). "Freedom of Speech and Workplace Harassment" (PDF). UCLA L. Rev. 39: 1791. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-03-11. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  39. ^ ""Harassment Law and Free Speech Doctrine"". Archived from the original on 2015-01-18.
  40. ^ Volokh, Eugene (1997). "What Speech Does 'Hostile Work Environment' Harassment Law Restrict?". Geo. L.J. 85: 627. Archived from the original on October 12, 2017. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  41. ^ Egelko, Bob (January 17, 2014). "Court Ruling Helps Bloggers in Libel Cases". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017. Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor who is also a prolific blogger
  42. ^ Saunders, Debra J. (March 3, 2014). "Heckler's veto is not cultural appreciation". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  43. ^ Volokh, Eugene (September 18, 2017). "Opinion: The Volokh Conspiracy: Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions". Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 18, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  44. ^ "Eugene Volokh | HuffPost". www.huffpost.com. Archived from the original on 2020-11-13. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  45. ^ cite web|title=The Man Behind the ‘Conspiracy’: Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law Professor|url=https://www.thefire.org/news/man-behind-conspiracy-eugene-volokh-ucla-law-professor-video
  46. ^ cite web|url=https://law.emory.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/volokh-profile.html
  47. ^ "Alexander Volokh | Emory University School of Law | Atlanta, GA".
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