Eugene Volokh

Eugene Volokh
Born	(1968-02-29) February 29, 1968 Kiev, Ukrainian SSR
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles (B.S., J.D)
Occupation	Law professor, legal commentator
Known for	The Volokh Conspiracy
Spouse(s)	Leslie Pereira

Eugene Volokh (Ukrainian: Євге́н Володимирович Волох Yevhen Volodymyrovych Volokh, Russian: Евге́ний Влади́мирович Во́лох Yevgeniy Vladimirovich Volokh; born February 29, 1968) is an American law professor, the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law. He publishes the blog "The Volokh Conspiracy". He is an academic affiliate of the law firm Mayer Brown.

Early life, education, and teaching

Volokh was born in to a Jewish family residing in Kiev, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. He immigrated with his family to the United States at the age of seven. At the age of 12, he began working as a computer programmer. He attended the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics. At the age of 15, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Math and Computer Science from UCLA. As a junior at UCLA, he earned $480 a week as a programmer for 20th Century Fox. During this period, his achievements were featured in an episode of OMNI: The New Frontier, a television series hosted by Peter Ustinov.

In 1992, Volokh received a Juris Doctor degree from the UCLA School of Law. He was a law clerk for Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and later for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court. Since finishing his clerkships, he has been on the faculty for the UCLA School of Law where he is the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law.

Politics

Volokh supported former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson in the 2008 presidential election, saying Thompson had good instincts on legal issues and that he preferred Thompson's positions on the First Amendment and political speech to McCain's sponsorship of campaign finance reform. Volokh also liked Thompson's position in favor of individual gun ownership. Volokh also 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."

Writing

Volokh's article about "The Commonplace Second Amendment", was cited by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion in the landmark Second Amendment case of District of Columbia v. Heller. Volokh advocates campus speech rights, religious freedom, and other First Amendment issues. 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.

On his weblog, Volokh addresses a wide variety of issues, with a focus on politics and law.

Volokh's non-academic work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Slate, and other publications. Since May 2005 he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

See also

• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

External links

• The Volokh Conspiracy website
• Volokh's Webpage at UCLA
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Video discussions and debates involving Volokh on Bloggingheads.tv