Nicholas Stephanopoulos
Nicholas Stephanopoulos | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Education | Harvard University (AB) M.Phil. in European Studies Yale University (JD) |
| Title | Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law |
| Spouse | Ruth Greenwood |
| Awards | Politico's "50 List" National Law Journal "Chicago's 40 under 40" Illinois Legal Eagle Award |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Election law, Constitutional law |
| Institutions | |
Nicholas Stephanopoulos is an American legal scholar who is the Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.[1] His scholarship primarily focuses on election law, constitutional law, and the interplay between law and democracy.[1] Recognized as a leading expert in election law, his work has been cited numerous times by the United States Supreme Court.[2][3][4] He has contributed significantly to the study of partisan gerrymandering and is a co-founder of PlanScore, a platform for evaluating district plans.[5] He co-invented the efficiency gap, a metric used to measure potential gerrymandering in electoral systems, which quantifies the fairness of districting by calculating wasted votes.
In October 2022, Stephanopoulos was elected to the American Law Institute.[6]
Early life and education[edit]
Stephanopoulos earned his AB in Government from Harvard College, graduating summa cum laude. He then obtained an M.Phil. in European Studies from University of Cambridge, followed by a JD from Yale Law School, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal of International Law.
Legal career[edit]
Before his current position at Harvard, Stephanopoulos was a professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School. He has also been an Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School and worked as an associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Jenner & Block LLP. Early in his career, he clerked for Judge Raymond C. Fisher of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.[1]
Stephanopoulos has contributed to the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Slate, and Vox.
He has played a significant role in several high-profile litigation efforts, including the Supreme Court case Gill v. Whitford.[7] In the 2023 case Allen v. Milligan, the Supreme Court's decision heavily relied on an amicus brief submitted by the Election Law Clinic, representing Stephanopoulos and other scholars.[8] This brief was cited several times in the Court's opinion.[9] It provided empirical evidence about the effectiveness of Section 2 of the VRA and highlighted the potential consequences of undermining this provision, which aims to protect the electoral opportunities for communities of color.[8]
Selected publications[edit]
- Stephanopoulos, Nicholas (2019). "Disparate Impact, Unified Law" (PDF). Yale Law Journal. 128: 1566.
- Stephanopoulos, Nicholas (2016). "Race, Place, and Power" (PDF). Stanford Law Review. 68: 1323.
- Stephanopoulos, Nicholas; McGhee, Eric (2015). "Partisan Gerrymandering and the Efficiency Gap". University of Chicago Law Review. 82: 831.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c "Nicholas Stephanopoulos". Harvard Law School. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "Allen v. Milligan". SCOTUSblog. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee". SCOTUSblog. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "Nicholas Stephanopoulos | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "PlanScore". planscore.org. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ Institute, The American Law. "Members Elected October 2022". American Law Institute. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "A "view" from the courtroom: A big windup on partisan gerrymandering". SCOTUSblog. 2017-10-03. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ a b "Brief of Amici Curiae Professors Jowei Chen, Christopher S. Elmendorf, Nicholas O. Stephanopoulos, and Christopher S. Warshaw in Support of Appellees/Respondents" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United States. July 18, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
- ^ "Allen v. Milligan, No. 21-1086, Slip Opinion" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United States. 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2024.