Richard Epstein

Senior Research Fellow
Research Areas
Constitutional, economic, historical, and philosophical issues

Biography

Richard A. Epstein is a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute. He is also the inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, where he serves as a Director of the Classical Liberal Institute, which he helped found in 2013. He has served as the Peter and Kirstin Bedford Senior Fellow (adjunct) at the Hoover Institution since 2000. Epstein is also the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law Emeritus and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago.

A recipient of the Bradley Prize for outstanding achievement in 2011, Epstein researches and writes in a broad range of constitutional, economic, historical, and philosophical subjects. He has taught administrative law, antitrust law, communications law, constitutional law, corporation criminal law, employment discrimination law, environmental law, food and drug law, health law, labor law, Roman law, real estate development and finance, and individual and corporate taxation. Epstein has written more than fifty books, they include, The Dubious Morality of Modern Administrative Law (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020), and The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (Harvard University Press, 2014, 2017). Epstein holds B.A.s from Columbia University and Oxford University and an LL.B. from Yale Law School.

Awards
Josh Blackman holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law at South Texas College of Law and is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He has authored three books, and his latest, An Introduction to Constitutional Law, was a top five bestseller on Amazon. He is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook.
Recent contributions

Backfire: Trump’s Overbroad Sanctions Against Harvard and Columbia

Politics
Jun 11, 2025

Trump's Trifecta

Constitutionalism
Jun 4, 2025

Trump's Rhetoric May Unconstitutionally Sink the Pharmaceutical Industry

Economic Dynamism
May 23, 2025
Latest from

Richard Epstein

Why Failure-to-Market Claims Are Preempted Under Federal Law

Economic Dynamism
Feb 5, 2025
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Backfire: Trump’s Overbroad Sanctions Against Harvard and Columbia

Politics
Jun 11, 2025

Trump's Trifecta

Constitutionalism
Jun 4, 2025

Trump's Rhetoric May Unconstitutionally Sink the Pharmaceutical Industry

Economic Dynamism
May 23, 2025

Assessing the Wreckage of Affirmative Action

Pursuit of Happiness
May 18, 2025

There Is No Birthright Citizenship for Children Born of Aliens within the United States

Constitutionalism
May 16, 2025

Google Under Fire

Economic Dynamism
May 13, 2025

Assessing Trump's "Skinny" Budget

Economic Dynamism
May 6, 2025

Why Reciprocal Trade Negotiations Will Fail

Economic Dynamism
Apr 30, 2025

Harvard v. Trump

Constitutionalism
Apr 23, 2025

There Is No Substitute for Free Trade and Deregulated Markets

Economic Dynamism
Apr 15, 2025

Trump's Tariff Fundamentalism

Economic Dynamism
Apr 7, 2025

An Unlawful Crusade

Constitutionalism
Apr 1, 2025

Transatlantic Trade War Produces No Winners

Economic Dynamism
Mar 26, 2025

On Campus Chaos

Constitutionalism
Mar 18, 2025

Beware of Selective Originalism by Trump—or Anyone Else

Constitutionalism
Mar 11, 2025

Let the National Institutes of Health Delegate Medical Research to Private Foundations

Constitutionalism
Mar 5, 2025

Trump a la Carte: An Interview with Richard Epstein

Politics
Feb 26, 2025

The Court Can Reverse Kelo's Injustice

Constitutionalism
Feb 26, 2025

Deregulating the University on Sex and Age

Constitutionalism
Feb 20, 2025

To Fire or Not To Fire?

Constitutionalism
Feb 12, 2025

Big Worries about the Gaza Cease-fire

Politics
Feb 5, 2025

The Case Against Birthright Citizenship

Constitutionalism
Jan 28, 2025

Causes Tending to Undermine a Democratic Republic

Constitutionalism
Jan 22, 2025

Fire, Wind, and California

Politics
Jan 21, 2025

Fake Convictions and Fake Pardons

Constitutionalism
Jan 14, 2025

How to Curb the Administrative State?

Constitutionalism
Dec 11, 2024
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Trump’s Drug Pricing Plan: Consequences for Innovation and Patient Access

Politics
May 13, 2025
18:50

Richard A. Epstein: The Case Against Birthright Citizenship

Constitutionalism
Jan 29, 2025
16:40

Discussing Birthright Citizenship with Professor Richard Epstein

Constitutionalism
Jan 25, 2025
46:11

Richard Epstein Reacts to Pam Bondi’s Confirmation Hearing

Politics
Jan 1, 2024
20:02
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Law Talk: Does AI Dream of Constitutional Rights?
Law Talk: Does AI Dream of Constitutional Rights?

Welcome to Law Talk with Richard Epstein and John Yoo. Our show is hosted by Charles C. W. Cooke.

EP2
May 5, 2025
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Classic Liberal Thought: The World According to Richard Epstein

Classic Liberal Thought: The World According to Richard Epstein

In-person Event
Mar 13, 2025
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