POSITION: Director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
(a.k.a. Regulatory Czar)

 

NOMINEE: Cass R. Sunstein

BIRTH DATE: September 21, 1954

EDUCATION:

J.D., magna cum laude, 1978, Harvard Law School

B.A., 1975, Harvard

FAMILY: Wife- Samantha Power, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard; Daughter, Ellyn, from previous marriage to Lisa Ruddick

EXPERIENCE:

Fall 2008-present, Director of Program on Risk Regulation, Harvard Law School

1992, elected member of Academy of Arts & Sciences

1990 elected member of the American Law Institute

1987, 2005, 2007, Visiting professor, Harvard Law School

Fall 1986, Samuel Rubin Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia Law School

1983-2008, Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

1981-2008, Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School

1980-1981, Attorney-advisor, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice

1979-1980, law clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court

1978-1979, law clerk for Justice Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Author of numerous books and articles regarding law and society, including the regulation of risk, the nature of rights, judicial decision-making, and numerous features of administrative, environmental, constitutional doctrine, and the relationship between law and human behavior.

ON END OF LIFE ISSUES and RATIONING HEALTH CARE

“I urge that the government should indeed focus on life-years rather than lives. A program that saves young people produces more welfare than one that saves old people.”

[Source]

ON ABORTION

“I don’t think it should [be overruled].”

(from interview, talking about Roe v. Wade)

[Source]

“Well, we don’t want to fall in the trap of reading the Constitution to do whatever is good. This is the activist fallacy…”

[Source]

ON CLONING

“The right to research,” says Cass Sunstein…”Is a frontier issue and interesting and not yet resolved.” He argues that ”this is not an outlandish constitutional claim.”

[Source]

“Many of the arguments for banning both forms of cloning are based on ignorance, myths, and speculation.”

Retrieved January 30, 2009 from:

[Source]

ON GLOBAL WARMING

“Might well inflict catastrophic losses”

“Of course, any such projections involve a lot of guesswork, and reasonable people can differ. If global warming turns out to be either abrupt or greater than anticipated, it might well inflict catastrophic losses, leading to extremely serious problems for the United States and China alike.”

[Source]

ON GAY MARRIAGE

“The prohibition on same-sex marriage turns gays and lesbians into second-class citizens”

[Source]

POLITICAL DONATIONS

Cass Sunstein

$500, Obama, Barack (D), 10/18/07

$2,300, Clinton, Hillary (D), 7/27/08

$1,000, Obama, Barack (D), 10/31/08

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