Richard Posner

Richard Allen Posner (/ˈpoʊznər/; born January 11, 1939) is an American jurist
and economist who was a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court
Richard Posner
of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago from 1981 until 2017, and is a
Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He is a leading figure
in the field of law and economics, and was identified by The Journal of Legal
Studies as the most cited legal scholar of the 20th century.[1]

Posner is known for his scholarly range and for writing on topics outside of his
primary field, law. In his various writings and books, he has addressed animal
rights, feminism, drug prohibition, gay marriage (though he has reversed positions
and now favors gay marriage), Keynesian economics, and academic moral
philosophy, among other subjects.

Posner is the author of nearly 40 books on jurisprudence, economics, and several

other topics, including Economic Analysis of Law, The Economics of Justice, The
Problems of Jurisprudence, Sex and Reason, Law, Pragmatism and Democracy,
and The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy. Posner has generally been identified as Chief Judge of the United States Court of
being politically conservative; however, in recent years he has distanced himself Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
from the positions of the Republican party[2] authoring more liberal rulings In office
involving same-sex marriage and abortion.[3][4] In A Failure of Capitalism, he has August 1, 1993 – August 1, 2000
written that the 2008 financial crisis has caused him to question the rational- Preceded by William Joseph Bauer
choice, laissez faire economic model that lies at the heart of his Law and
Succeeded by Joel Flaum
Economics theory.
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals
On September 1, 2017, Posner announced that he was retiring from the Seventh for the Seventh Circuit
Circuit, effective the following day.[5] In office
December 1, 1981 – September 2, 2017
Appointed by Ronald Reagan
Preceded by Philip Willis Tone
Contents
Succeeded by Vacant
Early life and education
Personal details
Legal career
Legal and philosophical positions
Born Richard Allen Posner
Abortion January 11, 1939
Animal rights New York City, New York, U.S.
Antitrust Spouse(s) Charlene Horn
The Bluebook
Drugs Children Eric
Legal rules Education Yale University (BA)
National security Harvard University (LLB)
Newspapers
Patent and copyright law
Police recording
Prisoners
Race and public education
Same-sex marriage
Judicial career
Notable cases
Tort law
Contract law
Civil rights
 Awards and honors
Personal life
Selected works
Books
Articles
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Early life and education

Richard Posner was born on January 1 , 1939, in New York City. His father's family were ofRomanian Jewish descent, and his mother's family
were Ashkenazi Jews from Vienna, Austria.[6] After finishing high school, Posner attended Yale University, graduating in 1959 with an A.B.
degree summa cum laude in English literature. He then attended the Harvard Law School, graduating in 1962 with an LL.B. magna cum laude
as the valedictorian of his class[7] and president of the Harvard Law Review. After clerking for Justice William J. Brennan of the United States
Supreme Court during the 1962–63 term, he served as Attorney-Advisor to Federal Trade Commissioner Philip Elman; he would later argue
that the Federal Trade Commission ought to be abolished.[7] He went on to work in the Office of the Solicitor General in the United States
Department of Justice, under Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall.[7]

Legal career
In 1968, Posner accepted a position teaching at Stanford Law School.[7] In 1969, Posner External video
moved to the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School, where he remains a Senior
Discussion with Posner and his
Lecturer. He was a founding editor ofThe Journal of Legal Studiesin 1972.
biographer William Domnarski at the
On October 27, 1981, Posner was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the Seminary Coop Bookstore in
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated by Judge Philip Willis Tone.[9] Chicago[8]
Posner was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 24, 1981, and received his
commission on December 1, 1981. He served as Chief Judge of that court from 1993 to 2000 but remained a part-time professor at the
University of Chicago.[9] Judge Posner retired from the federal bench on September 2, 2017.

Posner is a pragmatist in philosophy and an economist in legal methodology. He has written many articles and books on a wide range of topics
including law and economics, law and literature, the federal judiciary, moral theory, intellectual property, antitrust law, public intellectuals, and
legal history.[10] He is also well known for writing on a wide variety of current events including the 2000 presidential election recount
controversy, Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky[9] and his resulting impeachment procedure,[11] and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[12]

His analysis of the Lewinsky scandal cut across most party and ideological divisions. Posner's greatest influence is through his writings on law
and economics; The New York Times called him "one of the most important antitrust scholars of the past half-century." In December 2004,
Posner started a joint blog with Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker, titled simply "The Becker-Posner Blog".[13] Both men
contributed to the blog until shortly before Becker's death in May 2014, after which Posner announced that the blog was being discontinued.[14]
He also has a blog at The Atlantic, where he discusses the financial crisis.[15]

Posner was mentioned in 2005 as a potential nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor because of his prominence as a scholar and an appellate
judge. Robert S. Boynton wrote in The Washington Post that he believed Posner would never sit on the Supreme Court because despite his
"obvious brilliance," he would be criticized for his occasionally "outrageous conclusions," such as his contention "that the rule of law is an
accidental and dispensable element of legal ideology," his argument that buying and selling children on the free market would lead to better
outcomes than the present situation, government-regulatedadoption, and his support for the legalization ofmarijuana and LSD.[16]

Posner on Posner Series

Judge Posner was the focus of a "series" of posts (many Q&A interviews with the Judge) done by University of Washington Law Professor
Ronald K. L. Collins. The twelve posts—collectively titled "Posner on Posner"—began on November 24, 2014 and ended on January 5, 2015
and appeared on the Concurring Opinions blog.[17]
Legal and philosophical positions
In Posner's youth and in the 1960s as law clerk to William J. Brennan he was
generally counted as a liberal. However, in reaction to some of the perceived
excesses of the late 1960s, Posner developed a strongly conservative bent. He
encountered Chicago School economists Aaron Director and George Stigler while a
professor at Stanford.[7] Posner summarized his views on law and economics in his
1973 book The Economic Analysis of Law.[7]

Today, although generally viewed as to the right in academia, Posner's pragmatism,

his qualified moral relativism and moral skepticism,[18] and his affection for the
thought of Friedrich Nietzsche set him apart from most American conservatives. As
a judge, with the exception of his rulings with respect to the sentencing guidelines Judge Posner making a dinner speech at the
and the recording of police actions, Posner's judicial votes have always placed him Federal Trade Commission.

on the moderate-to-liberal wing of the Republican Party, where he has become more
isolated over time. In July 2012, Posner stated, "I've become less conservative since
the Republican Party started becoming goofy."[19] Among Posner's judicial influences are the American jurists Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and
Learned Hand.

In June 2016, Posner was criticized by right-wing media organizations for a column he wrote for Slate in which he stated, "I see absolutely no
value to a judge of spending decades, years, months, weeks, day, hours, minutes, or seconds studying the Constitution, the history of its
[20][21]
enactment, its amendments, and its implementation."

He has called his approach to judging pragmatic. "I pay very little attention to legal rules, statutes, constitutional provisions... A case is just a
dispute. The first thing you do is ask yourself — for
get about the law — what is a sensible resolution of this dispute? The next thing...is to see if
a recent Supreme Court precedent or some other legal obstacle stood in the way of ruling in favor of that sensible resolution. And the answer is
that’s actually rarely the case. When you have a Supreme Court case or something similar, they’re often extremely easy to get around."[22]

Abortion
Posner has written several opinions sympathetic to abortion rights, including a decision that held that late term abortion was constitutionally
protected in some circumstances.[23]

In November 2015 Posner authored a decision in Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin v. Schimel striking down regulations on abortion clinics in
Wisconsin. He rejected the state's argument that the laws were written to protect the health of women and not to make abortion more difficult to
obtain. Accusing the state of indirectly trying to ban abortions in the state Posner wrote, "They [Wisconsin] may do this in the name of
protecting the health of women who have abortions, yet as in this case the specific measures they support may do little or nothing for health, but
rather strew impediments to abortion."[24]

Animal rights
Posner rejects the concept of animal rights. He recognizes the philosophical force of arguments for animal rights, but maintains that human
intuition about the paramount value of human life makes it impossible to accommodate an ethic of animal rights.

Posner engaged in a debate with the philosopher Peter Singer in 2001 at Slate magazine, in which Posner argued against restricting the use of
animals for food and in scientific experimentation. He agreed that gratuitous cruelty to animals should be avoided, but contends that animal
welfare should only be advanced where doing so provides a mar
ginal benefit to society.

Posner argues that animal rights conflict with the moral relevance of humanity and that empathy for pain and suffering of animals does not
supersede advancing society.[25] He further argues that he trusts his moral intuition until it is shown to be wrong and that his moral intuition
says that "it is wrong to give as much weight to a dog's pain as to an infant's pain." He further states that people whose opinions were changed
by consideration of the ethics presented in Singer's book Animal Liberation failed to see the "radicalism of the ethical vision that powers [their]
view on animals, an ethical vision that finds greater value in a healthy pig than in a profoundly retarded child, that commands inflicting a lesser
pain on a human being to avert a greater pain to a dog, and that, provided only that a chimpanzee has 1 percent of the mental ability of a normal
[25]
human being, would require the sacrifice of the human being to save 101 chimpanzees."
In a 2002 Yale Law Journal article, Posner again criticized animal rights. He also dismissed Gandhi's view that animal rights is consonant with
a empathetic and moral society. He supported this conclusion by arguing that Hitler was a vegetarian and Nazi Germany had the most stringent
animal-rights laws in history.[26]

Antitrust
Along with Robert Bork, Posner helped shape the antitrust policy changes of the 1970s through his idea that 1960s antitrust laws were in fact
making prices higher for the consumer rather than lower, while he viewed lower prices as the essential end goal of any antitrust policy.[7]
Posner's and Bork's theories on antitrust evolved into the prevailing view in academia and at the Justice Department of the George H. W. Bush
Administration.[7]

The Bluebook
The Bluebook is the style guide which prescribes the most widely used legal citation system in the United States. Posner is "one of the founding
fathers of Bluebook abolitionism, having advocated it for almost twenty-five years, ever since his 1986 University of Chicago Law Review
article[27] on the subject."[28] In a 2011 Yale Law Journal article, he wrote:

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation exemplifies hypertrophy in the anthropological sense. It is a monstrous growth,
remote from the functional need for legal citation forms, that serves obscure needs of the legal culture and its student
subculture.[29]

Drugs
Posner opposes the US "War on Drugs" and called it "quixotic". In a 2003 CNBC interview he discussed the difficulty of enforcing criminal
marijuana laws, and asserted that it is hard to justify the criminalization of marijuana when compared to other substances. In a talk at Elmhurst
College in 2012, Posner said that "I don't think that we should have a fraction of the drug laws that we have. I think it's really absurd to be
[30]
criminalizing possession or use or distribution of marijuana."

Legal rules
In an interview with New York Times's Adam Liptak after announcing his retirement, Posner says he pays "very little attention to legal rules":

“I pay very little attention to legal rules, statutes, constitutional provisions,” Judge Posner said. “A case is just a dispute. The
first thing you do is ask yourself — forget about the law — what is a sensible resolution of this dispute?”

The next thing, he said, was to see if a recent Supreme Court precedent or some other legal obstacle stood in the way of ruling
in favor of that sensible resolution. “And the answer is that’s actually rarely the case,” he said. “When you have a Supreme
Court case or something similar, they’re often extremely easy to get around.”

National security
At the Cybercrime 2020: The Future of Online Crime and Investigations conference held at Georgetown University Law Center on November
20, 2014, Posner, in addition to further reinforcing his views on privacy being over-rated, stated that "If the NSA wants to vacuum all the
trillions of bits of information that are crawling through the electronic worldwide networks, I think that's fine. ... Much of what passes for the
name of privacy is really just trying to conceal the disreputable parts of your conduct," Posner added. "Privacy is mainly about trying to
improve your social and business opportunities by concealing the sorts of bad activities that would cause other people not to want to deal with
you." Posner also criticized mobile OS companies for enabling end-to-end encryption in their newest software. "I'm shocked at the thought that
[31]
a company would be permitted to manufacture an electronic product that the government would not be able to search" he said.

Newspapers
Posner supported the creation of a law barring hyperlinks or paraphrasing of copyrighted material as a means to prevent what he views as free
riding on newspaper journalism.[32][33][34] His co-blogger Gary Becker simultaneously posted a contrasting opinion that while the Internet
might hurt newspapers, it will not harm the vitality of the press, but rather embolden [35]
it.

Patent and copyright law

Posner has expressed concerns, on the blog he contributed to with Gary Becker, that both patent and copyright protection, though particularly
the former, may be excessive. He argues that the cost of inventing must be compared to the cost of copying in order to determine the optimal
patent protection for an inventor. When patent protection is too strongly in favour of the inventor, market efficiency is decreased. He illustrates
his argument by comparing the pharmaceutical industry (where the cost on invention is high) with the software industry (where the cost of
invention is relatively low).[36]

Police recording
As part of a three-judge panel on the 7th Circuit in Chicago, weighing a challenge to the Illinois Eavesdropping Act, which bars the secret
recording of conversations without the consent of all the parties to the conversation, Posner was to deliver another memorable quote. At issue
was the constitutionality of the Illinois wiretapping law, which makes it illegal to record someone without consent even when filming public
acts like arrests in public. Posner interrupted the ACLU after just 14 words, stating, "Yeah, I know. But I'm not interested, really, in what you
want to do with these recordings of peoples' encounters with the police. ..." Posner continued: "Once all this stuff can be recorded, there's going
to be a lot more of this snooping around by reporters and bloggers. ... I'm always suspicious when the civil liberties people start telling the
police how to do their business."[37] The 7th Circuit upheld the challenge, 2–1, striking down the Eavesdropping Act, but Posner wrote a
dissenting opinion.

Prisoners
In a dissent from an earlier ruling by his protégé Frank Easterbrook, Posner wrote that Easterbrook's decision that female guards could watch
male prisoners while in the shower or bathroom must stem from a belief that prisoners are "members of a different species, indeed as a type of
vermin, devoid of human dignity and entitled to no respect.... I do not myself consider the 1.5 million inmates of American prisons and jails in
that light."[7][38]

Race and public education

Posner's views of public education policy are informed by his view that groups of students differ in intellectual ability, and therefore, that it is
faulty to impose uniform educational standards on all schools. His view in this regard is undergirded by his view that different races differ in
intelligence. (However, Posner says that he thinks it is "highly unlikely" that these dif
ferences are rooted in genetics, rather than environment.)

In a blog post, Posner wrote, "I suggest that the only worthwhile reforms of teacher compensation are raising teacher wages uniformly,
providing recognition and modest bonuses for outstanding teachers, and increasing hiring standards."[39] In the same post, he wrote, "I am not
clear what we should think the problem of American education (below the college level) is. Most children of middle-class... Americans are
white or Asian and attend good public or private schools, usually predominantly white. The average white IQ is of course 100 and the Asian
(like the Jewish) almost one standard deviation higher, that is, 115. The average black IQ is 85, a full standard deviation below the white
average, and the average Hispanic IQ has been estimated recently at 89. Black children in particular often come from disordered households,
which has a negative effect on ability to learn and perhaps indeed on IQ.... Increasingly, black and Hispanic students find themselves in schools
with few white or Asian students. The challenge to American education is to provide a useful education to the large number of Americans who
are unlikely to benefit from a college education or from high school courses aimed at preparing students for college."

Same-sex marriage
In September 2014, Posner authored the opinions in the consolidated cases of Wolf v. Walker and Baskin v. Bogan challenging Wisconsin and
Indiana's state level same-sex marriage bans. The opinion of the three-judge panel on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Indiana and
Wisconsin's bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, affirming a lower court ruling.[4] During oral arguments, Wisconsin's Attorney
General cited tradition as a reason for maintaining the ban, prompting Posner to note that: "It was tradition to not allow blacks and whites to
marry – a tradition that got swept away." Though Posner argued in his 1992 book Sex and Reason that prohibitions against gay marriage were
rationally justified, he held in the 2014 cases that the same-sex marriage bans were both "a tradition of hate" and "savage discrimination".[40]
Posner wrote the opinion for the unanimous panel, finding the laws unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. The Supreme Court
then denied writ of certiorari and left Posner's ruling to stand.

Judicial career
Posner is one of the most prolific legal writers, through both the number and topical breadth of his opinions, to say nothing of his scholarly and
popular writings.[41] Unlike many other judges, he writes all his own opinions.[7] Nobel Laureate economist Robert Solow says that Posner "is
an apparently inexhaustible writer on... nearly everything. To call him a polymath would be a gross understatement.... Judge Posner evidently
[42]
writes the way other men breathe", though the economist describes the judge's grasp of economics as, "in some respects, ... precarious."

In 1999, Posner was welcomed as a privatemediator among the parties involved in theMicrosoft antitrust case.[9]

A study published by Fred Shapiro in the University of Chicago's The Journal of Legal Studies found Posner is the most-cited legal scholar of
all time by a considerable margin, as Posner's work has generated 7,981 cites compared to the runner-up Ronald Dworkin's 4,488 cites.[1] Aside
from the sheer volume of his output, Posner's opinions enjoy great respect from other judges, based on citations, and within the legal academy,
where his opinions are taught in many foundational law courses.

Notable cases
In his decision in the 1997 case State Oil Co. v. Khan, Posner wrote that a ruling 1968 antitrust precedent set by the Supreme Court was "moth-
eaten", "wobbly", and "unsound".[7] Nevertheless, he abided by the previous decision with his ruling.[7] The Supreme Court granted certiorari
and overturned the 1968 ruling unanimously; Sandra Day O'Connor wrote the opinion and spoke positively of both Posner's criticism and his
[43]
decision to abide by the ruling until the Court decided to change it.

Tort law
In Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Co. v. American Cyanamid Co. (1990), Posner lowered the standard of legal liability a railroad faced for a
hazardous waste spill.[44][45] The case became a staple of first year torts courses taught in American law schools, where the case is used to
address the question of when it is better to usenegligence liability or strict liability.[46]

In 1999, Posner applied the lex loci delicti commissi rule on choice of law rather than the Restatement of Torts, Second when rejecting a claim
by an Illinois dentist who slipped and fell in Acapulco, Mexico.[47] In 2003, Posner affirmed a punitive damages award of 37.2 times the
compensatory damages guests won from a bedbug infested Motel 6.[48] In 2003, Posner found that co-workers who did not prevent a
hypoglycemic diabetic’s fatal attempt to drive himself home violated no duty to rescue.[49]

Contract law
In Morin Building Products Co. v. Baystone Construction, Inc. (1983), Posner held that the Uniform Commercial Code presumes contracts
impose an objective standard upon what would subjectively be illusory promises.[50] In 1987, Posner dissented when Judges Frank H.
Easterbrook, joined by Richard Dickson Cudahy, found that a stockbroker could sue his former employer under SEC Rule 10b-5 after he quit
shortly before the firm’s lucrative unannounced merger.[51][52] In 1990, Posner found that Delaware corporate law did not permit an airline's
board from adopting a poison pill provision that encouraged its machinists to take strike action if its pilots' takeover attempt succeeded.[53] In
1991, Posner held thatgood faith performanceis a factual question of the defendant’s state of mind that must be proven at trial.[54]

Civil rights
In 1984, Posner wrote for the en banc circuit when it held that a consent decree regulating law enforcement Red Squads did not apply to FBI
terrorism investigations, over the dissent of Judge Richard Dickson Cudahy. In January 2001, Posner loosened that consent decree to allow the
[55]
Chicago Police Department to conduct counterterrorism operations.

In United States v. Marshall (1990), Posner dissented when Frank H. Easterbrook, writing for the en banc circuit, held that the punishment for
possession of LSD is determined by the weight of the carrier it is found within.[56] The circuit's judgment was then affirmed by the Supreme
Court of the United States[57]
In 1995, Posner, joined by Judge Walter J. Cummings Jr., affirmed an injunction blocking Illinois from closing schools on Good Friday as a
violation of the Establishment Clause, over the dissent of Judge Daniel Anthony Manion.[58] In 2000, Posner found that partners at a big law
firm could be considered employees with regard to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.[59] Posner found that secondary
liability attaches to a file sharing service for contributory copyright infringementin In re Aimster Copyright Litigation(2003).[60]

Awards and honors

[61]
A 2004 poll by Legal Affairs magazine named Posner as one of the top twenty legal thinkers in the U.S.

In March 2007, the Harvard Law Review dedicated an issue of faculty written case comments in tribute of Judge Posner.[62] In 2008, the
University of Chicago Law Review published a commemorative issue: "Commemorating Twenty-five Years of Judge Richard A. Posner."[63]
Posner's former clerk, Tim Wu, calls Posner "probably America's greatest living jurist."[41] Another of Posner's former legal clerks, Lawrence
Lessig, wrote, "There isn't a federal judge I respect more, both as a judge and person."[64] The former dean of Yale Law School, Anthony T.
[7]
Kronman, said that Posner was "one of the most rational human beings" he had ever met.

Personal life
Posner and his wife, Charlene Horn, have lived in Hyde Park, Chicago, for many years. His son Eric Posner is also a prominent legal scholar
and teaches at the University of Chicago Law School. Posner is a self-described "cat person" and is devoted to his Maine Coon, Pixie.[65]
Posner appeared with his previous cat, a Maine Coon named Dinah, in a photograph accompanying a lengthy profile (of Posner) in The New
Yorker in 2001.[66] He has been known to illustrate legal points in his opinions with elaborate cat-related metaphors and examples.
[67]

Selected works

Books
1973 Economic Analysis of Law, 1st ed. External video
1981 The Economics of Justice, ISBN 978-0-674-23526-7 Interview with Posner on An
1988 Law and Literature: A Misunderstood Relation , ISBN 978-0-674-51468-3 Affair of State: The Investigation,
1990 The Problems of Jurisprudence, ISBN 978-0-674-70876-1
Impeachment and Trial of President
1990 Cardozo: A Study in Reputation, ISBN 978-0-226-67556-5
Clinton conducted by Milt
1992 Sex and Reason, ISBN 978-0-674-80280-3
Rosenberg for "Extension 720",
1995 Overcoming Law, ISBN 978-0-674-64926-2, Among the topics is a critique
of Robert Bork's constitutional theories, review of books about the legal system in WGN Radio, September 22, 1999,
the Third Reich, and a discussion of the legal culture reflected in the works of C-SPAN
Tom Wolfe and E.M. Forster.
1995 Aging and Old Age, ISBN 978-0-226-67568-8 Interview with Posner on
1996 The Federal Courts: Challenge and Reform(2d ed.), ISBN 978-0-674- Breaking the Deadlock conducted
29627-5 by Milt Rosenberg for "Extension
1996 Law and Legal Theory in England and America , ISBN 978-0-19-826471-2 720", August 23, 2001, C-SPAN
1998 Law and Literature (revised and enlarged ed.),ISBN 978-0-674-51471-3
1999 The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory, ISBN 978-0-674-00799-4 Booknotes interview with Posner
1999 An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and rTial of President on Public Intellectuals: A Study of
Clinton. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,ISBN 0-674-00080-3. Decline, June 2, 2002, C-SPAN
2001 Frontiers of Legal Theory, ISBN 978-0-674-01360-5
Presentation by Posner on
2001 Antitrust Law, 2nd ed., ISBN 978-0-226-67576-3
Catastrophe: Risk and Response,
2001 Breaking the Deadlock: The 2000 Presidential Election and the Courts ,
ISBN 978-0-691-09073-3 March 11, 2005, C-SPAN
2002 Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline, ISBN 978-0-674-00633-1 Panel discussion including
2003 Law, Pragmatism and Democracy, ISBN 978-0-674-01081-9
Richard Posner, featuring discussion
2003 The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law(Harvard Univ. Press)
(with William Landes), ISBN 978-0-674-01204-2 of his book The Little Book of
2004 Catastrophe: Risk and Response, ISBN 978-0-19-530647-7 Plagiarism, March 14, 2007, C-
2005 Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the W ake of 9/11, SPAN
ISBN 978-0-7425-4947-0
2006 Uncertain Shield: The U.S. Intelligence System in the Throes of Reform , ISBN 978-0-7425-5127-5
2006 Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency, ISBN 978-0-19-530427-5
2007 The Little Book of Plagiarism, ISBN 978-0-375-42475-5
 2007 Economic Analysis of Law, 7th ed., ISBN 978-0-7355-6354-4
2007 Countering Terrorism: Blurred Focus, HaltingSteps, ISBN 978-0-7425-5883-0
2008 How Judges Think, ISBN 978-0-674-02820-3
2009 Law and Literature, 3rd. ed., ISBN 978-0-674-03246-0
2009 A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression
, ISBN 978-0-674-03514-0
2010 How Judges Think
2010 The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy, ISBN 978-0-674-05574-2
2010 Economic Analysis of Law, 8th ed., ISBN 978-0-7355-9442-5
2013 Reflections on Judging
2014 Economic Analysis of Law, 9th ed.
2016 Divergent Paths: The Academy and the Judiciary
2017 The Federal Judiciary: Strengths and Weaknesses

Articles
The Federal Trade Commission, 37 U. Chi. L. Rev. 47 (1969)
A Theory of Negligence, 1 J. Legal Stud. 29 (1972)
The Economics of the Baby Shortage: A Modest Proposal , 7 J. Legal Stud. 323 (with Elisabeth M. Landes) (1978)
Statutory Interpretation – In the Classroom and in the Courtroom , 50 U. Chi. L. Rev. 800 (1983)
The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory, 111 Harv. L. Rev. 1637 (1998)
Pragmatism Versus Purposivism in First Amendment Analysis, 54 Stan. L. Rev. 737 (2002)
Transaction Costs and Antitrust Concerns inthe Licensing of Intellectual Property, 4 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 325
(2005)
Foreword: A Political Court (The Supreme Court, 2004 eTrm), 119 Harv. L. Rev. 31 (2005)

See also
American philosophy
International Airport Centers, L.L.C. v. Citrin (2006)
Moore v. Madigan (2012)
Schurz Communications, Inc. v. FCC (1992)
United States v. Garcia (2007)

References
1. Shapiro, Fred R. (2000). "The Most-Cited Legal Scholars".Journal of Legal Studies. 29 (1): 409–26. doi:10.1086/468080 (http
s://doi.org/10.1086%2F468080).
2. Warren, James (July 14, 2012)."Richard Posner Bashes Supreme Court's Citizens United Ruling"(http://www.thedailybeast.c
om/articles/2012/07/14/richard-posner-bashes-supreme-court-s-citizens-united-ruling.html)
. The Daily Beast. Retrieved
2014-08-25.
3. Farias, Christian. "Judge Appointed by Ronald Reagan Strikes Down Wisconsin Abortion Law" (http://www.huffingtonpost.co
m/entry/judge-wisconsin-abortion-law_5654a4ece4b0879a5b0c98df) . Huffington Post. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
4. Bell, Kyle. "Appeals Court Rules Indiana and Wisconsin Gay Marriage Bans Unconstitutional"
(http://southbendvoice.com/201
4/09/04/appeals-court-rules-indiana-and-wisconsin-gay-marriage-bans-unconstitutional/)
. South Bend Voice. Retrieved
4 September 2014.
5. Meisner, Jason (September 1, 2017)."Richard Posner announces sudden retirement from federal appeals court in Chicago"
(http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-judge-richard-posner-retires-met-20170901-story
.html). Chicago
Tribune. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
6. The Bench Burner: An interview with Richard Posner(http://www.igreens.org.uk/richard_posner.htm) Archived (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20070509143331/http://www .igreens.org.uk/richard_posner.htm) May 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine., Reprint
of article from New Yorker by Larissa MacFarquhar, Dec. 10, 2001: "Posner grew up in New York - first in Manhattan and then
in Scarsdale. His mother's relatives were Jews from Vienna who looked down on his father's family , which was from Romania
and poorer than they were. 'They were all poor,' Posner says, 'but my mothers family had toilet paper, and my father's family
had newspaper.' "
7. Parloff, Roger (January 10, 2000)."The Negotiator: No one doubts that Richard Posner is a brilliant judge and . . ."
(http://mon
ey.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/01/10/271747/index.htm)Fortune Magazine. Retrieved October 17,
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2016. Retrieved October 30, 2016.
9. Brinkley, Joel (November 20, 1999)."Microsoft Case Gets U.S. Judge As a Mediator"(https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.
html?res=9506EEDC153CF933A15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all) . The New York Times. Retrieved
October 17, 2008.
10. Witt, John Fabian (2016-10-07)."The Provocative Life of Judge Richard Posner"(https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/books/
review/richard-posner-biography-william-domnarski.html). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 (https://www.worldcat.org/is
sn/0362-4331). Retrieved 2017-06-09.
11. See RICHARD A. POSNER, AN AFFAIR OF STATE: THE INVESTIGATION, IMPEACHMENT, AND TRIAL OF PRESIDENT CLINTON (2000), ISBN 978-
0674003910.
12. "Debates on the War with Iraq" (https://www.law.columbia.edu/media_inquiries/news_events/2005_older/2002/fletcher_debat
e). Richard Posner / George P. Fletcher debate. Columbia School of Law. November 1, 2002. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
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e/around_the_blawgosphere_gary_becker_chip-and-pin_video_poker/) . ABA Journal. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
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m/articleDisplay.php?article_id=75), The Washington Post Book World, January 20, 2002.
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5/01/the-complete-posner-on-posner-series-2.html)
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doi:10.2307/1342477 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1342477). JSTOR 1342477 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1342477).
(clarifying his moral positions)
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NPR July 5, 2012
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eakfast_table/features/2016/supreme_court_breakfast_table_for_june_2016/law_school_professors_need_more_practical_ex
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21. "Federal Judge: U.S. Constitution Is Outdated, Judges Should Stop Studying It"(http://www.mediaite.com/online/federal-judge
-u-s-constitution-is-outdated-judges-should-stop-studying-it/)
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erm Debate (http://articles.latimes.com/1999/feb/1
1/news/mn-7143), Los Angeles Times
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Y2015/D11-23/C:15-1736:J:Posner:aut:T :fnOp:N:1661222:S:0). Retrieved 15 December 2015.
25. "Animal Rights: debate between Peter Singer & Richard Posner(http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/interviews-debates/200106--.
htm)." Compendium of comments originally posted onSlate (http://www.slate.com) in 2001, collected and re-posted on
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,
Volokh Conspiracy
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30. Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhBBV0aI7lM#t=3247s) on YouTube
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-digital-data.html)
32. "The Future of Newspapers"(http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2009/06/the-future-of-newspapers--posner.html). Richard
Posner. June 23, 2009. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
33. "Judge Thinks Linking To Copyrighted Material Should Be Illegal - Slashdot"(http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/06/28/1619211/
Judge-Thinks-Linking-To-Copyrighted-Material-Should-Be-Illegal). tech.slashdot.org.
34. Schonfeld, Erick. "How To Save The Newspapers, Vol. XII: Outlaw Linking - TechCrunch" (https://techcrunch.com/2009/06/28/
how-to-save-the-newspapers-vol-xii-outlaw-linking/)
.
35. "The Social Cost of the Decline of Newspapers?"(https://web.archive.org/web/20100608223849/http://www .becker-posner-bl
og.com/2009/06/the_social_cost.html). Gary Becker. June 23, 2009. Archived fromthe original (http://www.becker-posner-blo
g.com/2009/06/the_social_cost.html)on June 8, 2010. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
36. "Do patent and copyright law restrict competition and creativity excessively?"
(http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2012/09/do
-patent-and-copyright-law-restrict-competition-and-creativity-excessively-posner
.html). Richard Posner. September 30, 2012.
Retrieved October 2, 2012.
37. Justin Silverman. "Tell Us, Judge Posner, Who Watches the Watchmen?" (http://suffolkmedialaw.com/2011/09/27/tell-us-judge
-posner-who-watches-the-watchmen/). suffolkmedialaw.com.
38. Johnson v. Phelan, 69 F.3d 144, 151 (7th Cir. 1995) (Posner, J., dissenting).
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Further reading
Domnarski, William (2016).Richard Posner. Oxford University Press.ISBN 9780199332311.
Steelman, Aaron (2008)."Posner, Richard A. (1939– )". In Hamowy, Ronald. The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand
Oaks, CA: SAGE; Cato Institute. pp. 385–86. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n237. ISBN 978-1-4129-6580-4.
LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024.

External links
Richard Allen Posner at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial
Center.
Project Posner
Richard A. Posner at the University of Chicago Law School
Richard A. Posner at the University of Chicago
The Becker-Posner Blog
Posner's blog at The Atlantic
Profile and Papers at Research Papers in Economics/RePEc
Works by or about Richard Posnerin libraries (WorldCat catalog)
Richard Posner on IMDb
Appearances on C-SPAN

Booknotes interview with Posner onPublic Intellectuals: A Study of Decline, June 2, 2002.
"Richard Posner collected news and commentary" . The New York Times.
Richard A. Posner at the complete review
"The Bench Burner", interview/article in The New Yorker, Dec. 10, 2001
Lawrence A. Cunningham, Cardozo and Posner: A Study in Contracts, 36 William & Mary Law Review 1379 (1995)
Roberts, Russ (November 16, 2009)."Posner on the Financial Crisis". EconTalk. Library of Economics and Liberty.
Buzzfeed article on Posner's decision inBaskin v. Bogan

Legal offices
Preceded by
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Philip Willis Vacant
1981–2017
Tone
Preceded by
William Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Succeeded by
Joseph 1993–2000 Joel Flaum
Bauer
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Posner&oldid=812840422
"

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