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Philip Hamburger

Philip Hamburger

Chief Executive Officer


Philip Hamburger is a scholar of constitutional law and its history at Columbia Law School. He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his J.D. from Yale Law School. Before coming to Columbia, he was the John P. Wilson Professor at the University of Chicago Law School. He also taught at George Washington University Law School, Northwestern Law School, University of Virginia Law School, and the University of Connecticut Law School. Professor Hamburger’s contributions are unrivaled by any U.S. legal scholar in driving the national conversations on the First Amendment and the separation of church and state and on administrative power. His work on administrative power has been celebrated by organizations like the Manhattan Institute and the Bradley Foundation, among others.

The Education Department and the KKK

By: Philip Hamburger February 6, 2025
The Trump administration’s desire to dismantle the Education Department has inspired some alarm. Those panicking would do well to remember a key historical fact: One of the leading advocates of creating such a department was the Ku Klux Klan. Congress authorized today’s Education Department in 1979, transferring authority over federal education policy from the 1953…
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How Washington Can Finally Get Back to Fiscal Sanity

By: Philip Hamburger January 20, 2025
There’s reason to hope for at least a temporary move toward fiscal sanity in Washington. Ordinarily, a drive for a slimmed-down federal budget would last little longer than a New Year’s dieting resolution. What gives credibility to the current federal weight-loss plans is the commitment of some outsize characters. President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and…
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The Stakes for Speech of Trump’s Civil Verdict

By: Philip Hamburger December 12, 2024
New York state bluntly informed President-elect Trump’s lawyers this week that it won’t agree to vacate the massive civil fraud judgment against him and his family. Although the state’s intransigence surely disappoints Mr. Trump and his family, it isn’t altogether regrettable. The case can now proceed, which means it will clarify our freedom of speech.…
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