Sign Up

NCLA Site Search

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.

Is the Public School System Constitutional?

By: Philip Hamburger October 22, 2021
In the News
The public school system weighs on parents. It burdens them not simply with poor teaching and discipline, but with political bias, hostility toward religion, and now even sexual and racial indoctrination. Schools often seek openly to shape the very identity of children. What can parents do about it? “I don’t think parents should be telling…
Read

Purchasing Submission

By: Philip Hamburger September 13, 2021
In the News
Our government rules us in many ways. Theoretically, by law. As a practical matter, by administrative edicts. But that’s not all. It also controls us by purchasing our submission. The problem crosses party boundaries. All recent administrations have governed by purchase when they could not get what they wanted by law or administrative fiat. Just…
Read

The First Amendment Doesn’t Protect Big Tech’s Censorship

By: Philip Hamburger July 31, 2021
In the News
Does the Constitution require Americans to accept Big Tech censorship? The claim is counterintuitive but the logic is clear: If you submit a letter to this newspaper, the editors have no legal obligation to publish it, and a statute requiring them to do so would be struck down as a violation of the Journal’s First…
Read