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Ilya Somin is Professor of Law at George Mason Â鶹¹ú²ú and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights. He is the author of(Oxford Â鶹¹ú²ú Press, revised and expanded edition, 2022),  (Stanford Â鶹¹ú²ú Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2016), and  (Â鶹¹ú²ú of Chicago Press, 2015, rev. paperback ed., 2016), coauthor of  (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and co-editor of  (Cambridge Â鶹¹ú²ú Press, 2017). Democracy and Political Ignorance has been translated into Italian and Japanese.

Somin’s work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Northwestern Â鶹¹ú²ú Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Critical Review, and others. Somin has also published articles in a variety of popular press outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, CNN, NBC, The Atlantic, USA Today, Boston Globe, US News and World Report, South China Morning Post, National Law Journal and Reason. He has been quoted or interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, The Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, the Financial Times, The Guardian, the Associated Press, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Reuters, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Al Jazeera, and the Voice of America, among other media.

Somin’s writings have been cited in decisions by the United States Supreme Court, multiple state supreme courts and lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of Israel. He has testified on the use of drones for targeted killing in the War on Terror before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. In 2009, he testified on property rights issues at the United States Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Somin writes regularly for the popularlaw and politics blog, now affiliated with Reason magazine (previously affiliated with the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017). From 2006 to 2013, he served as Co-Editor of the , one of the country’s top-rated law and economics journals.

Somin has served as a visiting professor at the Â鶹¹ú²ú of Pennsylvania Law School. He has also been a visiting professor or scholar at the Georgetown Â鶹¹ú²ú Law Center, the Â鶹¹ú²ú of Hamburg, Germany, the Â鶹¹ú²ú of Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Zhengzhou Â鶹¹ú²ú in China. He is a Â鶹¹ú²ú Affiliate of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason Â鶹¹ú²ú, and an affiliated faculty member of the George Mason Â鶹¹ú²ú Institute for Immigration Research. Before joining the faculty at George Mason, Somin was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Northwestern Â鶹¹ú²ú Law School in 2002-2003. In 2001-2002, he clerked for the Hon. Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Professor Somin earned his B.A., Summa Cum Laude, at Amherst College, M.A. in Political Science from Harvard Â鶹¹ú²ú, and J.D. from Yale Law School.