Epstein, Richard A. (1943-)

Richard A. Epstein, a law professor and legal theorist, teaches at the University of Chicago Law School and is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is one of the leading legal scholars in the United States and a prominent libertarian author.

[Page 154]Epstein's work on eminent domain brought him fame when Senator Joseph Biden held up a copy of Epstein's book Takings during the 1991 confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to Biden, judges who agreed with the central thesis of the book—that the federal government should be more vigilant about compensating people when their property is taken for public use—were unfit to sit on the Supreme Court. Epstein has said that he “took some pride” ...