Roger Pilon

Roger Pilon
Born1942 (age 83–84)
Vermont, United States
Occupations
  • Philosopher
  • constitutional scholar
SpouseJuliana Geran Pilon
Academic background
Education
ThesisA Theory of Rights: Toward Limited Government (1979)
Academic work
School or tradition
Classical liberalism
InstitutionsCato Institute

Roger Pilon (born 1942) is an American philosopher and constitutional scholar working in the classical liberal tradition. He is a senior fellow in the Cato Institute's Center for Constitutional Studies, which he founded in 1989 and directed until January 2019.

Early life and education

Roger Pilon was born in Vermont in 1942, and grew up in rural upstate New York near the village of Galway. After graduating from high school, Pilon started college at Syracuse University as an engineering major, but finished his first year as a music major before deciding to interrupt his formal education. He spent the next seven years engaged in what he called a "wonderful odyssey of discovery" before returning to college in 1968.

In 1971, Pilon graduated from Columbia University's School of General Studies with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy. He then attended the University of Chicago, where he earned a Master of Arts and PhD in philosophy. Pilon wrote his doctoral dissertation, A Theory of Rights: Toward Limited Government, under the direction of Professors Alan Gewirth and Alan Donagan in the philosophy department, and Milton Friedman in the economics department. During this time he also studied with Richard A. Epstein in the law school.

While serving as a senior political appointee in the Reagan administration, Pilon earned a Juris Doctor from the George Washington University School of Law. He is married to Juliana Geran Pilon, also a philosopher, whom he met at the University of Chicago.

Career

Before receiving his doctorate at Chicago in 1979, Pilon taught philosophy briefly at California State University, Sonoma, and then philosophy of law at the Emory University School of Law in Atlanta. While at Emory he was awarded a one-year National Fellowship by Stanford University's Hoover Institution, following which he was a senior fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies, located then in Menlo Park, California. In April 1981, Pilon was invited to join the new Reagan administration as a senior political appointee, serving serially in the Office of Personnel Management, the State Department, and the Justice Department, which he left in October 1988 to join the Cato Institute.

Pilon is a senior fellow in the Cato Institute's Center for Constitutional Studies, which he established in 1989. He served as director of the center until January 2019, and as Cato's vice president for legal affairs from 1999 until 2019. He is publisher emeritus of the Cato Supreme Court Review, which he founded in 2001. He has taught at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia; and, through The Fund for American Studies, he has been an adjunct professor in Georgetown University's Department of Government, teaching in that capacity in Washington and summers in Prague and Budapest.

In January 1988, when Pilon was serving as the first director of the Justice Department's new Asylum Policy and Review Unit, the department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) informed him that he was under investigation on suspicion of disclosing classified information to a foreign government. He was placed on administrative leave while under investigation. Nine months later, following a de novo review of the case, Pilon was cleared and his security clearances were restored. An erroneous account of the investigation later surfaced in OPR's annual report, falsely claiming that it had collected enough evidence against Pilon to justify dismissing him, and that he resigned before he could be removed. The department conducted two more de novo reviews, both clearing him, following which they issued an apology and an award of $25,000. When subsequent leaks to the media insinuated otherwise, Pilon brought suit against the Justice Department, claiming a violation of the Privacy Act. On January 16, 1996, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found for Pilon. After more than eight years, from start to finish, the case settled when the government awarded Pilon $250,000. Discovery over that time found that the illegal leaks had come from the Justice Department's own Office of Professional Responsibility.

Recognition

External videos
video icon Tribute to Roger Pilon from the 31st Annual Benefactor Summit – Cato Institute (23:05 min)

In 1989, the National Press Foundation and the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution presented Pilon with its Benjamin Franklin Award for excellence in writing on the U.S. Constitution. In June 1997, he gave his high school's commencement address after he was inducted into the Galway Central School's Hall of Fame. In 2001, Columbia University's School of General Studies awarded Pilon its Alumni Medal of Distinction; a year later, in June 2002, he gave the school's commencement address. In 2023, to mark the 75th anniversary of Columbia University's School of General Studies, the school included Pilon among "75 trailblazers who studied at GS and transformed the world".

Publications

Book chapters

  • Pilon, Roger (1987). "Legislative Activism, Judicial Activism, and the Decline of Private Sovereignty". In Dorn, James A.; Manne, Henry G. (eds.). Economic Liberties and the Judiciary. Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Press. pp. 183–203. ISBN 978-0-9139-6917-5.
  • — (1988). "Property Rights, Takings, and a Free Society". In Gwartney, James D.; Wagner, Richard E. (eds.). Public Choice and Constitutional Economics. JAI Press. pp. 151–179. ISBN 978-0-8923-2935-9.
  • — (2000). "The Illegitimate War on Drugs". In Lynch, Timothy (ed.). After Prohibition: An Adult Approach to Drug Policies in the 21st Century. Foreword by Milton Friedman. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute. pp. 23–40. ISBN 1-8825-7793-0.
  • — (2002). "Restoring Constitutional Government". In Swanson, James L. (ed.). Cato Supreme Court Review, 2001-2002. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute. ISBN 978-1-9308-6535-8.
  • — (2002). "Madison's Constitutional Vision: The Legacy of Enumerated Powers". In Samples, John (ed.). James Madison and the Future of Limited Government. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute. pp. 25–41. ISBN 978-1-9308-6523-5.
  • — (2003). "A Constitution of Liberty for China". In Dorn, James A. (ed.). China in the New Millennium: Market Reforms and Social Development. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute. pp. 333–353. ISBN 978-1-8825-7761-3.
  • — (2016). "Justice Scalia's Originalism: Original or Post-New Deal?". In Shapiro, Ilya (ed.). Cato Supreme Court Review: 2015-2016. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute. ISBN 978-1-9444-2419-0.
  • — (2022). "Congress, the Courts, and the Constitution". Cato Handbook for Policymakers (9th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute. pp. 141–171. ISBN 978-1-9522-2369-3.
  • — (2025). "Restoring the right to property as fundamental to a free society". In Laitos, Jan G. (ed.). Rethinking the Law of Private Property. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 3–67. ISBN 978-1-0353-1135-4.
  • — (2026). "The Purpose and Limits of Government". In Berry, Thomas A. (ed.). A History of Repeated Injuries: Threats to Liberty Since American Independence. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute. pp. 9–42. ISBN 978-1-9692-8406-9.

Books as editor

Forewords and prefaces

Selected articles

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Pilon, Roger (22 February 2017). "Cross: Roger Pilon, Defending Liberty at Cato". Mimesis Law. Interviewed by Meyer-Lindenberg, David. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2026.
  2. 1 2 Pilon, Roger (2023). "An Unconventional Odyssey" (PDF). In Cavallo, Jo Ann; Block, Walter E. (eds.). Libertarian Autobiographes: Moving Toward Freedom in Today's World. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-0312-9607-9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 March 2026. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Kelman, Steven (1996). "Meet an Activist in Constitutional Law: Roger Pilon" (PDF). American Democracy and the Public Good. Harcourt Brace College Publishers. pp. 84–97. ISBN 978-0-1550-3506-5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 June 2025. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  4. ↑ Pilon, Roger (1979). "Foreword" (PDF). A Theory of Rights: Toward Limited Government (PhD thesis). University of Chicago. pp. 2–5. OCLC 28783345. Retrieved 9 April 2026.
  5. ↑ "A Couple Who've Made Classical Liberal Ideas Matter: Drs. Roger and Juliana Pilon". Institute for Humane Studies. 8 July 2020. Archived from the original on 12 July 2025. Retrieved 29 March 2026.
  6. ↑ "Roger Pilon". Cato Institute. Archived from the original on 21 December 2025. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  7. ↑ "Roger Pilon". Libertarianism.org. Cato Institute. Archived from the original on 24 March 2026. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  8. ↑ Johnston, David (10 November 1989). "Ex-U.S. Worker Angry at Justice Dept. 'Misconduct' Report". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 15 January 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  9. ↑ Matthews, Mark (17 July 1990). "Official apology given in security case". The Baltimore Sun. ISSN 1930-8965. Retrieved 24 March 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. 1 2 3 "Mr. Pilon's Privacy". The Washington Post. 15 July 1996. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ Pilon v. United States Department of Justice, 73 F.3d 1111 (D.C. Cir. 1996).
  13. ↑ "Former Justice Department Official to Get $250,000". The Washington Post. 15 July 1996. p. A6. ISSN 0190-8286.
  14. ↑ Rushford, Greg (5 February 1990). "Watching the Watchdog: Veteran Justice Department Ethics Officer Faces Questions About His Own Actions". Legal Times. XII (35). American Lawyer Media: 1. ISSN 0732-7536.
  15. ↑ Myers, Matthew L. (29 July 1996). "Illegal Leak Victimized Roger Pilon". Legal Times. American Lawyer Media. ISSN 0732-7536.
  16. ↑ "Pilon Essay Receives Award" (PDF). Cato Policy Report. XI (3). Cato Institute: 4. May 1989. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 July 2025. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  17. ↑ "Pilon to join Galway High Hall of Fame". Schenectady Gazette. 27 June 1997. ISSN 2996-1718. Retrieved 24 March 2026 – via Google News.
  18. ↑ Harris, Ben (22 May 2002). "CU Invites Prominent Speakers for Graduation". Columbia Spectator. Vol. CXXVI, no. 65. p. 7. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  19. ↑ Butterman, Eric (April 2023). "75 for 75: Meet 75 trailbrazers who studied at GS—and transformed the world". Owl Magazine. Columbia University School of General Studies. Retrieved 13 April 2026 – via Issuu.
  20. ↑ O'Neill, James (2001). "Surviving the "Rocks of Error"". Texas Review of Law & Politics. 5 (2). University of Texas School of Law: 515. ISSN 1098-4577. EBSCOhost 5152452.
  21. ↑ Osburn, Robert H. (2001). "Why Law Became Politics Under Clinton". Human Events. 57 (9): 16. ISSN 0018-7194. EBSCOhost 4168235.