Stanford, Calif., November 4, 2013 – Stanford Law School’s Nathanial Persily, JD ’98, has been elected to the American Law Institute (ALI) as one of 69 new members, ALI recently announced. Persily is the James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at SLS.

Persily is an award-winning teacher and nationally recognized constitutional law expert who focuses on the law of democracy and American public opinion towards constitutional controversies. He addresses issues such as voting rights, political parties, campaign finance and redistricting.

Persily’s interest in data-driven research inspired him to develop DrawCongress.org, a website that functions as a repository for nonpartisan congressional restricting plans for all 50 states. Persily also designed the Constitutional Attitudes Survey, a national public opinion poll that covers attitudes toward the United States Supreme Court, constitutional interpretation and specific constitutional controversies.

Persily has co-edited two books with Oxford Press, Public Opinion and Constitutional Controversy and The Health Care Case: The Supreme Court’s Decision and Its Implications. He has published several articles in scholarly publications and through popular media about the legal regulation of political parties, voting rights, campaign finance reform and issues surrounding the census and redistricting.

Before joining the faculty at SLS in July 2013, Persily was the Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Columbia Law School, where he also founded the Center for Law and Politics.

ALI is a leading independent organization that produces scholarly work to clarify, modernize and improve the law. ALI’s membership includes more than 4000 attorneys, judges and legal scholars of the highest qualifications who influence the development of law in both existing and emerging fields. Members draft, discuss, revise and publish Restatements of the Law, model statutes and principles of law that are enormously influential in courts, legislative bodies, legal scholarship and legal education.

About Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School is one of the nation’s leading institutions for legal scholarship and education. Its alumni are among the most influential decision makers in law, politics, business, and high technology. Faculty members argue before the Supreme Court, testify before Congress, produce outstanding legal scholarship and empirical analysis, and contribute regularly to the nation’s press as legal and policy experts. Stanford Law School has established a new model for legal education that provides rigorous interdisciplinary training, hands-on experience, global perspective, and focus on public service, spearheading a movement for change.