Daniel M. Ortner joined the Foundation for Individual Rights in the fall of 2022 to defend First Amendment freedoms. He joined Pacific Legal Foundation in the fall of 2018, focusing on the First Amendment, property rights, economic liberty, and curtailing the overreach of the administrative state.
Daniel graduated Summa Cum Laude and first in his class from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. He comes to Pacific Legal Foundation after two appellate clerkships on the Utah Supreme Court and the Third Circuit Federal Court of Appeals. Daniel is grateful to have been mentored by incredible jurists with a passion for originalism and for bringing empirical tools such as corpus linguistics to bear on statutory interpretation. He has also published extensively on First Amendment topics including freedom of speech, freedom of association, and free exercise of religion.
Daniel was born in Israel and moved to the United States at a young age. He is grateful for the incredible blessings of liberty that he has enjoyed in the United States and particularly for the freedoms to think, speak, worship, and associate that are guaranteed by the Constitution.
Outside of work, Daniel spends time with his wife and two beautiful daughters. He loves to play board games, watch movies, and serve in his local church congregation.
Daniel is currently licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the state of California, and the Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits.
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Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, and The Future of Mandatory Ethnic Studies Courses in California
McGeorge Student Chapter
McGeorge School of Law, Classroom A3200 5th Ave
Sacramento, CA 95817
In the Name of Diversity: Do Diversity Mandates Decimate Free Speech on Campus
Northern Kentucky Student Chapter
NKU Chase College of LawNunn Hall, University Dr.
Highland Heights, KY 41099
Janus Does Not Require Opt-Ins for Paycheck Deductions of Already Unionized Public Employees in Alaska
In June 2018, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Janus v. American...
Idaho Supreme Court rejects controversial ethics rule 8.4(g)
The Idaho Supreme Court recently took the extraordinary step of unanimously rejecting a proposal by...
State Court Docket Watch: Washington v. Palla Sum
In Washington v. Palla Sum, the Washington Supreme Court considered whether courts in Washington should...