Drew C. Ensign

Drew Ensign is an attorney in private practice. From 2017 to 2022, he served in the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, where he was concurrently a Deputy Solicitor General and Section Chief of the Civil Appeals and Federalism Section. In that role, Drew led several challenges to federal governmental actions, including a 24-state challenge to CDC’s termination of the Title 42 System in Louisiana v. CDC, 603 F. Supp. 3d 406 (W.D. La. 2022), a 14-state challenge to the CMS Vaccine Mandate in Biden v. Missouri, 142 S. Ct. 647 (2022), and Arizona’s challenge to the 2021 Tax Mandate in Arizona v. Yellen, 34 F.4th 841 (9th Cir. 2022). 

Drew also led or co-led merits briefing in Brnovich v. DNC, 141 S. Ct. 2321 (2021), Arizona v. San Francisco, 142 S. Ct. 1926 (2022) (12 states) and Arizona v. Mayorkas, 143. S. Ct. 1312 (19 states). He also led multi-state amicus briefs in United States v. Texas, 143 S. Ct. 1964 (2023) (18 states), NY State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Corlett, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022) (26 states), Vega v. Tekoh, 142 S. Ct. 2095 (2022) (22 states), Americans for Prosperity Found. v. Bonta, 141 S. Ct. 2373 (2021) (22 states), and Lomax v. Ortiz-Marquez, 140 S. Ct. 172 (2020) (32 states). Drew was set to argue Arizona v. Mayorkas in the Supreme Court until the federal government mooted the case. Drew has argued five times in the Arizona Supreme Court, as well as appeals in the Ninth, Tenth, D.C., and Federal Circuits.

Drew also has extensive experience in election law. In addition to Brnovich, Drew led Arizona’s successful defense of its election statutes and procedures in Arizona Democratic Party v. Hobbs, 18 F.4th 1179 (9th Cir. 2021) (challenge to non-signature curing), Miracle v. Hobbs, 808 Fed. App’x 470 (9th Cir. 2020) (challenge to statute regulating initiative signature gathering), Arizonans for Second Chances v. Hobbs, 249 Ariz. 396 (2020) (challenge to Arizona’s wet signature requirement for initiatives during COVID-19 pandemic), Arizonans for Fair Elections v. Hobbs, 454 F. Supp. 3d 910 (D. Ariz. 2020) (same), Mi Familia Vota v. Hobbs, 977 F.3d 948 (9th Cir. 2020) (challenge to registration deadline to vote in 2020 election).

Prior to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Drew was at Latham & Watkins from 2006-17 and served as a law clerk to the Honorable J. Clifford Wallace on the U.S. Court of Appeals from the Ninth Circuit from 2005-06.

Drew graduated magna cum laude from Duke University in 2022 and New York University School of Law in 2005.