Jonathan F. Mitchell is Principal at Mitchell Law PLLC. He received his law degree with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an articles editor of The University of Chicago Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.
After graduating from law school, Mr. Mitchell clerked for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States. He then served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice from 2003 through 2006. After leaving the Department of Justice, Mr. Mitchell served as a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University Law Center, a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Law School from 2006 through 2008, and an Assistant Professor of Law at George Mason University from 2008 through 2010.
In 2010, Mr. Mitchell was appointed Solicitor General of Texas, a position he held until January 2015. After leaving the Texas Solicitor General’s office, Mr. Mitchell served as the Searle Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law before joining the Hoover Institution as a Visiting Fellow from 2015 to 2016. Mr. Mitchell also served as a Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford Law School before opening his own law firm in 2018.
Mr. Mitchell has published numerous works of scholarship in top-10 law journals, and he has written articles on textualism, national-security law, criminal law and procedure, judicial review and judicial federalism, and the legality of stare decisis in constitutional adjudication.
Mr. Mitchell has argued seven times before the Supreme Court of the United States, and more than 20 times in the federal courts of appeals. He has also argued before Supreme Court of Texas and in numerous trial courts. Mr. Mitchell has authored the principal merits brief in ten Supreme Court cases, and has written and submitted more than 20 amicus curiae briefs in the Supreme Court.
Mr. Mitchell devised the novel enforcement mechanism in the Texas Heartbeat Act, also known as Senate Bill 8, which avoids pre-enforcement judicial review by prohibiting government officials from enforcing the statute and empowering private citizens to bring lawsuits against those who violate it. This produced an end-run around Roe v. Wade and allowed Texas and other states to impose pre-viability abortion bans despite the continued existence of Roe.
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Freedom of Thought: On Building a Courageous and Effective Career
2024 National Lawyers Convention
The Washington Hilton1919 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20009
The Writ-of-Erasure Fallacy and the Texas Heartbeat Act
Yale Student Chapter
Yale Law School127 Wall St
New Haven, CT 06511
The Writ of Erasure Fallacy
Chicago Student Chapter
The University of Chicago Law School1111 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
Can Judges Strike Down Laws? The Writ-of-Erasure Fallacy
Pennsylvania Student Chapter
University of Pennsylvania Law School3501 Sansom St
Philadelphia, PA 19104
The Writ-of-Erasure Fallacy
Minnesota Student Chapter
University of Minnesota Law School229 19th Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Freedom of Thought: On Building a Courageous and Effective Career
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Accomplishing anything of significance in this political environment requires courage. The legal industry has a...
Freedom of Thought: On Building a Courageous and Effective Career
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Accomplishing anything of significance in this political environment requires courage. The legal industry has a...
Open Minds with Jonathan Mitchell and James Burnham - Part II
In the second part of this interview, James Burnham and Jonathan Mitchell discuss areas where...
Open Minds with Jonathan Mitchell and James Burnham - Part I
In the first part of this interview, James Burnham and Jonathan Mitchell discuss his unusual...
William S. Consovoy, 1974-2023
To commemorate the repose of Will Consovoy, we will be posting reflections and expressions of...