Steve Simpson is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice.  He litigates free speech, economic liberty, and property rights cases in the state and federal courts across the country.  He is currently lead counsel in Sampson v. Coffman and Independence Institute v. Coffman, two First Amendment challenges to Colorado’s campaign finance laws.  Steve litigated ForSaleByOwner.com v. Zinnemann, IJ’s successful First Amendment challenge to California’s effort to require classified advertising websites to become licensed real estate brokers, and he was instrumental in IJ’s challenge to New York’s ban on direct shipping of wine, which resulted in a win before the United States Supreme Court in Granholm v. Heald.  Steve’s views and writings have been published in a number of print and on-line newspapers and journals, including Legal Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Houston Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, and Slate.  He is the author most recently of Judicial Abdication and the Rise of Special Interests, 6 Chapman L. Rev. 173 (Spring 2003).

Before coming to the Institute, Steve spent five years as a litigator with the international law firm Shearman & Sterling.  Steve has authored and co-authored articles and practice guides on federal securities laws, the non-delegation doctrine, and the First Amendment.  He is a graduate of New York Law School, where he was a managing editor and articles editor of the law review.  After law school, he spent two years clerking for Judge Lenore C. Nesbitt on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.  Steve is a member of the bars of New York, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia.