Cass Sunstein Biography Quotes 4 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Cass R. Sunstein was born on September 21, 1954, in Concord, Massachusetts, and grew up in the United States. He studied at Harvard College, where he received his undergraduate degree, and then at Harvard Law School, where he earned his law degree. At Harvard he developed interests that would shape his career: constitutional law, administrative law, and the intersection of law with psychology and economics. His early academic formation was marked by close study of public law and the evolving role of courts and agencies in a modern regulatory state.

Clerkships and Early Government Service
After law school, Sunstein clerked for Justice Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and then for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. The experience with Justice Marshall, a towering figure in American legal history, exposed him to constitutional litigation at the highest level and to the human stakes behind legal doctrine. Following his clerkships, Sunstein served as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, where work on federal legal questions and executive branch authority prepared him for a career studying regulation, separation of powers, and the design of institutions.

University of Chicago Years
Sunstein joined the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School, becoming a central figure in a lively intellectual community that included scholars such as Richard Epstein, Geoffrey Stone, Martha Nussbaum, David Strauss, and Eric Posner. The law school was also the academic home for future figures in public life, including Elena Kagan during her time on the faculty and Barack Obama, who taught as a senior lecturer. Sunstein wrote prolifically on constitutional theory, the First Amendment, and administrative law, and he also worked with political scientists and economists on questions of regulation and collective decision making. These years sharpened his reputation as a bridge between legal doctrine and empirical social science.

Behavioral Law and Economics
A defining dimension of Sunstein's scholarship is his role in developing behavioral law and economics. Working closely with economist Richard H. Thaler, he explored how cognitive biases and heuristics affect choices by consumers, workers, and public officials. Their collaboration popularized the idea of "libertarian paternalism", a framework that respects freedom of choice while steering people toward beneficial outcomes through defaults, warnings, and better choice architecture. Their book Nudge, first published in 2008 and later updated, became a touchstone for policymakers across the world.

Harvard and Interdisciplinary Work
Sunstein moved to Harvard, where he became the Robert Walmsley University Professor and built programs connecting law with behavioral science and public policy. At Harvard he collaborated with psychologists and management scholars, co-authoring Wiser with Reid Hastie on group decision making and, with Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony, writing Noise on unwanted variability in human judgments. He continued to deepen administrative law theory, co-authoring Law and Leviathan with Adrian Vermeule on how principles of legality can guide modern agencies.

Scholarship and Public Voice
Beyond behavioral insights, Sunstein has been a leading voice on the structure of the regulatory state and constitutional governance. His works include After the Rights Revolution, The Cost-Benefit State, Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precautionary Principle, Republic.com and its later edition, Simpler, Why Nudge?, The Ethics of Influence, Conformity, How Change Happens, Sludge, Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide, and The World According to Star Wars. Many of these books engage with practical problems: how to weigh costs and benefits, how to manage risk and uncertainty, how institutions can encourage better decisions, and how free speech and digital platforms affect democratic life. Sunstein's writing combines legal analysis with evidence from psychology and economics, making him a frequent participant in public debates.

Government Service: OIRA and Regulatory Policy
From 2009 to 2012, Sunstein served as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the administration of President Barack Obama. In that role he oversaw regulatory review across the executive branch, emphasizing cost-benefit analysis, transparency, retrospective review of rules, and the reduction of unnecessary paperwork and complexity. His approach drew on insights from behavioral science and his Chicago and Harvard scholarship. Working from within the Office of Management and Budget, he helped agencies craft regulations that aimed to deliver net benefits while simplifying compliance for individuals and businesses. His experience in government later informed books such as Simpler and The Cost-Benefit Revolution.

Collaborators, Colleagues, and Influence
Sunstein's intellectual trajectory has been shaped by and, in turn, has shaped the work of many prominent figures. With Richard H. Thaler, he brought behavioral concepts into law and policy and popularized nudging as a toolkit for public officials. With Eric Posner he co-authored influential work on climate policy and institutional design. With Adrian Vermeule he examined administrative legality and the rule-of-law principles at the core of the modern state. Collaborations with Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Reid Hastie linked legal scholarship to cutting-edge research in psychology and decision science. Earlier influences included Justices Benjamin Kaplan and Thurgood Marshall, whose perspectives on adjudication and justice left a lasting imprint. Colleagues such as Elena Kagan and Barack Obama, encountered at the University of Chicago, later occupied national roles that intersected with themes central to Sunstein's work: constitutional interpretation, regulatory policy, and democratic governance.

Teaching and Mentorship
As a teacher at the University of Chicago and Harvard, Sunstein has supervised students across law, government, and economics, encouraging empirical and interdisciplinary approaches to legal questions. His courses on constitutional law, administrative law, and behavioral policy have influenced practitioners in government and the private sector. The networks formed around his classrooms and workshops include scholars and policymakers who have carried behavioral insights into agencies, courts, legislatures, and international organizations.

Personal Life
Sunstein is married to Samantha Power, a writer and diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and later as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Their partnership is emblematic of a household engaged in public service and international affairs, and together they have balanced academic and governmental responsibilities while raising a family.

Continuing Work and Legacy
Sunstein continues to write on law, regulation, free speech, and decision making, often returning to themes of institutional design, human fallibility, and the need for policies that are both effective and respectful of individual autonomy. His contributions have helped define contemporary administrative law and have reshaped how governments think about regulation, consumer protection, and public health. By connecting the insights of figures like Richard H. Thaler and Daniel Kahneman with concrete legal questions, and by working alongside colleagues such as Adrian Vermeule and Eric Posner, he has built a body of work that is both theoretically rich and practically consequential. His career spans courts, the classroom, and the executive branch, making him one of the most widely read legal scholars of his generation.

Our collection contains 4 quotes who is written by Cass, under the main topics: Ethics & Morality - Justice - Equality.