Past Winners

Benjamin Hannemann

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Clint Bolick

Posted by Benjamin Hannemann on Mar 28, 2019 3:39:36 PM

Clint Bolick is the President and General Counsel of the Alliance for School Choice (ASC) in Phoenix. Previously, Bolick co-founded and was vice president and general counsel of the Institute for Justice (IJ), a public-interest law firm in Washington, D.C.

At ASC, IJ, and earlier at the Landmark Legal Foundation, Bolick has tenaciously fought for the rights of low-income parents to choose where to send their children to school. At IJ, among other things, he led a litigation team that helped successfully defend the constitutionality of school-choice programs across the United States. In 2003, American Lawyer recognized Bolick as one of the country’s three best lawyers of the year for his work on choice.

Bolick loves to quote Thomas Paine. In a 1997 paper for The Heritage Foundation, for just one example, Bolick wrote that Paine “made a prophetic observation: ‘Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.’ This is good advice. Members of Congress, state legislators, and parents dedicated to giving their children the best of educational opportunities should not forget it.”

Genial in person but resolute on principles, Bolick is the author of numerous books -- including The Affirmative Action Fraud: Can We Restore the American Civil Rights Vision?, Transformation: The Promise and Politics of Empowerment, Leviathan: The Growth of Local Government and the Erosion of Liberty, and Voucher Wars: Waging the Legal Battle Over School Choice. His newest book, David’s Hammer: The Case for an Activist Judiciary, will be published later this year. Bolick earned his undergraduate degree from Drew University in Madison, N.J., and his law degree from the University of California-Davis.

Hernando de Soto

Posted by Benjamin Hannemann on Mar 28, 2019 3:35:31 PM

Hernando de Soto is the founder of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) in Lima, Peru. De Soto played a major role in designing reforms that modernized Peru’s economic system, and he is working with indigenous think tanks in two dozen underdeveloped countries to push similar reforms. De Soto has advised presidents and prime ministers around the world. Personally engaging and an insightful and engaging writer on the roots of poverty and the advancement of prosperity, principally through legal structures that respect property rights, he is the author of The Other Path: The Invisible Revolution in the Third World, The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, The Other Path: The Economic Answer to Terrorism, and The Road to Capitalism and the Spontaneous Generation of Law. In his first book The Other Path, explaining why some countries were rich and others were poor, de Soto observed that Peru’s de facto owners were locked out of the formal, legal economy. That, he noted, was the root of the problem. “They have houses but not titles; crops but not deeds; businesses but not statutes of incorporation,” he lamented.

In 1999, Time chose de Soto as one of five leading Latin American intellectuals, and Forbes has named him one of 15 innovators who will reinvent the future. He is also a past winner of the Cato Institute’s Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. De Soto did post-graduate work at the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva. He has served as an economist for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, as president of the Executive Committee of the Intergovernmental Council of Copper Exporting Countries, as managing director of Universal Engineering Corporation, as a principal of the Swiss Bank Corporation Consultant Group, and as a governor of Peru's Central Reserve Bank.

Gary Sinise

Posted by Benjamin Hannemann on Mar 27, 2019 1:26:37 PM

Award-winning actor and philanthropist Gary Sinise has stood as an advocate for America’s veterans and active service members for more than thirty years. His commitment began in the early 1980s with his support of Vietnam veterans groups and the creation of Vets Night, a program offering free dinners and performances to veterans at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. In the 1990s, Mr. Sinise worked on behalf of the Disabled American Veterans, which he continues to actively support. Since the attacks of September 11th, 2001, his dedication to our nation’s active duty defenders, veterans and first responders has become a tireless crusade of support, service and gratitude to all those who protect our freedom and serve our country.

Mr. Sinise’s portrayal of Lt. Dan Taylor in the 1994 landmark film Forrest Gump created his enduring connection with servicemen and women throughout the military community. After several USO handshake tours in 2003, Mr. Sinise formed the “Lt. Dan Band” and began entertaining troops serving at home and abroad. The band now performs close to 30 shows a year for military bases, charities and fundraisers supporting wounded heroes, Gold Star families, veterans and troops around the world.

Mr. Sinise has earned many distinguished awards for his efforts in service of the nation, including the Bob Hope Award for Excellence in Entertainment from the Medal of Honor Society; the Spirit of the USO Award; the Ellis Island Medal of Honor; the Doughboy Award; and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Award from the National Defense Industrial Association. In 2008, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second-highest civilian honor awarded to citizens for exemplary deeds performed in service of the nation. In 2012, Mr. Sinise was presented with the Spirit of Hope Award by the Department of Defense and was named an honorary Chief Petty Officer by the United States Navy. In 2013, he was pinned as an honorary Marine by General James Amos, commandant of the United States Marine Corps. In 2015, Mr. Sinise received the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award from the West Point Association of Graduates, an honor bestowed upon a civilian whose character, service, and achievements reflect the ideals prized by the U.S Military Academy.

In 2011, to expand upon his individual efforts, Mr. Sinise established the Gary Sinise Foundation to serve and honor our nation’s defenders, veterans, first responders, their families and those in need. The Foundation’s mission is to ensure the sacrifices of America’s defenders and their families are never forgotten.

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Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Posted by Benjamin Hannemann on Mar 27, 2019 1:19:50 PM

An international religious leader, philosopher, award-winning author and respected moral voice, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was recently named the winner of the 2016 Templeton Prize in recognition of his “exceptional contributions to affirming life's spiritual dimension.” Described by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales as “a light unto this nation” and by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as “an intellectual giant”, Rabbi Sacks is a frequent and sought after contributor to radio, television and the press both in Britain and around the world.

Since stepping down as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth – a position he served for 22 years between 1991 and 2013 – Rabbi Sacks has held a number of professorships at several academic institutions including Yeshiva University and King’s College London. He currently serves as the Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor at New York University. Rabbi Sacks has been awarded 17 honorary doctorates including a Doctor of Divinity conferred to mark his first ten years in office as Chief Rabbi, by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey.

Rabbi Sacks is the author of over 25 books. His most recent work, Not in God’s Name was awarded a 2015 National Jewish Book Award in America and was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller in the UK. Past works include The Great Partnership and The Dignity of Difference, winner of the Grawemeyer Prize for Religion in 2004 for its success in defining a framework for interfaith dialogue between people of all faith and of none.

In recognition of his work, Rabbi Sacks has also received the Jerusalem Prize in 1995 for his contribution to diaspora Jewish life and The Ladislaus Laszt Ecumenical and Social Concern Award from Ben Gurion University in Israel in 2011. He was named as The Becket Fund’s 2014 Canterbury Medalist for his role in the defense of religious liberty in the public square. Rabbi Sacks was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 2005 and made a Life Peer, taking his seat in the House of Lords in October 2009.

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Andrew Roberts

Posted by Benjamin Hannemann on Mar 27, 2019 1:10:48 PM

Andrew Roberts read modern history at Caius College, Cambridge, from where he is an honorary senior scholar and Ph.D. He has written twelve books, including Salisbury: Victorian Titan (which won the Wolfson Prize and the James Stern Silver Pen Award); Napoleon and Wellington; A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 (which won the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Book Award); Masters and Commanders: How Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall and Alanbrooke Won the War in the West 1941-45 (which won the Emery Reves Award); The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War (which won the British Army Military Book Award); and Napoleon: A Life (which won The Los Angeles Times Biography Prize and the Grand Prix of the Fondation Napoléon).

Professor Roberts is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; a trustee of the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust and the National Portrait Gallery; chairman of the Guggenheim-Lehrman Military Book Prize; the Lehrman Institute Distinguished Fellow at the New York Historical Society; and a visiting professor at the War Studies Department of King’s College, London. He has delivered the prestigious White House Lecture. Professor Roberts has lectured at Princeton, Yale and Stanford, and he was a visiting professor of history at Cornell.

Professor Roberts serves on the academic boards of five conservative research institutes and organizations, and he is a founding member of the Friends of Israel Initiative. He lives in London with his wife Susan Gilchrist and children Henry and Cassia.

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Charles Murray

Posted by Benjamin Hannemann on Mar 27, 2019 12:49:51 PM

Charles Murray is the W. H. Brady Scholar in Culture and Freedom at the American Enterprise Institute. A social scientist and writer, he is the author of Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980; In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government; The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (with Richard J. Herrnstein); and Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. His most recent book is By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission.

In addition to these and other books, Dr. Murray’s work includes articles in The Public Interest, Commentary, and The New Republic as well as in professional journals and leading national newspapers. He has lectured and led seminars at universities and research institutions here and abroad, testified before congressional committees, and participated in numerous panels and conferences for government officials, elected officials, and visiting dignitaries.

Dr. Murray began his career in 1965 as a Peace Corps Volunteer attached to the Thai Ministry of Health. He subsequently worked as a researcher for US-AID and later as a behavioral scientist at the American Institutes for Research where he specialized in the evaluation of social programs. From 1982-1990, Dr. Murray was a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

In 2009, Dr. Murray received the Irving Kristol Award from the American Enterprise Institute. In 2015, he received the Edmund Burke Award from The New Criterion. Dr. Murray holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in history from Harvard University.

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Christopher DeMuth

Posted by Benjamin Hannemann on Mar 27, 2019 12:40:11 PM

Christopher DeMuth is a distinguished fellow at Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. He was president of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research from 1986 to 2008 and D.C. Searle Senior Fellow at AEI from 2009 to 2011.

Mr. DeMuth grew up in Kenilworth, Illinois, on Chicago’s North Shore, and graduated from The Lawrenceville School (1964), Harvard College (AB 1968), and the University of Chicago Law School (JD 1973). He has served two tours in government — as staff assistant to President Richard Nixon in 1969 to 1970, working on urban and environmental policy, and, during President Ronald Reagan’s first term, as administrator for information and regulatory affairs in the Office of Management and Budget and executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief. In 1968, he managed James Farmer’s unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Congress in New York’s 12th congressional district.

From 1977 to 1981, Mr. DeMuth taught at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and directed the Harvard Faculty Project on Regulation. He has also practiced law with Sidley & Austin in Chicago, 1973 to 1976, and with the Consolidated Rail Corporation in Philadelphia, 1976 to1977. In addition, Mr. DeMuth has been an economic consultant with Lexecon Inc. and was publisher and editor-in-chief of Regulation magazine in 1986. He is a director of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, chairman of the AHA Foundation, co-chairman of the Board of Visitors of the Federalist Society, a governor of the Smith Richardson Foundation, and a senior fellow of Scalia Law School’s Center for the Study of the Administrative State.

Mr. DeMuth’s previous affiliations include president of the board of directors of the Constitutional Enterprises Corporation (then-owner of National Review), grant advisor of the Searle Freedom Trust, director of Donors Capital Fund, member of the Visiting Committees of the University of Chicago Law School and the Kennedy School of Government, and chairman of several family businesses. His writings have appeared in numerous academic publications and in newspapers and opinion magazines such as the Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Standard.

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Philip Hamburger

Posted by Benjamin Hannemann on Mar 27, 2019 12:33:12 PM

Philip Hamburger is the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. Before coming to Columbia, he was the John P. Wilson Professor at the University of Chicago Law School, where he was the Director of the Bigelow Program and the Legal History Program. Earlier, Professor Hamburger was the Oswald Symyster Colclough Research Professor at George Washington University Law School and a Professor at the University of Connecticut Law School. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia Law School and at Northwestern Law School, where he was the Jack N. Pritzker Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law. He also practiced law in business and in corporate tax.

Professor Hamburger writes on religious liberty, freedom of speech and the press, judicial office, administrative power, unconstitutional conditions, and other questions of constitutional law and its history.

Professor Hamburger is the author of Separation of Church and State (Harvard 2002), Law and Judicial Duty (Harvard 2008), and most recently Is Administrative Law Unlawful? (Chicago 2014). His recent articles include: Chevron Bias (George Washington Law Review, 2016); Equality and Exclusion: How Exclusion from the Political Process Renders Religious Liberty Unequal (Notre Dame Law Review, 2015); Inversion of Rights and Power (Buffalo Law Review, 2015); IRB Licensing, in Who’s Afraid of Academic Freedom (Columbia University Press, 2014); The Censorship You’ve Never Heard Of, (Commentary, July 2013); and Unconstitutional Conditions: The Irrelevance of Consent (Virginia Law Review, 2012).

Professor Hamburger is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has served on the board of directors of the American Society for Legal History. He has twice received the Sutherland Prize for the most significant contribution to English legal history, and he has been awarded the Henry Paolucci - Walter Bagehot Book Award and the Hayek Book Prize.

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Peter Berkowitz

Posted by Benjamin Hannemann on Mar 27, 2019 12:28:16 PM

Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He also serves as dean of students for the Hertog Political Studies Program and for The Public Interest Fellowship, and he teaches for the Tikvah Fund in the United States and in Israel.

Dr. Berkowitz is the author of Constitutional Conservatism: Liberty, Self-Government, and Political Moderation (Hoover Institution Press, 2013); Israel and the Struggle over the International Laws of War (Hoover Institution Press, 2012); Virtue and the Making of Modern Liberalism (Princeton University Press, 1999); and Nietzsche: The Ethics of an Immoralist (Harvard University Press, 1995).

A leading public intellectual, Dr. Berkowitz is an advocate of classically liberal education. He is a contributor at RealClearPolitics and has written hundreds of articles, essays, and reviews on a range of subjects for a variety of publications, including The American Interest, the American Political Science Review, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Claremont Review of Books, Commentary, First Things, Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, National Journal, National Review, The New Criterion, The New Republic, Policy Review, Politico, The Public Interest, the Times Literary Supplement, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Weekly Standard, The Wilson Quarterly, and The Yale Law Journal.

In addition to teaching regularly in the United States and Israel, Dr. Berkowitz has led seminars on the principles of freedom and the American constitutional tradition for students from Burma at the George W. Bush Presidential Center and for Korean students at Underwood International College at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. From 1999 to 2006, he taught constitutional law and jurisprudence at George Mason University School of Law. From 1990 to 1999, he taught political philosophy in the department of government at Harvard University.

Dr. Berkowitz holds a J.D. and a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University; an M.A. in philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and a B.A. in English literature from Swarthmore College.

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Walter E. Williams

Posted by Benjamin Hannemann on Mar 27, 2019 12:20:17 PM

Walter E. Williams has served on the faculty of George Mason University as the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics since 1980. He has also served on the faculties of Los Angeles City College, California State University Los Angeles, Temple University, and Grove City College.

Dr. Williams is the author of over 150 articles which have appeared in scholarly journals and popular publications. He is also the author of ten books, including: America: The State Against Blacks, which was made into the PBS documentary Good Intentions; Do the Right Thing: The People's Economist Speaks; Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed On Discrimination? and Up From The Projects: An Autobiography, which was made into the PBS documentary Suffer No Fools.

Dr. Williams writes a nationally syndicated weekly column that is carried by 140 newspapers and several web sites. He has made television appearances on Nightline; Firing Line; Face the Nation; Milton Friedman’s Free To Choose; Crossfire; MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour; and Wall Street Week. In addition, Dr. Williams was a regular commentator for CNBC’s Nightly Business Report, and he was an occasional substitute host for the Rush Limbaugh show for 20 years.

Dr. Williams has received numerous awards, among them the Fund for American Studies’ David Jones Lifetime Achievement Award; Foundation for Economic Education’s Adam Smith Award; Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation’s George Washington Medal of Honor; and Veterans of Foreign Wars’ U.S. News Media Award. He has also received fellowships from the Hoover Institution and Ford Foundation. A member of the Mont Pelerin Society and American Economic Association, Dr. Williams has participated in numerous debates, conferences and lectures in the United States and abroad. He has frequently given expert testimony before Congressional committees on public policy issues ranging from labor policy to taxation and spending.

Dr. Williams holds a B.A. in economics from California State University, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA. He also holds a Doctor of Humane Letters from Virginia Union University and Grove City College, Doctor of Laws from Washington and Jefferson College and Doctor Honoris Causa en Ciencias Sociales from Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala, at which he is Professor Honorario.

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