William H. "Chip" Mellor (December 31, 1950 – October 11, 2024) was an American lawyer who co-founded the

Institute for Justice The Institute for Justice (IJ) is a non-profit public interest law firm in the United States. It has litigated twelve cases before the United States Supreme Court dealing with eminent domain, interstate commerce, public election finance, public ...

(IJ). Mellor served as IJ's founding president and

general counsel A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department. In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...

and later as chairman of the organization's

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

. During his career at IJ, Mellor pursued constitutional litigation in four areas:

economic liberty Economic freedom, or economic liberty, is the agency of people to make economic decisions. This is a term used in economic and policy debates as well as in the philosophy of economics. One approach to economic freedom comes from the liberal tradi ...

property rights The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership), is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their Possession (law), possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely ...

school choice School choice is a term for education options that allow students and families to select alternatives to traditional public schools. School choice options include scholarship tax credit programs, open enrollment laws (which allow students to att ...

, and

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognise ...

Early career

Mellor received his B.A. from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

in 1973 and his J.D. from the

University of Denver Law School The Sturm College of Law ("Denver Law") is the professional graduate law school of the University of Denver. It is one of two law schools in the state of Colorado. Founded in 1892, the Sturm College of Law was one of the first in America's Mount ...

in 1977. From 1979 to 1983, he practiced public interest law with the

Mountain States Legal Foundation Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit conservative free market public interest law firm based in Lakewood, Colorado. Its lawyers argue cases on property rights and federal land management in the American West ...

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

. Following his time there, he served in the

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

administration as Deputy General Counsel for Legislation and Regulations in the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

. From 1986 until 1991, Mellor served as president of the

Pacific Research Institute The Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI) is a California-based free-market think tank which promotes "the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility" through policies that emphasize a free economy, private initi ...

, a

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

located in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Under Mellor's leadership, the organization commissioned and published books on

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

, and the

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

that would later serve as the

's long-term strategic litigation blueprint.

Institute for Justice

In 1991,

Clint Bolick Clint Bolick (born December 26, 1957) is a justice of the Arizona Supreme Court. Previously, he served as Vice President of Litigation at the conservative/libertarian Goldwater Institute. He co-founded the libertarian Institute for Justice, where ...

and Chip Mellor founded the

, a nonprofit libertarian public interest law firm. Under Mellor's leadership as president and board chairman, the

litigated 12

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

cases, winning 10 of them. In addition, the organization helped pursue the landmark '' District of Columbia v. Heller'' case, in which the Supreme Court held that the

Second Amendment The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

to the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constituti ...

protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for private use. Mellor personally litigated lawsuits that broke open Denver's 50-year-old taxi monopoly, ended the funeral industry's monopoly on casket sales in Tennessee, and defended New Jersey's welfare reform. He also established the

Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and worked with

professor

Richard Epstein Richard Allen Epstein (born April 17, 1943) is an American legal scholar known for his writings on torts, contracts, property rights, law and economics, classical liberalism, and libertarianism. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at Ne ...

amicus briefs An amicus curiae (; ) is an individual or organization that is not a party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Whether an ''amicu ...

for eight

cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2008, Mellor co-authored with

Robert A. Levy Robert A. Levy (born 1941) is an American businessman and attorney who is chairman emeritus of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. He was co-counsel in '' District of Columbia v. Heller'', the U.S. Supreme Court case establishing a Sec ...

of the

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch ...

The Dirty Dozen ''The Dirty Dozen'' is a 1967 war film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin, with an ensemble supporting cast including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Ralph Meeker, ...

: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom''. The book takes on twelve Supreme Court cases that effectively amended the Constitution and argues for a Supreme Court that will enforce what the Constitution says about civil liberties, property rights and other controversial issues. In a January 2012 profile of Mellor titled ''Litigating for Liberty'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' wrote, "Move over, ACLU. Chip Mellor, president of one of America's most influential law groups is expanding freedom on political speech, organ transplants and other economic frontiers." On June 7, 2012, Mellor was awarded the

Bradley Foundation The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, commonly known as the Bradley Foundation, is an American charitable foundation based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that has been one of the most influential funders of the conservative movement. The foundation ...

's Bradley Prize. In 2016, Mellor was elevated to the Institute for Justice's chairman of the board.

Scott Bullock Scott G. Bullock is an American lawyer who has focused on property rights issues such as eminent domain and civil forfeiture. He has been president and Chief Counsel at the Institute for Justice since 2016, a nonprofit libertarian public interest ...

succeeded him as President of the organization.

Death

Mellor died from leukemia at his home in

Moab, Utah Moab () is the largest city in and the county seat of Grand County in eastern Utah in the western United States, known for its dramatic scenery. The population was 5,366 at the 2020 census. Moab attracts many tourists annually, mostly visitor ...

on October 11, 2024, at the age of 73.

References

External links

William Mellor at Institute for Justice
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mellor, Chip 1950 births 2024 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers American civil rights lawyers Deaths from cancer in Utah Deaths from leukemia in the United States Ohio State University alumni Sturm College of Law alumni Utah lawyers People from Moab, Utah