Judge Richard Posner

The comment was made in a guest blog post titled, ''Contraception and Catholicism''. Naturally, the LGBT community was not pleased as it seemed to group child molesters and homosexuals together. One professor from the University of Chicago publicized a letter he'd addressed to Judge Posner. In it, he asked the judge to retract his statement and said that the ''harmful stereotypes'' did no one any good, especially homosexuals. Just Posner's reply was confusing, at best. It can be seen in its entirety here. But just who is Judge Richard Posner? Keep reading as we take a look at the man, his career and his educational achievements.

Richard Posner was born in New York City and graduated from Yale summa cum laude, where he majored in English. In 1962, he graduated from Harvard Law School with magna cum laude distinction. His first passion was English and literature, as he's authored more than 40 books throughout his career, including Overcoming Law, Sex and Reason, Frontiers of Legal Theory, Catastrophe: Risk and Response, Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11 and Aging and the Old. He was in identified in 1999 by the New York Times as ''one of the most respected judges in the United States'' and The Journal of Legal Studies named Judge Posner as the most cited legal scholar of all time.


Judge Posner was nominated by President Reagan and took office in 1981. Before this, however, his first job was as Justice William J. Brennan's clerk in the United States Supreme Court. Following this, he accepted the role as Attorney advisor to the FTC, under Commissioner Philip Elman. Surprisingly, after time spent in this role, he argued the FTC served no purpose and ''ought to be abolished''.

He taught at Stanford Law School and eventually accepted a position at the University of Chicago Law School. He is still a senior lecturer and his son is a professor there as well. Judge Posner currently shares a blog with Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker. He has written for the Atlantic and The Washington Post and it's been said he would never see a position on the Supreme Court because of his ''outrageous positions'' that include making the argument that buying and selling children on the free market would lead to better outcomes than government regulated adoption and his vocal support for the legalization of both marijuana and LSD. Of course, his most recent comments on Catholicism and homosexuality would likely merit a place on the list of ''most outrageous''.

For now, Judge Posner is content in his place within the legal community. In his seventieth year, he remains well respected in his community, despite his questionable remarks.