Robert A. Levy | |
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Born | 1941 (age 81–82) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Alma mater | American University George Mason University |
Robert A. Levy (born 1941) is the chairman of the American libertarian Cato Institute as well as a director of the Institute of Justice, [1] and the organizer and financier [2] behind District of Columbia v. Heller , as well as Heller's co-counsel, [3] in the U.S. Supreme Court Case that established the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution as affirming an individual right to gun ownership. He is a Cato senior fellow and an author and pundit. Before becoming a lawyer, he was the founder and CEO of CDA Investment Technologies. Levy is the founder of The Robert A. Levy Fellowship in Law and Liberty which encourages talented scholars to pursue a JD degree at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. [4]
Levy was born and grew up working class in the Petworth neighborhood in Washington, D.C. His parents ran a small hardware store. [5] He attended college at American University, where he later earned a Ph.D. in business in 1966. [6] He later attended George Mason School of Law, where he received his JD in 1994. [4]
After graduating he moved to Silver Spring, MD and founded CDA Investment Technologies. CDA was a provider of financial information and software. The company became a success and grew to have offices in Rockville, MD, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo and London. It was particularly well known for its rankings of how mutual funds performed. Their quarterly release of rankings would prompt articles in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal .
Levy sold the company in 1986 to Dutch publishing firm Elsevier for an undisclosed amount. [7] In 1987 Elsevier sold CDA to The Thomson Corporation for a profit. Levy stayed on as CEO through both sales, retiring from his position in 1991 to attend law school.
In 1991 Levy retired from CDA Investment Technologies and entered George Mason University School of Law, where he graduated as class valedictorian. [8] After graduation he clerked first for Judge Royce C. Lamberth on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and then for Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
In 1997 Levy became a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University. At this point Levy began writing extensively, and the following years saw him publishing articles and Op-Ed pieces in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today , The Washington Post , National Review , Reason and many other publications. He also began making television and radio appearances, and has appeared on cable and network shows including Nightline , Crossfire , The O'Reilly Factor , Hardball with Chris Matthews , and The Today Show .
In 2004, Levy retired from his position at Georgetown and moved down to Naples, Florida. He remains a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He was named to the institute's board of directors in 2007, and became chairman in 2008. He also sits on the boards of the Institute for Justice and the Foundation for Government Accountability.
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it has chapters at more than 200 law schools and features student, lawyer, and faculty divisions; the lawyers division comprises more than 70,000 practicing attorneys in ninety cities. Through speaking events, lectures, and other activities, it provides a forum for legal experts of opposing views to interact with members of the legal profession, the judiciary, and the legal academy. It is one of the most influential legal organizations in the United States.
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. Cato was established to focus on public advocacy, media exposure and societal influence.
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CDA Investment Technologies was a Maryland-based financial research firm founded by Robert A. Levy. It was a pioneer in early financial databases, but was best known for its mutual fund rankings, whose quarterly release would attract national attention in the 1980s and 1990s. After being bought by the Thomson Corporation in 1987, it was an independent subsidiary until 1998, when it was blended in with Technimetrics to become Thomson Financial Investor Relations.
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