Richard Posner, influential and iconoclastic federal judge, dies at 87

Richard A. Posner, who died at 87, was one of the most influential and prolific federal appellate judges in the United States. On the 7th Circuit from 1981 to 2017, he wrote more than 3,300 opinions and published over 40 books. Before joining the bench, he helped establish law and economics as a field, arguing that legal rules should be assessed in part by their economic consequences. His work ranged from antitrust and terrorism to sex, public health and literature, and his scholarship was cited more often than that of almost any other legal thinker.

Appointed by Ronald Reagan, Posner resisted easy political labels and rejected constitutional originalism. He preferred to ask what outcome sensibly resolved a dispute, treating legal texts and rules as tools rather than fixed commands. That pragmatism informed views that shifted over time, including support for same-sex marriage and criticism of voter-ID laws. He later said he might have been wrong to uphold Indiana’s photo-ID requirement, recognizing that judges often lack the evidence needed to gauge a policy’s effects. His blunt courtroom manner and provocative writing drew criticism, notably for his analysis of sex and his attack on Bill Clinton. Near retirement, he also condemned his own court’s neglect of people representing themselves, many of them poor or imprisoned. A former Chicago law professor and chief judge, Posner combined restless intellectual range with an unusually candid willingness to challenge legal conventions - and his own decisions.