Ann Althouse (born January 12, 1951) is an American law professor and blogger.

Early life and education

Althouse was raised in Newark and Wilmington, Delaware (and later as a teen in Wayne, New Jersey). She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan in 1973 and graduated first in her class from the New York University School of Law with a J.D. in 1981.

Legal career

Althouse clerked for Judge Leonard B. Sand in the Southern District of New York and practiced law in the litigation department of Sullivan & Cromwell. From 1984 to 2016, Althouse taught federal jurisdiction, civil procedure, and constitutional law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she was tenured from 1989 until her retirement. She was a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School for the 2007–08 academic year. A "leading light" in federal courts scholarship, she has written extensively on federalism (her central thesis being the normative value of federalism in protecting individual rights), sovereign immunity and other legal issues. She was the Robert W. & Irma M. Arthur-Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Blog

Since 2004, she has written an eponymous blog, posting photographs and commentary on law, politics, and popular culture.

Political views

Althouse has said that she is pro-choice and opposes overruling Roe v. Wade, but has said that she "do[es] in fact think abortion is wrong. I think most Americans agree with me and think it's wrong, but not the role of government to police." Althouse voted for George W. Bush in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008. In January 2009, remarking about Obama, she wrote: "He really is a solid, normal person who remained grounded in the middle of all this craziness. And I like to think that, now that he's President, with his steely nerve, his intelligence, and his groundedness, he'll do the job that must be done. The trickery is over."

Personal life

In 2009, Althouse announced her engagement to Laurence Meade, a commenter she had met through the blog. The story attracted coverage in the blogosphere and in The New York Times. Althouse and Meade were married in August 2009. It is Althouse's second marriage; she has two adult sons from her first marriage.

Selected works