David B. Rivkin
Encyclopedia
David B. Rivkin Jr., is an American
attorney, political writer and media commentator on matters of constitutional and international law, as well as foreign and defense policy. Rivkin has gained national recognition as a representative of conservative viewpoints, frequently testifying before Congressional committees, and appearing as an analyst and commentator on a variety of television and radio stations.
He is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for the National Interest
, Contributing Editor at the National Review
and a member of the Advisory Council at National Interest
magazine. He currently serves as Co-Chairman of the Center for Law and Counterterrorism at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
, and is a former member of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
.
Rivkin is a former U.S. government official, having served under Presidents Ronald Reagan
and George H. W. Bush
. In 2010, Rivkin took on his highest profile case to date when he agreed to represent a multi-state lawsuit—currently consisting of 26 state attorneys general against health care reform legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama
in March. The lawsuit, filed in the Federal Court's Northern District of Florida, argues the legislation is an "illegal expansion of Congress' regulation of interstate commerce and unfairly penalizes uninsured people who refuse to buy into the program".
Rivkin is currently involved in two high profile cases: He is representing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
in a lawsuit by al Qaeda operative José Padilla
, who claims he was tortured while in custody; Rivkin is also "helping craft legal strategy for the State of Texas as it fights federal proposals on health care and environmental regulation."
In May of 2011, Rivkin was awarded a Burton Award for Legal Achievement
for a Washington Post
article he wrote with Lee A. Casey in February of 2010 titled "Why the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy is doomed."
After moving to the U.S. with his family, Rivkin earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
at Georgetown University
, and a Master of Arts degree in Soviet Affairs with high honors also from Georgetown University. In 1985, he received a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School
.
and George H. W. Bush
. Rivkin served as Legal Advisor to the Counsel to then President Reagan and as Deputy Director of the Office of Policy Development (OPD) for the United States Department of Justice
. While at OPD, he worked on a wide variety of constitutional, domestic, and international issues, including judicial selection, legal policy, immigration and asylum matters, and intelligence oversight. He also handled the development and implementation of President Bush's de-regulatory initiatives, carried out from 1991 to 1992, which focused on carrying out a review of existing federal structures in an attempt to make them more cost-effective.
From 1990 to 1991, Rivkin served as the Associate General Counsel of the United States Department of Energy
. In this post he was responsible for developing and implementing national and international environmental and energy strategies. He also helped in the passing of the Clean Air Act (1990) and FERC Order 636, known as the Restructuring Rule, designed to allow more efficient use of the interstate natural gas transmission system by fundamentally changing the way pipeline companies conduct business. During his term, national energy markets were deregulated.
and was promoted to partner. There his practice concentrated on international public law and litigation before the International Court of Justice and on policy advocacy on a wide range of international and domestic issues, including treaty implementation, multilateral and unilateral sanctions, corporate law, environmental policy and energy issues. Rivkin left the firm in December 1999 to join Baker & Hostetler
, where he is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office. Rivkin represents foreign governments and corporate entities on legal, political, economic, military and public relations matters and has worked on bilateral and multilateral foreign policy issues with Congress and various Executive Branch entities. Rivkin is also a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Council on Foreign Relations
.
Florida et al v. United States Department of Health and Human Services
Rivkin became lead outside counsel in the lawsuit filed by multiple state attorneys general seeking to nullify the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
. The lawsuit was filed on March 23, 2010, hours after the law was signed by President Barack Obama, in United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Pensacola.
In a Wall Street journal article, Rivkin called the law "in its design, the most profoundly unconstitutional statute in American history; in its execution, one of the most incompetent ones."
On January 31, 2011, Federal Judge Roger Vinson
ruled in favor of the 26 state plaintiffs in the case and found the individual mandate unconstitutional. But, unlike the December ruling from a federal judge in Virginia, Vinson ruled that because there was no severability clause in the original legislation, the entire law must be declared void; “The act, like a defectively designed watch, needs to be redesigned and reconstructed by the watchmaker,” he wrote in the decision.
Rivkin immediately told media that the ruling meant the 26 states challenging the law must halt implementation of pieces that apply to the state plaintiffs and certain small businesses, since the National Federation of Independent Businesses
was also involved in the suit; but the federal government said it would continue to implement the law and appeal the case.
Following this success, Rivkin's websites have become the target of a cyber attack.
, Rivkin wrote concerning healthcare reform and the Constitution.
Media and periodicals that have published Rivkin's works include the Wall Street Journal, the National Review
, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Washington Times, the Heritage Foundation
, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy
.
During the War on Terrorism
, which began after September 11, 2001, Rivkin wrote articles on the international law of armed conflict with which the issues of jus ad bellum
, also known as the accepted laws of war for which the Geneva Convention are often associated. Other recent topics include the use of military commissions, presidential powers during war time, civil litigation for Guantanamo Bay detainees, and global warming.
Rivkin and his frequent co-author, Lee Casey, questioned the constitutionality of government-run healthcare. First raising the issue of privacy, Rivkin went on to question the constitutionality of Congressional legislation requiring all U.S. citizens to purchase health insurance. In December 2009, Rivkin and Casey raised the issues of federal aggrandizement and judicial aggrandizement as dangers to the vertical separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution, and suggested a limited constitutional convention to limit the incursion of federal and judicial powers into the powers of the states.
In a May 12, 2011 editorial in The Wall Street Journal, Rivkin addressed the runaway national debt problem by calling on Congress to reclaim its responsibility for issuing new U.S. debt; "Congress should promptly increase the debt ceiling, but with one key caveat: The increase can be used only for borrowing to service existing obligations,"the article read.
In March of 2011, Rivkin wrote in several editorials that, according to the Constitution, President Barack Obama did not need approval from Congress to launch attacks in Libya, writing that these "essentially punitive operations now underway against Qaddafi would not have required a declaration of war at the time the Constitution was adopted, and do not require such action today."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
attorney, political writer and media commentator on matters of constitutional and international law, as well as foreign and defense policy. Rivkin has gained national recognition as a representative of conservative viewpoints, frequently testifying before Congressional committees, and appearing as an analyst and commentator on a variety of television and radio stations.
He is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for the National Interest
Center for the National Interest
The Nixon Center was a Washington, D.C.-based public policy think tank. On March 9, 2011 it was renamed The Center for the National Interest....
, Contributing Editor at the National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
and a member of the Advisory Council at National Interest
National interest
The national interest, often referred to by the French expression raison d'État , is a country's goals and ambitions whether economic, military, or cultural. The concept is an important one in international relations where pursuit of the national interest is the foundation of the realist...
magazine. He currently serves as Co-Chairman of the Center for Law and Counterterrorism at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan policy institute "working to defend free nations against their enemies". It was founded shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks to address what it regards as the "threat facing America, Israel and the...
, and is a former member of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...
.
Rivkin is a former U.S. government official, having served under Presidents Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
. In 2010, Rivkin took on his highest profile case to date when he agreed to represent a multi-state lawsuit—currently consisting of 26 state attorneys general against health care reform legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
in March. The lawsuit, filed in the Federal Court's Northern District of Florida, argues the legislation is an "illegal expansion of Congress' regulation of interstate commerce and unfairly penalizes uninsured people who refuse to buy into the program".
Rivkin is currently involved in two high profile cases: He is representing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
in a lawsuit by al Qaeda operative José Padilla
José Padilla
José Padilla is the name of:* José Gualberto Padilla , Puerto Rican poet, politician and advocate of Puerto Rican indepedence.* José Prudencio Padilla , Colombian military leader...
, who claims he was tortured while in custody; Rivkin is also "helping craft legal strategy for the State of Texas as it fights federal proposals on health care and environmental regulation."
In May of 2011, Rivkin was awarded a Burton Award for Legal Achievement
Burton Awards for Legal Achievement
Nature of the Burton Awards: The awards program is designed to reward major achievements in the law ranging from literary awards to the greatest reform in law. The awards are selected, generally, by professors from Harvard Law School, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the University of...
for a Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
article he wrote with Lee A. Casey in February of 2010 titled "Why the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy is doomed."
Early life and education
Rivkin was born in the small village of Psov in the former Soviet Union, and lived there during the first decade of his life. In 2004, he stated that he knew what it must have been like to live under the rule of Saddam Hussein in Iraq:After moving to the U.S. with his family, Rivkin earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service is a school within Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., United States. Jesuit priest Edmund A...
at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
, and a Master of Arts degree in Soviet Affairs with high honors also from Georgetown University. In 1985, he received a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
.
Public service
Rivkin held a variety of legal and policy positions throughout the administrations of Republican Presidents Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
. Rivkin served as Legal Advisor to the Counsel to then President Reagan and as Deputy Director of the Office of Policy Development (OPD) for the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
. While at OPD, he worked on a wide variety of constitutional, domestic, and international issues, including judicial selection, legal policy, immigration and asylum matters, and intelligence oversight. He also handled the development and implementation of President Bush's de-regulatory initiatives, carried out from 1991 to 1992, which focused on carrying out a review of existing federal structures in an attempt to make them more cost-effective.
From 1990 to 1991, Rivkin served as the Associate General Counsel of the United States Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
. In this post he was responsible for developing and implementing national and international environmental and energy strategies. He also helped in the passing of the Clean Air Act (1990) and FERC Order 636, known as the Restructuring Rule, designed to allow more efficient use of the interstate natural gas transmission system by fundamentally changing the way pipeline companies conduct business. During his term, national energy markets were deregulated.
Legal career
After serving as a legal clerk and associate for several law firms, Rivkin joined Hunton & WilliamsHunton & Williams
Founded in 1901, Hunton & Williams LLP is a US law firm that employs more than 800 lawyers. It has been called "one of the most well-connected legal and lobbying firms in DC." The firm was founded in Richmond, Virginia and has 18 other offices throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. In...
and was promoted to partner. There his practice concentrated on international public law and litigation before the International Court of Justice and on policy advocacy on a wide range of international and domestic issues, including treaty implementation, multilateral and unilateral sanctions, corporate law, environmental policy and energy issues. Rivkin left the firm in December 1999 to join Baker & Hostetler
Baker Hostetler
Baker Hostetler is an American law firm based in Cleveland, Ohio and founded in 1916. One of the firm's founders, Newton D. Baker, was U.S. Secretary of War during World War I and former Mayor of Cleveland....
, where he is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office. Rivkin represents foreign governments and corporate entities on legal, political, economic, military and public relations matters and has worked on bilateral and multilateral foreign policy issues with Congress and various Executive Branch entities. Rivkin is also a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
.
Florida et al v. United States Department of Health and Human ServicesFlorida et al v. United States Department of Health and Human ServicesFlorida et al v. United States Department of Health and Human Services is a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida by the State of Florida against the United States Department of Health and Human Services seeking to nullify the Patient Protection and...
Rivkin became lead outside counsel in the lawsuit filed by multiple state attorneys general seeking to nullify the Patient Protection and Affordable Care ActPatient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law is the principal health care reform legislation of the 111th United States Congress...
. The lawsuit was filed on March 23, 2010, hours after the law was signed by President Barack Obama, in United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Pensacola.
In a Wall Street journal article, Rivkin called the law "in its design, the most profoundly unconstitutional statute in American history; in its execution, one of the most incompetent ones."
On January 31, 2011, Federal Judge Roger Vinson
Roger Vinson
Clyde Roger Vinson is a senior federal judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.-Life and career:...
ruled in favor of the 26 state plaintiffs in the case and found the individual mandate unconstitutional. But, unlike the December ruling from a federal judge in Virginia, Vinson ruled that because there was no severability clause in the original legislation, the entire law must be declared void; “The act, like a defectively designed watch, needs to be redesigned and reconstructed by the watchmaker,” he wrote in the decision.
Rivkin immediately told media that the ruling meant the 26 states challenging the law must halt implementation of pieces that apply to the state plaintiffs and certain small businesses, since the National Federation of Independent Businesses
National Federation of Independent Business
The National Federation of Independent Business is a lobbying organization with its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee and offices in Washington, D.C. USA, and in all 50 state capitals...
was also involved in the suit; but the federal government said it would continue to implement the law and appeal the case.
Following this success, Rivkin's websites have become the target of a cyber attack.
Congressional hearings
Rivkin has testified numerous times in front of the U.S. Congress on such matters as the judicial nomination of Justice Sotomayor, the consequences of prolonged detention at Guantanamo Bay. and the clemency controversy surrounding Lewis ("Scooter") Libby's 2007 conviction on obstruction justice.Media appearances
He appears as a guest analyst on TV and radio programs, including CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX News, NPR, the Laura Ingraham Show, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and others.Writing career and publications
David Rivkin has authored or co-authored more than 360 papers, articles, op-eds, book reviews, and book chapters on issues such as international relations, legal matters, constitutional debates, national defense, foreign policy, and environmental and energy policy. During the late 1980s, he addressed the Iran-Contra Affair. After the election of Bill ClintonBill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, Rivkin wrote concerning healthcare reform and the Constitution.
Media and periodicals that have published Rivkin's works include the Wall Street Journal, the National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Washington Times, the Heritage Foundation
Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong...
, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy
Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy
The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy is a student-edited law review of conservative and libertarian legal scholarship. It was establisheded by Harvard Law School students Spencer Abraham and Stephen Eberhard in 1978, leading to the founding of the Federalist Society, for which it is the...
.
During the War on Terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
, which began after September 11, 2001, Rivkin wrote articles on the international law of armed conflict with which the issues of jus ad bellum
Jus ad bellum
Jus ad bellum is a set of criteria that are to be consulted before engaging in war, in order to determine whether entering into war is permissible; that is, whether it is a just war....
, also known as the accepted laws of war for which the Geneva Convention are often associated. Other recent topics include the use of military commissions, presidential powers during war time, civil litigation for Guantanamo Bay detainees, and global warming.
Rivkin and his frequent co-author, Lee Casey, questioned the constitutionality of government-run healthcare. First raising the issue of privacy, Rivkin went on to question the constitutionality of Congressional legislation requiring all U.S. citizens to purchase health insurance. In December 2009, Rivkin and Casey raised the issues of federal aggrandizement and judicial aggrandizement as dangers to the vertical separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution, and suggested a limited constitutional convention to limit the incursion of federal and judicial powers into the powers of the states.
In a May 12, 2011 editorial in The Wall Street Journal, Rivkin addressed the runaway national debt problem by calling on Congress to reclaim its responsibility for issuing new U.S. debt; "Congress should promptly increase the debt ceiling, but with one key caveat: The increase can be used only for borrowing to service existing obligations,"the article read.
International Law and Terrorism
Rivkin has spoken out frequently against Attorney General Eric Holder and The Justice Department's handling of terrorist suspects such as Jose Padilla ("the dirty bomber"), arguing that "trying them in federal civilian court is a mistake on many levels" and that "if the 'law of war' architecture is undermined here, U.S. forces and civilian officials will be exposed to criminal liability for their use of force [in other countries]."In March of 2011, Rivkin wrote in several editorials that, according to the Constitution, President Barack Obama did not need approval from Congress to launch attacks in Libya, writing that these "essentially punitive operations now underway against Qaddafi would not have required a declaration of war at the time the Constitution was adopted, and do not require such action today."
External links
- O'Neill Institute, Georgetown Law Center Webcast: Legal Solutions in Health Reform www.law.georgetown.edu, 2009 October 26.
- Rivkin, David B., Jr. The Memos Prove We Didn't Torture, Wall Street Journal, 2009 April 20.
- Rivkin, David B., Jr., and Casey, Lee A. An Unnecessary Investigation, National Review Online, 2007 January 25.
- Rivkin, David B., Jr., and Casey, Lee A. Constitutional Amendment Convention Safeguards, Wall Street Journal, 2009 December 28.
- David Rivkin Online
- David Rivkin's Baker Hostetler page http://www.bakerlaw.com/lawyers/detail.aspx?attorney=4034