Edward B. Foley

Isadore and Ida Topper Professor of Law; Director, Election Law @ Moritz

Phone: (614) 292-4288
Email: foley.33@osu.edu
Office: Drinko 465

Education
B.A., Yale University, History, 1983 (magna cum laude)
J.D., Columbia University School of Law, 1986

Edward B. Foley, Robert M. Duncan/Jones Day Designated Professor in Law, is the Director of Election Law @ Moritz. One of the nation’s preeminent experts on election law, Professor Foley teaches and writes in all areas of this field. His current research focuses on improving the processes for resolving disputed elections, and he has been asked to lead a new American Law Institute project on election law. With his Moritz colleague Steve Huefner, he is writing a book on the history of disputed elections in the United States. Based on preliminary research for the book, Foley has recently published several scholarly articles, including The Founders’ Bush v. Gore: The 1792 Election Dispute and Its Continuing Relevance, 44 Indiana L. Rev. 23 (2010), which he delivered at Ohio State on October 14, 2008, as the University Distinguished Lecture. He is similarly completing a series of papers on Minnesota’s 2008 U.S. Senate election and its lessons for the future.

Foley also designed a simulated dispute of the 2008 presidential election, which involved a special panel of three nationally prominent retired judges to adjudicate the hypothetical case. In a new essay, The McCain v. Obama Simulation: A Fair Tribunal for Disputed Presidential Elections, 13 N.Y.U. J. LEG. & PUB. POL. 471-509 (2010), he explains how this experiment (including the opinion that the three-judge panel issued) can aid in resolving future disputed elections. Foley’s prior writings on Bush v. Gore, provisional ballots, the Twelfth Amendment, among other related topics, set the foundation for these current and ongoing projects.

Professor Foley has taught at Ohio State since 1991. Before then, he clerked for Chief Judge Patricia M. Wald of the United States Court of Appeals and Justice Harry Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court. In 1999, he took a leave from the faculty to serve as the State Solicitor in the office of Ohio’s Attorney General. In that capacity, he was responsible for the state’s appellate and constitutional cases.

Professor Foley is co-author of "From Registration to Recounts: The Election Ecosystems of Five Midwestern States," (2007) (co-authored with Steven F. Huefner, Daniel P. Tokaji & Nathan A. Cemenska). His commentary on election law can be found at Free & Fair.