M. Edward Whelan III

Martin Edward Whelan III (born July 26, 1960) is an American lawyer, legal activist and political commentator. Whelan's legal career included clerking for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and serving as a deputy assistant attorney general during the George W. Bush administration. From 2004 to 2021, he served as the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank "dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy".

Early life and education Whelan was born in Los Angeles, California, to attorney Martin Edward Whelan II and Nancy Carolyn Mispagel. Whelan is a 1978 graduate of Servite High School. Whelan graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1981 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. In 1985, he earned a J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Kavanaugh nomination In 2018, Whelan helped advise his close friend Brett Kavanaugh, a federal judge, in the latter's nomination effort to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. On September 16, Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University in California, accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting and attempting to rape her in the early 1980s when they were teenagers.

Whelan drew considerable criticism when he attempted to defend Kavanaugh, then involved in contentious hearings following his nomination to the Supreme Court. With assistance and information supplied from Creative Response Concepts Public Relations, a conservative public relations firm, Whelan tweeted that Blasey Ford's allegation against Kavanaugh may have been a case of mistaken identity. Whelan went so far as to claim that the real sexual assailant was a Georgetown Prep classmate of Kavanaugh's who he indicated closely resembled him. He also shared the classmate's address and room layout of the man's childhood home, photographs of him, and his full name.

Books Whelan is the co-editor of three volumes of Justice Antonin Scalia's work: Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived, a New York Times-bestselling collection of speeches by Justice Scalia; On Faith: Lessons From an American Believer, a collection of Justice Scalia's writings on faith and religion; and The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law, a collection that highlights Justice Scalia's jurisprudence.

The works have been critically acclaimed. Each has featured a foreword from one of Scalia's former colleagues on the Supreme Court, including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Clarence Thomas, and Justice Elena Kagan.

Personal life Whelan has four children and lives in the Washington, D.C. area.