Penguin Speakers Bureau

Benjamin Wittes is a fellow and research director in public law at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror (2008, Penguin Press). His previous books include Starr: A Reassessment (2002, Yale University Press) and Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times (2006, Rowan & Littlefield and the Hoover Institution). He is a columnist for The New Republic online and a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly.

Between 1997 and 2006, Wittes served as an editorial writer specializing in legal affairs for The Washington Post. Before joining the editorial page staff of that newspaper, Wittes covered the Justice Department and federal regulatory agencies as a reporter and news editor at Legal Times. His writing has also appeared in a wide range of journals and magazines, including Slate, The New Republic, The Wilson Quarterly, The Weekly Standard, Policy Review, and First Things.

Benjamin Wittes was born November 5, 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from Oberlin College in 1990. He and his wife, Tamara Cofman Wittes, have two children, Miriam and Gabriel.