To schedule an interview with a member of our team, please contact us.
Reilly Stephens serves as Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, litigating cases in state and federal courts around the country covering a wide range of expertise including free speech and association, campaign finance, labor law, search and seizure, property rights, educational freedom, federalism, equal protection, due process, and separation of powers. Reilly also serves as Director of LJC’s amicus practice, contributing to important constitutional cases before the Supreme Court and lower appellate courts throughout the country.
After joining LJC as a Staff Attorney in 2018, Reilly filed more than a dozen cases around the country to enforce the First Amendment rights of public employees building on the Center’s landmark Supreme Court victory in Janus v. AFSCME. Along the way, he developed a litigation strategy to revive the nondelegation doctrine, eventually winning only the second appellate non-delegation victory in 80 years.
Over the course of the pandemic, Reilly contributed to a number of legal challenges to the excesses of government COVID rules, including a key role in defeating the OSHA vaccine mandate. However, the most important one to Reilly was personal: representing his own bride against the District of Columbia to win the First Amendment right to dance at his own wedding—in the end, the first song inviting guests to the dance floor was “Footloose.” After that successfully represented a pair of California doctors in challenging the State’s threat to take the licenses of any medical professional disagreeing with California’s official views about COVID prevention and treatment. Most recently, Reilly was a part of the LJC team challenging President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.
A 2023-2024 Antonin Scalia Fellow, Reilly has contributed scholarship and commentary on important constitutional issues to many outlets, including The Dispatch, National Review, the Washington Examiner, CNN, BBC, MSNBC, and Newsmax.
Prior to joining LJC, Reilly served as a legal associate in the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, where he drafted amicus briefs and provided research, commentary, and scholarship important to Cato’s mission. During law school, Reilly served as a law clerk at the Institute for Justice and for the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Class Action Fairness.
Reilly holds a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as Senior Articles Editor of the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, which selected his student note for publication—an examination of the potential challenges to drug prohibition from the development of 3D-Printing. He received an M.A. in International Relations, Upper Second Class, from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he played defense for the Men’s Lacrosse Team. After a decade in our nation’s capital, Reilly recently moved back to his hometown in Maryland, where he lives with the aforementioned bride, their daughter, and a very, very spoiled rescue mutt.
Reilly Stephens serves as Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, litigating cases in state and federal courts around the country covering a wide range of expertise including free speech and association, campaign finance, labor law, search and seizure, property rights, educational freedom, federalism, equal protection, due process, and separation of powers. Reilly also serves as Director of LJC’s amicus practice, contributing to important constitutional cases before the Supreme Court and lower appellate courts throughout the country.
After joining LJC as a Staff Attorney in 2018, Reilly filed more than a dozen cases around the country to enforce the First Amendment rights of public employees building on the Center’s landmark Supreme Court victory in Janus v. AFSCME. Along the way, he developed a litigation strategy to revive the nondelegation doctrine, eventually winning only the second appellate non-delegation victory in 80 years.
Over the course of the pandemic, Reilly contributed to a number of legal challenges to the excesses of government COVID rules, including a key role in defeating the OSHA vaccine mandate. However, the most important one to Reilly was personal: representing his own bride against the District of Columbia to win the First Amendment right to dance at his own wedding—in the end, the first song inviting guests to the dance floor was “Footloose.” After that successfully represented a pair of California doctors in challenging the State’s threat to take the licenses of any medical professional disagreeing with California’s official views about COVID prevention and treatment. Most recently, Reilly was a part of the LJC team challenging President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.
A 2023-2024 Antonin Scalia Fellow, Reilly has contributed scholarship and commentary on important constitutional issues to many outlets, including The Dispatch, National Review, the Washington Examiner, CNN, BBC, MSNBC, and Newsmax.
Prior to joining LJC, Reilly served as a legal associate in the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, where he drafted amicus briefs and provided research, commentary, and scholarship important to Cato’s mission. During law school, Reilly served as a law clerk at the Institute for Justice and for the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Class Action Fairness.
Reilly holds a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as Senior Articles Editor of the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, which selected his student note for publication—an examination of the potential challenges to drug prohibition from the development of 3D-Printing. He received an M.A. in International Relations, Upper Second Class, from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he played defense for the Men’s Lacrosse Team. After a decade in our nation’s capital, Reilly recently moved back to his hometown in Maryland, where he lives with the aforementioned bride, their daughter, and a very, very spoiled rescue mutt.