Ilya Shapiro
This content was last updated Nov. 15, 2023, 10:29 p.m. UTC
Ilya Shapiro is a Canadian attorney and the director of constitutional studies at anti-transgender conservative think tank Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. He is best known for coauthoring articles in Manhattan Institute’s public policy magazine City Life, and authoring multiple amicus briefs in anti-transgender court cases on behalf of the Institute.
In recent years, a cohort of adolescents suddenly experiencing gender-dysphoric feelings has rapidly emerged, suggesting that cross-gender feelings are neither innate nor immutable.
Education and Work
Shapiro earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University in 1999 and his Master of Science in International Relations at The London School of Economics and Political Science in 2000, then his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 2003. He has been licensed with the District of Columbia Bar since October 10th, 2004.
Shapiro worked as policy staff for the George W. Bush 2004 presidential campaign, then as an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP until 2006, and Patton Boggs LLP until 2007. He became a senior fellow in constitutional studies at libertarian think tank Cato Institute in 2007, and was promoted to director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies in 2019, then to the vice president of the center in 2021.
Leaving Cato Institute in 2022, Shapiro lectured at Georgetown University Law Center between February and June of that year. In July, he joined the Manhattan Institute as a senior fellow and the director of constitutional studies.
He is also a Board of Directors member for The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR), a right-wing lobbyist group that campaigns against diversity and inclusion movements with a focus on gender identity, and a regular speaker for conservative libertarian group The Federalist Society.
Shapiro is the author of Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest Court and coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? Hobby Lobby, the Affordable Care Act, and the Constitution.
Manhattan Institute
Shapiro joined the Manhattan Institute in July of 2022 as a senior fellow and the director of constitutional studies.
He has been contributing to their public policy magazine, City Journal, since then. Most of his writing for the Institute focuses on conservative politics, particularly as they relate to law, though he has contributed to an article about transgender youth social transition. In the article, co-authored by his Institute peers John Ketcham and Leor Sapir, Shapiro argues that affirming and supporting transgender youth is a violation of their parents’ rights that is not value neutral, perpetuating the false claim that the majority of transgender youth “desist,” or no longer report being transgender, by adulthood, despite the fact that a study by Princeton University’s Trans Youth Project showed that only 2.5% of their 300 cases had desisted in a five year timespan.
Shapiro has submitted over 500 amicus briefs to the Supreme Court, and has filed multiple on behalf of the Manhattan Institute since joining. In two briefs for anti-transgender court cases, Shapiro’s peer at the Institute, Leor Sapir, provided testimony despite the fact that he is not a medical professional.
One was filed on behalf of the plaintiffs in Foote v. Ludlow School Committee, a case in which parents of students at Ludlow alleged that the school had violated their rights by affirming their children’s transgender identity without notifying them first. The case has since been dismissed, but may be appealed.
Another was filed on behalf of the plaintiffs in Littlejohn v. School Board of Leon County, a similar case in Florida which was also dismissed. Shapiro used a brief almost identical to the one that was filed in Foote v. Ludlow School Committee.