Andrew Napolitano

Andrew Peter Napolitano (born June 6, 1950) is an American former jurist and syndicated columnist whose work appears in numerous publications, including The Washington Times and Reason.

He believes the Supreme Court's ruling on interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia (1967) set a precedent that would also require state recognition of same-sex marriage.

He opposes capital punishment, saying, "I don't believe that the state has the moral authority to execute."

He is a believer in the separation of Church and State.

He graduated with an A.B. in history from Princeton University in 1972 after completing a senior thesis titled "An Essay on the Origin and Evolution of Representative Government in the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, 1630-1644."

He received his J.D. from Notre Dame Law School and was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1975.

After law school, he entered private practice as a litigator.

He first taught law for a brief period in 1980–1981 at Delaware Law School (now Widener).

Napolitano served as a New Jersey Superior Court judge from 1987 to 1995.

He also served as a visiting professor at Widener University Delaware Law School, Seton Hall University School of Law, and Brooklyn Law School.

He is a libertarian and has gained prominence in part due to his criticism of the Administrations of President Trump and President Obama.

He sat on the New Jersey bench from 1987 to 1995, becoming the state's youngest then-sitting Superior Court judge.

He served as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University School of Law for 11 years, from 1989 to 2000.

Napolitano resigned his judgeship in 1995 to return to private practice.

Beginning in 1997, he became an analyst for Fox News, commenting on legal news and trials.

He has written nine books on legal and political subjects.

Napolitano was born in Newark, New Jersey.

Before joining Fox as a news analyst, Napolitano was the presiding judge for the first season of Twentieth Television's syndicated court show Power of Attorney (2000–02), in which people brought small-claims disputes to a televised courtroom.

Differing from similar formats, the plaintiffs and defendants were represented pro bono by famous attorneys.

He departed the series after its first season.

From 2006 to 2010, Napolitano co-hosted a talk radio show on Fox News Radio with Brian Kilmeade titled Brian and the Judge.

He hosted a daily libertarian talk show called Freedom Watch that aired on Fox Business Channel.

Frequent guests on Freedom Watch were Congressman Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell and Peter Schiff.

He promoted the works of Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises in his program.

The show originally aired every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. on Fox News' Strategy Room and from September 14, 2009, aired three to four times a week.

On June 12, 2010, it debuted as a weekly show on Fox Business.

It was one of several programs dropped in February 2012 when FBN revamped its primetime lineup.

Napolitano regularly substituted for television host Glenn Beck when Beck was absent from his program.

After Beck announced that he would be leaving Fox News, he asked Napolitano to replace him.

He served as a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School from 2013 to 2017.

Napolitano told friends in 2017 that President Donald Trump told him he was considering him for a United States Supreme Court appointment should there be a second vacancy.

Ultimately, Judge Brett Kavanaugh was chosen instead.

He regularly provided legal analysis on top rated shows on both Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, such as The Kelly File, The O'Reilly Factor, Varney & Co., The Fox Report with Shepard Smith, Fox & Friends and Special Report with Bret Baier until an appearance on March 16, 2017, related to a then-postulated conspiracy theory involving President Trump's accusation that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped him.

On March 20, 2017, the Los Angeles Times reported that Napolitano was pulled off the air indefinitely because of the wiretapping claims; however, it was unclear whether Napolitano would return to the air or whether it was just a temporary move to remove him from the news cycle.

He returned to the air on March 29 and stood by his claims concerning British intelligence.

A new book by CNN reporter Brian Stelter asserts that Attorney General William Barr met with Fox News boss Rupert Murdoch in October 2019 to request that Murdoch "muzzle" Napolitano and that Napolitano's Fox appearances have been limited since that meeting.

Napolitano was let go from his position as a contributor to Fox News in August 2021 after allegations of sexual harassment filed by a Fox Business production assistant.

During his 24-year tenure as Fox News' Senior Judicial Analyst, Napolitano appeared on air more than 14,500 times, a record for any on-air personality at the network.

Napolitano is anti-abortion and holds that abortion "should be prohibited."

He reasons that while a woman has a natural and undeniable right to privacy in her personal choices, the rule of necessity causes the right to life of the fetus, which he believes to begin at conception, to take priority for the duration of gestation.