Daniel Dew directs Pacific Legal Foundation’s legal policy efforts. The legal policy team works to expand individual liberty and human flourishing by leveraging PLF’s legal expertise and strategic research into concrete legislative, administrative, and regulatory victories at the state and federal levels.
Before joining PLF, Daniel was a legal fellow at The Buckeye Institute in Columbus, Ohio, and a visiting legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. He has led numerous successful public policy campaigns, including civil asset forfeiture reform, criminal justice reform, and removing government-imposed barriers to employment.
Daniel served on the Ohio Supreme Court’s Task Force to Examine Ohio’s Bail System, and Ohio’s Justice Reinvestment 2.0 Ad Hoc Committee.. He has also served as president of the Columbus, Ohio lawyers chapter of the Federalist Society, and chaired the Ohio State Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Committee.
He earned his law degree from Cleveland Marshall College of Law and his undergraduate degree from Utah State University.
Daniel and his wife, Amanda, keep busy with their three children and have a fourth on the way.
Co-authored by Nick Murray from Maine Policy Institute. This month marks the one-year anniversary of when states and the federal government first declared states of emergency over the spread of COVID-19. Much has changed since then in how we understand the virus, as well as the effects of lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, school closures, and "non-es ...
Although pandemics and crises are common throughout history, the "unprecedented" factor of the past year has been authoritarian restrictions on daily life and gubernatorial abuses of power. Consequently, it's perplexing that unilateral restrictions on dining, walking outside, school closures, and family gatherings pass as reasonable, but the urge t ...
Utah is consistently rated as one of the freest states in the nation. But even in the Beehive State, the government response to COVID-19 has been a harsh reminder how quickly that can change if there are no limits on the executive. Over the past year the governor and local officials ordered businesses to close ...
Small business owners from all over Missouri came to a small hearing room in Jefferson City to pour out their hearts and plead legislators for relief from government overreach in its response to COVID-19. These business owners weren't asking for a handout. They weren't arguing against mask mandates or claiming COVID-19 is a hoax. These ...
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, governors across the country have been using their emergency powers to enact laws they believed would mitigate the spread of the virus. Last March, this made sense. We had very little information about the virus and its implications. But as we approach the year mark of this crisis, ...
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic almost a year ago, governors and mayors have been governing unilaterally under the guise of emergency powers, and state legislatures and courts have delayed too long in reasserting their constitutional roles. Whether you believe that the government has done too much or too little to deal with COVID-19, ...