Oliver Dunford is a senior attorney in Pacific Legal Foundation’s Separation of Powers practice. He litigates cases on agency adjudication, and emergency powers abuse, among other issues.
Oliver has brought challenges against various state and federal agencies, including the California Coastal Commission, Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He also headed PLF’s representation of TWISM Enterprises before the Ohio Supreme Court, which agreed with PLF that the Ohio Constitution precludes judicial deference to agency legal interpretations.
Oliver remains inspired by the classical liberal ideals upon which our Founders declared independence and secured the blessings of liberty. The Constitution’s promises, however, are not self-executing. As James Madison explained, “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” Oliver helps oblige the government to control itself—to the end that all individuals may pursue their rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Before joining PLF in 2017, Oliver clerked at the Ohio Supreme Court and the Ohio Court of Appeals and spent more than a decade in private practice working on complex commercial litigation. Originally from Cleveland, he is a graduate of the University of Dayton and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.
He has published in, among others, Rutgers Law Review, The Hill, Discourse, and Law & Liberty. He has been quoted in publications like The New York Times, Bloomberg, USA Today, and Reason, and he has appeared on CNN.
Oliver spends all his free time following the Cleveland Guardians.
Oliver is a member of the bar only in the states of California, Florida, and Ohio.
