One to Watch in the New Congress: Utah Senator-Elect Mike Lee

Members of the new, Republican-infused Congress that will take office in January, 2011, will be carrying with them well-read copies of the Constitution, though some of them have strong views on how to change it, both in language and doctrine. Writing in the New York Times, former PJP faculty member Jeffrey Rosen cited Utah senator-elect Mike Lee as having the best legal credentials of the new class: Lee's father was a Solicitor General under President Ronald Reagan ("Mike acquired his love for the Constitution early on while discussing everything from the Due Process Clause to the Second Amendment around the dinner table [with his father]," reads the senator-elect's campaign website) and the junior Lee served as a clerk to Judge Sam Alito when he was on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and again after Judge Alito became Justice Alito of the United States Supreme Court. In-between, he joined the well-respected Washington firm, Sidley & Austin.