Martin Edward Whelan III (born July 26, 1960) is an American lawyer, legal activist and political commentator. Whelan's legal career included clerking for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and serving as a deputy assistant attorney general during the George W. Bush administration. Since 2004, he has served as the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank "dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy". Early life and education Whelan was born in Los Angeles, California, to attorney Martin Edward Whelan II and Nancy Carolyn Mispagel. Whelan is a 1978 graduate of Servite High School. Whelan graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1981 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. In 1985, he earned a J.D. degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and also was on the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review. Career From 1985 until 1986, Whelan worked as a law clerk to United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace. From 1991 until 1992, Whelan worked as a law clerk to United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. His co-clerks included Judge Jeffrey Sutton and Judge Daniel P. Collins. In the 1990s, Whelan served as general counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary while it was controlled by Republicans. He also has worked as a lawyer in private practice and was Senior Vice President and Counselor to the General Counsel for Verizon Corporation. From 2001 until 2004, Whelan served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, advising the White House Counsel's Office, the Attorney General and other senior DOJ officials, and Departments and agencies throughout the executive branch on difficult and sensitive legal questions. In 2004, Whelan became president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative nonprofit think tank that is based in Washington, D.C. He directs the EPPC's program on the United States Constitution, federal courts and culture. In 2016, Whelan gave his opinion in an interview reported by The New York Times. Whelan asked conservatives to adopt an uncompromising stance on appointments to the upper ranks of the U.S. judiciary, including appeals courts (which give the last word on cases the U.S. Supreme Court declines to review, and which can serve as a "breeding ground" for future Supreme Court justices).