Dr. Aaron Nielson

Biography

Aaron Nielson teaches and writes in the fields of administrative law, civil procedure, and federal courts. Before joining the faculty, he served as Solicitor General of Texas, where he represented the state before the U.S. Supreme Court and Texas Supreme Court, overseeing appellate litigation for the state. Throughout his career, he has been a professor at Brigham Young University and worked as an antitrust partner at the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Nielson clerked for Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. on the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as for Judge Janice Rogers Brown on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Judge Jerry E. Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. As Solicitor General, he successfully defended a constitutional challenge to Texas’s law requiring online pornographers to implement age verification. In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court appointed him to defend the constitutionality of a federal agency. Currently, he serves as a Senior Fellow at the Administrative Conference of the United States, completing a six-year term as a public member and chair of the Conference’s Administration & Management Committee. Nielson’s research focuses on administrative law, federal litigation, and the separation of powers, with his work published in reputable law reviews including the University of Chicago Law Review and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He has been recognized for his teaching and scholarship, receiving the Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award in 2021, which honors young academics for excellence in legal scholarship and their commitment to teaching and student welfare. He is also an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Research Interests