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William R. Maurer
William R. Maurer is the Executive Director of the Institute for Justice Washington Chapter (IJ-WA), which he joined in November 2002. IJ-WA engages in constitutional litigation in the areas of economic liberty, private property rights, educational choice, freedom of speech, and other vital liberties secured by the Washington State Constitution.
Maurer successfully led challenges to a number of governmental abuses. Before the Washington Supreme Court, he argued against efforts by the government to classify on-air radio commentary as a reportable contribution under the state’s campaign finance law, a case in which the court sided with IJ-WA 9-0. He also served as lead attorney on IJ-WA's successful challenge before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to a City of Redmond ordinance that banned the use of portable signs for commercial businesses while allowing them for politicians and real estate companies.
He is active in numerous cases nationwide involving the right to freely engage in the political speech, including defending the rights of a property owner in St. Louis to protest eminent domain abuse by putting a mural on the side of his building that is threatened with eminent domain for private gain. Maurer is also the lead attorney in a challenge to Arizona’s punitive campaign financing regime. He has testified on eminent domain and free speech issues in a number of state legislatures. In December 2006, the Washington Policy Center published his Policy Brief, A False Sense of Security: The Potential For Eminent Domain Abuse in Washington State. IJ-WA's cases have been covered in Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, City Journal, and in all major Washington papers.
Maurer was named a "Washington Superlawyer" by Washington Law & Politics Magazine in 2007, 2008 and 2009. He is a member of Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna's Eminent Domain Task Force, which reviews and monitors Washington's eminent domain laws, identifies abuse of eminent domain powers, and develops legislative reforms for the A.G. to sponsor. He is also an Adjunct Scholar and Research Advisory Board member at the Washington Policy Center. Maurer is an author of chapters in legal reference works on both Washington’s Public Records Act and the interplay between administrative law and the Civil Rights Act.
Prior to joining IJ-WA, Maurer clerked for Washington Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders and Justice Victoria Lederberg of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and then practiced law at Perkins Coie LLP. Maurer received his law degree in 1994 from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he was an articles editor of the Wisconsin Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree in Political Studies from Bard College in 1989.
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