In Memoriam: Daniel Meltzer

Daniel J. Meltzer, a Harvard law professor who held leadership positions with The American Law Institute and spent two years in the White House as a close legal advisor to President Obama, died on May 24 after a long battle with cancer. He was 63.

Professor Meltzer is remembered for his superb intellect and wise counsel, for the rigor and integrity of his legal analysis, and for his generosity of spirit, constant kindness, and unflagging commitment to public service.

A member of the Harvard Law School faculty since 1982, Professor Meltzer was named the Story Professor of Law in 1998.

Throughout his career, Professor Meltzer was drawn repeatedly to government service positions and to working with The American Law Institute on law reform projects.

From January 2009 to June 2010, he served as the Principal Deputy Counsel to President Obama. When he announced in May 2010 that he would be leaving that post to return to Harvard, The New York Times noted that Professor Meltzer had “worked on nearly every major legal issue the White House has handled, a sprawling portfolio that ranged from domestic policies to national security matters.”

The Times report said Professor Meltzer “played a leading role” in the administration’s efforts to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that he had helped to prepare Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor for her confirmation hearings.

He was also the White House’s primary liaison to the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which evaluates the legality of proposed policies, the Times reported, as well as a key figure in the Obama Administration’s efforts to overhaul health care, “by negotiating and helping to draft an executive order Mr. Obama signed as part of a deal to persuade anti-abortion rights Democrats to back the bill.”

After he left the White House, Professor Meltzer was appointed as a member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and of the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB). 

Professor Meltzer received an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College in 1972 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was President of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he served as a law clerk to Judge Carl McGowan of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.

From 1977 to 1978, he was Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. After that, he worked three years in private practice with the District of Columbia firm of Williams & Connolly.

Revered as an expert in the fields of federal courts and criminal procedure, Professor Meltzer also taught and published in the fields of constitutional law, remedies, and comparative U.S./European federalism.  He is the coauthor of several editions of Hart & Wechsler’s The Federal Courts and the Federal System and has published widely in law journals.

Elected to The American Law Institute in 1989, he joined the ALI Council in 1999. In May 2013, he was named ALI’s Director Designate and was expected to succeed Director Lance Liebman when he retired in May 2014. But Professor Meltzer withdrew from the position less than five months later for health reasons, and a renewed search ultimately led to the selection of NYU Law Professor and Dean Emeritus Richard L. Revesz, who became ALI Director in May 2014.

On ALI’s Council, he served on the Executive Committee and Nominating Committee. He also served as an Adviser on three projects—Model Penal Code: Sentencing, the Federal Judicial Code Revision Project, and Model Penal Code: Sexual Assault and Related Offenses.  He also worked on the revision of the Model Penal Code’s Capital Punishment provision.

Professor Meltzer was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served as a member of the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the United States Judicial Conference. He also served as an Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh on the Iran–Contra investigation.

He is survived by his wife, Ellen Semonoff, and their two sons.