The Honorable Bradley A. Smith has been actively involved with The Buckeye Institute for more than three decades—an inaugural member of its Board of Research Advisors beginning in 1994, originally joining its Board of Trustees in 1996, serving as its chairman starting in 2014, and ultimately taking chairman emeritus status in 2026.

Mr. Smith is Founder and Chairman of the Institute for Free Speech, and one of the nation’s foremost experts on campaign finance and election law—having served as a Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) from 2000 to 2005, including as Vice Chairman in 2003 and Chairman during the presidential election cycle of 2004. During his tenure with the FEC, The Wall Street Journal dubbed him, “the only honorable man in this bordello.”

His writings and articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, The Georgetown Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and various other top academic journals, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and National Review, among other popular publications.

His 2001 book—Unfree Speech: The Folly of Campaign Finance Reform (Princeton University Press)—was praised by columnist George Will as “the year’s most important book on governance.” He also co-authored a leading casebook on voting rights and election law.

In 2010, Mr. Smith was awarded the prestigious Bradley Prize as an “innovative thinker” whose work has “strengthened American democratic capitalism and the institutions, principles, and values that sustain and nurture it.”

Mr. Smith is also chairman of the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a member of the Editorial Board of the Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy, Board of Advisors of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Executive Committee of the Election Law and Free Speech Practice Group of The Federalist Society, as well as a past member of the Advisory Committee to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Election Law, and a member of the Board of Scholars at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Mr. Smith practiced law with Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, served as United States Vice Consul in Guayaquil, Ecuador, worked as a consultant in the health care field, and served as General Manager of the Small Business Association of Michigan.

Upon his retirement in 2025, Mr. Smith delivered his Last Lecture as the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law at Capital University Law School, and previously held appointments at West Virginia University College of Law and Princeton University.

He is a cum laude graduate of both Kalamazoo College (B.A.) and Harvard Law School (J.D.), and holds an honorary doctorate degree from Augustana College.