Anya Bidwell

Listen to Anya, Adam Liptak, and John Malcolm discuss qualified immunity on Intelligence Squared. 

Anya Bidwell is an attorney with the Institute for Justice and one of the leaders of IJ’s Project on Immunity and Accountability (“IJPIA”). Through this project, Anya works to promote judicial engagement and ensure that government officials are held to account when they violate individuals’ constitutional rights.

One of Anya’s IJPIA cases—Brownback v. King—made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she and her colleagues argued that an innocent college student who was brutally beaten by undercover law enforcement officers should get his day in court. The case is now back in the Sixth Circuit.

In 2019, Anya was a co-counsel in another U.S. Supreme Court case brought by IJ, this time on behalf of two small business owners. In that case–Tennessee Wine & Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas—the Justices, in a 7-2 decision, held that states cannot engage in protectionism by imposing durational residency requirements on newly arrived residents, even in the context of the Twenty-First Amendment.

Before joining IJ, Anya was a litigation attorney with a top national law firm, handling cases in trial and appellate courts. She earned her J.D. with honors from the University of Texas, where she worked as a student attorney at the United States Supreme Court Clinic. Two years prior to entering law school, Anya received a master’s degree in Global Policy Studies, also from the University of Texas, and wrote a thesis on asymmetric warfare.

Anya spent her childhood in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. At 16, she left her family behind and came to America on a university scholarship. Her upbringing motivated her to study law and become an advocate for a strong, independent judiciary.

Anya’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, and the Guardian. She is also the host of live recordings of our Short Circuit podcast and a co-producer of our documentary-style podcast Bound by Oath.