Chip Mellor

William H. (Chip) Mellor serves as President and General Counsel of the Institute for Justice, which he co-founded. Mellor litigates cutting-edge constitutional cases nationwide protecting economic liberty, property rights and the First Amendment. Among his accomplishments are breaking open Denver’s 50-year-old taxi monopoly, ending the funeral industry's monopoly on casket sales in Tennessee, defending of New Jersey's welfare reform and launching the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago.

On Friday, October 11, America lost one of the most significant civil liberties pioneers of the past 40 years: William "Chip" Mellor—the founding president and recent board chairman of the Institute for Justice ...—died at his home in Moab, Utah, after a battle with leukemia ... In addition to leading IJ for its first 25 years, Mellor personally litigated economic liberty and educational choice cases, including arguing Craigmiles v. Giles, in which the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the government cannot impose protectionist regulations on casket sellers.