Andrew Debter

Andrew Debter is a litigation and appellate attorney at Brown Fox PLLC in Dallas, Texas. He previously served a two-year clerkship with Judge Aileen M. Cannon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He will clerk for Judge Emil J. Bove III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Andrew earned his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, where he was President of the Federalist Society and Notes and Articles Editor of the Fordham Urban Law Journal. He holds a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy, & Economics from The King’s College.

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What is your current position?

I am a litigation and appellate attorney at Brown Fox PLLC in Dallas, Texas.

What inspired you to choose this career path?

My interest in a legal career first sparked during an undergraduate constitutional law course with a favorite professor of mine at The King’s College, Dr. David Tubbs. In that class, I encountered the Founding-era debates in their own words and studied Lincoln’s response to Dred Scott in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. At the same time, I came to appreciate the genius of the common law system and the shrewd statesmanship of Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison.

Ultimately, I developed an admiration for the commitment to rationality inherent in our constitutional legal order and wanted to pursue a career where I could do some good by counseling clients through difficult situations and work to defend their rights and liberties.

There are all sorts of educational programs out there for current and rising conservative professionals. What do you think makes the Claremont Institute’s Fellowships unique?

Two things stand out: the caliber of the faculty and fellows, and the sheer volume of primary sources we are asked to read ahead of time, and which are used to inform our discussion. Nothing about the John Marshall Fellowship is surface level. Claremont equips its fellows to go deep into the history and immerse themselves in the American founding.

Who would it be, why, and what would you discuss, if you could have a conversation with an American Founder, or any great thinker?

Jonathan Edwards. I think everyone should read his Resolutions (about a ten-minute read), which he wrote at age seventeen. One line in particular: “Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.”

He did exactly that. A graduate of Yale College, a Congregationalist minister, a theologian of revival, a central figure in the Great Awakening, and later president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton), Edwards combined intellectual rigor with spiritual seriousness. He inherited the Puritan vision of America as a “city upon a hill.”

President Calvin Coolidge, in his address on the sesquicentennial of the Declaration, credited Edwards’s religious philosophy with preparing the moral soil for the American Revolution. Edwards shaped the character of the colonies long before political independence was declared.

He had eleven children and a truly extraordinary legacy, with descendants that included judges, senators, governors, scholars, and clergy. A life well-lived can echo for centuries.

I would ask him his thoughts on how one can sustain his intensity of purpose without losing humility and how he would counsel Americans today about renewal.

Who was more important for their time, George Washington or Abraham Lincoln? Why?

It is nearly impossible to choose between two statesmen so indispensable to our founding and refounding. As a lawyer, I am naturally drawn to Lincoln’s writings. He may well be our greatest political philosopher-president.

But since I see so many fellow Claremonsters (not surprisingly) saying Lincoln, I will stick up for Washington here.

Washington’s leadership and moral authority gave the revolutionary cause gravitas. Many today discussing his legacy rightly point to his voluntarily relinquishment of power. That is indeed an important part of his legacy that shaped our political tradition, but I also think that on some level that emphasis actually undersells his influence. Beyond his voluntary relinquishment of power, his influence endured even after he left office. From Mount Vernon, his example presided over the fragile republic. He embodied republican virtue in a way that made self-government credible.

Without Washington, the American experiment may never have secured the stability necessary to survive its infancy. Without a union, there would have been nothing for Lincoln to preserve.

Looking back on history, in which one of the original 13 colonies would you have wanted to live and why?

New York.

Though I still consider myself a Texan and a Southerner, I spent my formative college years and much of my twenties in New York City. Its history, from Dutch settlement to British colony and later to commercial hub and modern metropolis, captures something quintessentially American.

When I worked in lower Manhattan overlooking the South Street Seaport, I would visit Fraunces Tavern, where Washington bade farewell to the Continental Army, and imagine the city in its early days.

To me nothing better captures the mystique of New York City (although the essay Here is New York by E.B. White comes close) than the final lines of The Great Gatsby, which my wife thoughtfully put on a mug for me when we were first dating:

And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees . . . once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.

What qualities do you believe will make outstanding statesmen/women in this century?

Fortitude.

Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the ability to act rightly despite fear. Fortitude is the strength of will that makes every other virtue possible. Without it, prudence collapses into timidity, and justice yields to pressure.

Our time requires leaders who can endure criticism, withstand isolation, and persist in doing what is right even when it is unpopular.

What do you believe is the greatest challenge facing the United States today?

Reagan famously said that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” I worry about many of the trends I see in America today and particularly my own generation.

Religious affiliation and participation have declined sharply. Marriage and family formation are delayed. Birthrates are falling. These trends are not uniquely American, but their cumulative effect raises serious questions about whether we will successfully pass on the habits, commitments, and constitutional culture that have sustained the republic for nearly 250 years.

What book, speech, or movie has left a lasting impression on you and why?

Whenever I am faced with difficult circumstances or tempted to give in to cynicism (or to “black pill” as they say), I think of Gandalf’s response in the Lord of the Rings when Frodo said “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” Gandalf: “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” For me, it is a pithy reminder to let go of things beyond my control and instead focus on the task at hand.

What books are you currently reading?

I tend to read a few books at a time. The ones I am reading currently or have on deck are: Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne, Notes from Underground by Fydor Dostoevsky, No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, and A Country of Vast Designs by Robert W. Merry.

Do you have a favorite quote?  Why does it resonate with you?

My elementary school’s motto: esse quam videri, which in Latin translates to “to be rather than to seem.” That has always stuck with me. It speaks to the importance of authenticity and character.

What is the most distinctive attribute/character of the people in the state where you grew up that you genuinely admire?

As a native Texan, I admire the state’s independent spirit—the cowboy ethos. You see it in the “Come and Take It” flag from the Texas revolution, and in William Barret Travis’s letter from the Alamo, which I memorized in third grade and still know by heart: “I shall never surrender or retreat. . . . I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country – Victory or Death.”

What is your favorite cultural/recreational pastime (or hobby) and why?

At this stage of life—with two young daughters and another child on the way—much of my joy comes from home. We play hide-and-seek, freeze tag, and are working our way through great classic children’s books. Recently we have enjoyed the Beatrix Potter collection, The Wind in the Willows, Pilgrim’s Progress, Stuart Little, and Charlotte’s Web. I look forward to introducing them to Narnia, Tolkien, chess, and Catan.

Outside the home, there are few activities I enjoy more than a long conversation with friends over a cigar and a bourbon.

C.S. Lewis put it well: “[T]he sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a man alone reading a book that interests him.”