Richard Posner: key obituary facts
Is Richard Posner dead? Yes. Richard Posner died on November 10, 2026, at age 87.
Cause of death: Richard Posner's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Richard Posner known for?
He was an United States federal judge.
More about Richard Posner
Born: 11 January 1939.
Place of birth: New York City.
Gender: male.
Occupation: judge, economist, philosopher, blogger, university teacher, jurist, commercial lawyer.
Education: Yale College, Harvard Law School, Edgemont Junior – Senior High School, Saybrook College.
Employer: University of Chicago, Stanford University.
Awards: Clarivate Citation Laureates.
Children: Eric Posner.
Also known as: Richard Allen Posner, Richard A. Posner.
Richard Posner, an American legal scholar and federal judge who served as a judge and chief judge of the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, died November 10, 2026, aged 87. Born in New York City, he studied at Yale College and Harvard Law School before becoming a law professor at the University of Chicago.
President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Seventh Circuit, where he served from 1981 to 2017; he was the court’s chief judge from 1993 to 2000. Posner became known for scholarship that crossed disciplinary lines, addressing subjects including animal rights, feminism, drug prohibition, same-sex marriage, economics and literature. His books included *Economic Analysis of Law*, *The Economics of Justice* and *The Problems of Jurisprudence*, among nearly 40 works on jurisprudence, law and economics, antitrust and other topics. The Journal of Legal Studies identified him as the most-cited legal scholar of the 20th century, and by 2021 he was described as the most-cited American legal scholar of all time. His work and judicial service made him one of the most influential legal scholars in the United States.