Before founding a public interest law firm at EdChoice, Tom Fisher served as Indiana’s first Solicitor General from 2005-2023. Fisher has argued dozens of high-profile cases before both the Indiana Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. A two-time recipient of the National Association of Attorneys General Best Brief Award, Fisher is a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a Sagamore of the Wabash. Fisher is a graduate of Wabash College and Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where he serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law.
Favorite Quote
We affirm the grant of summary judgment to the defendants.
– Indiana Supreme Court, upholding Indiana’s school choice scholarship program in Meredith v. Pence, March 26, 2013.
Favorite Teacher/Class
Pat Baude; Constitutional Law
High School Mascot
Cavalier
Favorite Pastime
Reading and listening to music
Inspiration for Joining the Educational Choice Movement
It is hard to say when, exactly, I first became interested in the school choice issue. I wish I could say with certainty that it happened when, as a precocious, market-minded high school student I devoured The Role of Government in Education, Free to Choose or Capitalism and Freedom as an act of subversive intellectualism. But until college I hardly knew of Milton Friedman’s existence, much less had the mental acuity to appreciate his economic thinking. Suffice it to say that I managed to encounter the education choice idea somewhere along my path from high school to college, and immediately found it appealing. Only years later did I get around to reading Friedman, discovering his origination of modern America’s great school choice debate.
Fast-forward to 2011, when the General Assembly passed a bill creating Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program. Governor Daniels signed the bill, and ISTA and others immediately challenged the program in state court under the Indiana Constitution. I had the honor of leading the State’s defense of the choice program, which (with the help of our friends at Institute for Justice and their clients), yielded a 5-0 victory in the Indiana Supreme Court. I routinely cite that case as a top career highlight.