Hans von Spakovsky is a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and is an authority on issues including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law, and government reform. As manager of Heritage’s Election Law Reform Initiative, which examines not only how to protect the integrity of campaigns and elections but to achieve greater fairness and security, von Spakovsky studies and writes about campaign finance restrictions, voter fraud and voter ID, enforcement of federal voting rights laws, administration of elections, and voting equipment standards. 

Before joining Heritage in 2008, von Spakovsky served as a member of the Federal Election Commission. Previously, von Spakovsky worked at the Justice Department as counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, providing expertise in enforcing the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act of 2002. A former litigator, in-house counsel and senior corporate officer in the insurance industry, von Spakovsky worked on tort reform and civil justice issues there for more than a decade. He also has taught as an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Law.

He has served on the Board of Advisors of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and on the Fulton County (Ga.) Board of Registrations and Elections. He is a former member of the Virginia Advisory Board to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. President Donald Trump appointed von Spakovsky to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in 2017. He currently serves on the Board of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.

His analysis and commentary have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Hill, and USA Today, as well as such outlets as National Review Online and Fox News. His series for PJ Media, “Every Single One,” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He appears regularly on Fox News Channel and on other national and regional TV and radio news outlets.

A 1984 graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Law, von Spakovsky received a bachelor's degree in 1981 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He currently resides in Vienna, Va.