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Thomas M. Fisher
Thomas M. Fisher served as a Deputy Attorney General for 22 years and as Indiana’s first Solicitor General from 2005-2023. In that role he handled high profile litigation for the State, defended state statutes against constitutional attack, advised the Attorney General on a range of legal policy issues, and managed the State’s U.S. Supreme Court docket. A two-time recipient of the National Association of Attorneys General Best Brief Award, Fisher has argued five times before the High Court.
His U.S. Supreme Court experience also includes authorship of dozens of cert-stage and merits-stage amicus curiae briefs on a wide range of issues. In addition, Fisher has argued dozens of important and high-profile cases before both the Indiana Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Fisher is a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and was recently named a Sagamore of the Wabash by Governor Eric Holcomb.
A native Hoosier, 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
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.