After law school, Adler was a
law clerk for Judge
David B. Sentelle of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2000 to 2001. From 1991 to 2000, he worked at the conservative
Competitive Enterprise Institute, where he directed the Institute's
environmental studies program, and worked on environmental policy matters. He is also credited with helping to convince some former
climate change deniers to accept the scientific evidence for global warming and the associated threat. Adler is currently one of the most cited law professors in the fields of administrative and environmental law. Adler supported former Republican
Tennessee Senator
Fred Thompson in the
2008 presidential election. In 2012, Adler headed a screening committee appointed by Ohio governor
John Kasich to assist him in selecting an appointee to fill an open seat on the Ohio Supreme Court. Adler again participated in the selection process to fill an open Ohio Supreme Court seat in 2017. Hs has also served on the Bipartisan Judicial Advisory Commission appointed by Ohio Senators
Sherrod Brown and
Rob Portman to advise on federal district court nominations. In 2018, Adler was a founding member of
Checks and Balances. As part of Checks and Balances, Adler has joined multiple statements criticizing former President Trump and defending rule of law values.
Affordable Care Act litigation Adler's research and writing on the
Affordable Care Act is credited with inspiring litigation that led to a
U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the lawfulness of tax credits in states that failed to create their own health insurance exchanges. At the time, this did not seem like a significant observation as the Supreme Court had not yet decided
NFIB v. Sebelius and it appeared that most states would voluntarily create their own exchanges. As states started to resist implementing the Affordable Care Act, Adler co-authored several pieces with Michael Cannon of the
Cato Institute, arguing that an
IRS rule authorizing tax credits in states that did not create their own exchanges would be unlawful. Adler and Cannon's arguments were controversial, and prompted significant academic response. Adler and Cannon's work also prompted several lawsuits challenging the lawfulness of the tax credits, including
Halbig v. Sebelius and
King v. Burwell. Adler and Cannon filed amicus briefs defending their research in several of the cases. In the end, however, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Adler and Cannon's interpretation by a 6–3 vote in
King v. Burwell. Adler's scholarship has also been relied upon in other Supreme Court cases, and was cited by Chief Justice Roberts in his
City of Arlington v. FCC dissent and by Justice Gorsuch in
Kisor v. Wilkie. Case Western University School of Law Before joining the faculty at
William & Mary Law School, Adler was tenured professor at
Case Western Reserve University School of Law in
Cleveland, where he taught courses in environmental, regulatory, and
constitutional law. He was the director of the law school's Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Regulation. In 2011, Adler was named the inaugural holder of the Johan Verheij Memorial Professorship at CWRU. Adler is a contributing editor to the conservative
National Review Online and a contributor to "
The Volokh Conspiracy". He blogged anonymously under the pseudonym "Juan Non-Volokh" at "The Volokh Conspiracy" until May 1, 2006. Adler serves on the advisory board of the NFIB Legal Foundation, and the Environmental Law Reporter and ELI Press Advisory Board of the
Environmental Law Institute. In 2004, Adler received the
Paul M. Bator Award. In 2007, the Case Western Reserve University Law Alumni Association awarded Adler their annual "Distinguished Teacher Award." ==Personal life==