Wardle was a clerk for Judge
John Sirica. A discussion of his brief in the June 1983 edition of the
West Virginia Law Review mentions him as a professor. In January 1995 Wardle wrote memos to
Utah State Senator LeRay McAllister and
Utah House of Representatives member
Norman L. Nielsen, urging them to propose legislation which would explicitly codify an exception for same-sex marriage into Utah's marriage recognition statue. Nielson subsequently drafted and sponsored House Bill 366 to do exactly that, Wardle's proposed legislation was signed into law in Utah by
Governor Mike Leavitt in March 1995, becoming the first of the state-level "DOMA Laws" to go into effect in the United States. Wardle was "the only law professor to testify in favor of DOMA in either the House or the Senate". at the 2007 WCF gathering in
Warsaw, and at the 2017 WCF gathering in
Budapest. Wardle currently holds the
Bruce C. Hafen Professorship at the
J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. He also edits the Society's web site. ==Mormon studies==