Bredhoff & Kaiser, P.L.L.C.


John M. West



	John West joined Bredhoff & Kaiser in 1989 and has been a member of the firm since 1995. His practice focuses on appellate work and litigation in the federal and state courts, with particular emphasis on education-related matters. He has litigated ten cases involving the constitutionality of private-school voucher programs in various states over the course of the last dozen years, and has frequently represented educators asserting due process, free speech, and other constitutional and statutory rights. Other areas in which John’s practice has been focused on behalf of both public and private sector clients include union security (agency fee), duty of fair representation, internal union affairs, retiree benefits, qualified immunity, and class actions.

Representative examples of recent cases John has litigated and argued include Davenport v. Washington Education Association, 127 S. Ct. 2372 (2007) (constitutionality of state restriction on unions’ use of agency shop fees for political purposes); Appoloni v. United States, 450 F.3d 185 (6th Cir. 2006) (whether early retirement incentive payments are “wages” taxable under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act); Bush v. Holmes, 919 So. 2d 392 (Fla. 2006) (invalidating Florida school voucher program as contrary to state constitution’s education clause); and Lincoln Hockey LLC v. Semin, 2005 U.S. Dist. Lexis 34047 (D.D.C. 2005) (denying hockey team’s attempt to enjoin player’s continued play in Russia). John graduated summa cum laude and first in his class from the University of Michigan Law School (1987), where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Michigan Law Review. Following law school he clerked for Judge Harry T. Edwards of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the United States Supreme Court. He also holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver (1976), as well as a B.A. in history from Elizabethtown College (1970), and has studied in addition at Marburg University and the Free University of Berlin, Germany, the University of Caen, France, and the University of Minnesota. Before attending law school, John taught political science at a small college in Colorado and directed foreign study programs in France and Germany. Email John M. West

805 Fifteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-2207, (202) 842-2600, Fax (202) 842-1888