Stewart Baker blogs on security law and policy, the international community, and travel industry regulation.

Stewart Baker practices law at Steptoe & Johnson.  He is also a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

From 2005 to 2009, he was the first Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security.  As assistant secretary, Mr. Baker oversaw offices responsible for Department-wide policy analysis, international affairs, strategic planning, and relationships with private sector, advisory committees, and law enforcement.

Stewart Baker’s law practice covers matters such as homeland security, international trade, cybersecurity, data protection, travel industry regulation, and foreign investment regulation.  Mr. Baker’s Supreme Court and appellate practice has included successfully advocating a new theory of constitutional federalism and founding the State and Local Legal Center, a public interest institution representing state and local governments before the Supreme Court.

During 1994 and 1995, Mr. Baker served as General Counsel of the WMD Commission investigating intelligence failures prior to the Iraq war.  From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Baker was General Counsel of the National Security Agency, where he led NSA and interagency efforts to reform commercial encryption and computer security law and policy.  From 1979 to 1981, he helped start the Education Department and served as deputy General Counsel of that Department.  (That’s two of the last three cabinet department start-ups, for those keeping track, and two is plenty for anyone.)  He was also a law clerk to Hon. John Paul Stevens, U.S. Supreme Court, as well as to Hon. Frank M. Coffin, U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, and Hon. Shirley M. Hufstedler, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Mr. Baker has served on numerous boards and commissions.  He testified before the September 11 commission on intelligence and law enforcement issues and has been a member of the President’s Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration, the Industry Trade Advisory Committee on telecommunications and electronic commerce, two Defense Science Board panels on information warfare defense, and the Markle Task Force on Technology and Terrorism.  He has also been an advisor to international organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Mr. Baker also regular blogs at Skating on Stilts.

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