A former special counsel and deputy assistant secretary for tax policy at the U.S. Treasury Department, Michael J. Graetz is an expert on national and international tax law. His work analyzes inequality, social insurance, and healthcare, and explores how unions, taxes, and regulation affect the distribution of income and wealth.

Well-known for his “Competitive Tax Plan,” which calls for cutting income and payroll taxes and making up the revenue with a value-added tax, Graetz received the National Tax Association’s Daniel M. Holland Medal for outstanding contributions to the study and practice of public finance in 2013. His most recent book, The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right, argued that the high court under Warren E. Burger whittled away at equality in the United States. Co-written with long-time New York Times Supreme Court correspondent Linda Greenhouse, it was a 2016 Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of the Year.