Regulation czar post expected to get a boost under Obama

Cass Sunstein, a longtime University of Chicago legal scholar and prominent author, is set to take up a key cause in the Barack Obama administration: regulation.

The president-elect is expected to name Sunstein –- his friend and informal advisor -– to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a transition official said late Wednesday.

A low-profile position in the current administration, the job is likely to be a higher-wattage one after Obama takes office this month.

Obama has promised an overhaul of federal regulation, specifically of the U.S. financial markets, and Sunstein’s job description suggests a more sweeping agenda.

"This office is in charge of coordinating and overseeing government regulations," a transition official said Wednesday, "and a smarter approach to regulation is key to making government work better and getting better results in terms of protecting health, the environment, etc."

Besides that, Sunstein brings a measure of star power to the post, as a leading constitutional scholar and the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard. He joined the Harvard faculty this year after many years at the University of Chicago, where he is still a visiting professor.

Along with economist Richard Thaler, Sunstein is co-author of the popular current book "Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness." In it, the two examine how setting up thoughtful "choice architecture" can encourage people to make beneficial choices without restricting their freedom to choose.

Sunstein is the author of many other books and articles, and much of his recent work is devoted to exploring the relationship between law and human behavior.

He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall. He also served as an attorney and advisor in the Office of the Legal Counsel in the Justice Department.

Sunstein married Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Samantha Power after the two met on the Obama campaign. He has been mentioned as a possible Obama nominee to the Supreme Court.

-- Christi Parsons

Photo: Cass Sunstein (credit: University of Chicago)