Westminster Town Hall Forum

Ari Melber is Chief Legal Correspondent for MSNBC, covering the U. S. Supreme Court, Justice Department, and FBI, and the host of the political news program The Beat. He has written on law and politics for The Nation, The Atlantic, Reuters, Salon, and Politico. Raised in Seattle, he earned a BA in political science from the University of Michigan and a JD from Cornell Law School where he was an editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. From 2009 to 2013, he practiced law at a major New York law firm, specializing in First Amendment, reporter’s privilege, and copyright litigation. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he traveled with the Obama campaign on special assignment for The Washington Independent. He was a national staff member for the 2004 John Kerry Campaign, and he worked as a legislative aide to Senator Maria Cantwell.