Bob Ritter

From Philosopedia

TENTATIVE - do not cite until approved

Bob Ritter (day/month/year - )

Ritter, who is legal coordinator of the Appignani Humanist Legal Center, was born in Hyattsville, Maryland, the son of Alvis "Tex" Ritter and _____

He earned a B.A. in government at the University of Virginia in 1972 and a J.D. from the Northern Virginia Law School in 1986.

He is a member of the District of Columbia and Virginia bars, and federal bars of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the 4th and 10th Circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court. His primary organizational link has been with the American Civil Liberties Union, of which he has been a member since 1969. He served on its Northern Virginia chapter board for over 20 years and is a past board member of the ACLU of Virginia.

In 2007, Ritter was hired as the American Humanist Association AHA's legal coordinator and is counsel of record for friend-of-the-court briefs in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum (U.S. Supreme Court) and American Atheists v. Duncan (10th Cir.).

Before coming to American Humanist Association, he was employed by the IBM Corporation in administrative capacities (1973-1994). Also, he was a principal in the law firm of Wainer & Ritter, P.C. (1995-96), and president and manager of a services company serving the airline industry (1996-2000), unemployed/stay-at-home parent (2000-05), and office manager at Public Citizen's Capitol Hill office (2005-07).

Ritter is a founder/president of Jefferson Madison Center for Religious Liberty, Inc., which he started in 2006.

Asked about his philosophic stance, Ritter has written,

Philosophically, I was raised as a Catholic but became an atheist by the mid-to-late 1960's, which I have been for the 40+ years. I have taught my son that there is no credible evidence of the existence of a god or gods. I am a strong advocate of the separation of government and religion.

Ritter with his wife and two children live in the Falls Church, Virginia, area.

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