Jewish former US judge Richard Posner, most-cited legal scholar of last century, dies at 87

Former US Circuit Judge Richard Posner, a prolific jurist who ranks as the country's most-cited legal scholar of the last century and was viewed as one of the most influential judges outside the US Supreme Court, has died at 87.Posner, who had served on the Chicago-based 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals for 36 years until retiring in 2017, died on Tuesday, according to the University of Chicago Law School, where he had long taught.Posner was born in New York City to far-left Jewish parents he once described as "limousine radicals." He enrolled at Yale College at 16 and was just 23 when he graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School.Appointed to the appeals court in 1981 by Republican president Ronald Reagan, Posner authored more than 3,000 opinions during his judicial career.He also wrote over 500 articles and 50 books, on topics including antitrust law, the 2000 presidential election recount, and constitutional issues arising after the attacks of September 11, 2001.Posner was a pioneer in the field of law and economics, an area that examines legal rules through the lens of economic efficiency and incentives. In 1973, he published Economic Analysis of Law, a book that helped define the discipline.A pragmatist and critic of originalismPosner often called himself a pragmatist.