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James L. Swanson

James Swanson is a senior legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation and Edgar Award-winning author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer (William Morrow 2006). Prior to working at the Heritage Foundation, Swanson served as a senior fellow in constitutional studies and former editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review. He also worked for the U.S. International Trade Commission, clerked for Douglas H. Ginsburg, chief justice of the District of Columbia circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and worked in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice. Swanson studied history as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago before graduating from the University of California-Los Angeles School of Law.

Articles by this Author

A story that the Confederate president donned a petticoat to evade capture emerged right after Union cavalrymen apprehended him in Georgia at war’s end. But is it true?