Anya Bidwell

Listen to Anya, Adam Liptak, and John Malcolm discuss qualified immunity on Intelligence Squared. 

Listen to Anya discuss policing on the New Yorker Radio Hour.  

Read George Will’s Washington Post column mentioning Anya and her work.

Anya Bidwell (née Cherkasova) leads IJ’s Project on Immunity and Accountability (“PIA”). Through this project, Anya works to promote judicial engagement and help people vindicate their constitutional rights through legal action.

Anya also serves as an adviser on the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, Constitutional Torts project.

Anya’s most pressing priority is to ensure that federal officials are held to the same level of accountability as state and local officials. Right now, those working for the federal government are in a league of their own because, unlike their state and local counterparts, they cannot be sued when they violate people’s constitutional rights. This leads to federal abuses that we are witnessing today. Anya is working with Congress and local legislatures to close the federal accountability loophole. She is also litigating this issue in federal courts.

Anya’s other area of expertise is First Amendment retaliation. In the span one year, Anya got the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse two bad circuit-court precedents, making it easier for victims of retaliatory arrests to sue their tormentors and restore their good name. Anya personally argued the first case, Gonzalez v. Trevino, before the Court. In the second case, Murphy v. Schmitt, the Court granted the petition, vacated the Eighth Circuit’s denial of the retaliation claim, and remanded the case back to the Eighth Circuit, ordering it to reconsider the critic’s complaint in light of Gonzalez.

Anya appeared before the Supreme Court three additional times. She second-chaired Martin v. United States (a wrong-house raid case), Brownback v. King (an excessive force case), and Tennessee Wine & Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas (a commerce clause case). The most recent of these—Martin—was heard by the Supreme Court in April 2025. The Court issued its opinion in June 2025, unanimously ruling for the family and sending the case back to the Eleventh Circuit. 

Anya spent her childhood in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. At 16, she came to this country alone on a university scholarship. Her upbringing motivated her to study law and become an advocate for a strong and independent judiciary.

Anya’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. She is also the host of live recordings of our Short Circuit podcast and a co-producer of our documentary-style podcast Bound by Oath.