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After serving with the U.S. State Department at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad as Director of the Office of Legislative Statecraft for one year, Manuel Miranda is the founder and president of The Iraq Society, an association of men and women who served in Iraq as civilian and military volunteers or who continue to support the mission of building for peace, prosperity, and liberty for the people between the two rivers. 

Mr. Miranda is actively engaged in rendering assistance to nation-building, religious liberty and humanitarian projects overseas. He recently served to represent the Archbishop of Baghdad during his first official visit to Capitol Hill, the State Department, and Washington think-tanks and religious organizations.

Since 2008, he has served pro bono as the Washington D.C. representative of the Bars of Iraq and of the Kurdistan Region.  While serving in Baghdad, Mr. Miranda worked to strengthen the two Bars and was the first person to bring the boards and leaders of the two organizations together.  His reconciliation efforts were reflected in a written agreement between the two key membership organizations. 

Mr. Miranda also serves as chairman of the Third Branch Conference, a coalition of over 100 grass-top leaders nationwide engaged on judicial matters, first formed in 2005 as the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters.  In the nomination debate over Justice Sonia Sotomayor, he led over 100 center-right leaders in calling for a “great debate” rather than rancorous partisan obstruction.  He has called on Senate Republicans to forego the use of the filibuster if used solely to block President Obama’s judicial nominees.

Mr. Miranda served previously as Counsel to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, leading 51 Republican staffs on judicial confirmations, and previously as Senior Nominations Counsel to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.  Mr. Miranda is credited by MoveOn.org as the architect of the Republican “nuclear option;” an effort that sought to end the partisan use of the filibuster against judicial nominees with majority support.

In February 2006, Mr. Miranda was awarded the Ronald Reagan Award by the American Conservative Union for his leadership on judicial nominations, and especially for leading the opposition to the Harriet Miers nomination.  The Ronald Reagan Award is considered the highest award of the conservative movement.   

Mr. Miranda has lectured at over 35 law schools, just since the 2008 election, on “The Obama Presidency and the Fight for the Courts;” and also addresses “Politics and Policy: Building for a Coherent Immigration Reform;” “America’s Rule of Law Impact in Iraq and Afghanistan;” or “The Truth About Iraq and Afghanistan.”

He has been a Visiting Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Senior Counsel at the Family Research Council, and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, publishing 35 articles on judicial nominations. 

As a young man, he volunteered for the presidential campaigns of Ted Kennedy, John Glenn, and Gary Hart.  More recently, he has stumped or raised funds for Senators Rick Santorum, Mike Dewine and Mel Martinez and for the presidential candidacy of John McCain.   

Manny was born in Cuba and raised in Spain and New York City.  He received degrees from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law.  At Georgetown, he was the Circumnavigators’ Foundation Fellow for 1981 and at Hastings he was the Charles Rummel Scholar. 

Between 1987 and 1998, Mr. Miranda practiced international business law with leading international firms in New York and Washington, D.C., most recently White & Case.

He is married to a Physics and Chemistry teacher and has one son.

Some Good Things They Say About Him

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.): "sharp, effective, honorable, decent, and hardworking."

Senator Trent Lott (R., MS): “a highly qualified staffer”

Dr. Bill Frist: “I love Manny.”

Former Democrat Mayor of Boston Ray Flynn: “a voice for social justice in the Leader’s Office…a man of character, honesty and integrity”

The late Robert Novak: “a man of principle”

The late Paul Weyrich: “one very able lawyer”

Roll Call: “The ringleader of the 40 hour debate against filibusters.”

MoveOn.org: “key Republican strategist…architect of the nuclear option”

People for the American Way:  “Miranda was the primary force behind just about every right-wing “grassroots” effort to force the confirmation of President Bush’s judicial nominees, as well as their effort to compel Harriet Miers to withdraw her Supreme Court nomination.”

U.S. Civil Rights Commissioners: “man of great professional integrity…committed to the highest moral and ethical standards" 

American Conservative Union President David Keene: "He’s more than just a principled conservative: He’s a man who doesn’t know the meaning of surrender...Without him, I think it’s safe to say that Judge Alito would not be on the court today...That nomination would not have been made but for Manny Miranda, [and] Third Branch Conference [was] the single-most-important mobilizer of support of Judge Alito’s nomination."

Journalist Jim Pinkertion: “One new hero of the [Conservative] movement is Manuel Miranda, a former Senate Judiciary Committee staffer who now heads the Third Branch Conference, a conservative legal watch group. Miranda was out front against Miers; revealing the contours of political battles to come, he waged his anti-Miers campaign almost entirely on the Internet.”

Former WH Counsel, Ambassador Boyden Gray: “a terrific point person.”