Obama adviser and 'Nudge' author Cass Sunstein to leave White House

A senior adviser and close friend of Barack Obama is to resign from his post in the latest high profile departure from his team

Cass Sunstein 

Cass Sunstein will announce next Friday that he will be leaving his post as the White House 'Regulatory Czar' and will return to Harvard Law School.

For the last three-and-a-half years he has reviewed regulation for the President on everything from financial reform to healthy eating.

But he came under fire from Democrats and some liberal campaign groups who saw him as being too close to business to do his job properly.

The White House declined to comment on the reasons for Mr Sunstein's departure.

Until taking up his post he was best known for being a celebrity academic who co-wrote the book: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

The work influenced David Cameron to open his 'Nudge Unit' which he hoped would work out how to gently persuade people to make better choices.
In 2009 Mr Sunstein took up the obscure role of administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, having reportedly been offered his pick of any job by Mr Obama.
Mr Sunstein, 57, used the post to wield significant influence over a wide range of policy and put into place laws based on 'behavioural economics', which work out ways to incentivise individuals and companies to achieve the best goals for them.
The theory has been hailed as the cornerstone of Mr Obama's health care reform.
Among the other areas which Mr Sunstein reviewed were car fuel efficiency standards, tougher rules on prison rape, healthy eating guidelines and the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform law.
Among liberal campaigners, however, Mr Sunstein was too close to big business and some claimed vital reforms had been 'held hostage' by his office.
Rena Steinzor, a law professor at the University of Maryland and president of the left-leaning Centre for Progressive Reform, accused him of having a "very bad" track record.
She cited the fact that regulations on areas such as air quality were stalled under his watch and said that overall there was "small progress in comparison to the rules he killed".
Mr Sunstein first met the future President at the University of Chicago Law School where they were both teaching.
He subsequently taught at Harvard and will return there to take up the post of Felix Frankfurter professor of law.
His interim replacement will be Boris Bershteyn, the general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget.
Mr Suntein's departure is the latest in a string of key advisers who have left the White House during Mr Obama's first term.
His former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel left to pursue a successful bid to become Mayor of Chicago.
Economic advisers Austan Goolsbee and Larry Summers also left, as did Christina Romer who served on the Council of Economic Advisors.
Dennis Ross, Mr Obama's go-to-man on the Middle East has also departed even though he was the driving force behind US policy towards Iran.
Mr Sunstein's departure was first reported by US politics website Politico.
In a statement Mr Obama hailed Mr Sunstein's "historic accomplishments" and said that he "can't thank him enough for his friendship and for his years of exceptional service".