Slinkard was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, with specialization in political theory.  He completed his undergraduate thesis on the concept of reflective equilibrium in Rawls's Theory of Justice.  He received a Master of Arts in Government from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, completing his master's thesis on Grotius's Introduction to the Jurisprudence of Holland.  (No matter how impractical and abstruse these thesis topics may seem, sensible people know how useful they are to impress the conceited, elitist, or otherwise character-disordered at cocktail parties.  In fact, all political theory is really about a simple question: How should we organize our politics?  Anyone willing to open up a good book on politics, and forge ahead page by page, is likely to make a go of it.)  Slinkard received his law degree from the Cornell Law School, with specialization in public law.