Schaerr was born in Kanab, Utah, and educated in the public schools.

Circuit Judge Ken Starr, and from 1986 to 1987 for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Warren Burger and Antonin Scalia.

[3][4][5] In 2015, he also submitted an amici curiae brief on behalf of 100 scholars of marriage to the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges,[6] the landmark Supreme Court case on same-sex marriage.

This will result, over the next fertility cycle (30 years), in fewer children born to married parents, fewer children born overall since unmarried women have lower birth rates, and more abortions since unmarried women have higher rates of abortion.

[7] Although the latter claim was criticized in various press outlets,[8][9][10] Schaerr defended the brief and its use of decomposition analysis—a technique frequently used by demographers—on the blog Bench Memos.