He is an adjunct faculty member of the Mises Institute[1] and occasionally lectures there, usually on United States tariff history.
His 1988 article "The Social Cost of Rent-seeking" with David Laband, published in Public Choice, has been cited by Peter Leeson,[2] Gordon Tullock and others.
[3] In 1996, he was the Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Alabama's 3rd congressional district, opposing Republican Bob Riley.
According to a 16 November 2002 New York Times editorial by John J. Miller: The only reason the governor's race in Alabama was so close this year as to be disputed beyond election night was that the Libertarian candidate, John Sophocleus, attracted 23,000 votes.
[5][6]On 8 June 2006, in the wake of Stephen P. Gordon's acceptance of a position with the national Libertarian Party and subsequent resignation from the LPA Executive Committee, Sophocleus was named Vice-Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Alabama.