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President

Elizabeth Anne Nielsen

 

 

Supreme Court Cases, Connecting the Dots Past to Present
Register
Aug 31 2026
Monday 12:00 p.m. CDT    

Supreme Court Cases, Connecting the Dots Past to Present

Minnesota Lawyer Chapter

Bethlehem College and Seminary
720 13th Ave S - Room 205
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Speakers:
Jordan Lorence
Sponsors:
Minnesota Lawyer Chapter
  • In-Person Event
2026 Minnesota Anderson Dinner and Award
This event has concluded.
Apr 23 2026
Thursday 5:00 p.m. CDT    

2026 Minnesota Anderson Dinner and Award

Minnesota Lawyer Chapters

Sponsors:
Minnesota Lawyer Chapter
  • In-Person Event
2026 Supreme Court Preview with Aaron Van Oort
This event has concluded.
Mar 26 2026
Thursday 12:00 p.m. CDT    

2026 Supreme Court Preview with Aaron Van Oort

Minnesota Lawyer Chapter

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
90 South Seventh Street, Unit 2200
Minneapolis, MN 55402
Speakers:
Aaron D. Van Oort
Sponsors:
Minnesota Lawyer Chapter
  • In-Person Event
Fed Soc Minnesota Lawyer's Chapter Fall Social
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Sep 22 2025
Monday 5:30 p.m. CDT    

Fed Soc Minnesota Lawyer's Chapter Fall Social

Minnesota Lawyers Chapter

Brit's Pub North Patio
1110 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Sponsors:
Minnesota Lawyer Chapter
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Speaker Information
Jordan Lorence

Jordan Lorence

Senior Counsel, First Liberty Institute

Biography

Jordan Lorence is Senior Counsel in FLI’s Washington, D.C. office, where he represents First Liberty in strategic efforts promoting religious liberty, and works on important First Amendment projects and litigation, including those at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lorence has a long career of litigating religious liberty cases since 1984. He has worked for many public interest law firms, including Alliance Defending Freedom, Home School Legal Defense Association, the North Star Legal Center and Concerned Women for America.

He has worked on important religious liberty cases. Lorence worked on school choice cases at the Supreme Court, such as Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind (1986), and Trinity Lutheran (2016), which laid the foundation for First Liberty’s crucial win in Carson v. Makin (2022), requiring Maine to include religious schools in its school choice program.

Lorence argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Regents of the University of Wisconsin v. Southworth (2000). He represented prolife Christian law students from the University of Wisconsin Law School who objected to the University’s requirement that they pay a mandatory student fee that funded the advocacy of student pro-abortion groups. Other Supreme Court cases Lorence has worked on include NIFLA v. Becerra (2018), protecting prolife pregnancy centers from a California statute requiring them to post signs explaining how pregnant women could obtain state-funded abortions; Masterpiece Cakeshop (2017), involving a Christian cake artist sued by the State of Colorado for declining to design a case celebrating the wedding of a same-sex couple and other cases such as Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2012), Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995), Hurley v. GLIB (1995) and Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches Center Moriches School District (1993).

Churches and other religious groups in New York City obtained the right to rent vacant public schools on weekends to conduct worship services after Lorence’s tenacious 20 years of litigation in Bronx Household of Faith. Lorence won protection for churches facing eviction from discriminatory zoning ordinances in Minnesota in Cornerstone Bible Church v. City of Hastings, Minnesota (1991). He also argued at the New Mexico Supreme Court one of the first cases in the nation defending a Christian wedding photographer charged by the State of New Mexico with discrimination for declining to create photos celebrating the commitment ceremony of a lesbian couple in Elane Photography v. Willock (2013).

Lorence defended home schooling families from intrusive school officials during his time working at Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) in the 1980s and 1990s. HSLDA also tasked Lorence with establishing a sister organization in Canada to protect home schooling families there. He traveled extensively in Canada from British Columbia to Prince Edward Island speaking to families how they could protect their right to home school under relevant Canadian law.

Lorence earned his undergraduate degree in journalism from Stanford University and his law degree from the University of Minnesota, his home state. Lorence was born and raised in Minnesota, where he worked one summer building Mighty Dump trucks at Tonka Toys in Mound, Minnesota. For two years immediately after he graduated from law school, Lorence served as the head administrator for a Minnesota Senate committee.

He speaks extensively on First Amendment and other legal issues. Lorence has spoken at least 75 law schools and many legal conferences. Prominent publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and others have printed his opinion pieces on key legal issues involving religious liberty and freedom of speech. He has appeared on such media outlets as Fox News, CNN, National Public Radio, NBC’s Today Show, BBC radio and many others.

Lorence and his wife Marilyn have been married 40 years. They live in the Washington, D.C. area where they raised their seven children.

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Speaker Information
Aaron D. Van Oort

Aaron D. Van Oort

Partner, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLC

Biography

Aaron Van Oort is a legal strategist and appellate lawyer who co-chairs Faegre Drinker’s appellate advocacy group. A former law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and an editor of the Eighth Circuit Appellate Practice Manual (11th ed. 2024), Aaron is a distinguished voice for clients in trial and appellate courts throughout the country. Chambers USA describes him as having “notable prominence and presence in this field.”

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