Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Josh Blackman is a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court. Josh’s work was quoted during two presidential impeachment trials. He has testified before Congress and advises federal and state lawmakers. Josh regularly appears on TV, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the BBC. Josh is also a frequent guest on NPR and other syndicated radio programs. He has published commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and leading national publications.
Since 2012, Josh has served as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Josh is an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Josh has written more than seven dozen law review articles that have been cited more than a thousand times. Josh was selected as the Jurist of the Year by the Texas Journal of Law & Public Policy, received the inaugural Meese III Originalism Award, and was awarded the Inaugural Joseph Story Award. Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy. Josh is the President of the Harlan Institute, and founded FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracyand posts@JoshMBlackman.
Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Professor Nicholas Bagley teaches and writes in the areas of administrative law, regulatory theory, and health law. Prior to joining the Law School faculty, he was an attorney with the appellate staff in the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he argued a dozen cases before the U.S. Courts of Appeals and acted as lead counsel in many more. Professor Bagley also served as a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court and to the Hon. David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. Professor Bagley holds a BA in English from Yale University and received his JD, summa cum laude, from New York University School of Law. Before entering law school, he joined Teach For America and taught eighth-grade English at a public school in South Bronx. Professor Bagley's work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law. In 2012, he was the recipient of the Law School's L. Hart Wright Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a frequent contributor to The Incidental Economist, a prominent health policy blog.
Professor of Law and Director, Center for the Middle East and International Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School
Professor of Law Eugene Kontorovich is one of the world’s preeminent experts on universal jurisdiction and maritime piracy, as well as international law and the Israel-Arab conflict. He is also the Director of Scalia Law School's Center for the Middle East and International Law. Professor Kontorovich joined the Scalia Law School from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law where he was a Professor of Law from 2011 to 2018 and an Associate Professor from 2007 to 2011. Previously, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago from 2005 to 2007 and an Assistant Professor at George Mason School of Law from 2003 to 2007.
Professor Kontorovich has published over thirty major scholarly articles and book chapters in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed journals in the United States and Europe, including the American Journal of International Law, International Review of Law & Economics, Stanford Law Review, California Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Virginia Law Review. His scholarship has been cited in leading foreign relations and international law
His expertise is often sought out and quoted by major news organizations such the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR News, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and numerous television and radio programs. Prof. Kontorovich’s popular writings have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, POLITICO, Commentary, Haaretz, and numerous other leading publications. He is also a regular contributor to the Washington Post’s Volokh Conspiracy legal blog.
He attended the University of Chicago for college and law school. After law school, he clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He has been honored with a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, in 2011-12, and with the Federalist Society’s prestigious Bator Award, given annually to a young scholar (under 40), for outstanding scholarship and teaching.
Charles R. Weiner Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law
Peter J. Spiro holds the Charles Weiner Chair in international law. Before joining Temple’s faculty in 2006, Professor Spiro was Rusk Professor of Law at the University of Georgia Law School. A former law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court, Spiro specializes in international, immigration, and constitutional law. Spiro is the author of Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization (Oxford University Press 2008) and At Home in Two Countries: The Past and Future of Dual Citizenship (NYU Press 2016). He has contributed commentary to such publications as The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic, and is frequently quoted in the media on international and immigration law issues.
Spiro has held fellowships at the European University Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Open Society Institute. He has also held visiting appointments at the University of Texas, the Australian National University, and Sungkyunkwan University. Spiro is a member of the International Mobility Treaty Commission and the Investment Migration Council, and a former member of the U.S. Department of State’s Historical Advisory Committee. He is co-chair of the Migration Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law. Spiro serves as U.S. country expert for the European University Institute’s Citizenship Observatory. In July 2011, he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the application of the War Powers Act to U.S. participation in NATO operations in Libya. In 2007 and 2016 surveys, Professor Spiro ranked in the top 25 nationally among international law scholars on the basis of academic citation frequency.
In addition to his 1990-91 Supreme Court clerkship, Spiro served as a law clerk to Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has also served as director for democracy on the staff of the National Security Council, as an attorney-adviser in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Legal Adviser and as a resident associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Spiro holds a B.A. from Harvard College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Supreme Court Correspondent, The Washington Post
Robert Barnes has been a Washington Post reporter and editor since 1987. He joined the paper to cover Maryland politics, and has served in various editing positions including metropolitan editor and national political editor . He has covered the Supreme Court since November 2006. He gave up law school plans for a life in newspapers after taking a journalism class in college. It did not occur to him, as it apparently did to others, that he could do both.
Partner, Goldstein & Russell PC
Thomas C. Goldstein has argued 28 cases before the Supreme Court, including matters involving federal patent law, class action practice, labor and employment, and disability law. In addition to practicing law, Tom teaches Supreme Court Litigation at Harvard Law School and taught at Stanford Law School as well from 2004-2012.
In the Supreme Court and elsewhere, Mr. Goldstein litigates and advises clients in a broad range of issues. For example, he regularly litigates and lectures on questions of federal patent law. Mr. Goldstein frequently advises clients, litigates, and consults on legislative matters relating to the First Amendment. And he regularly represents parties in questions relating to the game of poker, including its lawfulness as a matter of federal and state law. Tom's clients include plaintiffs, criminal defendants, and major corporations such as BG Group, Home Depot, Humana, IMS Health, Nike, PokerStars, POM Wonderful, and Pemex.
In addition to practicing law, Tom founded, and is the publisher of, SCOTUSblog, which in 2013 became the only weblog ever to receive the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media. It also won the 2013 Society of Professional Journalists (Sigma Delta Chi) prize for deadline reporting for its coverage of the Supreme Court’s healthcare ruling. In 2010, it became the first blog to receive the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award for fostering the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system.
Tom has been repeatedly recognized as a leading member of the bar. In 2010, The National Law Journal named him one of the 40 most influential lawyers of the decade; Tom notably was ten years younger than any other law firm partner listed. Legal Times named him one of the “90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years” and praised him for “transforming the practice” of law before the Supreme Court. He is also included in both of the National Law Journal’s most recent lists of the nation’s 100 most influential lawyers (2006 and 2013). He has been repeatedly recognized as one of the nation’s top appellate advocates. GQ Magazine named him one of the 50 most powerful people in Washington, D.C.
Tom is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and a member of the American Law Institute. He is involved with a number of professional organizations. He serves as the vice chair of the Amicus Committee of the ABA’s Intellectual Property Section and previously served for two years on the ABA’s Standing Committee on Amicus Curiae Briefs. In those capacities, he has authored several Supreme Court amicus briefs for the ABA. In addition, Tom serves on the boards of advisors of the Washington Legal Foundation and the Georgetown University Supreme Court Institute.
Before founding Goldstein & Howe in 1999, Tom practiced law at Boies & Schiller, LLP and at Jones Day Reavis & Pogue. Tom left the firm he founded in 2006 to create the Supreme Court Practice at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, where he also was a partner and principal co-chair of the firmwide litigation practice. He returned to what is now Goldstein & Russell in 2011.
Tom clerked for the Honorable Patricia M. Wald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz teaches constitutional law and federal jurisdiction, and he writes articles for the Harvard Law Review and the Stanford Law Review.
He is currently developing a new theory of constitutional interpretation and judicial review. The first installment, entitledThe Subjects of the Constitution, was published in the Stanford Law Review in May of 2010, and it is among the most downloaded articles about constitutional interpretation, judicial review, and/or federal courts in the history of SSRN. The second installment, The Objects of the Constitution, was published in May of 2011, also in the Stanford Law Review. And the comprehensive version is forthcoming as a book by Oxford University Press.
Rosenkranz has served and advised the federal government in a variety of capacities. He clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1999-2000) and for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the U.S. Supreme Court (October Term 2001). He served as an Attorney-Advisor at the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice (November 2002 - July 2004). He often testifies before Congress as a constitutional expert—most recently before the House Financial Services Oversight Subcommittee, regarding the Obama Administration's use of bank settlement agreements to circumvent the Appropriations Clause. He has also filed briefs and presented oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court. His most recent Supreme Court brief, in Los Angeles v. Patel, was cited by Justice Alito in dissent.
Rosenkranz is a member of the New York Bar and the U.S. Supreme Court Bar. He is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). He is a founding member of Heterodox Academy and a member of its Executive Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Federalist Society and as the faculty advisor to the Georgetown chapter.
President, JCN
Carrie Campbell Severino is the president of the JCN, and co-author with Mollie Hemingway of the bestselling book Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court. As a go-to expert on the confirmation process, Mrs. Severino has been extensively quoted in the media. She regularly appears on television, including FOX, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and ABC’s This Week.
Severino writes and speaks on a wide range of judicial issues, including the constitutional limits on government, the federal nomination process, and state judicial selection. She has testified before Congress on constitutional questions and briefed Senators on judicial nominations, and regularly files briefs in high-profile Supreme Court cases. She was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D.), Duke University (B.A., Biology), and Michigan State University (M.A., Linguistics).
Partner, McGuireWoods LLP
George Terwilliger is co-head of the firm's white collar practice and leads the firm's Strategic Response and Crisis Management practice group. Following his fifteen years of public service in the US Department of Justice, where he began as a law clerk and concluded as Acting Attorney General, George has provided counsel in government and internal investigations, agency enforcement proceedings and in civil and criminal litigation. He has represented many of the nation's and the world's largest corporations, including major financial institutions, energy companies, public institutions as well as leading business and government officials, including members of the US Senate and House as well as cabinet officials. He has also represented lawyers and corporate legal departments in investigations. As a result of both his private sector work and government positions, George is called upon to provide counsel as well as commentary to government officials, Congress and private organizations on national security, homeland defense, terrorism, and other public policy and legal issues. George's work regularly involves providing counsel in the executive suites and boardrooms of major corporations.
In private practice for international law firms, George has represented national and international financial, energy, telecommunications, industrial and healthcare companies. He is a recognized expert in leading credible corporate internal investigations and his experience designing and executing both targeted and global legal compliance reviews has involved work in more than 60 countries around the globe. George is an expert on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and regularly provides counsel to companies addressing FCPA issues. No stranger to high stakes litigation and crisis events, George helped lead the Bush-Cheney legal team in the 2000 Florida vote recount, served as special outside counsel to a Senate committee investigating vote fraud allegations, served as counsel to an executive commission on gambling, and has represented many clients in politically charged election law and similar cases. He has guided corporations and individual through high stakes matters of intense public interest. He represented an incumbent president in First Amendment litigation concerning the right to have an inaugural prayer said in a public ceremony.
At the Department of Justice, George served for 10 years as a frontline federal prosecutor, handling hundreds of investigations, trials and appeals, including in white collar and national security cases. President Ronald Reagan appointed him as a U.S. attorney, and he next served as the deputy attorney general and as acting attorney general during the George H.W. Bush administration. As Deputy Attorney General, George ran the Justice Department's operations, overseeing all the nation's federal prosecutors, as well as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. He also had leadership responsibility in several national and international crises, including a hostage-taking in a federal prison and the federal law enforcement response to domestic unrest in Los Angeles. In several instances, he personally handled negotiations of high-profile criminal and civil matters in the United States and abroad.
Supreme Court Correspondent, The Washington Post
Robert Barnes has been a Washington Post reporter and editor since 1987. He joined the paper to cover Maryland politics, and has served in various editing positions including metropolitan editor and national political editor . He has covered the Supreme Court since November 2006. He gave up law school plans for a life in newspapers after taking a journalism class in college. It did not occur to him, as it apparently did to others, that he could do both.
Partner, Goldstein & Russell PC
Thomas C. Goldstein has argued 28 cases before the Supreme Court, including matters involving federal patent law, class action practice, labor and employment, and disability law. In addition to practicing law, Tom teaches Supreme Court Litigation at Harvard Law School and taught at Stanford Law School as well from 2004-2012.
In the Supreme Court and elsewhere, Mr. Goldstein litigates and advises clients in a broad range of issues. For example, he regularly litigates and lectures on questions of federal patent law. Mr. Goldstein frequently advises clients, litigates, and consults on legislative matters relating to the First Amendment. And he regularly represents parties in questions relating to the game of poker, including its lawfulness as a matter of federal and state law. Tom's clients include plaintiffs, criminal defendants, and major corporations such as BG Group, Home Depot, Humana, IMS Health, Nike, PokerStars, POM Wonderful, and Pemex.
In addition to practicing law, Tom founded, and is the publisher of, SCOTUSblog, which in 2013 became the only weblog ever to receive the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media. It also won the 2013 Society of Professional Journalists (Sigma Delta Chi) prize for deadline reporting for its coverage of the Supreme Court’s healthcare ruling. In 2010, it became the first blog to receive the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award for fostering the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system.
Tom has been repeatedly recognized as a leading member of the bar. In 2010, The National Law Journal named him one of the 40 most influential lawyers of the decade; Tom notably was ten years younger than any other law firm partner listed. Legal Times named him one of the “90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years” and praised him for “transforming the practice” of law before the Supreme Court. He is also included in both of the National Law Journal’s most recent lists of the nation’s 100 most influential lawyers (2006 and 2013). He has been repeatedly recognized as one of the nation’s top appellate advocates. GQ Magazine named him one of the 50 most powerful people in Washington, D.C.
Tom is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and a member of the American Law Institute. He is involved with a number of professional organizations. He serves as the vice chair of the Amicus Committee of the ABA’s Intellectual Property Section and previously served for two years on the ABA’s Standing Committee on Amicus Curiae Briefs. In those capacities, he has authored several Supreme Court amicus briefs for the ABA. In addition, Tom serves on the boards of advisors of the Washington Legal Foundation and the Georgetown University Supreme Court Institute.
Before founding Goldstein & Howe in 1999, Tom practiced law at Boies & Schiller, LLP and at Jones Day Reavis & Pogue. Tom left the firm he founded in 2006 to create the Supreme Court Practice at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, where he also was a partner and principal co-chair of the firmwide litigation practice. He returned to what is now Goldstein & Russell in 2011.
Tom clerked for the Honorable Patricia M. Wald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz teaches constitutional law and federal jurisdiction, and he writes articles for the Harvard Law Review and the Stanford Law Review.
He is currently developing a new theory of constitutional interpretation and judicial review. The first installment, entitledThe Subjects of the Constitution, was published in the Stanford Law Review in May of 2010, and it is among the most downloaded articles about constitutional interpretation, judicial review, and/or federal courts in the history of SSRN. The second installment, The Objects of the Constitution, was published in May of 2011, also in the Stanford Law Review. And the comprehensive version is forthcoming as a book by Oxford University Press.
Rosenkranz has served and advised the federal government in a variety of capacities. He clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1999-2000) and for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the U.S. Supreme Court (October Term 2001). He served as an Attorney-Advisor at the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice (November 2002 - July 2004). He often testifies before Congress as a constitutional expert—most recently before the House Financial Services Oversight Subcommittee, regarding the Obama Administration's use of bank settlement agreements to circumvent the Appropriations Clause. He has also filed briefs and presented oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court. His most recent Supreme Court brief, in Los Angeles v. Patel, was cited by Justice Alito in dissent.
Rosenkranz is a member of the New York Bar and the U.S. Supreme Court Bar. He is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). He is a founding member of Heterodox Academy and a member of its Executive Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Federalist Society and as the faculty advisor to the Georgetown chapter.
President, JCN
Carrie Campbell Severino is the president of the JCN, and co-author with Mollie Hemingway of the bestselling book Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court. As a go-to expert on the confirmation process, Mrs. Severino has been extensively quoted in the media. She regularly appears on television, including FOX, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and ABC’s This Week.
Severino writes and speaks on a wide range of judicial issues, including the constitutional limits on government, the federal nomination process, and state judicial selection. She has testified before Congress on constitutional questions and briefed Senators on judicial nominations, and regularly files briefs in high-profile Supreme Court cases. She was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D.), Duke University (B.A., Biology), and Michigan State University (M.A., Linguistics).
Partner, McGuireWoods LLP
George Terwilliger is co-head of the firm's white collar practice and leads the firm's Strategic Response and Crisis Management practice group. Following his fifteen years of public service in the US Department of Justice, where he began as a law clerk and concluded as Acting Attorney General, George has provided counsel in government and internal investigations, agency enforcement proceedings and in civil and criminal litigation. He has represented many of the nation's and the world's largest corporations, including major financial institutions, energy companies, public institutions as well as leading business and government officials, including members of the US Senate and House as well as cabinet officials. He has also represented lawyers and corporate legal departments in investigations. As a result of both his private sector work and government positions, George is called upon to provide counsel as well as commentary to government officials, Congress and private organizations on national security, homeland defense, terrorism, and other public policy and legal issues. George's work regularly involves providing counsel in the executive suites and boardrooms of major corporations.
In private practice for international law firms, George has represented national and international financial, energy, telecommunications, industrial and healthcare companies. He is a recognized expert in leading credible corporate internal investigations and his experience designing and executing both targeted and global legal compliance reviews has involved work in more than 60 countries around the globe. George is an expert on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and regularly provides counsel to companies addressing FCPA issues. No stranger to high stakes litigation and crisis events, George helped lead the Bush-Cheney legal team in the 2000 Florida vote recount, served as special outside counsel to a Senate committee investigating vote fraud allegations, served as counsel to an executive commission on gambling, and has represented many clients in politically charged election law and similar cases. He has guided corporations and individual through high stakes matters of intense public interest. He represented an incumbent president in First Amendment litigation concerning the right to have an inaugural prayer said in a public ceremony.
At the Department of Justice, George served for 10 years as a frontline federal prosecutor, handling hundreds of investigations, trials and appeals, including in white collar and national security cases. President Ronald Reagan appointed him as a U.S. attorney, and he next served as the deputy attorney general and as acting attorney general during the George H.W. Bush administration. As Deputy Attorney General, George ran the Justice Department's operations, overseeing all the nation's federal prosecutors, as well as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. He also had leadership responsibility in several national and international crises, including a hostage-taking in a federal prison and the federal law enforcement response to domestic unrest in Los Angeles. In several instances, he personally handled negotiations of high-profile criminal and civil matters in the United States and abroad.
Professor of Law and Executive Director, Law and Economics Center, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Donald Kochan is Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Law & Economics Center (LEC). Professor Kochan is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and serves as an Adviser to ALI's Restatement of the Law Fourth, Property project. Professor Kochan is a Nonresident Scholar at the Center for the Constitution at Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a Visiting Scholar in residence during Fall 2018. Before joining the Antonin Scalia Law School faculty, he was the Parker S. Kennedy Professor in Law at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law from 2004 to 2020. From 2003 to 2004, Professor Kochan was an Olin Fellow at the University of Virginia School of Law. During 2002-2003, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at George Mason’s Scalia Law School.
Professor Kochan’s scholarship focuses on areas of property law, constitutional law, administrative law, local government law, natural resources and environmental law, and law & economics. He has published several books and more than 50 scholarly articles and essays in well-regarded law journals. His work has been cited in more than a dozen state and federal court opinions, in more than 75 briefs filed in state and federal courts including more than 25 filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, in dozens of books and treatises, and in more than 800 scholarly articles.
Professor Kochan received his JD from Cornell Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics and managing editor of the Cornell International Law Journal. During law school, he also served as editor and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy symposium issues in 1997 and 1998. He received his BA from Western Michigan University, magna cum laude, with majors in both political science and philosophy, where he studied as the John W. Gill Medallion Scholar and was honored as the Presidential Scholar (awarded to the top graduate in the political science department).
After graduating from law school, Professor Kochan was a law clerk to The Honorable Richard F. Suhrheinrich of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Following his clerkship, Professor Kochan was an associate with the firm of Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in natural resources & environmental law as well as tort, products, and consumer civil litigation & legislative affairs.
Distinguished Professor, Moses Lasky Professor of Law History an, University of Colorado Law School
Prior to joining the faculty of Colorado Law School, Charles Wilkinson practiced law with private firms in Phoenix and San Francisco and then with the Native American Rights Fund. In 1975, he became a law professor, teaching at the law schools of the University of Oregon, Michigan and Minnesota before moving to Colorado in 1987.
His primary specialties are federal public land law and Indian law. In addition to his many articles in law reviews, popular journals, and newspapers, his fourteen books include the standard law texts on public land law and on Indian law. He also served as managing editor of Felix S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the leading treatise on Indian law. The books he has written in recent years, such as 1992's The Eagle Bird, are aimed for a general audience, and they discuss society, history, and land in the American West. He won the Colorado Book Award for Messages From Frank's Landing, a profile of Billy Frank, Jr. of the Nisqually Tribe of western Washington. In his book, Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations, he poses what he calls "the most fundamental question of all: Can the Indian voice endure?" Listen to an interview on Colorado Public Radio conducted by Dan Drayer about Blood Struggle. In his latest book The People Are Dancing Again: The History of the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon, Professor Wilkinson writes about how the history of the Siletz Tribe is in many ways the history of many Indian tribes: a story of heartache, perseverance, survival, and revival.
Professor Wilkinson has received teaching awards from his students at all three law schools where he has taught, and the Universities of Colorado and Oregon have given him their highest awards for leadership, scholarship, and teaching. He has also won acclamation from non-academic organizations. The National Wildlife Federation presented him with its National Conservation Award, and in its 10-year anniversary issue, Outside Magazine named him one of 15 "People to Watch," calling him "the West's leading authority on natural resources law." He has served on several boards, including The Wilderness Society, the Grand Canyon Trust, and the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado. Over the years, Professor Wilkinson has taken on many special assignments for the Departments of Interior, Agriculture, and Justice. He was a member of the tribal team that negotiated the 1997 Joint Secretarial Order of the Interior and Commerce Departments concerning tribal rights under the Endangered Species Act. He served as special counsel to the Interior Department for the drafting of the Presidential Proclamation, signed by President Clinton in September 1996, establishing the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. In December 1997 Agriculture Secretary Glickman appointed him a member of the Committee of Scientists, charged with reviewing the Forest Service planning regulations. Professor Wilkinson acted as facilitator in negotiations between the National Park Service and the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe concerning a tribal land base in Death Valley National Park; in 2000 Congress enacted legislation ratifying the resulting agreement. He also served as facilitator in far-ranging negotiations between the City of Seattle and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.
Director of Regulation Policy, American Action Forum
Sam Batkins is director of regulatory policy at the American Action Forum. Batkins focuses his research on examining the rulemaking efforts of administrative agencies and Congress. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Hill, Reuters, and The Washington Post, among other publications. He has testified before the U.S. House, Senate, and state legislatures across the country.
Prior to joining the Forum, Batkins worked at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Institute for Legal Reform and the National Taxpayers Union. At the U.S. Chamber, he focused on lawsuit abuse, tort reform, and federal regulation. During his time at the National Taxpayers Union, he conducted studies on state and federal spending.
Batkins received his B.A. in political science from Sewanee: The University of the South, where he graduated summa cum laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. from Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. He is a member of the Maryland Bar.
Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance and Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; Co-Director, Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State
Adam J. White is the Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on the Supreme Court and the administrative state. Concurrently, he codirects the Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State.
Mr. White practiced constitutional and administrative law, particularly in the regulation of energy and financial markets. He started his legal career as a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle at the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
Mr. White has written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Affairs, Commentary, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and Notre Dame Law Review, among other publications. He is a regular contributor to the Yale Journal on Regulation’s Notice and Comment blog, and for many years, he was one of the Weekly Standard’s lead writers on constitutional law and the Supreme Court.
Mr. White has testified often before Congress, including before the Senate’s Committees on the Judiciary; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and before the House’s Judiciary and Financial Services Committees. In 2018, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary called him to testify in Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings to advise senators on Kavanaugh’s approach to administrative law.
In 2021, he served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, where he criticized “Court packing” and other efforts to restructure the Supreme Court. In 2017, he was appointed to serve on the Administrative Conference of the United States. He also serves on the leadership council for the American Bar Association’s Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section, which he will chair in 2023–24. Before joining AEI, he was a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
Mr. White has a JD from Harvard Law School and a bachelor of business administration from the College of Business at the University of Iowa.
Senior Policy Analyst, The George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center
Sofie Miller's regulatory research portfolio includes economic analysis of energy efficiency standards, analysis of regulatory benefits, use of cost benefit analysis by agencies, retrospective review of existing rules, regressive effects of regulations, and the efficacy of public participation within the rulemaking process. Sofie has submitted public comments on regulations establishing energy efficiency standards, airline passenger protections, consumer product safety, and standards to prevent foodborne illnesses. Sofie has published articles in Regulation Magazine and the journal Engage, and is the editor of the GW Regulatory Studies Center's weekly Regulation Digest, which tracks regulatory developments in federal agencies, think tanks, and the media.
Former Assistant United States Attorney at United States Attorney's Office
In February 2015, I entered private practice, concentrating on criminal law, forfeiture, and mediation services.
From 1985 until November 2013, I was an assistant United States attorney in the Northern District of Texas. I litigated civil and criminal forfeiture cases involving violations of federal laws on behalf of federal agencies (including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, Internal Revenue Service Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Secret Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service.
From July 2009 until January 2012, however, I served as the Asset Forfeiture/Money Laundering Coordinator on a detail to the Executive Office of United States Attorneys (EOUSA), United States Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, I provided advice and assistance to EOUSA and 93 United States Attorney’s offices, on legal, logistical, and programmatic issues arising as part of the Department’s Asset Forfeiture/Money Laundering Program. I also served as a liaison between EOUSA and the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, components of the Department of Justice (e.g., DEA, FBI, ATF) and Department of Treasury (e.g., IRS, SS, DHS) Asset Forfeiture Programs, and other agencies.
In both of these positions, I became familiar with federal forfeiture statutes, regulations, and cases, and agency forfeiture policies and procedures, as well as standard practices of agencies . Each year, I attended conferences on various substantive and procedural subjects related to forfeiture, including the annual Asset Forfeiture Chiefs and Experts Conference sponsored by the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture/Money Laundering Section. Each month, I reviewed a summary of federal forfeiture case decisions prepared by renowned forfeiture expert Stefan Cassella. In addition, I regularly made presentations locally to various federal agencies on forfeiture topics.
Managing Attorney, Institute for Justice
Arif Panju serves as a managing attorney with the Institute for Justice. He leads IJ’s Texas office and litigates cases involving free speech, property rights, economic liberty, and educational choice.
Arif is co-counsel in the case of Carson v. Makin in the U.S. Supreme Court. Carson is a challenge to Maine’s exclusion of religious educational options from the state’s school choice program.
Arif’s work has resulted in court victories in both federal and state court. He vindicated the free speech rights of tour guides in Billups v. City of Charleston. He secured a victory for economic liberty in Brantley v. Kuntz, freeing hairbraiding schools in Texas from onerous restrictions and paving the way for the abolishment of the state’s braiding license at the Texas Legislature. In Patel v. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Arif helped secure a landmark victory in the Texas Supreme Court, establishing a new test for reviewing the constitutionality of economic regulations.
Arif’s work at IJ has been featured by outlets including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Texas Tribune, and dozens more nationwide. His opinions and views on legal issues have been published in several outlets, including the Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, and USA Today. Arif sits on the board for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
Arif graduated law school with honors from Southern Methodist University. During law school he clerked on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Arif lives in Austin, Texas.
Vice President for Legal Affairs, Goldwater Institute
Of Counsel, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Prerak Shah is Of Counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He was most recently the Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, leading a team of approximately 120 Assistant U.S. Attorneys handling a wide range of cases, including securities fraud, health care fraud, the False Claims Act, computer crime, national security, tax fraud, money laundering, public corruption, and terrorism. Mr. Shah previously held several leadership positions at the Department of Justice, including Deputy Associate Attorney General in the office overseeing the work of the Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights, Environment & Natural Resources, and Tax Divisions. Before joining the Justice Department, Mr. Shah served as Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Cruz and as a Chief Counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School and clerked for the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Don Willett serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Before joining the federal bench, Judge Willett served 13 years on the Supreme Court
of Texas. His career spans decades of public service, including roles as legal counsel to
a Texas Attorney General, a Texas Governor, a U.S. Attorney General, and the
President of the United States.
Raised by a heroic widowed mom in a doublewide trailer in a town of 32, Judge
Willett is his family’s first college graduate. He earned a triple-major B.B.A. from Baylor
University—where he serves on the Board of Regents—and three degrees from Duke
University—where he serves on the Board of Visitors: a J.D. with honors, an A.M. in
political science, and an LL.M. in judicial studies. After law school, he clerked on the
Fifth Circuit and practiced at Haynes and Boone before entering public service.
Judge Willett publishes widely in both leading law reviews and national media, including
The Yale Law Journal, The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Wall Street
Journal. The longtime editor-in-chief of Judicature—the Scholarly Journal for Judges, he
holds academic appointments at various law schools and has received more than a
dozen Green Bag honors for “exemplary legal writing.” He was named Distinguished
Jurist of the Year by the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and he is a member of the
American Law Institute and a Life Fellow of the American, Texas, and Austin Bar
Foundations.
A onetime bull rider and professional drummer, Judge Willett was named “Tweeter
Laureate of Texas” in 2015. He is the namesake of Don R. Willett Elementary
School—home of mighty Willett Wranglers—located just a mile from where he grew up.
He and his radiant wife, Tiffany have three children—Jacob, Shane-David, and
Geneviève—plus the family pup, Amicus.
Director of Policy & General Counsel, Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute
Russell Withers is Director of Policy & General Counsel at the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute. He holds an undergraduate degree in Government and English from the University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans. Russell helped litigate constitutional claims as a clerk at the Institute for Justice, served as a policy consultant for the Greg Abbott campaign for Governor in 2014, and regularly assists members of the Texas Legislature on questions of public policy. He has testified before several committees in the Texas Legislature and authored numerous opinion editorials on Texas politics and public policy. His works have appeared in the Austin American Statesman, the Houston Chronicle, the Texas Tribune’s Trib Talk, and others. He has served as a moderator for panels at TCCRI Policy Summits covering issues such as health care, energy, and economic freedom. Russell is an active member in the Austin Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and has organized events as well as presented and participated in them.
Former Assistant United States Attorney at United States Attorney's Office
In February 2015, I entered private practice, concentrating on criminal law, forfeiture, and mediation services.
From 1985 until November 2013, I was an assistant United States attorney in the Northern District of Texas. I litigated civil and criminal forfeiture cases involving violations of federal laws on behalf of federal agencies (including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, Internal Revenue Service Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Secret Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service.
From July 2009 until January 2012, however, I served as the Asset Forfeiture/Money Laundering Coordinator on a detail to the Executive Office of United States Attorneys (EOUSA), United States Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, I provided advice and assistance to EOUSA and 93 United States Attorney’s offices, on legal, logistical, and programmatic issues arising as part of the Department’s Asset Forfeiture/Money Laundering Program. I also served as a liaison between EOUSA and the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, components of the Department of Justice (e.g., DEA, FBI, ATF) and Department of Treasury (e.g., IRS, SS, DHS) Asset Forfeiture Programs, and other agencies.
In both of these positions, I became familiar with federal forfeiture statutes, regulations, and cases, and agency forfeiture policies and procedures, as well as standard practices of agencies . Each year, I attended conferences on various substantive and procedural subjects related to forfeiture, including the annual Asset Forfeiture Chiefs and Experts Conference sponsored by the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture/Money Laundering Section. Each month, I reviewed a summary of federal forfeiture case decisions prepared by renowned forfeiture expert Stefan Cassella. In addition, I regularly made presentations locally to various federal agencies on forfeiture topics.
Managing Attorney, Institute for Justice
Arif Panju serves as a managing attorney with the Institute for Justice. He leads IJ’s Texas office and litigates cases involving free speech, property rights, economic liberty, and educational choice.
Arif is co-counsel in the case of Carson v. Makin in the U.S. Supreme Court. Carson is a challenge to Maine’s exclusion of religious educational options from the state’s school choice program.
Arif’s work has resulted in court victories in both federal and state court. He vindicated the free speech rights of tour guides in Billups v. City of Charleston. He secured a victory for economic liberty in Brantley v. Kuntz, freeing hairbraiding schools in Texas from onerous restrictions and paving the way for the abolishment of the state’s braiding license at the Texas Legislature. In Patel v. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Arif helped secure a landmark victory in the Texas Supreme Court, establishing a new test for reviewing the constitutionality of economic regulations.
Arif’s work at IJ has been featured by outlets including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Texas Tribune, and dozens more nationwide. His opinions and views on legal issues have been published in several outlets, including the Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, and USA Today. Arif sits on the board for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
Arif graduated law school with honors from Southern Methodist University. During law school he clerked on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Arif lives in Austin, Texas.
Vice President for Legal Affairs, Goldwater Institute
Of Counsel, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Prerak Shah is Of Counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He was most recently the Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, leading a team of approximately 120 Assistant U.S. Attorneys handling a wide range of cases, including securities fraud, health care fraud, the False Claims Act, computer crime, national security, tax fraud, money laundering, public corruption, and terrorism. Mr. Shah previously held several leadership positions at the Department of Justice, including Deputy Associate Attorney General in the office overseeing the work of the Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights, Environment & Natural Resources, and Tax Divisions. Before joining the Justice Department, Mr. Shah served as Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Cruz and as a Chief Counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School and clerked for the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Don Willett serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Before joining the federal bench, Judge Willett served 13 years on the Supreme Court
of Texas. His career spans decades of public service, including roles as legal counsel to
a Texas Attorney General, a Texas Governor, a U.S. Attorney General, and the
President of the United States.
Raised by a heroic widowed mom in a doublewide trailer in a town of 32, Judge
Willett is his family’s first college graduate. He earned a triple-major B.B.A. from Baylor
University—where he serves on the Board of Regents—and three degrees from Duke
University—where he serves on the Board of Visitors: a J.D. with honors, an A.M. in
political science, and an LL.M. in judicial studies. After law school, he clerked on the
Fifth Circuit and practiced at Haynes and Boone before entering public service.
Judge Willett publishes widely in both leading law reviews and national media, including
The Yale Law Journal, The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Wall Street
Journal. The longtime editor-in-chief of Judicature—the Scholarly Journal for Judges, he
holds academic appointments at various law schools and has received more than a
dozen Green Bag honors for “exemplary legal writing.” He was named Distinguished
Jurist of the Year by the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and he is a member of the
American Law Institute and a Life Fellow of the American, Texas, and Austin Bar
Foundations.
A onetime bull rider and professional drummer, Judge Willett was named “Tweeter
Laureate of Texas” in 2015. He is the namesake of Don R. Willett Elementary
School—home of mighty Willett Wranglers—located just a mile from where he grew up.
He and his radiant wife, Tiffany have three children—Jacob, Shane-David, and
Geneviève—plus the family pup, Amicus.
Director of Policy & General Counsel, Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute
Russell Withers is Director of Policy & General Counsel at the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute. He holds an undergraduate degree in Government and English from the University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans. Russell helped litigate constitutional claims as a clerk at the Institute for Justice, served as a policy consultant for the Greg Abbott campaign for Governor in 2014, and regularly assists members of the Texas Legislature on questions of public policy. He has testified before several committees in the Texas Legislature and authored numerous opinion editorials on Texas politics and public policy. His works have appeared in the Austin American Statesman, the Houston Chronicle, the Texas Tribune’s Trib Talk, and others. He has served as a moderator for panels at TCCRI Policy Summits covering issues such as health care, energy, and economic freedom. Russell is an active member in the Austin Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and has organized events as well as presented and participated in them.
Principal and CEO, Borgelt Law
Roger B. Borgelt is a highly regarded Austin lawyer with 24 years’ experience primarily in the practice of environmental, energy, administrative, utility and professional licensure law. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America® and Texas' Best Lawyers. His firm, Borgelt Law, is listed in Best Law Firms byU.S. News & World Report -- Best Lawyers®. He represents individuals, landowners, suburban areas, businesses, political subdivisions and large institutions before state and federal regulatory agencies, the courts, local governments and the Texas Legislature with consistently favorable and unprecedented results.
Mr. Borgelt is licensed to practice law in Texas and admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas. Prior to establishing Borgelt Law in June 2010, he held senior positions in Texas government and excelled as partner at a major regional litigation firm where he led an extensive administrative and regulatory practice focused on environmental, energy, local government, annexation, zoning and permitting, land use and property law matters. He also developed the firm's ethics advising, campaign finance and election law counsel as well as experienced defense of Deceptive Trade Practices Act claims and advising on Texas Public Information Act requests.
His law practice has received high profile media coverage for the past two years through his representation of Homeowners United for Rate Fairness in its appeal of Austin Energy's rate increase to the Texas Public Utility Commission, which resulted in an unprecedented rate discount for his client's suburban customers and cost the City of Austin $1.6 million to defend.
Prior to entering private practice in 2006, he served for seven years in the Office of the Attorney General as Deputy Chief of the Consumer Protection Division and then as an Assistant Attorney General, actively defending consumer interests in the area of deceptive trade, and where he represented major public entities, including Texas A&M University and The UT System, in major gas and electric utilities matters which resulted in significant multi-million dollar savings annually for these institutions and the citizens of Texas. During this period as Assistant Attorney General he appeared frequently before the Texas Public Utility Commission, Railroad Commission and Federal Communications Commission in rulemakings and contested case hearings and appeals, often winning favorable rulings which furthered the Texas public interest and business climate.
He began his law practice as a law clerk at the Railroad Commission in 1989 before becoming a national authority in pesticide law and policy matters as general counsel of a small state environmental agency. During these earliest years of his law practice, he worked extensively with state and federal regulators and legislative and congressional committees examining and resolving complex environmental policy and impacts, including that of NAFTA on states bordering Mexico.
Roger attended UT as a National Merit Scholar. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from UT in 1984 before graduating from The University of Texas School of Law in 1988. He is a member of the UT Chancellor's Council, UT Littlefield Society and UT Longhorn Foundation. A lifelong Austinite, he and his wife, Mary Ellen, are active in the Austin community.
State Representative, District 61, Texas House of Representatives
As State Representative for the 61st District, Phil King represents the people of Parker and Wise counties in the Texas Legislature. He has earned a reputation as a principle-driven conservative who consistently provides key leadership in passing some of Texas’ most sweeping public policy legislation.
King currently serves as Chair of the State and Federal Power and Responsibility Committee. He also serves on the Energy Resources Committee, Environmental Regulation Committee and the Select Committee on Federal Environmental Regulation.
King serves on the National Board of Directors for the American Legislative Exchange Council and was the 2015 National Chair. He also Chairs ALEC’s Center for Innovation and Technology. King also serves on the Board of Directors of the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute.
As chair of the Regulated Industries Committee for three legislative sessions, he worked to promote competition in the electricity and telecommunications markets. King is a frequent speaker on public policy issues impacting Texas.
King serves as a Colonel in the Texas State Guard, one of three branches of the Military Forces of the State of Texas. The Guard assists and augments the Texas National Guard and Texas civil authorities during state emergencies and in homeland security.
He is a practicing attorney with the firm of Eggleston King, LLP. Representative King and his family are active members of Trinity Bible Church. Phil and his wife Terry are the proud parents of six children, eight granddaughters and four grandsons.
Co-Chairman, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Leonard is Co-Chairman and former Executive Vice President of the Federalist Society, joining the organization over 25 years ago. Since that time he has been instrumental in helping the organization top 70,000, focusing on the growth of lawyers membership, operations and activities advancing limited, constitutional government. In addition to his work at the Society, Leonard has advised President Trump on judicial selection, assisted with the Gorsuch and Kavanaugh Supreme Court selection and confirmation process, and served as a member of the transition team. He also organized the outside coalition efforts in support of the Roberts and Alito U.S. Supreme Court confirmations. Leonard was appointed by President George W. Bush to three terms to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom as chairman. He was also a U.S. Delegate to the UN Council and UN Commission on Human Rights during the Bush Administration. Leonard was the recipient of the 2009 Bradley Prize, along with the other founders and directors of the Federalist Society, for his work in advancing freedom and the rule of law. He is the coeditor of Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House, as well as the author of opinion editorials in the New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Leonard holds degrees from Cornell University and Cornell Law School. He presently resides in Northern Virginia, where he and his wife Sally have raised their seven children.
First Court of Appeals, Texas
Michael Massengale was appointed to the First Court of Appeals by Governor Rick Perry on June 15, 2009. He was elected in 2010 and re-elected to a full term in 2012.
Justice Massengale is board certified in civil appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Before joining the court, he was a partner in the trial department at Baker Botts L.L.P. where he specialized in commercial litigation involving corporate mergers and acquisitions, fraudulent transfers, securities fraud, and antitrust. He has also tried a number of personal injury and property damage lawsuits to jury verdicts.
He graduated with honors from The University of Texas School of Law. He earned the Outstanding Editor Award from the Texas Law Review, having published his student note, served as Book Review Editor, and edited the ninth edition of Texas Rules of Form. After law school, he clerked for Judge Harold R. DeMoss, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and an Eagle Scout.
Among other civic and professional activities, Justice Massengale serves as a commissioner on the Permanent Judicial Commission For Children, Youth & Families where he chairs the Training Committee and oversees the Commission's judicial and attorney training programs. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute. He also curates a blog on the history of the Texas Constitution, atwww.texconst.wordpress.com. His wife, Lindsey, is a board-certified ophthalmologist specializing in diseases of the vitreous and retina.
Andrew P. Morriss is Dean and Anthony G. Buzbee Dean's Endowed Chairholder at Texas A&M School of Law and a member of the Board of Advisors for the Center on Culture and Civil Society at the Independent Institute. He is also a Research Fellow at the Center for Labor and Employment Law at New York University; Senior Fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center; Senior Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; and a regular Visiting Professor at Universidad Francisco Marroquín, in Guatemala. Prior to coming to the University of Illinois, he served as Galen J. Roush Professor of Business Law and Regulation at Case Western Reserve University.
He received his A.B. degree from Princeton University, his J.D. and a masters degree in public affairs from the University of Texas at Austin, and his Ph.D. (economics) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After law school he clerked for U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders in the Northern District of Texas and worked for two years at Texas Rural Legal Aid in Hereford and Plainview, Texas.
Professor Morriss is the author or coauthor of more than forty book chapters and scholarly articles, and he is the co-editor of Cross-Border Human Resources, Labor and Employment Issues: Proceedings of the New York University 54th Annual Conference on Labor (with Samuel Estreicher); Property Stories (with Gerald Korngold); and The Common Law and the Environment (with Roger Meiners). He is the author of the book, Regulation by Litigation (with Bruce Yandle and Andrew Dorchak), and he also regularly writes for The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty and Books & Culture: A Christian Review.
Professor Morriss was recently named one of the Reporters for the Restatement of Employment Law by the American Law Institute (ALI), Senior Fellow for the Institute for Energy Research, and a Reporter for the Restatement of Employment Law by the American Law Institute.
Council Member, District 6, Austin
Council Member Don Zimmerman is a software engineer who is best known for his efforts to fight various tax proposals. In 2002, Zimmerman was elected president of the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District (MUD) No. 1, where he waged a legal battle against a practice that he maintained was unlawful—combining City property taxes and (MUD) property taxes. Zimmerman won when a court sided with the MUD, thereby successfully defeating the City and the City’s additional tax. In that process, property taxpayers in that area saved $18 million.
Soon thereafter, Zimmerman founded the Travis County Taxpayers Union Special Political Action Committee to fight various local tax proposals. He was extremely active in defeating the 2012 proposed Housing Bonds with nearly 120,000 voters turning out. On December 16, 2014, Zimmerman was elected to District 6, the single-member District that covers Northwest Austin in the City’s new 10-1 Council structure. He was sworn into office on January 6, 2015. He drew a two-year term in the Council lottery and, therefore, will be up for re-election in November of 2016.
Don Zimmerman, a 5th generation Texan, was born minutes from the Alamo in San Antonio. Zimmerman credits his constant battle for liberty and equity under the law to the men and women who fought and died at the Alamo. Zimmerman graduated from Texas A&M with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and went on to receive his M.S. the following year. He has lived in Canyon Creek Subdivision of Northwest Austin since 2000. He is married to Jennifer W. Zimmerman.
Principal and CEO, Borgelt Law
Roger B. Borgelt is a highly regarded Austin lawyer with 24 years’ experience primarily in the practice of environmental, energy, administrative, utility and professional licensure law. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America® and Texas' Best Lawyers. His firm, Borgelt Law, is listed in Best Law Firms byU.S. News & World Report -- Best Lawyers®. He represents individuals, landowners, suburban areas, businesses, political subdivisions and large institutions before state and federal regulatory agencies, the courts, local governments and the Texas Legislature with consistently favorable and unprecedented results.
Mr. Borgelt is licensed to practice law in Texas and admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas. Prior to establishing Borgelt Law in June 2010, he held senior positions in Texas government and excelled as partner at a major regional litigation firm where he led an extensive administrative and regulatory practice focused on environmental, energy, local government, annexation, zoning and permitting, land use and property law matters. He also developed the firm's ethics advising, campaign finance and election law counsel as well as experienced defense of Deceptive Trade Practices Act claims and advising on Texas Public Information Act requests.
His law practice has received high profile media coverage for the past two years through his representation of Homeowners United for Rate Fairness in its appeal of Austin Energy's rate increase to the Texas Public Utility Commission, which resulted in an unprecedented rate discount for his client's suburban customers and cost the City of Austin $1.6 million to defend.
Prior to entering private practice in 2006, he served for seven years in the Office of the Attorney General as Deputy Chief of the Consumer Protection Division and then as an Assistant Attorney General, actively defending consumer interests in the area of deceptive trade, and where he represented major public entities, including Texas A&M University and The UT System, in major gas and electric utilities matters which resulted in significant multi-million dollar savings annually for these institutions and the citizens of Texas. During this period as Assistant Attorney General he appeared frequently before the Texas Public Utility Commission, Railroad Commission and Federal Communications Commission in rulemakings and contested case hearings and appeals, often winning favorable rulings which furthered the Texas public interest and business climate.
He began his law practice as a law clerk at the Railroad Commission in 1989 before becoming a national authority in pesticide law and policy matters as general counsel of a small state environmental agency. During these earliest years of his law practice, he worked extensively with state and federal regulators and legislative and congressional committees examining and resolving complex environmental policy and impacts, including that of NAFTA on states bordering Mexico.
Roger attended UT as a National Merit Scholar. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from UT in 1984 before graduating from The University of Texas School of Law in 1988. He is a member of the UT Chancellor's Council, UT Littlefield Society and UT Longhorn Foundation. A lifelong Austinite, he and his wife, Mary Ellen, are active in the Austin community.
State Representative, District 61, Texas House of Representatives
As State Representative for the 61st District, Phil King represents the people of Parker and Wise counties in the Texas Legislature. He has earned a reputation as a principle-driven conservative who consistently provides key leadership in passing some of Texas’ most sweeping public policy legislation.
King currently serves as Chair of the State and Federal Power and Responsibility Committee. He also serves on the Energy Resources Committee, Environmental Regulation Committee and the Select Committee on Federal Environmental Regulation.
King serves on the National Board of Directors for the American Legislative Exchange Council and was the 2015 National Chair. He also Chairs ALEC’s Center for Innovation and Technology. King also serves on the Board of Directors of the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute.
As chair of the Regulated Industries Committee for three legislative sessions, he worked to promote competition in the electricity and telecommunications markets. King is a frequent speaker on public policy issues impacting Texas.
King serves as a Colonel in the Texas State Guard, one of three branches of the Military Forces of the State of Texas. The Guard assists and augments the Texas National Guard and Texas civil authorities during state emergencies and in homeland security.
He is a practicing attorney with the firm of Eggleston King, LLP. Representative King and his family are active members of Trinity Bible Church. Phil and his wife Terry are the proud parents of six children, eight granddaughters and four grandsons.
Co-Chairman, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Leonard is Co-Chairman and former Executive Vice President of the Federalist Society, joining the organization over 25 years ago. Since that time he has been instrumental in helping the organization top 70,000, focusing on the growth of lawyers membership, operations and activities advancing limited, constitutional government. In addition to his work at the Society, Leonard has advised President Trump on judicial selection, assisted with the Gorsuch and Kavanaugh Supreme Court selection and confirmation process, and served as a member of the transition team. He also organized the outside coalition efforts in support of the Roberts and Alito U.S. Supreme Court confirmations. Leonard was appointed by President George W. Bush to three terms to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom as chairman. He was also a U.S. Delegate to the UN Council and UN Commission on Human Rights during the Bush Administration. Leonard was the recipient of the 2009 Bradley Prize, along with the other founders and directors of the Federalist Society, for his work in advancing freedom and the rule of law. He is the coeditor of Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House, as well as the author of opinion editorials in the New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Leonard holds degrees from Cornell University and Cornell Law School. He presently resides in Northern Virginia, where he and his wife Sally have raised their seven children.
First Court of Appeals, Texas
Michael Massengale was appointed to the First Court of Appeals by Governor Rick Perry on June 15, 2009. He was elected in 2010 and re-elected to a full term in 2012.
Justice Massengale is board certified in civil appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Before joining the court, he was a partner in the trial department at Baker Botts L.L.P. where he specialized in commercial litigation involving corporate mergers and acquisitions, fraudulent transfers, securities fraud, and antitrust. He has also tried a number of personal injury and property damage lawsuits to jury verdicts.
He graduated with honors from The University of Texas School of Law. He earned the Outstanding Editor Award from the Texas Law Review, having published his student note, served as Book Review Editor, and edited the ninth edition of Texas Rules of Form. After law school, he clerked for Judge Harold R. DeMoss, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and an Eagle Scout.
Among other civic and professional activities, Justice Massengale serves as a commissioner on the Permanent Judicial Commission For Children, Youth & Families where he chairs the Training Committee and oversees the Commission's judicial and attorney training programs. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute. He also curates a blog on the history of the Texas Constitution, atwww.texconst.wordpress.com. His wife, Lindsey, is a board-certified ophthalmologist specializing in diseases of the vitreous and retina.
Andrew P. Morriss is Dean and Anthony G. Buzbee Dean's Endowed Chairholder at Texas A&M School of Law and a member of the Board of Advisors for the Center on Culture and Civil Society at the Independent Institute. He is also a Research Fellow at the Center for Labor and Employment Law at New York University; Senior Fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center; Senior Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; and a regular Visiting Professor at Universidad Francisco Marroquín, in Guatemala. Prior to coming to the University of Illinois, he served as Galen J. Roush Professor of Business Law and Regulation at Case Western Reserve University.
He received his A.B. degree from Princeton University, his J.D. and a masters degree in public affairs from the University of Texas at Austin, and his Ph.D. (economics) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After law school he clerked for U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders in the Northern District of Texas and worked for two years at Texas Rural Legal Aid in Hereford and Plainview, Texas.
Professor Morriss is the author or coauthor of more than forty book chapters and scholarly articles, and he is the co-editor of Cross-Border Human Resources, Labor and Employment Issues: Proceedings of the New York University 54th Annual Conference on Labor (with Samuel Estreicher); Property Stories (with Gerald Korngold); and The Common Law and the Environment (with Roger Meiners). He is the author of the book, Regulation by Litigation (with Bruce Yandle and Andrew Dorchak), and he also regularly writes for The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty and Books & Culture: A Christian Review.
Professor Morriss was recently named one of the Reporters for the Restatement of Employment Law by the American Law Institute (ALI), Senior Fellow for the Institute for Energy Research, and a Reporter for the Restatement of Employment Law by the American Law Institute.
Council Member, District 6, Austin
Council Member Don Zimmerman is a software engineer who is best known for his efforts to fight various tax proposals. In 2002, Zimmerman was elected president of the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District (MUD) No. 1, where he waged a legal battle against a practice that he maintained was unlawful—combining City property taxes and (MUD) property taxes. Zimmerman won when a court sided with the MUD, thereby successfully defeating the City and the City’s additional tax. In that process, property taxpayers in that area saved $18 million.
Soon thereafter, Zimmerman founded the Travis County Taxpayers Union Special Political Action Committee to fight various local tax proposals. He was extremely active in defeating the 2012 proposed Housing Bonds with nearly 120,000 voters turning out. On December 16, 2014, Zimmerman was elected to District 6, the single-member District that covers Northwest Austin in the City’s new 10-1 Council structure. He was sworn into office on January 6, 2015. He drew a two-year term in the Council lottery and, therefore, will be up for re-election in November of 2016.
Don Zimmerman, a 5th generation Texan, was born minutes from the Alamo in San Antonio. Zimmerman credits his constant battle for liberty and equity under the law to the men and women who fought and died at the Alamo. Zimmerman graduated from Texas A&M with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and went on to receive his M.S. the following year. He has lived in Canyon Creek Subdivision of Northwest Austin since 2000. He is married to Jennifer W. Zimmerman.
Unraveled: Obamacare, Religious Liberty, and Executive Power - Podcast
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Litigation and Administrative Law & Regulation Practice Group Podcast
Six years after its enactment, Obamacare remains one of the most controversial, divisive, and enduring...
President Obama and Nuclear Tests - Podcast
Eugene Kontorovich, Peter J. Spiro
International & National Security Law Practice Group Podcast
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, but the treaty...
Supreme Court Preview: What Is in Store for October Term 2016?
Robert Barnes, Thomas C. Goldstein, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Carrie Campbell Severino, George J. Terwilliger
Co-Sponsored by the Faculty Division and the Practice Groups
October 4th will mark the first day of oral arguments for the 2016 Supreme Court...
Supreme Court Preview: What Is in Store for October Term 2016?
Robert Barnes, Thomas C. Goldstein, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Carrie Campbell Severino, George J. Terwilliger
Co-Sponsored by the Faculty Division and the Practice Groups
October 4th will mark the first day of oral arguments for the 2016 Supreme Court...
Midnight Monuments: The Antiquities Act and the Executive Authority to Designate National Monuments - Podcast
Donald J. Kochan, Charles Wilkinson
Environmental Law and Property Rights Practice Group Podcast
The Antiquities Act of 1906 provides, in part, that “The President may, in the President's...
Regulations at the End of the Obama Administration - Podcast
Sam Batkins, Adam White, Sofie E. Miller
Administrative Law & Regulation Practice Group Podcast
From the EPA to HHS to the CFPB, the volume of regulatory rulemaking and other...
Texas and Regulation
Diane M. Kozub, Arif Panju, Timothy Sandefur, Prerak Shah, Don R. Willett, Russell Withers
Second Annual Texas Chapters Conference
The tension between economic liberty and the state’s power to regulate economic activity has long...
Texas and Regulation
Diane M. Kozub, Arif Panju, Timothy Sandefur, Prerak Shah, Don R. Willett, Russell Withers
Second Annual Texas Chapters Conference
The tension between economic liberty and the state’s power to regulate economic activity has long...
Local Control or Abdication of Individual Rights?
Roger Borgelt, Phil King, Leonard A. Leo, Michael C. Massengale, Andrew P. Morriss, Don Zimmerman
Second Annual Texas Chapters Conference
A growing number of Texas municipalities are passing so-called "nanny state" restrictions and regulations that may...
Local Control or Abdication of Individual Rights?
Roger Borgelt, Phil King, Leonard A. Leo, Michael C. Massengale, Andrew P. Morriss, Don Zimmerman
Second Annual Texas Chapters Conference
A growing number of Texas municipalities are passing so-called "nanny state" restrictions and regulations that may...