Dean Emeritus and Branch Rickey Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Evan H. Caminker, the Branch Rickey Collegiate Professor of Law, served as dean of the Law School from 2003 to 2013. During his tenure he helped design and oversee a significant expansion and renovation of the Law School's historic facilities, emphasized and shaped a curricular and co-curricular focus on skills-based and experiential learning, and helped nurture the unique culture at Michigan Law that creates a vibrant and collegial student-faculty community. He recently spent several years (both full- and part-time) serving as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Detroit office, where he specialized in appellate litigation. Professor Caminker writes, teaches, and litigates about various issues of American constitutional law, including individual rights, allocation of governmental powers, and judicial decision-making. He has taught in the fields of appellate advocacy, constitutional law, federal courts, and civil procedure, and has lectured widely before various professional, scholarly, and student audiences. Professor Caminker came to Michigan Law from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, where he was a faculty member from 1991 to 1999. He received his BA in political economy and environmental studies, summa cum laude, from UCLA and his JD from Yale Law School. He clerked for Justice William Brennan Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court and for The Hon. William Norris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Caminker also practiced law with the Center for Law in the Public Interest in Los Angeles and with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C. From May 2000 through January 2001, he served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice.
Paul J. Schierl Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Professor Richard W. Garnett teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law, the First Amendment, and law and religion. He is a leading authority on questions and debates regarding religious freedom and church-state relations, and is the founding director of Notre Dame Law School’s Program on Church, State, and Society.
Garnett clerked for the late Chief Justice of the United States, William H. Rehnquist, and also for the late Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Richard S. Arnold. He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1995 and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Duke University in 1990. He joined the faculty in 1999 after practicing law in Washington, D.C. with Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin.
William T. Comfort, III Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
Roderick Hills teaches and writes in public law areas, including constitutional law, local government law, land-use regulation, administrative law, and statutory interpretation. His focus in each area is on the rules and policies governing division of powers between central and subcentral governments. He holds bachelor’s and law degrees from Yale University. Following law school, he served as a law clerk for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and practiced law in Colorado. Hills previously taught at the University of Michigan Law School from 1994 to 2006. He is a member of the state bar of New York and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Virginia School of Law; Alice McKean Young Regents Chair in Law Emeritus, University of Texas
Douglas Laycock is perhaps the nation’s leading authority on the law of religious liberty and also on the law of remedies. He has taught and written about these topics for more than four decades at the University of Chicago, the University of Texas, the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia. He retired from teaching at UVA Law School in May 2023.
Laycock has testified frequently before Congress and has argued many cases in the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, where he has served as lead counsel in six cases and has also filed influential amicus briefs. He is the author (co-author in the most recent edition) of the leading casebook Modern American Remedies, the award-winning monograph The Death of the Irreparable Injury Rule and many articles in leading law reviews. He co-edited a collection of essays, Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty.
His many writings on religious liberty have been republished in a five-volume collection:
Laycock resigned from the council and as first vice president of the American Law Institute to become co-reporter for the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Remedies. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He earned his B.A. from Michigan State University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago.
Robert Mundheim Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Amy Wax's work addresses issues in social welfare law and policy as well as the relationship of the family, the workplace, and labor markets. By bringing to bear her training in biomedical sciences and appellate practice as well as her interest in economic analysis, Wax has developed a uniquely insightful approach to problems in her areas of expertise.
Wax's career has been stellar. As an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wax argued 15 cases before the United States Supreme Court. She taught for seven years at the University of Virginia Law School before joining the Penn Law faculty in 2001.
Wax has published widely in law journals, including Chicago, Virginia, Villanova, Indiana, Emory, the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and Law, Yale Journal on Regulation and the Michigan Journal of Race and Law. Papers in press address liberal theory and welfare work requirements as well as the economics of federal disability laws. Current work in progress includes articles on law and evolutionary psychology, the political psychology of social security reform, and economic models of the family-friendly workplace. Wax has also received the A. Leo Levin Award for Excellence in an Introductory Course.
Dean Emeritus and Branch Rickey Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Evan H. Caminker, the Branch Rickey Collegiate Professor of Law, served as dean of the Law School from 2003 to 2013. During his tenure he helped design and oversee a significant expansion and renovation of the Law School's historic facilities, emphasized and shaped a curricular and co-curricular focus on skills-based and experiential learning, and helped nurture the unique culture at Michigan Law that creates a vibrant and collegial student-faculty community. He recently spent several years (both full- and part-time) serving as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Detroit office, where he specialized in appellate litigation. Professor Caminker writes, teaches, and litigates about various issues of American constitutional law, including individual rights, allocation of governmental powers, and judicial decision-making. He has taught in the fields of appellate advocacy, constitutional law, federal courts, and civil procedure, and has lectured widely before various professional, scholarly, and student audiences. Professor Caminker came to Michigan Law from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, where he was a faculty member from 1991 to 1999. He received his BA in political economy and environmental studies, summa cum laude, from UCLA and his JD from Yale Law School. He clerked for Justice William Brennan Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court and for The Hon. William Norris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Caminker also practiced law with the Center for Law in the Public Interest in Los Angeles and with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C. From May 2000 through January 2001, he served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice.
Paul J. Schierl Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Professor Richard W. Garnett teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law, the First Amendment, and law and religion. He is a leading authority on questions and debates regarding religious freedom and church-state relations, and is the founding director of Notre Dame Law School’s Program on Church, State, and Society.
Garnett clerked for the late Chief Justice of the United States, William H. Rehnquist, and also for the late Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Richard S. Arnold. He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1995 and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Duke University in 1990. He joined the faculty in 1999 after practicing law in Washington, D.C. with Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin.
William T. Comfort, III Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
Roderick Hills teaches and writes in public law areas, including constitutional law, local government law, land-use regulation, administrative law, and statutory interpretation. His focus in each area is on the rules and policies governing division of powers between central and subcentral governments. He holds bachelor’s and law degrees from Yale University. Following law school, he served as a law clerk for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and practiced law in Colorado. Hills previously taught at the University of Michigan Law School from 1994 to 2006. He is a member of the state bar of New York and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Virginia School of Law; Alice McKean Young Regents Chair in Law Emeritus, University of Texas
Douglas Laycock is perhaps the nation’s leading authority on the law of religious liberty and also on the law of remedies. He has taught and written about these topics for more than four decades at the University of Chicago, the University of Texas, the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia. He retired from teaching at UVA Law School in May 2023.
Laycock has testified frequently before Congress and has argued many cases in the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, where he has served as lead counsel in six cases and has also filed influential amicus briefs. He is the author (co-author in the most recent edition) of the leading casebook Modern American Remedies, the award-winning monograph The Death of the Irreparable Injury Rule and many articles in leading law reviews. He co-edited a collection of essays, Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty.
His many writings on religious liberty have been republished in a five-volume collection:
Laycock resigned from the council and as first vice president of the American Law Institute to become co-reporter for the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Remedies. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He earned his B.A. from Michigan State University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago.
Robert Mundheim Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Amy Wax's work addresses issues in social welfare law and policy as well as the relationship of the family, the workplace, and labor markets. By bringing to bear her training in biomedical sciences and appellate practice as well as her interest in economic analysis, Wax has developed a uniquely insightful approach to problems in her areas of expertise.
Wax's career has been stellar. As an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wax argued 15 cases before the United States Supreme Court. She taught for seven years at the University of Virginia Law School before joining the Penn Law faculty in 2001.
Wax has published widely in law journals, including Chicago, Virginia, Villanova, Indiana, Emory, the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and Law, Yale Journal on Regulation and the Michigan Journal of Race and Law. Papers in press address liberal theory and welfare work requirements as well as the economics of federal disability laws. Current work in progress includes articles on law and evolutionary psychology, the political psychology of social security reform, and economic models of the family-friendly workplace. Wax has also received the A. Leo Levin Award for Excellence in an Introductory Course.
Counsel to Senator Jeff Sessions, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Counsel to Senator Jeff Sessions, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Senior Vice President, Law and Policy, US Telecomm
Communications industry veteran Jonathan Banks joined USTelecom in March 2007, and directs the association’s policy development and advocacy work before the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the courts. Banks comes to USTelecom from BellSouth where he played several leadership roles in the company’s federal advocacy, and his experience at one of the leading communications companies in the industry makes him an invaluable asset to the association.
Banks joined BellSouth in 1995 and most recently served as vice president – executive and regulatory affairs with responsibility for federal public policy advocacy. He also provided legal expertise as general counsel in BellSouth’s Washington office.
Previously, Banks held positions at the FTC, managing a staff litigating competition cases; Armstrong World Industries, where he was responsible for antitrust compliance and litigation at a Fortune 500 company; and the Association of American Railroads, overseeing regulation and state taxation issues.
President & CEO, National Cable & Telecommunications Association
Vice President for Research and Senior Fellow, Technology Policy Institute
Scott Wallsten is vice president for research and senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute. An economist with expertise in industrial organization and public policy, Wallsten's research focuses on telecommunications, regulation, competition, and technology policy. His papers have been published in numerous academic journals and his commentaries have appeared in newspapers and newsmagazines around the world.
Wallsten is also a senior fellow at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy and a lecturer in Public Policy at Stanford University. He served as economics director of the Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Task Force. He has been director of communications policy studies and senior fellow at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a senior fellow at the AEI - Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, an economist at The World Bank, a scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and a staff economist at the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers.
Wallsten holds a PhD in economics from Stanford University.
Senior Vice President, Law and Policy, US Telecomm
Communications industry veteran Jonathan Banks joined USTelecom in March 2007, and directs the association’s policy development and advocacy work before the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the courts. Banks comes to USTelecom from BellSouth where he played several leadership roles in the company’s federal advocacy, and his experience at one of the leading communications companies in the industry makes him an invaluable asset to the association.
Banks joined BellSouth in 1995 and most recently served as vice president – executive and regulatory affairs with responsibility for federal public policy advocacy. He also provided legal expertise as general counsel in BellSouth’s Washington office.
Previously, Banks held positions at the FTC, managing a staff litigating competition cases; Armstrong World Industries, where he was responsible for antitrust compliance and litigation at a Fortune 500 company; and the Association of American Railroads, overseeing regulation and state taxation issues.
President & CEO, National Cable & Telecommunications Association
Vice President for Research and Senior Fellow, Technology Policy Institute
Scott Wallsten is vice president for research and senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute. An economist with expertise in industrial organization and public policy, Wallsten's research focuses on telecommunications, regulation, competition, and technology policy. His papers have been published in numerous academic journals and his commentaries have appeared in newspapers and newsmagazines around the world.
Wallsten is also a senior fellow at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy and a lecturer in Public Policy at Stanford University. He served as economics director of the Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Task Force. He has been director of communications policy studies and senior fellow at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a senior fellow at the AEI - Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, an economist at The World Bank, a scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and a staff economist at the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers.
Wallsten holds a PhD in economics from Stanford University.
Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence, UNC School of Law
Michael Gerhardt joined the Carolina Law faculty in 2005 and serves as the Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence. His teaching and research focuses on constitutional conflicts between presidents and Congress. Gerhardt is the author of six books, including leading treatises on impeachment, appointments, presidential power, Supreme Court precedent, and separation of powers. He has written more than a hundred law review articles and dozens of op eds in the nation’s leading news publications, including SCOTUSblog, The New York Times, and Washington Post. His book, The Forgotten Presidents (Oxford University Press 2013), was named by The Financial Times as one of the best non-fiction books of 2013. He was inducted into the American Law Institute in 2016. Gerhardt attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated order of the coif and served as a research assistant to both Phil Kurland and Cass Sunstein and as one of the two student editors of The Supreme Court Review. After law school, he clerked for Chief District Judge Robert McRae of the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Tennessee and Judge Gilbert Merritt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He served as Deputy Media Director of Al Gore’s first Senate campaign, practiced law for three years for two boutique litigation firms in Washington and Atlanta, and taught for more than a decade at William & Mary Law School before joining Carolina Law.
Gerhardt’s extensive public service has included his testifying more than a dozen times before Congress, including as the only joint witness in the Clinton impeachment proceedings in the House; speaking behind closed doors to the entire House of Representatives about the history of impeachment in 1998; and serving as special counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee for seven of the nine sitting Supreme Court justices. In 2015, he became the first legal scholar to be asked by the Library of Congress to serve as its principal adviser in revising the official United States Constitution Annotated. In 2019, the Order of the Coif named Gerhardt as its Distinguished Visitor for 2020, an award given to only one law professor each year for outstanding legal scholarship.
Former President & CEO, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Eugene B. Meyer, former President and CEO of the Federalist Society, has served as Executive Director, CEO, and/or President of the organization for more than 40 years. He is responsible for shepherding the organization from a small group of law students to a community of 90,000 lawyers, law students, academics, judges, and others interested in the rule of law. The Society now includes a Student Chapter at nearly every ABA-accredited law school in the country and Lawyers Chapters in 220 major cities across the nation. Gene earned his B.A. in history at Yale in 1975 and his M.A. in political science from the London School of Economics in 1976. Gene currently serves on the boards of the U.S. Chess Center, the Holman Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the advisory board of the Adam Smith Society. He holds the title of International Chess Master.
Writer, Washington Bureau, Los Angeles Times
David G. Savage has covered the Supreme Court and legal issues for the Los Angeles Times in the Washington bureau since 1986. He has covered the Senate confirmation hearings for all of the nine justices, from Antonin Scalia to Elena Kagan. In addition to writing about the court’s work, he has written on the legal battles that have raged in Washington, from the Clinton impeachment in the 1990s to the Florida recount after 2000 presidential election, the “war on terrorism” in the years after the 9/11 attacks, and more recently, on voting rights and gay marriage. He joined The Times in 1981 and was an education writer on the Metro staff for five years.
Former United States Senator, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Partner, Wise Carter Child & Caraway -- Jackson, Miss.
Distinguished Senior Fellow and Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Edward Whelan is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and holds EPPC’s Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies. He is the longest-serving President in EPPC’s history, having held that position from March 2004 through January 2021.
Mr. Whelan directs EPPC’s program on The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture. His areas of expertise include constitutional law and the judicial confirmation process. As a contributor to National Review Online’s Bench Memos blog, he has been a leading commentator on nominations to the Supreme Court and the lower courts and on issues of constitutional law. He has written essays and op-eds for leading newspapers—including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post—opinion journals, and academic symposia and law reviews. The National Law Journal has named Mr. Whelan among its “Champions and Visionaries” in the practice of law in D.C.
Mr. Whelan is co-editor of three volumes of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s work: Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived (Crown Forum, 2017), a New York Times bestselling collection of speeches by Justice Scalia; On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer (Crown Forum, 2019), a collection of Justice Scalia’s writings on faith and religion; and The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law (Crown Forum, 2020), a collection of Justice Scalia’s views on legal issues.
Mr. Whelan, a lawyer and a former law clerk to Justice Scalia, has served in positions of responsibility in all three branches of the federal government. From just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, until joining EPPC in 2004, Mr. Whelan was the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. In that capacity, he advised the White House Counsel’s Office, the Attorney General and other senior DOJ officials, and departments and agencies throughout the executive branch on difficult and sensitive legal questions. Mr. Whelan previously served on Capitol Hill as General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In addition to clerking for Justice Scalia, he was a law clerk to Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In 1981 Mr. Whelan graduated with honors from Harvard College and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1985 from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review.
For more on Mr. Whelan’s background, see this interview.
Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence, UNC School of Law
Michael Gerhardt joined the Carolina Law faculty in 2005 and serves as the Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence. His teaching and research focuses on constitutional conflicts between presidents and Congress. Gerhardt is the author of six books, including leading treatises on impeachment, appointments, presidential power, Supreme Court precedent, and separation of powers. He has written more than a hundred law review articles and dozens of op eds in the nation’s leading news publications, including SCOTUSblog, The New York Times, and Washington Post. His book, The Forgotten Presidents (Oxford University Press 2013), was named by The Financial Times as one of the best non-fiction books of 2013. He was inducted into the American Law Institute in 2016. Gerhardt attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated order of the coif and served as a research assistant to both Phil Kurland and Cass Sunstein and as one of the two student editors of The Supreme Court Review. After law school, he clerked for Chief District Judge Robert McRae of the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Tennessee and Judge Gilbert Merritt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He served as Deputy Media Director of Al Gore’s first Senate campaign, practiced law for three years for two boutique litigation firms in Washington and Atlanta, and taught for more than a decade at William & Mary Law School before joining Carolina Law.
Gerhardt’s extensive public service has included his testifying more than a dozen times before Congress, including as the only joint witness in the Clinton impeachment proceedings in the House; speaking behind closed doors to the entire House of Representatives about the history of impeachment in 1998; and serving as special counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee for seven of the nine sitting Supreme Court justices. In 2015, he became the first legal scholar to be asked by the Library of Congress to serve as its principal adviser in revising the official United States Constitution Annotated. In 2019, the Order of the Coif named Gerhardt as its Distinguished Visitor for 2020, an award given to only one law professor each year for outstanding legal scholarship.
Former President & CEO, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Eugene B. Meyer, former President and CEO of the Federalist Society, has served as Executive Director, CEO, and/or President of the organization for more than 40 years. He is responsible for shepherding the organization from a small group of law students to a community of 90,000 lawyers, law students, academics, judges, and others interested in the rule of law. The Society now includes a Student Chapter at nearly every ABA-accredited law school in the country and Lawyers Chapters in 220 major cities across the nation. Gene earned his B.A. in history at Yale in 1975 and his M.A. in political science from the London School of Economics in 1976. Gene currently serves on the boards of the U.S. Chess Center, the Holman Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the advisory board of the Adam Smith Society. He holds the title of International Chess Master.
Writer, Washington Bureau, Los Angeles Times
David G. Savage has covered the Supreme Court and legal issues for the Los Angeles Times in the Washington bureau since 1986. He has covered the Senate confirmation hearings for all of the nine justices, from Antonin Scalia to Elena Kagan. In addition to writing about the court’s work, he has written on the legal battles that have raged in Washington, from the Clinton impeachment in the 1990s to the Florida recount after 2000 presidential election, the “war on terrorism” in the years after the 9/11 attacks, and more recently, on voting rights and gay marriage. He joined The Times in 1981 and was an education writer on the Metro staff for five years.
Former United States Senator, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Partner, Wise Carter Child & Caraway -- Jackson, Miss.
Distinguished Senior Fellow and Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Edward Whelan is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and holds EPPC’s Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies. He is the longest-serving President in EPPC’s history, having held that position from March 2004 through January 2021.
Mr. Whelan directs EPPC’s program on The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture. His areas of expertise include constitutional law and the judicial confirmation process. As a contributor to National Review Online’s Bench Memos blog, he has been a leading commentator on nominations to the Supreme Court and the lower courts and on issues of constitutional law. He has written essays and op-eds for leading newspapers—including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post—opinion journals, and academic symposia and law reviews. The National Law Journal has named Mr. Whelan among its “Champions and Visionaries” in the practice of law in D.C.
Mr. Whelan is co-editor of three volumes of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s work: Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived (Crown Forum, 2017), a New York Times bestselling collection of speeches by Justice Scalia; On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer (Crown Forum, 2019), a collection of Justice Scalia’s writings on faith and religion; and The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law (Crown Forum, 2020), a collection of Justice Scalia’s views on legal issues.
Mr. Whelan, a lawyer and a former law clerk to Justice Scalia, has served in positions of responsibility in all three branches of the federal government. From just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, until joining EPPC in 2004, Mr. Whelan was the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. In that capacity, he advised the White House Counsel’s Office, the Attorney General and other senior DOJ officials, and departments and agencies throughout the executive branch on difficult and sensitive legal questions. Mr. Whelan previously served on Capitol Hill as General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In addition to clerking for Justice Scalia, he was a law clerk to Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In 1981 Mr. Whelan graduated with honors from Harvard College and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1985 from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review.
For more on Mr. Whelan’s background, see this interview.
Professor of History, Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center
KC Johnson is professor of history at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, where he has taught since 1999. He has written 13 books on topics in U.S. political history, U.S. foreign policy, and legal and policy debates surrounding campus due process and civil liberties. His Duke lacrosse case blog, Durham-in-Wonderland, was named ABA Journal’s Best Ethics Blog in 2007; and he continues to blog on higher-ed matters at the blog Minding the Campus.
Executive Vice President and Senior Counselor to the President, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
B.A., Yale; J.D., University of Chicago. Lee Liberman Otis is the Executive Vice President and Senior Counselor to the President at the Federalist Society. She also serves as a member of the American Law Institute (ALI), a senior fellow of the Administrative Conference (ACUS), and as the co-chair of the National Constitution Center's Coalition of Freedom Advisory Board. She previously was a special assistant and an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, General Counsel of the Department of Energy, an associate in the appellate section of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, an associate counsel to President George H.W. Bush, and a law clerk to Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. She also served as an assistant professor of law at George Mason, where she taught legislation, federal jurisdiction, constitutional law, civil procedure, and appellate advocacy. Ms. Otis has been an important member of the Federalist Society team since the organization’s beginnings. Together with David McIntosh, she led the effort to start what became the Chicago chapter of the Society. She also helped organize the Society’s first conference at Yale, its second conference at Chicago, and its first Lawyers Division chapter in Washington DC, as well as the effort to incorporate the Society, recruit its permanent staff, and obtain its early funding. She was a Founding Director of the Federalist Society.
Professor of History, Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center
KC Johnson is professor of history at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, where he has taught since 1999. He has written 13 books on topics in U.S. political history, U.S. foreign policy, and legal and policy debates surrounding campus due process and civil liberties. His Duke lacrosse case blog, Durham-in-Wonderland, was named ABA Journal’s Best Ethics Blog in 2007; and he continues to blog on higher-ed matters at the blog Minding the Campus.
Executive Vice President and Senior Counselor to the President, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
B.A., Yale; J.D., University of Chicago. Lee Liberman Otis is the Executive Vice President and Senior Counselor to the President at the Federalist Society. She also serves as a member of the American Law Institute (ALI), a senior fellow of the Administrative Conference (ACUS), and as the co-chair of the National Constitution Center's Coalition of Freedom Advisory Board. She previously was a special assistant and an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, General Counsel of the Department of Energy, an associate in the appellate section of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, an associate counsel to President George H.W. Bush, and a law clerk to Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. She also served as an assistant professor of law at George Mason, where she taught legislation, federal jurisdiction, constitutional law, civil procedure, and appellate advocacy. Ms. Otis has been an important member of the Federalist Society team since the organization’s beginnings. Together with David McIntosh, she led the effort to start what became the Chicago chapter of the Society. She also helped organize the Society’s first conference at Yale, its second conference at Chicago, and its first Lawyers Division chapter in Washington DC, as well as the effort to incorporate the Society, recruit its permanent staff, and obtain its early funding. She was a Founding Director of the Federalist Society.
Welcome and Panel I: Judicial Interference With Community Values
Evan H. Caminker, Craig Chosiad, Maura Corrigan, Richard W. Garnett, Roderick M. Hills, Douglas Laycock, Amy Wax
2008 National Student Symposium
The Federalist Society's Student Division presented this panel at the 2008 Annual Student Symposium on...
Welcome and Panel I: Judicial Interference With Community Values
Evan H. Caminker, Craig Chosiad, Maura Corrigan, Richard W. Garnett, Roderick M. Hills, Douglas Laycock, Amy Wax
2008 National Student Symposium
The Federalist Society's Student Division presented this panel at the 2008 Annual Student Symposium on...
The Akaka Bill
Steve King, Joseph Matal, Dean Reuter
Civil Rights Practice Group
The proposed Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act (known as the "Akaka Bill") would set in...
The Akaka Bill
Steve King, Joseph Matal, Dean Reuter
Civil Rights Practice Group
The proposed Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act (known as the "Akaka Bill") would set in...
A New Role for an Aging Star: Universal Service in the Age of Competition and Technological Change
Jon Banks, Kyle E. McSlarrow, Paul J. Nagle, E. Courtney Reinhard, Lawrence Sarjeant, Deborah Taylor Tate, Scott J. Wallsten
Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Group
The United States spends $7 billion a year to subsidize telephone companies. This program, known...
A New Role for an Aging Star: Universal Service in the Age of Competition and Technological Change
Jon Banks, Kyle E. McSlarrow, Paul J. Nagle, E. Courtney Reinhard, Lawrence Sarjeant, Deborah Taylor Tate, Scott J. Wallsten
Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Group
The United States spends $7 billion a year to subsidize telephone companies. This program, known...
Judicial Confirmations
Michael J. Gerhardt, Simon Heller, Eugene B. Meyer, David G. Savage, Arlen Specter, Michael B. Wallace, Edward Whelan
Professional Responsibility Practice Group and DC Lawyers Chapter
Senator Arlen Specter and a panel of experts examine the state of the judicial nomination...
Judicial Confirmations
Michael J. Gerhardt, Simon Heller, Eugene B. Meyer, David G. Savage, Arlen Specter, Michael B. Wallace, Edward Whelan
Professional Responsibility Practice Group and DC Lawyers Chapter
Senator Arlen Specter and a panel of experts examine the state of the judicial nomination...
Address: "The Duke Lacrosse Case & the Academy"
KC Johnson, Lee Liberman Otis
10th Annual Faculty Conference
This address by Professor KC Johnson of Brooklyn College took place on January 4, 2008, at...
Address: "The Duke Lacrosse Case & the Academy"
KC Johnson, Lee Liberman Otis
10th Annual Faculty Conference
This address by Professor KC Johnson of Brooklyn College took place on January 4, 2008, at...