President and CEO, Goldwater Institute
Darcy Olsen is President of the Goldwater Institute, a research and legal center that Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will heralded as “simply in the liberty business and there’s no institution in the country that performs that business better.”
Ms. Olsen’s leadership has been critical to the Institute’s success, including the development and enactment of hundreds of reforms and the protection of multiple constitutional rights in state and federal courts.
When Ms. Olsen took the helm of the Goldwater Institute in 2001, it was struggling to stay afloat. She revamped the Institute’s organizational structure to parallel a private-sector company focused on results. Shortly after, her colleagues presented her with a life-sized replica of Darth Vader, symbolizing her willingness to terminate non-performers and face down critics.
Ms. Olsen’s vision has made the Goldwater Institute a national leader in the movement to restore America as a compound republic, where states exercise their constitutional authority to check and limit federal power.
Under Ms. Olsen’s direction, the Goldwater Institute developed Save Our Secret Ballot initiative, a successful nationwide effort to protect businesses from labor union card-check. Despite strong-arm tactics from the federal government, the Institute beat back a legal challenge brought by the National Labor Relations Board against Save Our Secret Ballot. “These aren’t merely symbolic victories,” hailed the Wall Street Journal. “States can protect their economies from the NLRB with initiatives like [Save Our Secret Ballot].”
The Goldwater Institute also designed the nation’s first education savings accounts. Parents use the accounts to pay for a range of education expenses, including private school tuition, educational therapies, and even college. The New York Times highlighted the accounts as a national model for states as they reform public education. When the education unions sued over the program, the Goldwater Institute stepped in and won, paving the way for children nationwide to benefit.
The Goldwater Institute is currently spearheading the Right to Try initiative, a state-level measure that will give terminally ill patients access to potentially life-saving medicines. Under the current system, terminally ill patients have to wait to gain access to new treatments, which can take over a decade to make it to market. This lifesaving measure is moving through several states.
An authority on education reform, economic policy, and government reform, Ms. Olsen is a regular guest on national media programs. Her opinions have been widely published in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Review.
Ms. Olsen has received numerous awards and recognitions including a 2014 Bradley Prize, which recognizes individuals of extraordinary talent and dedication who seek to preserve and defend the institutions of free government and private enterprise, and the national Roe Award for achievement in public policy. One of her most unexpected awards was when Hockey Magazine named her the “64th most powerful person in hockey” for her leading role in blocking a multi-million-dollar subsidy to an NHL team.
A graduate of Georgetown University and New York University, Olsen unofficially started her public policy career at 11 years old, when she went door-to-door gathering signatures on a homemade petition to stop animal abuse. Born in Vermont, raised in Utah, Olsen resides in Arizona. She is a foster mother and an adoptive mother of three.
Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University
Evan Bernick joined the NIU Law faculty in 2021. He teaches courses in constitutional law, criminal law, criminal procedure, administrative law and legislation.
From 2020 to 2021, Professor Bernick was a visiting professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and the executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. Before that, he served as a clerk to Judge Diane S. Sykes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. From April 2017 to April 2019, he was a visiting lecturer at Georgetown and a resident fellow of the Center for the Constitution.
His scholarship covers a range of topics, from constitutional law, to philosophy of law, to social movements, to law enforcement. He has published with the Georgetown Law Journal, the Notre Dame Law Review, the William and Mary Law Review and the George Mason Law Review, among other journals. His book, The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit (2021), with Randy E. Barnett, was published by Harvard University Press under its Belknap imprint "for books of long-lasting importance, superior in scholarship and physical production, chosen whether or not they might be profitable."
Professor Bernick received his bachelor's degree in 2008 from the University of Chicago, where he studied philosophy and graduated with honors. He received his juris doctorate in 2011 from the University of Chicago Law School.
Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University
Evan Bernick joined the NIU Law faculty in 2021. He teaches courses in constitutional law, criminal law, criminal procedure, administrative law and legislation.
From 2020 to 2021, Professor Bernick was a visiting professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and the executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. Before that, he served as a clerk to Judge Diane S. Sykes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. From April 2017 to April 2019, he was a visiting lecturer at Georgetown and a resident fellow of the Center for the Constitution.
His scholarship covers a range of topics, from constitutional law, to philosophy of law, to social movements, to law enforcement. He has published with the Georgetown Law Journal, the Notre Dame Law Review, the William and Mary Law Review and the George Mason Law Review, among other journals. His book, The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit (2021), with Randy E. Barnett, was published by Harvard University Press under its Belknap imprint "for books of long-lasting importance, superior in scholarship and physical production, chosen whether or not they might be profitable."
Professor Bernick received his bachelor's degree in 2008 from the University of Chicago, where he studied philosophy and graduated with honors. He received his juris doctorate in 2011 from the University of Chicago Law School.
Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University
Evan Bernick joined the NIU Law faculty in 2021. He teaches courses in constitutional law, criminal law, criminal procedure, administrative law and legislation.
From 2020 to 2021, Professor Bernick was a visiting professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and the executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. Before that, he served as a clerk to Judge Diane S. Sykes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. From April 2017 to April 2019, he was a visiting lecturer at Georgetown and a resident fellow of the Center for the Constitution.
His scholarship covers a range of topics, from constitutional law, to philosophy of law, to social movements, to law enforcement. He has published with the Georgetown Law Journal, the Notre Dame Law Review, the William and Mary Law Review and the George Mason Law Review, among other journals. His book, The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit (2021), with Randy E. Barnett, was published by Harvard University Press under its Belknap imprint "for books of long-lasting importance, superior in scholarship and physical production, chosen whether or not they might be profitable."
Professor Bernick received his bachelor's degree in 2008 from the University of Chicago, where he studied philosophy and graduated with honors. He received his juris doctorate in 2011 from the University of Chicago Law School.
The Right to Try: America's Drug Approval Regime - Podcast
Darcy Olsen, Evan D. Bernick
Civil Rights Practice Group Podcast
Should you need the government’s permission to try to save your own life? Today, the...
Topics
Law Enforcement Unchecked
It is an issue that affects millions of American motorists: Can border patrol agents detain...
Topics
Enough Is Enough: Justice Scalia, Auer Deference, and Judicial Duty
It is one of the most fundamental principles of Anglo-American law: No person may be...
Book Review: The Right to Try
Evan D. Bernick
Engage, Volume 17, Issue 1
Note from the Editor: This book review discusses the controversial concept of the constitutional “right...
Topics
Supreme Court Preview: Foster v. Chatman
It’s shaping up to be one of the Supreme Court’s most consequential terms in recent...
Topics
The Circuit Splits Are Out There—and the Court Should Decide Them
The Supreme Court just isn’t as busy as it used to be. In the early...
The Circuit Splits Are Out There—and the Court Should Resolve Them
Evan D. Bernick
Engage Volume 16, Issue 2
Note from the Editor: This article argues that the U.S. Supreme Court should resolve a...