Senior Political Analyst, Washington Examiner
Michael Barone is a Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner, where he writes a twice-weekly column and contributes to their Beltway Confidential blog. He is also a frequent contributor during Fox News Channel's election coverage.
Director of the Human Rights, Civil Rights, and Citizenship Prog, Constitutional Accountability Center
David joined CAC after serving as Program Director of Cardozo Law School's Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, and as an attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, where he worked with Bert Neuborne on appellate briefs in constitutional cases involving the First Amendment and voting rights. Previously, David was an Acting Assistant Professor at NYU School of Law and practiced law at Emery Cuti Brinckerhoff & Abady, PC, where he litigated a wide range of constitutional and civil rights cases. David has also served as an attorney fellow for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy and as a law clerk for the Hon. Rosemary Barkett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. He is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he served as an editor on the Yale Law Review. His academic writings have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Boston University Law Review, the Emory Law Journal, the George Washington Law Review. Before receiving his law degree, David worked as a paralegal for the American Civil Liberties Union, where he helped Kathryn Kolbert prepare the briefs and argument in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In 1993, David and Ms. Kolbert co-authored an article in the Temple Law Review titled "Responding to Planned Parenthood v. Casey: Establishing Neutrality Principles in State Constitutional Law." David received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
Senior Political Analyst, Washington Examiner
Michael Barone is a Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner, where he writes a twice-weekly column and contributes to their Beltway Confidential blog. He is also a frequent contributor during Fox News Channel's election coverage.
Director of the Human Rights, Civil Rights, and Citizenship Prog, Constitutional Accountability Center
David joined CAC after serving as Program Director of Cardozo Law School's Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, and as an attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, where he worked with Bert Neuborne on appellate briefs in constitutional cases involving the First Amendment and voting rights. Previously, David was an Acting Assistant Professor at NYU School of Law and practiced law at Emery Cuti Brinckerhoff & Abady, PC, where he litigated a wide range of constitutional and civil rights cases. David has also served as an attorney fellow for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy and as a law clerk for the Hon. Rosemary Barkett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. He is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he served as an editor on the Yale Law Review. His academic writings have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Boston University Law Review, the Emory Law Journal, the George Washington Law Review. Before receiving his law degree, David worked as a paralegal for the American Civil Liberties Union, where he helped Kathryn Kolbert prepare the briefs and argument in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In 1993, David and Ms. Kolbert co-authored an article in the Temple Law Review titled "Responding to Planned Parenthood v. Casey: Establishing Neutrality Principles in State Constitutional Law." David received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
National Affairs Columnist, National Review
John Fund is National Affairs Columnist for National Review magazine and a on-air analyst on the Fox News Channel. He is considered a notable expert on American politics and the nexus between politics and economics.
He previously served as a columnist and editorial board member for The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of several books, including Who's Counting: Bow Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote At Risk (Encounter Books, 2012); Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy (Encounter Books, 2008) and The Dangers of Regulation Through Litigation (ATRA Press, 2008). He worked as a research analyst for the California Legislature in Sacramento before beginning his journalism career as a reporter for the syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak.
Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, called him "the Tom Paine of the modern Congressional reform movement." He has won awards from the Institute for Justice, The School Choice Aliance and the Warren Brooks award for journalistic excellence from the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
National Affairs Columnist, National Review
John Fund is National Affairs Columnist for National Review magazine and a on-air analyst on the Fox News Channel. He is considered a notable expert on American politics and the nexus between politics and economics.
He previously served as a columnist and editorial board member for The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of several books, including Who's Counting: Bow Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote At Risk (Encounter Books, 2012); Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy (Encounter Books, 2008) and The Dangers of Regulation Through Litigation (ATRA Press, 2008). He worked as a research analyst for the California Legislature in Sacramento before beginning his journalism career as a reporter for the syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak.
Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, called him "the Tom Paine of the modern Congressional reform movement." He has won awards from the Institute for Justice, The School Choice Aliance and the Warren Brooks award for journalistic excellence from the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
National Affairs Columnist, National Review
John Fund is National Affairs Columnist for National Review magazine and a on-air analyst on the Fox News Channel. He is considered a notable expert on American politics and the nexus between politics and economics.
He previously served as a columnist and editorial board member for The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of several books, including Who's Counting: Bow Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote At Risk (Encounter Books, 2012); Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy (Encounter Books, 2008) and The Dangers of Regulation Through Litigation (ATRA Press, 2008). He worked as a research analyst for the California Legislature in Sacramento before beginning his journalism career as a reporter for the syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak.
Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, called him "the Tom Paine of the modern Congressional reform movement." He has won awards from the Institute for Justice, The School Choice Aliance and the Warren Brooks award for journalistic excellence from the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
Journalist/Author
Trevor W. Coleman is a national award-winning journalist and author who served s Chief Speechwriter to Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm and as Director of Communications for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and the Governor’s Southeast Michigan office. Coleman was also a long time member of the editorial board of the Detroit Free Press where he won numerous awards for editorial and column writing prior to his appointment to the Granholm administration. He is currently working fulltime on the authorized biography of legendary federal Judge Damon J. Keith. Its working title is “Crusader for Justice: The Life and Amazing Times of Federal Judge Damon J. Keith.”
As the Director of Communications for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, he was responsible for crafting a global communications strategy which included developing all internal and external communications policies, managing media relations and executive speechwriting responsibilities. Because of his unique joint appointment, he was also required to establish an effective external communications strategy for the Governor’s Office for SE Michigan. In that position he also served as the official liaison to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Arab and Chaldean Affairs and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.
As Chief Speechwriter for Governor Granholm, Coleman wrote or contributed to all major public policy speeches including in the areas of international relations, automotive industry, education, economics, budgetary, race relations, and health, poverty and gender issues. He wrote major commencement addresses and contributed to State of the State address. Coleman also wrote the Governor’s guest OPEDS for state and regional newspapers as well as articles for public policy and other niche magazines. This included the Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Detroit Crain’s Business, Detroit Magazine, the Michigan Chronicle and others. He also helped develop the Governor’s communication strategy for her “One Michigan” tour and campaign to unite citizens.
As a member of the editorial board of the Detroit Free Press, Coleman specialized in writing on education, health care and urban policy. He also frequently wrote on civil rights, civil liberties and the U.S. criminal justice system. He was the editorial board’s senior foreign affairs writer for three years. Prior to joining the Free Press, Coleman was an urban affairs and civil rights reporter for The Detroit News, an editorial writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer, reporter and columnist for the Hartford Courant and city desk reporter for the Times-Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was also a contributing editor and writer for Emerge Magazine, Black Enterprise and the NAACP Crisis Magazine. Coleman also wrote a Sunday column for several years for his hometown newspaper, The Hudson Register Star.
Among his many journalism awards are a 2001 American Diabetes Association Award of Merit for a series of editorials urging the state to expand medical coverage for diabetics; a 1999 Michigan Press Association Award for column writing; a 1999 National Association of Black Journalist Award for Commentary; the 1998 Detroit Press Foundation Michigan Journalism Award for Commentary; the 1993 Detroit Press Foundation Journalism Award for News Reporting, 1993 Best of Gannett Award for News Reporting and the 1993 and 1999 Lincoln University Unity Awards for coverage of minority and social issues. Coleman is listed in “Who’s Who among African-Americans,” and in 2010 was listed in the “Who’s Who of Black Detroiters.”
Among his many honors have been a 2009 Michigan Department of Civil Rights Dedicated Service Award, 2008 Brown Chapel AME Church Civil Rights Leadership Award, 2004 Macomb County NAACP Freedom Fund Leadership Award, 2004 Over Comers Ministries Inc. Leadership Award, 2002 Wayne Community College District Award for Community Service and the 1993 Distinguished Alumni Award, from the Kappa Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at The Ohio State University.
He has been a guest speaker at many colleges and universities across the nation; among them Harvard Law School, The Ohio State University, the University of Michigan and University of Michigan School of Law, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, The University of Toledo Law School, Delaware State University, Schoolcraft College, Wayne Community College and many others. He has also appeared on numerous television and radio talk and public affairs programs.
A native of New York, he received his undergraduate degree in communications from The Ohio State University and is a fellow at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland. He is also is a graduate of the American Press Institute in Reston, VA and Poynter Institute in Fla. Coleman resides in Bloomfield Hills and is the divorced father of two children Sydnie, a college junior and TJ, a high school junior.
Attorney (of counsel), Witte Law Offices
Matthew G. Davis practices in the areas of appellate law, civil rights (including alleged violations of the First and Second Amendments), election law, campaign finance, and defamation. Mr. Davis is also experienced in general civil litigation.
Mr. Davis graduated from the The Ohio State University with a bachelors of arts in journalism in 1990 and earned his juris doctorate from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2005. He started his legal career in the pre-hearing division of the Michigan Court of Appeals before becoming law clerk for Judge Brian K. Zahra. Following his clerkship, Mr. Davis joined Witte Law Offices as an associate.
Prior to his legal career, Mr. Davis spent approximately twelve years as a reporter for various daily newspapers, including the Columbus ( Ohio ) Dispatch, the St. Paul (Minn. ) Pioneer Press, and the Detroit Free Press, where he covered the state Legislature in Lansing. Mr. Davis left newspapers to attend the Thomas M. Cooley Law School and, concomitantly, serve as director of communications for the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Michigan Department of Attorney General. Mr. Davis led the creation and development of the Offender Tracking Information System at the MDOC, which allows Internet access of offender information.
Racial Justice Staff Attorney, ACLU of Michigan
Through his work as the attorney for the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU of Michigan, Mark P. Fancher addresses: racially disproportionate rates of incarceration; racial discrimination against public school students of color, racial profiling, public defender system reform, attacks on affirmative action and juvenile sentencing issues.
Fancher was formerly the Senior Staff Attorney for the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice where he specialized in workers' rights. He served on the staff of the State Bar of Michigan from 1998 to 2000 where he coordinated projects to encourage greater pro bono participation by Michigan's lawyers. He was a visiting assistant clinical professor at the University of Michigan Law School from 1996 through 1998.
Before moving to Michigan, Fancher was the Director of Litigation for Camden Regional Legal Services in New Jersey. He has also been in private practice where he specialized in employment discrimination and community economic development. Fancher is a graduate of Rutgers University School of Law - Camden. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Tennessee.
Fancher has played a leadership role in the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) for numerous years. He is a past chair of the organization’s International Affairs Section, and he served as NCBL’s national co-chair from 1995-1998. He is also a member of the State Bar of Michigan Pro Bono Initiative.
Fancher has lectured across the country and written extensively on issues that include: self-determination for Africa and the African Diaspora; indigenous peoples’ land and resource rights; and political repression in the U.S.
Co-Founder, XIV Foundation
Jennifer Gratz is a modern-day civil rights leader. In 1997 she challenged race preferences (also known as affirmative action) at the University of Michigan and was victorious at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ms. Gratz was the lead plaintiff in the landmark case Gratz v. Bollinger which challenged affirmative action at the University of Michigan. On June 23, 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Gratz was discriminated against and U-M’s admission policy was unconstitutional. However, in a companion case decided the same day (Grutter v. Bollinger), the Supreme Court allowed race preferences to continue at U-M’s law school. Ms. Gratz called the split decision flawed and continued the fight for equality in her home state. She spearheaded the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), a state constitutional amendment that made race and gender preferences unconstitutional in public education, employment and contracting. In Nov 2006 Michigan voters approved MCRI by a 16-point landslide.
At CPAC following the Michigan vote, Ms. Gratz was honored with the prestigious Ronald Reagan Award from the American Conservative Union for leadership. Jennifer has spent many years working to end programs that grant preferential treatment based on race or sex and because of Ms. Gratz’s leadership eight states have now banned race and gender preferences.
Recently, Ms. Gratz co-founded the XIV Foundation (XIV) and Equal Protection Advocates (EPA). XIV, named after the 14th amendment, is a not-for-profit 501c3 dedicated to teaching the personal and societal advantages of fair and equal treatment. EPA is a 501c4 dedicated to advocating for fair and equal treatment without regard to race or gender for all Americans.
Ms. Gratz’s story and work has been featured in nearly every major media outlet – Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Dateline, 60 Minutes, The Today Show, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, LA Times, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, National Review, US News and World Report, Newsweek, Time Magazine, People Magazine, Glamour Magazine – to name a few.
Editorial Cartoonist, Editorial Writer, and Weekly Columnist, The Detroit News
Henry Payne is an editorial cartoonist, editorial writer, and weekly columnist The Detroit News.
A Pulitzer-Prize nominated cartoonist, Payne produces five local editorial cartoons a week for The News. He also writes and draws a weekly column, “Payne & Ink.” Additionally, Payne draws five cartoons a week on national and international subjects for United Feature Syndicate in Kansas City which distributes his cartoons to 40 newspaper clients worldwide. His work is reprinted in USA Today, National Review,Townhall.com and other publications.
Payne has been voted Best Editorial Cartoonist in Michigan by the Associated Press. He has been a runner-up for both the Pulitzer and Mencken awards.
As a writer, Payne reports regularly on economic, consumer and environmental issues. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard magazine, National Review, Reason, Scripps Howard News Service and newspapers around the country. He also is a correspondent for National Review’s popular “Planet Gore” blog.
Payne came to The Detroit News in 1999 after 13 years as an editorial cartoonist, writer, and editor forScripps Howard News Service in Washington, DC .
Payne published his first book, “Payne & Ink: The Cartoons and Commentary of Henry Payne, 2000-2001,” in 2002. He has also illustrated two children’s books for Random House: “Where did Daddy’s Hair Go?” (by Joe O’Connor) in 2006, and Dr. Seuss’ “The Ear Book” in 2007. In 1998, Payne created “Hub & Axel,” a comic panel distributed by the Tribune Company Syndicate about an American family and its very American passion for the automobile.
Born in 1962 in Charleston, West Virginia, Payne received a degree in history from Princeton University in 1984. As editorial cartoonist for two student newspapers, The Daily Princetonian and the Nassau Weekly, Payne won the College Media Advisers Cartoon Contest and the Tribune Company Syndicate’s National College Cartoonist’s Contest. Upon graduation from Princeton, Payne began his newspaper career as staff artist and editorial cartoonist with the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail. In 1986 he joined Scripps Howard News Service and began syndication with United Feature in 1987.
Payne is an active race car driver, tennis and squash player. He is the father of two boys and lives with wife, Talbot, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
President, Thomas M. Cooley Student Chapter
Penelope holds a Political Science and Pre-Law undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. She also received a Master of Science degree in Intelligence and National Security Studies with focus on Latino Immigration from the University of Texas at El Paso. Penelope has worked in several projects within the Latino Community such the LSPI Pre-Law Institute at UTEP as an outreach minority coordinator for recruitment of young Latino and underrepresented minorities to participate in the pre-law institute and later access IVY league Law Schools all across the country. Under the Kauffman Initiative she worked as an outreach specialist for the Hispanic Entrepreneur Center at UTEP She is now a J.D Law candidate 2014 at Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
Journalist/Author
Trevor W. Coleman is a national award-winning journalist and author who served s Chief Speechwriter to Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm and as Director of Communications for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and the Governor’s Southeast Michigan office. Coleman was also a long time member of the editorial board of the Detroit Free Press where he won numerous awards for editorial and column writing prior to his appointment to the Granholm administration. He is currently working fulltime on the authorized biography of legendary federal Judge Damon J. Keith. Its working title is “Crusader for Justice: The Life and Amazing Times of Federal Judge Damon J. Keith.”
As the Director of Communications for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, he was responsible for crafting a global communications strategy which included developing all internal and external communications policies, managing media relations and executive speechwriting responsibilities. Because of his unique joint appointment, he was also required to establish an effective external communications strategy for the Governor’s Office for SE Michigan. In that position he also served as the official liaison to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Arab and Chaldean Affairs and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.
As Chief Speechwriter for Governor Granholm, Coleman wrote or contributed to all major public policy speeches including in the areas of international relations, automotive industry, education, economics, budgetary, race relations, and health, poverty and gender issues. He wrote major commencement addresses and contributed to State of the State address. Coleman also wrote the Governor’s guest OPEDS for state and regional newspapers as well as articles for public policy and other niche magazines. This included the Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Detroit Crain’s Business, Detroit Magazine, the Michigan Chronicle and others. He also helped develop the Governor’s communication strategy for her “One Michigan” tour and campaign to unite citizens.
As a member of the editorial board of the Detroit Free Press, Coleman specialized in writing on education, health care and urban policy. He also frequently wrote on civil rights, civil liberties and the U.S. criminal justice system. He was the editorial board’s senior foreign affairs writer for three years. Prior to joining the Free Press, Coleman was an urban affairs and civil rights reporter for The Detroit News, an editorial writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer, reporter and columnist for the Hartford Courant and city desk reporter for the Times-Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was also a contributing editor and writer for Emerge Magazine, Black Enterprise and the NAACP Crisis Magazine. Coleman also wrote a Sunday column for several years for his hometown newspaper, The Hudson Register Star.
Among his many journalism awards are a 2001 American Diabetes Association Award of Merit for a series of editorials urging the state to expand medical coverage for diabetics; a 1999 Michigan Press Association Award for column writing; a 1999 National Association of Black Journalist Award for Commentary; the 1998 Detroit Press Foundation Michigan Journalism Award for Commentary; the 1993 Detroit Press Foundation Journalism Award for News Reporting, 1993 Best of Gannett Award for News Reporting and the 1993 and 1999 Lincoln University Unity Awards for coverage of minority and social issues. Coleman is listed in “Who’s Who among African-Americans,” and in 2010 was listed in the “Who’s Who of Black Detroiters.”
Among his many honors have been a 2009 Michigan Department of Civil Rights Dedicated Service Award, 2008 Brown Chapel AME Church Civil Rights Leadership Award, 2004 Macomb County NAACP Freedom Fund Leadership Award, 2004 Over Comers Ministries Inc. Leadership Award, 2002 Wayne Community College District Award for Community Service and the 1993 Distinguished Alumni Award, from the Kappa Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at The Ohio State University.
He has been a guest speaker at many colleges and universities across the nation; among them Harvard Law School, The Ohio State University, the University of Michigan and University of Michigan School of Law, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, The University of Toledo Law School, Delaware State University, Schoolcraft College, Wayne Community College and many others. He has also appeared on numerous television and radio talk and public affairs programs.
A native of New York, he received his undergraduate degree in communications from The Ohio State University and is a fellow at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland. He is also is a graduate of the American Press Institute in Reston, VA and Poynter Institute in Fla. Coleman resides in Bloomfield Hills and is the divorced father of two children Sydnie, a college junior and TJ, a high school junior.
Attorney (of counsel), Witte Law Offices
Matthew G. Davis practices in the areas of appellate law, civil rights (including alleged violations of the First and Second Amendments), election law, campaign finance, and defamation. Mr. Davis is also experienced in general civil litigation.
Mr. Davis graduated from the The Ohio State University with a bachelors of arts in journalism in 1990 and earned his juris doctorate from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2005. He started his legal career in the pre-hearing division of the Michigan Court of Appeals before becoming law clerk for Judge Brian K. Zahra. Following his clerkship, Mr. Davis joined Witte Law Offices as an associate.
Prior to his legal career, Mr. Davis spent approximately twelve years as a reporter for various daily newspapers, including the Columbus ( Ohio ) Dispatch, the St. Paul (Minn. ) Pioneer Press, and the Detroit Free Press, where he covered the state Legislature in Lansing. Mr. Davis left newspapers to attend the Thomas M. Cooley Law School and, concomitantly, serve as director of communications for the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Michigan Department of Attorney General. Mr. Davis led the creation and development of the Offender Tracking Information System at the MDOC, which allows Internet access of offender information.
Racial Justice Staff Attorney, ACLU of Michigan
Through his work as the attorney for the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU of Michigan, Mark P. Fancher addresses: racially disproportionate rates of incarceration; racial discrimination against public school students of color, racial profiling, public defender system reform, attacks on affirmative action and juvenile sentencing issues.
Fancher was formerly the Senior Staff Attorney for the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice where he specialized in workers' rights. He served on the staff of the State Bar of Michigan from 1998 to 2000 where he coordinated projects to encourage greater pro bono participation by Michigan's lawyers. He was a visiting assistant clinical professor at the University of Michigan Law School from 1996 through 1998.
Before moving to Michigan, Fancher was the Director of Litigation for Camden Regional Legal Services in New Jersey. He has also been in private practice where he specialized in employment discrimination and community economic development. Fancher is a graduate of Rutgers University School of Law - Camden. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Tennessee.
Fancher has played a leadership role in the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) for numerous years. He is a past chair of the organization’s International Affairs Section, and he served as NCBL’s national co-chair from 1995-1998. He is also a member of the State Bar of Michigan Pro Bono Initiative.
Fancher has lectured across the country and written extensively on issues that include: self-determination for Africa and the African Diaspora; indigenous peoples’ land and resource rights; and political repression in the U.S.
Co-Founder, XIV Foundation
Jennifer Gratz is a modern-day civil rights leader. In 1997 she challenged race preferences (also known as affirmative action) at the University of Michigan and was victorious at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ms. Gratz was the lead plaintiff in the landmark case Gratz v. Bollinger which challenged affirmative action at the University of Michigan. On June 23, 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Gratz was discriminated against and U-M’s admission policy was unconstitutional. However, in a companion case decided the same day (Grutter v. Bollinger), the Supreme Court allowed race preferences to continue at U-M’s law school. Ms. Gratz called the split decision flawed and continued the fight for equality in her home state. She spearheaded the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), a state constitutional amendment that made race and gender preferences unconstitutional in public education, employment and contracting. In Nov 2006 Michigan voters approved MCRI by a 16-point landslide.
At CPAC following the Michigan vote, Ms. Gratz was honored with the prestigious Ronald Reagan Award from the American Conservative Union for leadership. Jennifer has spent many years working to end programs that grant preferential treatment based on race or sex and because of Ms. Gratz’s leadership eight states have now banned race and gender preferences.
Recently, Ms. Gratz co-founded the XIV Foundation (XIV) and Equal Protection Advocates (EPA). XIV, named after the 14th amendment, is a not-for-profit 501c3 dedicated to teaching the personal and societal advantages of fair and equal treatment. EPA is a 501c4 dedicated to advocating for fair and equal treatment without regard to race or gender for all Americans.
Ms. Gratz’s story and work has been featured in nearly every major media outlet – Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Dateline, 60 Minutes, The Today Show, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, LA Times, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, National Review, US News and World Report, Newsweek, Time Magazine, People Magazine, Glamour Magazine – to name a few.
Editorial Cartoonist, Editorial Writer, and Weekly Columnist, The Detroit News
Henry Payne is an editorial cartoonist, editorial writer, and weekly columnist The Detroit News.
A Pulitzer-Prize nominated cartoonist, Payne produces five local editorial cartoons a week for The News. He also writes and draws a weekly column, “Payne & Ink.” Additionally, Payne draws five cartoons a week on national and international subjects for United Feature Syndicate in Kansas City which distributes his cartoons to 40 newspaper clients worldwide. His work is reprinted in USA Today, National Review,Townhall.com and other publications.
Payne has been voted Best Editorial Cartoonist in Michigan by the Associated Press. He has been a runner-up for both the Pulitzer and Mencken awards.
As a writer, Payne reports regularly on economic, consumer and environmental issues. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard magazine, National Review, Reason, Scripps Howard News Service and newspapers around the country. He also is a correspondent for National Review’s popular “Planet Gore” blog.
Payne came to The Detroit News in 1999 after 13 years as an editorial cartoonist, writer, and editor forScripps Howard News Service in Washington, DC .
Payne published his first book, “Payne & Ink: The Cartoons and Commentary of Henry Payne, 2000-2001,” in 2002. He has also illustrated two children’s books for Random House: “Where did Daddy’s Hair Go?” (by Joe O’Connor) in 2006, and Dr. Seuss’ “The Ear Book” in 2007. In 1998, Payne created “Hub & Axel,” a comic panel distributed by the Tribune Company Syndicate about an American family and its very American passion for the automobile.
Born in 1962 in Charleston, West Virginia, Payne received a degree in history from Princeton University in 1984. As editorial cartoonist for two student newspapers, The Daily Princetonian and the Nassau Weekly, Payne won the College Media Advisers Cartoon Contest and the Tribune Company Syndicate’s National College Cartoonist’s Contest. Upon graduation from Princeton, Payne began his newspaper career as staff artist and editorial cartoonist with the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail. In 1986 he joined Scripps Howard News Service and began syndication with United Feature in 1987.
Payne is an active race car driver, tennis and squash player. He is the father of two boys and lives with wife, Talbot, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
President, Thomas M. Cooley Student Chapter
Penelope holds a Political Science and Pre-Law undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. She also received a Master of Science degree in Intelligence and National Security Studies with focus on Latino Immigration from the University of Texas at El Paso. Penelope has worked in several projects within the Latino Community such the LSPI Pre-Law Institute at UTEP as an outreach minority coordinator for recruitment of young Latino and underrepresented minorities to participate in the pre-law institute and later access IVY league Law Schools all across the country. Under the Kauffman Initiative she worked as an outreach specialist for the Hispanic Entrepreneur Center at UTEP She is now a J.D Law candidate 2014 at Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
Paul Avelar is the Managing Attorney of the Institute for Justice Arizona Office. He joined the Institute in March 2010 and litigates free speech, property rights, economic liberty, school choice and other constitutional cases in federal and state courts.
As the head of IJ’s national Braiding Freedom Initiative, Paul represents natural hair braiders across the country to protect their right to earn an honest living. The Initiative uses lawsuits, activism and research to remove laws that require potential braiders to undergo hundreds of costly training hours just to braid hair. Since IJ launched the Braiding Freedom Initiative in 2014, 12 additional states have freed braiders from unnecessary licensing burdens. Paul drafted the model Natural Hair Braiding Protection Act, which has been adopted in Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Texas and South Dakota. He is currently representing braiders in Missouri, where state laws infringe upon their right to earn an honest living.
In his free speech work, Paul has challenged numerous laws that trample First Amendment rights. In Arizona Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett, he represented candidates and independent groups in a successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the “matching funds” provision of Arizona’s publicly financed elections system. He represented grassroots groups and individuals in Arizona, Mississippi and Washington, where state laws burdened their political speech by requiring them to register with the government, to navigate complex regulations and to face fines and possible criminal penalties merely because they talked about political issues. In Washington, Paul protected a lawyer’s right to defend, pro-bono, the First Amendment rights of political speakers. Through litigation and legislation, Paul leads the fight against abusive civil forfeiture laws in Arizona and elsewhere.
Paul also co-authored the most comprehensive published study of economic liberty protections in the Arizona Constitution. The Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court appointed Paul to the Task Force on the Review of the Role and Governance Structure of the State Bar of Arizona, where he dissented from the majority report and called on leaders to substantially reform the Bar and state regulation of the practice of law. He often speaks at law schools across the country about constitutional issues and his work at IJ.
Prior to joining IJ-AZ, Paul worked as an attorney in Philadelphia. He clerked for Judge Roger Miner on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Justice Andrew Hurwitz on the Arizona Supreme Court, and Judge Daniel Barker on the Arizona Court of Appeals.
Paul graduated manga cum laude from the Arizona State University College of Law in 2004 and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 2000.
Co-Founder, Trustee, and Legal Advisor, Reason Foundation and Ge, Individual Rights Foundation
Manuel "Manny" Klausner was one of the founding partners in Reason Enterprises, which began publishing Reason magazine in 1971, three years after the publication's creation. He became editor in the summer of 1972 and a senior editor in June 1978. In 1978 he co-founded the Reason Foundation with Tibor Machan and Bob Poole. He remains on the board of the Reason Foundation today, is a stalwart supporter of the Federalist Society, and a libertarian lawyer extraordinaire.
Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles
Carolyn Barbara Kuhl is a judge on the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles and a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. After receiving her law degree in 1977 from Duke Law School, she clerked for future Supreme Court Justice, Anthony M. Kennedy, from 1977–78. From 1981–86, she served in the United States Department of Justice. She worked as a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson, focusing on civil business litigation with a specialty in appellate litigation, from 1986–95. She became a judge on the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles in 1995 and was nominated to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on June 22, 2001 by President George W. Bush.
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.
Executive Director, First Amendment Coalition
A lawyer and journalist, Scheer was editor and publisher of The Recorder, a daily legal newspaper in San Francisco, publisher of Legal Times, a Washington, DC-based weekly on law and lobbying, and CEO of callaw.com and law.com. Scheer practiced appellate law in Washington, DC, both in the U.S. Justice Department and in private practice. He was a partner in the Washington, DC firm of Onek, Klein & Farr, and was general counsel to the National Security Archive. Scheer has argued appellate cases in most of the federal courts of appeal and in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Scheer has received the Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award (from the national Sigma Delta Chi Foundation) and the James Madison Freedom of Information Award (from the Society of Professional Journalists). Scheer’s articles on First Amendment issues and related issues have appeared in numerous publications, both print and online, including the Sacramento Bee, Slate.com, Huffington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Salon.com, Orange County Register, San Francisco Chronicle, the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.
Scheer received his JD in 1978 from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Law Review. He received his BA at Amherst College, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
Vice-chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and Adjunct Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
Abigail Thernstrom is the vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute in New York from 1993 to 2009, and a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Education for more than a decade until her third term ended in November 2006. She also serves on the board of advisors of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. She received her Ph.D. in 1975 from the Department of Government, Harvard University.
In 2007 she and her husband, Stephan Thernstrom, along with James Q. Wilson, Martin Feldstein, and John Bolton, were the recipients of a Bradley Foundation prizes for Outstanding Intellectual Achievement.
Thernstrom and her husband, Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom, are the co-authors of No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning (Simon & Schuster, October 2003), which has been awarded the 2007 Fordham Foundation prize for “for distinguished scholarship,” and was named by both the Los Angeles Times and the American School Board Journal as one of the best books of 2003.
They also collaborated on America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible (Simon & Schuster), which the New York Times Book Review, in its annual end-of-the-year issue, named as one of the notable books of 1997.
They are the editors of a Beyond the Color Line: New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity. Their lengthy review of William G. Bowen and Derek Bok's much-noticed work, The Shape of the River, appeared in the June 1999 issue of the UCLA Law Review.
Whose Votes Count? Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights (Harvard University Press) won four awards, including the American Bar Association's Certificate of Merit, and the Anisfield-Wolf prize for the best book on race and ethnicity. It was named the best policy studies book of that year by the Policy Studies Organization (an affiliate of the American Political Science Association), and won the Benchmark Book Award from the Center for Judicial Studies. Along with her husband, she also won the 2004 Peter Shaw Memorial Award given by National Association of Scholars.
She is currently completing a book entitled Voting Rights and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections, and is working, as well, with her husband on another book with the tentative title of Don’t Call it Segregation: The Myth of Contemporary Apartheid. She (and two co-authors) submitted an amicus brief in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle, challenging the constitutionality of Seattle's racial balancing plan.
Her frequent media appearances have included Fox News Sunday, Good Morning America, and This Week with George Stephanopoulos. For some years, she was a stringer for The Economist, and continues to write for a variety of journals and newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the (London) Times Literary Supplement.
She serves on several boards, and from 1992 to 1997 was a member of the Aspen Institute's Domestic Strategy Group.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
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.
Panel III: The Future of Voting Rights
Michael Barone, David H. Gans, Ilya Shapiro, Hans A. Von Spakovsky
Civil Rights in the United States
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which disabled Section 5 of the Voting...
Panel III: The Future of Voting Rights
Michael Barone, David H. Gans, Ilya Shapiro, Hans A. Von Spakovsky
Civil Rights in the United States
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which disabled Section 5 of the Voting...
Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department
John Fund, Hans A. Von Spakovsky
Las Vegas Lawyers Chapter
From “Fast and Furious” to the unprecedented surveillance of journalists, Eric Holder’s Justice Department has...
Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department
John Fund, Hans A. Von Spakovsky
Las Vegas Lawyers Chapter
From “Fast and Furious” to the unprecedented surveillance of journalists, Eric Holder’s Justice Department has...
Obama's Enforcer: Eric Holder's Justice Department - Podcast
John Fund, Hans A. Von Spakovsky
Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group Podcast
In their new book, Obama's Enforcer: Eric Holder's Justice Department, Hans von Spakovsky and John...
The Twilight of Race-Based Preferences in College Admissions
Trevor W. Coleman, Matthew G. Davis, Mark Fancher, Jennifer Gratz, Henry Payne, Hans A. Von Spakovsky, Penelope S. Williams
Michigan Lawyers Chapter
The Michigan Lawyers Chapter hosted this event on February 12, 2014, at Thomas M. Cooley...
The Twilight of Race-Based Preferences in College Admissions
Trevor W. Coleman, Matthew G. Davis, Mark Fancher, Jennifer Gratz, Henry Payne, Hans A. Von Spakovsky, Penelope S. Williams
Michigan Lawyers Chapter
The Michigan Lawyers Chapter hosted this event on February 12, 2014, at Thomas M. Cooley...
Panel Two: How do we balance disclosure with maintaining the privacy of participants in contentious issues?
Paul Avelar, Manuel S. Klausner, Carolyn B. Kuhl, Eugene B. Meyer, Peter Scheer, Hans A. Von Spakovsky
2014 Annual Western Chapters Conference
Supporters of Proposition 8 have invoked NAACP v. Alabama to support their claims for anonymity,...
Testimony on “The Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court’s Decision in Shelby County”
Hans A. Von Spakovsky
Engage Volume 14, Issue 2 July 2013
Note from the Editor: This article is based on testimony given by the author before...
The Voting Rights Act in the Supreme Court: Shelby County v. Holder - Podcast
Abigail Thernstrom, Hans A. Von Spakovsky, Dean Reuter
Civil Rights Practice Group Podcast
On Wednesday, February 27, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Shelby County v. Holder....