Founder, Libertas-West Project
Karen Lugo is a constitutional law consultant and national security analyst. She was Director of the Center for Tenth Amendment at Texas Public Policy Foundation from 2013 to 2015. When living in California, she was Co-Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence Center. From 2005 – 2012, she was a clinical visiting and adjunct professor at Chapman University School of Law where she co-taught the advanced Constitutional Law Clinic. Karen has co-authored and written circuit-level and Supreme Court amicus briefs on such issues as FISA Surveillance, Healthcare Reform, Arizona’s Border Security, Gay Marriage, The Ten Commandments, Eminent Domain, Christian Clubs on University Campuses, and Material Support for Terrorists.
Karen is the founder of the Libertas-West Project, a center for study Islamic integration and radicalization issues. In this capacity, she consulted with the Center for Security Policy to write a book on local over-watch of mosque construction and community engagement called: Mosques in America: A Guide to Accountable Permit Hearings and Continuing Citizen Oversight.
Karen writes and speaks for European and American groups on the importance of basing assimilation efforts on principles of Western exceptionalism. She presented a policy brief to the French Conseil d’Etat analyzing the legal implications of banning the burqa. Ms. Lugo has written one of the most comprehensive overviews of sharia law in American courts, American Family Law and Sharia-Compliant Marriages, for the Federalist Society law journal, Engage. She has written several white papers on the American Law for American Courts legislation and sharia tribunals in America.
Ms. Lugo was an appointee to the California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She also taught a Human Rights law course on the contrast between French and English Enlightenment theories in Strasbourg, France.
Until moving from California, Ms. Lugo was a member of the David Horowitz Freedom Center Board of Directors. She was also a regular guest on the Orange County PBS local issues debate program, Inside OC, and she is a contributor to Pajamas Media, National Review Online, City Journal, American Spectator, American Greatness, Townhall.com, American Thinker, Daily Caller, and Family Security Matters. She has been interviewed by dozens of radio hosts and has spoken for civic groups on constitutional and cultural concerns.
Before coming to MSU College of Law, Professor Kalt worked at the Washington D.C. office of Sidley and Austin in one of the top appellate law practices in the country. He earned his juris doctor from Yale Law School, where he was an editor on the Yale Law Journal. After law school, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Professor Kalt’s research focuses on structural constitutional law and juries. At MSU Law, Professor Kalt teaches Constitutional Law, Torts, and Administrative Law.
J.D. Yale Law School, 1997; A.B., with Highest Distinction, University of Michigan, 1994
Lecturer of Law, National University of Ireland Maynooth
Professor Tillman is a member of the law faculty at the National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM). He clerked for Judge Mark E. Fuller (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama), Judge William J. Martini (U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey), Judge Jane R. Roth (U.S Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit), and for Magistrate Judge Malachy E. Mannion (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania). He has also been an adjunct professor at Rutgers University School of Law (Newark), where he taught Constitutional Law, legal writing, and equity.
Professor Tillman has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Stephanos Bibas is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Bibas was previously a professor of law and criminology at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. As director of the Penn Law Supreme Court Clinic, he argued six cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and filed briefs in dozens of others. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1989 with a B.A. in political theory and from Oxford University in 1991 with a B.A. in jurisprudence. He then earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1994.
After graduating from Yale Law, Judge Bibas clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court and was a litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, Judge Bibas served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he successfully prosecuted the world’s leading expert in Tiffany stained glass for hiring a grave robber to steal priceless Tiffany windows from cemeteries. Before his tenure at Penn Law, Judge Bibas taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Iowa College of Law and was a research fellow at Yale Law School. He has published two books and seventy scholarly articles.
Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law
Professor Andrew E. Taslitz, over the course of his almost twenty years in legal academia, has taught at Duke University, Villanova University, and now currently at Howard University. He is also the Welsh S. White Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh.
Professor Taslitz is the author of five books, and has published over 100 law review articles and book reviews. His writings have particularly centered on search and seizure issues, wrongful convictions, sexual assault, hate crimes legislation, freedom of speech, the expressive function of law, statutory interpretation methods, and scientific and character evidence, and constitutional issues.
He is a cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and, before entering teaching, worked both as a prosecutor in Philadelphia, PA., and as an associate at Schnader, Harrison, Segal, and Lewis in Philadelphia.
Professor of Law, Belmont University College of Law
Prior to joining Belmont University College of Law, Amy Moore taught at Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law as an Assistant Professor. She taught classes in Administrative Law, Criminal Law, Education Law, Immigration Law, and International Law. She was also active in the moot court program, including coaching the National Moot Court Competition Team and the National Appellate Advocacy Competition teams.
Before teaching law school, Professor Moore worked as a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago, Illinois. While at Kirkland, she practiced in securities fraud and credit card privacy cases. She is a member of both the Missouri and Illinois bar associations. She is also a member of the American Bar Association.
Professor Moore received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Harding University and received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School. While at the University of Chicago, Professor Moore worked as a research assistant for Professor Lisa Bernstein and Judge Richard Posner. During her last year of law school, she was active in the appellate advocacy clinic and represented a client before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
For Belmont’s charter year, Professor Moore will teach Torts and Civil Procedure. Her research interests include the study of how process affects rights in varied areas.
Joel A. Katz Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Tennessee College of Law
Professor Plank joined the UT faculty in 1994 and became the Joel A. Katz Distinguished Professor of Law in 2004. His scholarly interests include the nature of property, the relationship between bankruptcy and non-bankruptcy law, and the historical development and comparison of commercial law and property law systems. He is a nationally recognized expert on mortgage backed and asset backed securities. Before joining the UT faculty, he was a partner with Kutak Rock LLP specializing in real estate finance, commercial finance, bankruptcy, and securities, in particular serving as issuer’s counsel and bankruptcy counsel in securitization transactions. Since joining the UT faculty he has served as an expert witness on securitization and other bankruptcy and commercial law matters, and as a consultant for securitization law firms, providing advice on bankruptcy, commercial law, and real estate issues in connection with securitizations and other transactions. During the 2002-2003 academic year, Professor Plank was a visiting Professor of Law at the Notre Dame Law School.
Professor Plank graduated with honors from Princeton University with a degree in history and a Certificate of Proficiency in Russian Area Studies and then served three years in the United States Marine Corps, including eight months in Vietnam as an infantry platoon commander. He graduated 5th in his class from the University of Maryland School of Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Maryland Law Review. He was a law clerk for the Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals, an associate with Piper & Marbury in Baltimore, MD, and an assistant attorney general for the State of Maryland. Initially, his practice included a wide variety of transactions and litigation, including a four month trial on the constitutionality of the Maryland public school finance system and oral arguments in the United States Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts. He then concentrated his practice in real estate, commercial finance, public finance and securities transactions.
Distinguished University Professor, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
University Professor Nelson Lund is the author of Rousseau’s Rejuvenation of Political Philosophy: A New Introduction. He has also written widely in the field of constitutional law, including articles on constitutional interpretation, federalism, separation of powers, the Second Amendment, the Commerce Clause, the Speech or Debate Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Uniformity Clause. In addition, he has published articles in the fields of employment discrimination and civil rights, the legal regulation of medical ethics, and the application of economic analysis to legal institutions and legal ethics.
Professor Lund graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, after which he received an MA in philosophy from the Catholic University of America and a PhD in political science from Harvard University. He left the faculty of the University of Chicago to attend its law school, where he served as executive editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and chapter chairman of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. After law school, he held positions at the United States Department of Justice in the Office of the Solicitor General and the Office of Legal Counsel. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Patrick E. Higginbotham of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and to the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor of the United States Supreme Court. Following his clerkship with Justice O'Connor, Professor Lund served in the White House as associate counsel to the president from 1989 to 1992.
Since joining the faculty at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School, Professor Lund has taught Constitutional Law, Legislation, Federal Election Law, Employment Discrimination, State and Local Government, and seminars on the Second Amendment and on a variety of topics in Jurisprudence.
Maurice A. Deane Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law and Faculty Director of International Programs, Hofstra University School of Law
Professor Ku’s primary research interest is the relationship of international law to constitutional law. He has also conducted academic research on a wide range of topics including international dispute resolution, international criminal law, and China’s relationship with international law. He teaches courses such as U.S. constitutional law, U.S. foreign affairs law, transnational law, and international trade and business law. Since 2014, he has served as the faculty director of international programs, overseeing Hofstra Law’s study abroad, exchange and LL.M. programs. Professor Ku also teaches Constitutional Law in our online degree programs: Master of Laws in American Law and Master of Arts in American Legal Studies. He has also been selected as the John DeWitt Gregory Research Scholar and as a Hofstra Law Research Fellow. He is a member of the American Law Institute.
He is the co-author, with John Yoo, of Taming Globalization: International Law, the U.S. Constitution, and the New World Order (Oxford University Press 2012). He also has published more than 40 law review articles, book chapters and symposia essays. He has given dozens of academic lectures and workshops at major universities and conferences in the United States, Europe and Asia.
He co-founded the leading international law weblog Opinio Juris, which is read daily by thousands worldwide. His essays and op-eds have been published in major news publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the NYTimes.com. He has been frequently interviewed for television news programs and quoted in print and electronic media. He has also signed or submitted amicus briefs to national and international courts and served as an expert witness in both domestic and international proceedings.
Before joining the Hofstra Law faculty, Professor Ku served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and as an Olin Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Virginia Law School. Professor Ku also practiced as an associate at the New York City law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, specializing in litigation and arbitration arising out of international disputes. He has been a visiting professor at the College of William & Mary Marshall- Wythe School of Law in Williamsburg, Virginia; a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer in Law at East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, China; and a Taiwan Fellow at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. He is a member of the New York Bar and a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.
Leitner Family Professor, Fordham University School of Law
Martin S. Flaherty is Leitner Family Professor of Law and Co-Founding Director of the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where he was Fellow in the Program in Law and Public Affairs and a Visiting Professor at the New School in New York.. Professor Flaherty has taught at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, and has recently founded the Rule of Law in Asia Program at the Leitner Center as well as co-founded the Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers. He has also taught at Sungkyunkwan Univeristy in Seoul, Queen’s University Belfast, Cardozo School of Law, and the New School. Previously Professor Flaherty served as a law clerk for Justice Byron R. White of the U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Judge John Gibbons of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Flaherty holds a B.A. summa cum laude from Princeton, an M.A. and M.Phil. from Yale (in history) and a J.D. from the Columbia Law School, where he was Book Reviews and Articles Editor of the Columbia Law Review. Formerly chair of the New York City Bar Association’s International Human Rights Committee, he has led or participated in human rights missions to Northern Ireland, Turkey, Hong Kong, Mexico, Malaysia, Kenya, and Romania. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Flaherty's publications focus upon constitutional law and history, foreign affairs, and international human rights and appear in such journals as the Columbia Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Michigan Law Review, and the University of Chicago Law Review. His publications include: “Executive Power Essentialism and Foreign Affairs” [with Curtis Bradley], Michigan Law Review; “The Most Dangerous Branch,” Yale Law Journal; and “History ‘Lite’ in Modern American Constitutionalism,” Columbia Law Review. He has appeared or been quoted in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Daily News, Newsday, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox.
American Family Law and Sharia-Compliant Marriages
Karen J. Lugo
Engage Volume 13, Issue 2, July 2012
Note from the Editor: This paper analyzes cases in which American courts and judicial systems...
Constitutional Cliffhangers - Faculty Book Podcast
Brian C. Kalt, Seth Tillman
Faculty Division Podcast 06-15-12 featuring Brian Kalt and Seth Tillman
Written by Michigan State University law professor Brian Kalt, Constitutional Cliffhangers envisions six constitutional controversies that could...
Reichle v. Howards - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
D Broyles
SCOTUScast 06-14-12 featuring Scott Broyles
On June 4, 2012, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Reichle v. Howards. This case...
The Machinery of Criminal Justice - Faculty Book Podcast
Stephanos Bibas, Andrew Taslitz
Faculty Division Podcast 06-08-12 featuring Stephanos Bibas and Andrew Taslitz
The Machinery of Criminal Justice discusses the shift in American criminal law from being a system...
Holder v. Gutierrez and Holder v. Sawyers; Vartelas v. Holder - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Amy Moore
SCOTUScast 06-08-12 featuring Amy Moore
On May 21, 2012, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Holder v. Gutierrez and Holder v. Sawyers....
RadLAX Gateway Hotel, LLC v. Amalgamated Bank - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Thomas Eldridge Plank
SCOTUScast 06-08-12 featuring Thomas Plank
On May 29, 2012, the Supreme Court announced its decision in RadLAX Gateway Hotel, LLC v....
Hall v. United States - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
SCOTUScast 06-07-12 featuring Andy Grewal
On May 14, 2012, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Hall v. United States. The...
The Federalist Paper, February 2012
The Magazine of the Federalist Society
We are pleased to bring you the winter issue of The Federalist Paper. Inside, as...
No Conservative Consensus Yet: Douglas Ginsburg, Brett Kavanaugh, and Diane Sykes on the Second Amendment
Nelson Lund
Engage Volume 13, Issue 2, July 2012
Note from the Editor: This paper examines the largely unexplored subject of the different approaches...
Taming Globalization - Faculty Book Podcast
Julian Ku, Martin Flaherty
Faculty Division Podcast 06-06-12 featuring Julian Ku and Martin Flaherty
Taming Globalization discusses the challenge to American constitutional law that arises out of our increasingly global...