Legal Fellow and Manager, Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program, The Heritage Foundation
Zack is a Legal Fellow and Manager of the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
He previously served for several years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Florida. Prior to that, he spent two years as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which he joined after clerking for the Hon. Emmett R. Cox on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Smith received his undergraduate, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Florida. During law school, Smith served as the Editor in Chief of the Florida Law Review and served on the executive boards of several student organizations, including the UF Chapter of the Federalist Society.
Legal Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Rachel Rouleau serves as legal counsel for the Center for Conscience Initiatives with Alliance Defending Freedom. She focuses on protecting the conscience rights of individuals forced to compromise their beliefs under threat of fines and punishment.
Rouleau joined ADF in 2019 as a litigation fellow and worked on the Life, Legislative Advocacy, Center for Christian Ministries, and Center for Conscience Initiatives teams.
Rouleau earned her J.D. from William and Mary Law School in 2019. She obtained her B.A., in political science, from the University of Florida in 2015. She is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and Virginia.
Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law Emeritus and Professor of History Emeritus, Vanderbilt University
James Ely is a renowned legal historian and property rights expert whose career accomplishments were recognized with both the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize and the Owner's Counsel of American Crystal Eagle Award in 2006. He is the author of several books that have received widespread critical acclaim from legal scholars and historians, including The Guardian of Every Other Right: A Constitutional History of Property Rights, The Fuller Court: Justices, Rulings and Legacy in which he examines the work of the Supreme Court between 1888 and 1910, Railroads and American Law in which he systematically explores the way that the rise of the railroad shaped American legal culture, and The Contract Clause: A Constitutional History. He also is the author of numerous articles dealing with the rights of property owners. He served as an editor of both the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court, and the second edition of the Oxford Guide to Supreme Court Decisions. Professor Ely received the Tennessee History Book Award in 2002 for A History of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Between 1987 and 1999, he served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Legal History. Since Professor Ely joined Vanderbilt faculty in 1972, he has been frequently recognized by students as one of the law school's outstanding teachers.
John T. Kipp Chair Emeritus in Corporate and Business Law, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Calvin H. Johnson is an American tax lawyer, author, and academic. He holds the John T. Kipp Chair Emeritus at the University of Texas School of Law.
Johnson's scholarship is in the fields of tax law and Constitutional history. His academic tax work has focused on defending the fairness, and efficiency of the tax base. In constitutional history, he relies on the original sources, usually to defend the plenary reach of the Federal government. He is the author of Righteous Anger at the Wicked States: The Meaning of the Founders' Constitution.
Johnson earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia College in 1966, and received a Purple Heart for combat in an infantry reconnaissance unit in Vietnam in 1968. He earned a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1971 and practiced with Paul, Weiss, Goldberg, Rifkind, and Garrison in the tax department in New York City from 1971 to 1973. Following this he served in the U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Legislative Council, from 1973 to 1975.
Johnson began his academic career in 1975 as an assistant professor, then associate professor at Rutgers Law School, Newark. He joined the University of Texas School of Law in 1981 as a professor. He now serves as a John T. Kipp Chair in Business and Corporate Law Emeritus at the University of Texas.
Johnson was a Fellow of the Tax Policy Center (joint program of Urban Institute and Brookings Institution) in 2011, a visiting professor at the Office of Chief Counsel, IRS, in 2007, a Member of the Academic Advisers on the Overall Health of the Tax System for the Joint Committee on Taxation in 2001, a Dean's Distinguished Visitor at Vanderbilt Law School in 2000, a Member of the IRS Commissioner's Advisory Group in 1989 and a Guest Scholar at The Brookings Institution in 1980.
Vice President, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society
Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law Emeritus and Professor of History Emeritus, Vanderbilt University
James Ely is a renowned legal historian and property rights expert whose career accomplishments were recognized with both the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize and the Owner's Counsel of American Crystal Eagle Award in 2006. He is the author of several books that have received widespread critical acclaim from legal scholars and historians, including The Guardian of Every Other Right: A Constitutional History of Property Rights, The Fuller Court: Justices, Rulings and Legacy in which he examines the work of the Supreme Court between 1888 and 1910, Railroads and American Law in which he systematically explores the way that the rise of the railroad shaped American legal culture, and The Contract Clause: A Constitutional History. He also is the author of numerous articles dealing with the rights of property owners. He served as an editor of both the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court, and the second edition of the Oxford Guide to Supreme Court Decisions. Professor Ely received the Tennessee History Book Award in 2002 for A History of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Between 1987 and 1999, he served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Legal History. Since Professor Ely joined Vanderbilt faculty in 1972, he has been frequently recognized by students as one of the law school's outstanding teachers.
John T. Kipp Chair Emeritus in Corporate and Business Law, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Calvin H. Johnson is an American tax lawyer, author, and academic. He holds the John T. Kipp Chair Emeritus at the University of Texas School of Law.
Johnson's scholarship is in the fields of tax law and Constitutional history. His academic tax work has focused on defending the fairness, and efficiency of the tax base. In constitutional history, he relies on the original sources, usually to defend the plenary reach of the Federal government. He is the author of Righteous Anger at the Wicked States: The Meaning of the Founders' Constitution.
Johnson earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia College in 1966, and received a Purple Heart for combat in an infantry reconnaissance unit in Vietnam in 1968. He earned a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1971 and practiced with Paul, Weiss, Goldberg, Rifkind, and Garrison in the tax department in New York City from 1971 to 1973. Following this he served in the U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Legislative Council, from 1973 to 1975.
Johnson began his academic career in 1975 as an assistant professor, then associate professor at Rutgers Law School, Newark. He joined the University of Texas School of Law in 1981 as a professor. He now serves as a John T. Kipp Chair in Business and Corporate Law Emeritus at the University of Texas.
Johnson was a Fellow of the Tax Policy Center (joint program of Urban Institute and Brookings Institution) in 2011, a visiting professor at the Office of Chief Counsel, IRS, in 2007, a Member of the Academic Advisers on the Overall Health of the Tax System for the Joint Committee on Taxation in 2001, a Dean's Distinguished Visitor at Vanderbilt Law School in 2000, a Member of the IRS Commissioner's Advisory Group in 1989 and a Guest Scholar at The Brookings Institution in 1980.
Vice President, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society
Legal Fellow and Manager, Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program, The Heritage Foundation
Zack is a Legal Fellow and Manager of the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
He previously served for several years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Florida. Prior to that, he spent two years as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which he joined after clerking for the Hon. Emmett R. Cox on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Smith received his undergraduate, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Florida. During law school, Smith served as the Editor in Chief of the Florida Law Review and served on the executive boards of several student organizations, including the UF Chapter of the Federalist Society.
Topics
Fairness and Impartiality Must Guide State-Court Climate Litigation
After a key Supreme Court jurisdictional decision reached earlier this year, action around climate litigation...
Ohio Supreme Court Rules Probate-Juvenile Court Had No Authority To Grant Criminal Witness Immunity
Zack Smith
In a per curiam opinion, a unanimous Supreme Court of Ohio held that the Probate-Juvenile...
Michigan Supreme Court Enacts Preferred Pronoun Rule for State Judiciary
Rachel Rouleau
The debate about pronouns and gender identity has come to the judicial system. Courts are...
Courthouse Steps Preview: Moore v. United States
James W. Ely, Calvin H. Johnson, Elizabeth Slattery
On December 5, 2023, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Moore v. United...
Courthouse Steps Preview: Moore v. United States
James W. Ely, Calvin H. Johnson, Elizabeth Slattery
On December 5, 2023, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Moore v. United...
Topics
Should NLRB Administrative Law Judges Pursue Other Opportunities?
On November 29, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about the constitutionality of...
Nevada Supreme Court Rules That General Concerns About COVID-19 Do Not Trump Sixth Amendment
Zack Smith
In Newson v. State,[1] a unanimous en banc Supreme Court of Nevada[2] held that a...
Topics
HHS Proposes Facilitating Abortions and Medical “Gender Transitions” for Unaccompanied Children
On October 4, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children...
Topics
The FCC’s Digital Discrimination Order: Overreach in Pursuit of a Worthy Goal
In the introduction I prepared for moderating a Federalist Society podcast held on June 23,...
Topics
NRA v. Vullo: When Are Statements By Regulators Coercive?
This Term, the Supreme Court will hear the case of the National Rifle Association (NRA)...