Partner, Schaerr | Jaffe LLP
Erik Jaffe has been involved in appeals on a broad range of legal issues, including First Amendment challenges to campaign finance reform, Commerce Clause challenges to Health Care Reform and other federal legislation, Equal Protection Clause challenges to affirmative action in education, First Amendment challenges to school vouchers, Fifth Amendment challenges to takings of property, Second Amendment challenges to restrictions on gun ownership, and a wide variety of cases involving patents, copyrights, ERISA, securities fraud, federal preemption, environmental regulation, and other state and federal constitutional and statutory matters. He has represented businesses and non-profit groups, Judges, Senators, former government officials, Nobel Prize winners, and a broad cross-section of private individuals. Mr. Jaffe has been involved in over 120 Supreme Court matters, including filing over 30 cert. petitions, representing half-a-dozen parties on the merits, and filing over 70 amicus briefs at both the cert. and merits stages.
A 1990 graduate of the Columbia University School of Law, Mr. Jaffe was a law clerk to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1990 to 1991. Following that clerkship he spent five years in litigation practice with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly. In the summer of 1996 he left Williams & Connolly to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. At the end of that clerkship he started his own practice, and he was a sole practitioner from 1997 to 2018. He joined the firm of Schaerr | Jaffe LLP in 2018.
Partner, Schaerr | Jaffe LLP
Erik Jaffe has been involved in appeals on a broad range of legal issues, including First Amendment challenges to campaign finance reform, Commerce Clause challenges to Health Care Reform and other federal legislation, Equal Protection Clause challenges to affirmative action in education, First Amendment challenges to school vouchers, Fifth Amendment challenges to takings of property, Second Amendment challenges to restrictions on gun ownership, and a wide variety of cases involving patents, copyrights, ERISA, securities fraud, federal preemption, environmental regulation, and other state and federal constitutional and statutory matters. He has represented businesses and non-profit groups, Judges, Senators, former government officials, Nobel Prize winners, and a broad cross-section of private individuals. Mr. Jaffe has been involved in over 120 Supreme Court matters, including filing over 30 cert. petitions, representing half-a-dozen parties on the merits, and filing over 70 amicus briefs at both the cert. and merits stages.
A 1990 graduate of the Columbia University School of Law, Mr. Jaffe was a law clerk to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1990 to 1991. Following that clerkship he spent five years in litigation practice with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly. In the summer of 1996 he left Williams & Connolly to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. At the end of that clerkship he started his own practice, and he was a sole practitioner from 1997 to 2018. He joined the firm of Schaerr | Jaffe LLP in 2018.
Former President, St. John's College
John Agresto is a long-time professor of American history, politics, and political thought and retired president of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM. He was also the Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Higher Education in Iraq and subsequently chancellor and academic dean at the American University of Iraq, which he helped found just over 10 years ago. He is presently finishing a book on liberal education and American Democracy.
Chairman, Center for Equal Opportunity
Linda Chavez is Chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity. She has published opinions and columns in newspapers across the country and appears regularly on cable news. Chavez is the author of the three books: Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation, An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal, and Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics. She has been honored by the Library of Congress as a "Living Legend" and as nominee for Secretary of Labor by President George W. Bush.
Chavez has held many appointed positions and has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards. Among her appointed positions has been Chairman, National Commission on Migrant Education (1988-1992); White House Director of Public Liaison (1985); Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1983-1985); and member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (1984-1986). Chavez was also the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Maryland in 1986 and was elected by the United Nations' Human Rights Commission to serve a four-year term as U.S. Expert to the U.N. Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
Chavez earned her BA from the University of Colorado.
President, National Association of Scholars
Peter W. Wood is president of the National Association of Scholars. A former professor of anthropology and college provost, he is the author most recently of 1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project (November 2020). He is also the author of several other books about American culture, including Diversity: The Invention of a Concept (2003); A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now (2007); and Diversity Rules (2020). He is editor-in-chief of the journal Academic Questions and a widely published essayist. In 2019, he received the Jeane Kirkpatrick Prize for contributions to academic freedom.
Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
A trial and courtroom lawyer for over 30 years, Jason A. Levine is an antitrust and commercial litigation partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Foley & Lardner LLP.
Mr. Levine has served as lead counsel for clients in high-stakes and often multi-faceted business disputes. His diverse practice focuses on antitrust, complex contractual, and business tort suits. Mr. Levine tried 14 cases to judges and juries across the country, briefed and argued dozens of dispositive motions and several precedent-setting appeals, and has had an active amicus practice before the U.S. Supreme Court for nationwide trade associations. He was also lead counsel to defendants in several of the nation’s largest antitrust class actions and MDLs. Mr. Levine has perennially been recognized as a prominent litigator by Best Lawyers, SuperLawyers, Benchmark Litigation, and Global Competition Review. He also spent nearly four years as an Investment Manager at Omni Bridgeway, a global commercial litigation finance company, where he launched and led the Washington, D.C. office and led the U.S. antitrust strategy.
Mr. Levine received his B.A. summa cum laude (Phi Beta Kappa) from Brandeis University in 1991 and his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1994, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Before entering private practice, Mr. Levine was a law clerk for Judge Randall Rader on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where he focused on the court’s Takings and administrative cases.
Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Jeff McCoy is an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. Jeff joined PLF in 2017. Since then, he has focused his litigation on separation of powers and private property rights. Jeff also leads PLF’s coastal land rights initiative, which seeks to strengthen and defend statutory and constitutional protections for coastal property owners across the country.
Throughout his career, Jeff has worked for various organizations that promote individual liberty and limited government. Prior to joining PLF, Jeff was a staff attorney at Mountain States Legal Foundation in Lakewood, Colorado, for five years. His work at Mountain States included helping secure victory for a Wyoming private property owner in U.S. Supreme Court case Marvin M. Brandt Revocable Trust v. United States. Besides Mountain States, Jeff worked as an intern for the Cato Institute during the spring of 2008, and after his first year of law school, he worked as a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow at the Institute for Justice’s Seattle office.
Jeff received his B.A. degree in political science and philosophy from the University of Colorado in 2007 and his law degree, also from the University of Colorado, in 2011. During his time at law school, Jeff had the honor of working as a judicial extern for then-Judge Neil Gorsuch at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
A trial and courtroom lawyer for over 30 years, Jason A. Levine is an antitrust and commercial litigation partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Foley & Lardner LLP.
Mr. Levine has served as lead counsel for clients in high-stakes and often multi-faceted business disputes. His diverse practice focuses on antitrust, complex contractual, and business tort suits. Mr. Levine tried 14 cases to judges and juries across the country, briefed and argued dozens of dispositive motions and several precedent-setting appeals, and has had an active amicus practice before the U.S. Supreme Court for nationwide trade associations. He was also lead counsel to defendants in several of the nation’s largest antitrust class actions and MDLs. Mr. Levine has perennially been recognized as a prominent litigator by Best Lawyers, SuperLawyers, Benchmark Litigation, and Global Competition Review. He also spent nearly four years as an Investment Manager at Omni Bridgeway, a global commercial litigation finance company, where he launched and led the Washington, D.C. office and led the U.S. antitrust strategy.
Mr. Levine received his B.A. summa cum laude (Phi Beta Kappa) from Brandeis University in 1991 and his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1994, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Before entering private practice, Mr. Levine was a law clerk for Judge Randall Rader on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where he focused on the court’s Takings and administrative cases.
Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Jeff McCoy is an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. Jeff joined PLF in 2017. Since then, he has focused his litigation on separation of powers and private property rights. Jeff also leads PLF’s coastal land rights initiative, which seeks to strengthen and defend statutory and constitutional protections for coastal property owners across the country.
Throughout his career, Jeff has worked for various organizations that promote individual liberty and limited government. Prior to joining PLF, Jeff was a staff attorney at Mountain States Legal Foundation in Lakewood, Colorado, for five years. His work at Mountain States included helping secure victory for a Wyoming private property owner in U.S. Supreme Court case Marvin M. Brandt Revocable Trust v. United States. Besides Mountain States, Jeff worked as an intern for the Cato Institute during the spring of 2008, and after his first year of law school, he worked as a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow at the Institute for Justice’s Seattle office.
Jeff received his B.A. degree in political science and philosophy from the University of Colorado in 2007 and his law degree, also from the University of Colorado, in 2011. During his time at law school, Jeff had the honor of working as a judicial extern for then-Judge Neil Gorsuch at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Gerard V. Bradley is Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches Legal Ethics and Constitutional Law. At Notre Dame he directs (with John Finnis) the Natural Law Institute and co-edits The American Journal of Jurisprudence, an international forum for legal philosophy. Bradley has been a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey. He served for many years as President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
Bradley received his B.A and J.D. degrees from Cornell University, graduating Summa cum laude from the law school in 1980. After serving in the Trial Division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office he joined the law faculty at the University of Illinois. He moved to Notre Dame in 1992. Bradley has published over one hundred scholarly articles and reviews. His most recent books are an edited collection of essays titled, Challenges to Religious Liberty in the Twenty-First Century (published by Cambridge University Press in 2012), Essays on Law, Religion, and Morality and Unquiet Americans: U.S. Catholics and the Common Good (both to be published in 2014.) He is currently working on a book about regulating obscenity in the Internet Age.
Senior Fellow, The Claremont Institute
Charles Kesler is a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute, Editor of the Claremont Review of Books, host of Claremont’s The American Mind video series, and the Dengler-Dykema Distinguished Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College.
Dr. Kesler also teaches in the Claremont Institute’s Publius Fellows Program and Lincoln Fellows Program. He received his B.A. in Social Studies and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. From 1989 to 2008, Dr. Kesler was director of CMC’s Henry Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World.
He is the recipient of the prestigious 2018 Bradley Prize, a high honor bestowed upon distinguished individuals who have influenced American scholarship and debate.
From September 2000 to March 2001, he served as vice chairman of the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Congress's James Madison Commemoration Commission.
He was selected in June 2000 as a member of the Scholars Commission on the Jefferson-Hemings Issue sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society.
Dr. Kesler is the author of I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism (Broadside Books); the editor of Saving the Revolution: The Federalist Papers and the American Founding (Free Press); co-editor, with John B. Kienker, of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Ten Years of the Claremont Review of Books (Rowman & Littlefield); and co-editor, with William F. Buckley, Jr., of Keeping the Tablets: Modern American Conservative Thought (HarperCollins). He has written extensively on American constitutionalism and political thought, and his edition of The Federalist Papers (Signet Classics) is the best-selling edition in the country.
Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Gerard V. Bradley is Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches Legal Ethics and Constitutional Law. At Notre Dame he directs (with John Finnis) the Natural Law Institute and co-edits The American Journal of Jurisprudence, an international forum for legal philosophy. Bradley has been a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey. He served for many years as President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
Bradley received his B.A and J.D. degrees from Cornell University, graduating Summa cum laude from the law school in 1980. After serving in the Trial Division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office he joined the law faculty at the University of Illinois. He moved to Notre Dame in 1992. Bradley has published over one hundred scholarly articles and reviews. His most recent books are an edited collection of essays titled, Challenges to Religious Liberty in the Twenty-First Century (published by Cambridge University Press in 2012), Essays on Law, Religion, and Morality and Unquiet Americans: U.S. Catholics and the Common Good (both to be published in 2014.) He is currently working on a book about regulating obscenity in the Internet Age.
Senior Fellow, The Claremont Institute
Charles Kesler is a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute, Editor of the Claremont Review of Books, host of Claremont’s The American Mind video series, and the Dengler-Dykema Distinguished Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College.
Dr. Kesler also teaches in the Claremont Institute’s Publius Fellows Program and Lincoln Fellows Program. He received his B.A. in Social Studies and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. From 1989 to 2008, Dr. Kesler was director of CMC’s Henry Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World.
He is the recipient of the prestigious 2018 Bradley Prize, a high honor bestowed upon distinguished individuals who have influenced American scholarship and debate.
From September 2000 to March 2001, he served as vice chairman of the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Congress's James Madison Commemoration Commission.
He was selected in June 2000 as a member of the Scholars Commission on the Jefferson-Hemings Issue sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society.
Dr. Kesler is the author of I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism (Broadside Books); the editor of Saving the Revolution: The Federalist Papers and the American Founding (Free Press); co-editor, with John B. Kienker, of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Ten Years of the Claremont Review of Books (Rowman & Littlefield); and co-editor, with William F. Buckley, Jr., of Keeping the Tablets: Modern American Conservative Thought (HarperCollins). He has written extensively on American constitutionalism and political thought, and his edition of The Federalist Papers (Signet Classics) is the best-selling edition in the country.
Director, Digital Media, Communications and Fellow, R Street Institute
Shoshana Weissmann manages R Street’s social media, email marketing and other digital assets. She also works on occupational licensing reform, social media regulatory policy, Section 230 and other issues, and has written for various publications, including The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
Shoshana most recently managed digital communications for Opportunity Lives, a group that highlighted positive stories and policy solutions. Before that, she managed social media and wrote for The Weekly Standard. Earlier in her career, she managed digital communications for the America Rising PAC, where her strategy was highlighted in a piece that appeared in The New York Times.
She is on the board of The Conservation Coalition and a member of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project’s state and local and emerging technology working groups.
She lives in Washington, D.C. and has a stuffed sloth named James Madisloth, and she enjoys the Snapchat hot dog.
United States Representative, Tennessee
A native East Tennessean, Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger was born in Bloomingdale, a small community right outside of Kingsport, and was the first in her immediate family to graduate from high school and college. She attended East Tennessee State University and graduated from Mercer University College of Pharmacy with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. After graduation, she returned home to start a business and raise her family.
Diana has been a licensed pharmacist and a business owner for over three decades. She currently serves on the House Education and Labor, and House Homeland Security Committees.
Diana and her husband, Robert, currently reside in Kingsport when they are not at their farm in Unicoi. Diana has one son and two grandsons.
Director of Litigation and Senior Attorney, Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute
Theodore H. Frank is director at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute and the Center for Class Action Fairness. Frank founded and ran CCAF as a non-profit, public interest law firm in 2009.
Frank has won several landmark appeals and tens of millions of dollars for consumers and other plaintiffs through his class action work. Adam Liptak of The New York Times calls Frank “the leading critic of abusive class action settlements” and the American Lawyer Litigation Daily referred to him as “the indefatigable scourge of underwhelming class action settlements.”
Previously, Frank clerked for the Honorable Frank H. Easterbrook on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and was a litigator at firms in Washington and Los Angeles and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Frank is a frequent public speaker and has testified before Congress multiple times on legal issues. He has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, GQ, and the ABA Journal, among other publications.
In 2008, Frank was elected to membership in the American Law Institute. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society Litigation Practice Group. Frank graduated from The University of Chicago Law School in 1994 with high honors and as a member of the Order of the Coif and the Law Review. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the state bars of California and Illinois.
Courthouse Steps Decision Webinar: Americans for Prosperity v. Bonta
Erik S. Jaffe
Free Speech & Election Law Practice Group Teleforum
On July 1, 2021, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Americans for Prosperity Foundation...
Courthouse Steps Decision Webinar: Americans for Prosperity v. Bonta
Erik S. Jaffe
Free Speech & Election Law Practice Group Teleforum
On July 1, 2021, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Americans for Prosperity Foundation...
Deep Dive Episode 186 – Teaching About Race in the Curriculum
John Agresto, Linda L. Chavez, Peter Wood
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Podcast
This episode features a panel discussion on Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project and the current...
Courthouse Steps Decision Webinar: Collins v. Yellen
Jason Alan Levine, Jeffrey McCoy
Federalism & Separation of Powers and Litigation Practice Groups Teleforum
On June 23, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court in Collins v. Yellen held 7-2 that 1) because...
Courthouse Steps Decision Webinar: Collins v. Yellen
Jason Alan Levine, Jeffrey McCoy
Federalism & Separation of Powers and Litigation Practice Groups Teleforum
On June 23, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court in Collins v. Yellen held 7-2 that 1) because...
Talks with Authors: Crisis of the Two Constitutions
Gerard V. Bradley, Charles R. Kesler
Civil Rights Practice Group Teleforum
American politics grows embittered because it is increasingly torn between two rival constitutions, two opposed...
Talks with Authors: Crisis of the Two Constitutions
Gerard V. Bradley, Charles R. Kesler
Civil Rights Practice Group Teleforum
American politics grows embittered because it is increasingly torn between two rival constitutions, two opposed...
Explainer Episode 28 – Rep. Harshbarger on the Freedom to Work Act
Shoshana Weissmann, Diana Harshbarger
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Podcast
In May 2021, Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenneessee) introduced the "Freedom to Work Act," a bill...
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What Caused Last Year’s Spike in Violent Crime?
The spike in violent crime last year was a serious departure from recent crime patterns...
Courthouse Steps Decision Webinar: Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. v. Arkansas Teacher Retirement System
Theodore "Ted" Frank
Litigation Practice Group Teleforum
The Supreme Court issued its decision in Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., v. Arkansas Teacher Retirement...