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, SAVE
Edward E. Bartlett is President of SAVE, an organization focused on fairness and due process on college campuses. Over the course of his career, he has worked as an Army medical corpsman, community health educator, professor, journal editor, author, risk management consultant, government regulator, and in the non-profit sector.
Director, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute
Thomas Berry is the director in the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and editor in chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review. Before joining Cato, he was an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation and clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His academic work has appeared in NYU Journal of Law and Liberty, Washington and Lee Law Review Online, and Federalist Society Review. His popular writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Law Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, National Review Online, and The Hill Online. He has testified before the U.S. Senate, and his work has been cited by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Berry holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was a senior editor on the Stanford Law and Policy Review and a Bradley Student Fellow in the Stanford Constitutional Law Center. He graduated with a B.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College, Santa Fe.
Professor of Law, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law, Yale Law School
Mirjan Damaška is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale Law School. He teaches and writes in the fields of comparative and foreign law, procedural law, evidence, international criminal law, and continental legal history.
He is the author of six books, among which The Faces of Justice and Evidence Law Adrift were translated into several languages. He has published more than 100 articles in professional journals of numerous countries.
He received his basic law degree at the University of Zagreb in his native Croatia. He then studied at the Academy of International Law at The Hague, and the Comparative Law Faculty in Luxembourg. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). Following time spent practicing in the courts of former Yugoslavia, he began his teaching career at the University of Zagreb Law School, rising quickly to the rank of full professor, and briefly serving as Acting Dean. In 1971, he left his native land, and accepted a tenured position at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Since 1976, he has been on the faculty of Yale Law School.
Damaška is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Society of Comparative Law. In 1978-79, he was fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is also holder of several honorary degrees.
He was keynote speaker and general reporter at many international congresses. Five symposia were organized about his work: Bielefeld (Germany) in 1987; Siena (Italy) in 1988; San Francisco in 1998; Zagreb (Croatia) in 2006; and New Haven in 2008. From 1990 to 1995, he served on the Advisory Board of the Central and East European Legal Initiative of ABA. Since 1995, he has periodically advised the Croatian government in its relations with the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In 2005, he was appointed Amicus Curiae of the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the matter of transferring cases to domestic courts. In 2009, he was presented the lifetime achievement award by the American Society of Comparative Law. In 2014, he was awarded the Life Achievement award by Jadranko Crnic Foundation, Croatia. He does counseling work on foreign law problems for law firms in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington.
In 2010 he was appointed special adviser to the Prime Minister of Croatia, and agent of the Republic of Croatia before the International Court of Justice, heading a team of Croatian and English lawyers in the case of Croatia v. Serbia.
Two books of essays have been published in his honor: Jackson, Langer, & Tillers (eds.), "Crime, Procedure, and Evidence: Essays in honor of Mirjan Damaška (Oxford 2008), and Ackerman, Ambos, Sikiric (eds.), "Visions of Justice, Liber Amicorum Mirjan Damaška" (Berlin 2016).
Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law, European University Institute
Since September 2016 Gábor Halmai, professor of law, is the chair of Comparative Constitutional Law at the European University Institute in Florence. Since January 2018 he is the Director of Graduate Studies at the Law Department. His primary research interests are comparative constitutional law, and international human rights. He has published several books and articles, as well as edited volumes on these topics in English, German and Hungarian. He is joining the EUI after a teaching and research career (at the Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, the Princeton University in the USA, the the European Masters Program in Human Rights and Democratization in Italy) as well as years of professional career as chief advisor to the President of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, member of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency’s Management Board and numerous other civic activities.
Prior to joining to EUI Professor Halmai has worked on various research projects at the IWM in Vienna and the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University: Backsliding of liberal democracies within the European Union, with special focus on the development of constitutionalism and human rights in Hungary since its democratic transition in 1989-1990 till now; Models of state-church relations and religious freedom; Constitutionalism and transitional justice in Central and Eastern Europe. His most recent book, „Perspectives on Global Constitutionalism” deals with the use of foreign and international law by domestic courts (published by Eleven International Publishing in 2014). In addition to research, Professor Halmai has also been teaching and supervising students in Budapest, Princeton and Florence on the subjects of comparative constitutional law and human rights, as well as on rule of law.
Besides his academic work he was member of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency’s Management Board based in Vienna, Austria (2007-2010), the national director of the European Masters Program in Human Rights and Democratization in Venice, Italy (2003-2013), vice-chair of the Hungarian National Election Commission (2006-2010; chief counsellor to the President of the Hungarian Constitutional Court (1990-1996).
Gábor Halmai is founder and editor-in-chief of Fundamentum, the Hungarian human right quarterly, and Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Yearbook on Human Rights, the Review of Constitutionalism and Constitutional Change (RC3), and the This Century’s Review.
Assistant Professor, University of Ústí nad Labem
Daniel Kroupa is a Czech politician and philosopher, dissident, signatory of Charter 77, President of the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) from 1998 to 2001, former MP, Euro MP and senator. After the Velvet Revolution, he taught political philosophy at several faculties of Charles University in Prague. From 2005 to 2015, he was the Head of the Department of Political Science and Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ústí nad Labem. Since 2015 he has been an assistant professor at this department.
Philosopher, Journalist, Novelist, and Diplomat
Michael John Novak Jr. (1933–2017) was an American Roman Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. The author of more than forty books on the philosophy and theology of culture, Novak is most widely known for his book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (1982). In 1993 Novak was honored with an honorary doctorate at Universidad Francisco Marroquín due to his commitment to the idea of liberty. In 1994 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, which included a million-dollar purse awarded at Buckingham Palace. He wrote books and articles focused on capitalism, religion, and the politics of democratization.
Former Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Alvin Benjamin Rubin's long and storied tenure as a federal judge began with a nomination by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966 and ended in 1991 at his death.
Judge Rubin was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, in 1920, and received a B.S. from Louisiana State University in 1941. He started at Louisiana State University Law School in 1940. When World War II broke out, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, was assigned to General Patton's "Big Red 1," and served in the European Theatre of Operations in England, France, Belgium, and Germany, rising to the rank of Captain and serving as an Assistant Judge Advocate. After the war ended, he married Janice Ginsberg, also from Alexandria, and returned to Baton Rouge for law school in an accelerated post-war program for returning war veterans. He graduated first in his law school class in 1942 and was Editor-in-Chief of the Louisiana Law Review.
After his graduation, he began practicing law in Baton Rouge with J.Y. Sanders and Ben Miller, Sr., and after several years the firm of Sanders, Miller, Downing, Rubin and Kean was formed. Judge Rubin specialized in tax law, corporate transactions, and trust and estates law. He also was an arbitrator and mediator.
Soon after he started practice in 1942, the illness of a faculty member at the LSU Law School propelled Judge Rubin back into the classroom as a professor. Judge Rubin taught a variety of subjects continuously at the Law School until 1989, including Admiralty, Civil Code, Ethics, Negotiations, Constitutional Law, Federal Procedure, State and Local Tax Law, Federal Tax Law, Law Office Practice, and many others. Judge Rubin's love of teaching and of student interaction was particularly meaningful to him, and throughout his life Judge Rubin was invited to teach and lecture at schools around the world, including Harvard, Yale, Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, University of Miami, University of Georgia, University of Texas, Tulane, and Duke. He also traveled to give presentations throughout Europe. Because of his expertise in civil law, during the Vietnam War, Judge Rubin was asked by the State Department to travel to South Vietnam and assist in drafting the constitution for South Vietnam. He also served as a moderator for the Aspen Institute and for many programs for the American Bar Association.
In 1963, Judge Rubin and Dean Henry George McMahon co-authored Louisiana Pleadings and Judicial Forms Annotated. For over 20 years, Judge Rubin continued the annual updates for this vital resource used by Louisiana attorneys. Before 1960, Louisiana civil law prohibited the establishment of Trusts. Judge Rubin was instrumental in the creation of a Trust Code for Louisiana, which was adopted by the Louisiana Legislature in 1960. In 1966 he and his wife, Janice, co-authored the Louisiana Trust Handbook, and later, he wrote Louisiana Wills and Trust: A Drafting System (with Professor Gerald LeVan). Judge Rubin's list of law review and journal articles spans many pages. Two of his most prominent works are "A Causerie on Lawyer's Ethics" and "Hazards of a Civilian Venturer in Federal Court: Travel and Travail on the Erie Railroad" (both in the Louisiana Law Review).
He then practiced law until 1966 when President Johnson nominated him to a new seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana created by 80 Stat. 75. Judge Rubin served at an important time in the Court's history, hearing many of the desegregation and civil rights cases in the 1960s. He served as Chief Judge of the District and wrote and implemented the first comprehensive written pre-trial procedure rules for the District. He served on and chaired many committees for the Judicial Conference and co-wrote the first law clerk handbook for the federal system. Judge Rubin kept long hours and was often in his Chambers early. He always took home briefs to read and drafts of opinions to edit, keeping two secretaries busy at all times.
After eleven years as a judge on the federal district court, Judge Rubin was nominated in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter to fill a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated by John Minor Wisdom. Judge Rubin assumed senior status on July 1, 1989, and served in that capacity until his death in 1991 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In his memory, the Louisiana Law Review published a special edition (Vol. 52, 1992) dedicated solely to his life and work, including articles and remembrances by his wife, Justice Byron White, Judge John Minor Wisdom, Judge Charles Clark, Judge Fred Cassibry, Judge Henry Politz, and many others.
Judge Rubin wrote more than 700 important (and sometimes humorous) opinions during his time as a federal judge. His rulings included ones that ended Louisiana's exemption of women from juries, applied the Voting Rights Act to local elections, and upheld the rights of government employees to criticize their superiors and to organize unions. Judge Rubin's interests spanned poetry, drama, history, art, the classics, and music of all types. He enjoyed writing Gilbert-and-Sullivan-ish parodies concerning legal matters and performing them for students, clerks, lawyers, at judicial seminars, and even for United States Supreme Court Justices.
The judicial activity that Judge Rubin reportedly most enjoyed was conducting naturalization ceremonies in open court. Judge Rubin spoke not as a jurist but as the son of immigrants from Eastern Europe whose parents had lost many relatives to war and hatred. He spoke movingly of his parents, their courage, and their determination to give their children the education and opportunities they had never had. Judge Rubin always emphasized that those citizens, new though they were, had equal rights. They could vote. They could develop their own talents and those of their children. They were entitled to occupy as well as to stand before the bench of justice.
Judge Rubin also enjoyed the close friendship of his many law clerks (serving as officiant of at least one wedding) and was an avid tennis player and jogger, often enlisting law clerks and young lawyers as his tennis or running partner.
Judge Rubin was the first member of the LSU Law Center Hall of Alumni Distinction, and was the First Alumni Member of the LSU Phi Beta Kappa Chapter. He was awarded the Louisiana ACLU Award for his civil rights work and was active in the National Conference of Christians and Jews and his synagogue in Baton Rouge.
Judge John Minor Wisdom wrote that "Alvin Rubin was born to be a judge, a great judge. His intellect, scholarship, and judicial leadership place him in a select group. In recent years, some of this small group graced the Supreme Court: Holmes, Brandeis, and Cardozo. These judges would have welcomed him on equal intellectual terms and as a kindred spirit."
The New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association hosts an annual symposium in Judge Rubin's honor. The symposium is an annual discussion on aspects of federal law or practice as a living memorial to Judge Rubin's contribution to federal jurisprudence and legal scholarship. The symposium is well attended by his family, friends, former clerks, and lawyers.
Judge Rubin's wife, Janice, best summed him up. "[His] friends spanned continents and age barriers . . . . [He] was the jurist he was because he was the man the boy became, a man who remembered Biblical injunctions about relationships and courage, about discipline and standards, about justice and mercy and integrity, a man whose goal on the bench was the oath taken by judges on the Isle of Man: 'You shall do justice between cause and cause as equally as the backbone of the herring doth lie midmost of the fish.' "
Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law, Yale Law School
Mirjan Damaška is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale Law School. He teaches and writes in the fields of comparative and foreign law, procedural law, evidence, international criminal law, and continental legal history.
He is the author of six books, among which The Faces of Justice and Evidence Law Adrift were translated into several languages. He has published more than 100 articles in professional journals of numerous countries.
He received his basic law degree at the University of Zagreb in his native Croatia. He then studied at the Academy of International Law at The Hague, and the Comparative Law Faculty in Luxembourg. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). Following time spent practicing in the courts of former Yugoslavia, he began his teaching career at the University of Zagreb Law School, rising quickly to the rank of full professor, and briefly serving as Acting Dean. In 1971, he left his native land, and accepted a tenured position at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Since 1976, he has been on the faculty of Yale Law School.
Damaška is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Society of Comparative Law. In 1978-79, he was fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is also holder of several honorary degrees.
He was keynote speaker and general reporter at many international congresses. Five symposia were organized about his work: Bielefeld (Germany) in 1987; Siena (Italy) in 1988; San Francisco in 1998; Zagreb (Croatia) in 2006; and New Haven in 2008. From 1990 to 1995, he served on the Advisory Board of the Central and East European Legal Initiative of ABA. Since 1995, he has periodically advised the Croatian government in its relations with the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In 2005, he was appointed Amicus Curiae of the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the matter of transferring cases to domestic courts. In 2009, he was presented the lifetime achievement award by the American Society of Comparative Law. In 2014, he was awarded the Life Achievement award by Jadranko Crnic Foundation, Croatia. He does counseling work on foreign law problems for law firms in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington.
In 2010 he was appointed special adviser to the Prime Minister of Croatia, and agent of the Republic of Croatia before the International Court of Justice, heading a team of Croatian and English lawyers in the case of Croatia v. Serbia.
Two books of essays have been published in his honor: Jackson, Langer, & Tillers (eds.), "Crime, Procedure, and Evidence: Essays in honor of Mirjan Damaška (Oxford 2008), and Ackerman, Ambos, Sikiric (eds.), "Visions of Justice, Liber Amicorum Mirjan Damaška" (Berlin 2016).
Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law, European University Institute
Since September 2016 Gábor Halmai, professor of law, is the chair of Comparative Constitutional Law at the European University Institute in Florence. Since January 2018 he is the Director of Graduate Studies at the Law Department. His primary research interests are comparative constitutional law, and international human rights. He has published several books and articles, as well as edited volumes on these topics in English, German and Hungarian. He is joining the EUI after a teaching and research career (at the Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, the Princeton University in the USA, the the European Masters Program in Human Rights and Democratization in Italy) as well as years of professional career as chief advisor to the President of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, member of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency’s Management Board and numerous other civic activities.
Prior to joining to EUI Professor Halmai has worked on various research projects at the IWM in Vienna and the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University: Backsliding of liberal democracies within the European Union, with special focus on the development of constitutionalism and human rights in Hungary since its democratic transition in 1989-1990 till now; Models of state-church relations and religious freedom; Constitutionalism and transitional justice in Central and Eastern Europe. His most recent book, „Perspectives on Global Constitutionalism” deals with the use of foreign and international law by domestic courts (published by Eleven International Publishing in 2014). In addition to research, Professor Halmai has also been teaching and supervising students in Budapest, Princeton and Florence on the subjects of comparative constitutional law and human rights, as well as on rule of law.
Besides his academic work he was member of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency’s Management Board based in Vienna, Austria (2007-2010), the national director of the European Masters Program in Human Rights and Democratization in Venice, Italy (2003-2013), vice-chair of the Hungarian National Election Commission (2006-2010; chief counsellor to the President of the Hungarian Constitutional Court (1990-1996).
Gábor Halmai is founder and editor-in-chief of Fundamentum, the Hungarian human right quarterly, and Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Yearbook on Human Rights, the Review of Constitutionalism and Constitutional Change (RC3), and the This Century’s Review.
Assistant Professor, University of Ústí nad Labem
Daniel Kroupa is a Czech politician and philosopher, dissident, signatory of Charter 77, President of the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) from 1998 to 2001, former MP, Euro MP and senator. After the Velvet Revolution, he taught political philosophy at several faculties of Charles University in Prague. From 2005 to 2015, he was the Head of the Department of Political Science and Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ústí nad Labem. Since 2015 he has been an assistant professor at this department.
Philosopher, Journalist, Novelist, and Diplomat
Michael John Novak Jr. (1933–2017) was an American Roman Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. The author of more than forty books on the philosophy and theology of culture, Novak is most widely known for his book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (1982). In 1993 Novak was honored with an honorary doctorate at Universidad Francisco Marroquín due to his commitment to the idea of liberty. In 1994 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, which included a million-dollar purse awarded at Buckingham Palace. He wrote books and articles focused on capitalism, religion, and the politics of democratization.
Former Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Alvin Benjamin Rubin's long and storied tenure as a federal judge began with a nomination by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966 and ended in 1991 at his death.
Judge Rubin was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, in 1920, and received a B.S. from Louisiana State University in 1941. He started at Louisiana State University Law School in 1940. When World War II broke out, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, was assigned to General Patton's "Big Red 1," and served in the European Theatre of Operations in England, France, Belgium, and Germany, rising to the rank of Captain and serving as an Assistant Judge Advocate. After the war ended, he married Janice Ginsberg, also from Alexandria, and returned to Baton Rouge for law school in an accelerated post-war program for returning war veterans. He graduated first in his law school class in 1942 and was Editor-in-Chief of the Louisiana Law Review.
After his graduation, he began practicing law in Baton Rouge with J.Y. Sanders and Ben Miller, Sr., and after several years the firm of Sanders, Miller, Downing, Rubin and Kean was formed. Judge Rubin specialized in tax law, corporate transactions, and trust and estates law. He also was an arbitrator and mediator.
Soon after he started practice in 1942, the illness of a faculty member at the LSU Law School propelled Judge Rubin back into the classroom as a professor. Judge Rubin taught a variety of subjects continuously at the Law School until 1989, including Admiralty, Civil Code, Ethics, Negotiations, Constitutional Law, Federal Procedure, State and Local Tax Law, Federal Tax Law, Law Office Practice, and many others. Judge Rubin's love of teaching and of student interaction was particularly meaningful to him, and throughout his life Judge Rubin was invited to teach and lecture at schools around the world, including Harvard, Yale, Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, University of Miami, University of Georgia, University of Texas, Tulane, and Duke. He also traveled to give presentations throughout Europe. Because of his expertise in civil law, during the Vietnam War, Judge Rubin was asked by the State Department to travel to South Vietnam and assist in drafting the constitution for South Vietnam. He also served as a moderator for the Aspen Institute and for many programs for the American Bar Association.
In 1963, Judge Rubin and Dean Henry George McMahon co-authored Louisiana Pleadings and Judicial Forms Annotated. For over 20 years, Judge Rubin continued the annual updates for this vital resource used by Louisiana attorneys. Before 1960, Louisiana civil law prohibited the establishment of Trusts. Judge Rubin was instrumental in the creation of a Trust Code for Louisiana, which was adopted by the Louisiana Legislature in 1960. In 1966 he and his wife, Janice, co-authored the Louisiana Trust Handbook, and later, he wrote Louisiana Wills and Trust: A Drafting System (with Professor Gerald LeVan). Judge Rubin's list of law review and journal articles spans many pages. Two of his most prominent works are "A Causerie on Lawyer's Ethics" and "Hazards of a Civilian Venturer in Federal Court: Travel and Travail on the Erie Railroad" (both in the Louisiana Law Review).
He then practiced law until 1966 when President Johnson nominated him to a new seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana created by 80 Stat. 75. Judge Rubin served at an important time in the Court's history, hearing many of the desegregation and civil rights cases in the 1960s. He served as Chief Judge of the District and wrote and implemented the first comprehensive written pre-trial procedure rules for the District. He served on and chaired many committees for the Judicial Conference and co-wrote the first law clerk handbook for the federal system. Judge Rubin kept long hours and was often in his Chambers early. He always took home briefs to read and drafts of opinions to edit, keeping two secretaries busy at all times.
After eleven years as a judge on the federal district court, Judge Rubin was nominated in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter to fill a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated by John Minor Wisdom. Judge Rubin assumed senior status on July 1, 1989, and served in that capacity until his death in 1991 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In his memory, the Louisiana Law Review published a special edition (Vol. 52, 1992) dedicated solely to his life and work, including articles and remembrances by his wife, Justice Byron White, Judge John Minor Wisdom, Judge Charles Clark, Judge Fred Cassibry, Judge Henry Politz, and many others.
Judge Rubin wrote more than 700 important (and sometimes humorous) opinions during his time as a federal judge. His rulings included ones that ended Louisiana's exemption of women from juries, applied the Voting Rights Act to local elections, and upheld the rights of government employees to criticize their superiors and to organize unions. Judge Rubin's interests spanned poetry, drama, history, art, the classics, and music of all types. He enjoyed writing Gilbert-and-Sullivan-ish parodies concerning legal matters and performing them for students, clerks, lawyers, at judicial seminars, and even for United States Supreme Court Justices.
The judicial activity that Judge Rubin reportedly most enjoyed was conducting naturalization ceremonies in open court. Judge Rubin spoke not as a jurist but as the son of immigrants from Eastern Europe whose parents had lost many relatives to war and hatred. He spoke movingly of his parents, their courage, and their determination to give their children the education and opportunities they had never had. Judge Rubin always emphasized that those citizens, new though they were, had equal rights. They could vote. They could develop their own talents and those of their children. They were entitled to occupy as well as to stand before the bench of justice.
Judge Rubin also enjoyed the close friendship of his many law clerks (serving as officiant of at least one wedding) and was an avid tennis player and jogger, often enlisting law clerks and young lawyers as his tennis or running partner.
Judge Rubin was the first member of the LSU Law Center Hall of Alumni Distinction, and was the First Alumni Member of the LSU Phi Beta Kappa Chapter. He was awarded the Louisiana ACLU Award for his civil rights work and was active in the National Conference of Christians and Jews and his synagogue in Baton Rouge.
Judge John Minor Wisdom wrote that "Alvin Rubin was born to be a judge, a great judge. His intellect, scholarship, and judicial leadership place him in a select group. In recent years, some of this small group graced the Supreme Court: Holmes, Brandeis, and Cardozo. These judges would have welcomed him on equal intellectual terms and as a kindred spirit."
The New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association hosts an annual symposium in Judge Rubin's honor. The symposium is an annual discussion on aspects of federal law or practice as a living memorial to Judge Rubin's contribution to federal jurisprudence and legal scholarship. The symposium is well attended by his family, friends, former clerks, and lawyers.
Judge Rubin's wife, Janice, best summed him up. "[His] friends spanned continents and age barriers . . . . [He] was the jurist he was because he was the man the boy became, a man who remembered Biblical injunctions about relationships and courage, about discipline and standards, about justice and mercy and integrity, a man whose goal on the bench was the oath taken by judges on the Isle of Man: 'You shall do justice between cause and cause as equally as the backbone of the herring doth lie midmost of the fish.' "
Consultant, American Edge Project and U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Director, Center for Technology and Innovation, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Jessica Melugin is director of the Center for Technology & Innovation at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Her research focuses on technology issues including antitrust, online privacy, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, social media content regulation, and Federal Trade Commission oversight. Her writings have appeared in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Bloomberg Law, National Review, and Los Angeles Times. She has been cited in The Washington Post, Politico, U.S. News and World Report and Variety, among other publications. Ms. Melugin has appeared on Bloomberg Television, CSPAN’s Washington Journal, CNBC’s Power Lunch, Fox News, and Fox Business Network. She’s been featured on NPR’s Marketplace, The David Webb Show on SiriusXM, and is regularly interviewed on terrestrial radio programs.
Ms. Melugin graduated magna cum laude from Claremont McKenna College where her honors thesis explored the development of American antitrust law as it pertains to the Microsoft trial. She lives in Virginia’s horse country with her family.
Managing Director, Econ One
Hal Singer is an expert in antitrust, consumer protection, and regulation. He has researched, published, and testified on competition-related issues in a wide variety of industries, including media, pharmaceuticals, sports, and finance. He has extensive experience providing expert economic and policy advice to regulatory agencies in the United States and Canada, as well as before congressional committees.
Dr. Singer is also a Senior Fellow at the George Washington Institute of Public Policy and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business, where he teaches advanced pricing to MBA candidates. In 2018, the American Antitrust Institute honored Dr. Singer with an antitrust enforcement award for his work in the Lidoderm antitrust litigation.
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Senior Fellow, The Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU School of Law. Prior to his joining the faculty, he was a visiting law professor at NYU from 2007 through 2009. He served as the Peter and Kirstin Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution from 2000 to 2024. Since 2024 to the present he is a senior lecturer at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas—Austin. Epstein is also the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law Emeritus and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago. His initial law school appointment was at the University of Southern California from 1968 to 1972. Epstein received an LL.D., h.c. from the University of Ghent, 2003. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985 and was a Senior Fellow of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago Division of Biological Sciences, also from 1983. to 2022 He served as editor of the Journal of Legal Studies from 1981 to 1991, and of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1991-2001. From 2001 to 2010 he was a director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago.
His newest book, The Myth of Birthright Citizenship: What the Fourteenth Amendment Really Says was published in 2026 (Encounter Books). Prior to that he has published many books including, The Dubious Morality of the Modern Administrative State (Roman & Littlefield 2020).Earlier he published th Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (Harvard 2014) iHis previous books include Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (Harvard 2011); The Case Against the Employee Free Choice Act (Hoover 2009); Supreme Neglect: How to Revive the Constitutional Protection of Property Rights (Oxford 2008); Antitrust Decrees in Theory and Practice: Why Less is More (AEI 2007); Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation (Yale University Press. 2006); How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution (Cato 2006); Cases and Materials on Torts (Aspen Law & Business; 8th ed. 2004); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Case for Classical Liberalism (University of Chicago, 2003); Torts (Aspen Law & Business 1999); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good (Perseus Books, 1998): Mortal Peril: Our Inalienable Rights to Health Care (Addison-Wesley, 1997); Simple Rules for a Complex World (Harvard, 1995); Bargaining With the State (Princeton, 1993); Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws (Harvard , 1992); Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain (Harvard, 1985); and Modern Products Liability Law (Greenwood Press, 1980). He has also edited(with Catherine M. Sharkey) Cases and Materials on the Law of Torts (10th edition 2012).
Professor Epstein has written numerous articles on a wide range of legal and interdisciplinary subjects. He has taught courses in administrative law, antitrust law, civil procedure, communications, constitutional law, contracts, corporations, criminal law, employment discrimination law, environmental law, food and drug law health law and policy, legal history, labor law, property, real estate development and finance, jurisprudence, labor law; land use planning, patents, individual, estate and corporate taxation, Roman Law; torts, and workers' compensation.
Professor Epstein also writes a regular column for Civitas Institute, which also sponsors his podcast, The Libertarian with Charles C.W. Cooke, and Law Talk, with Cooke and John Yoo. He also does a podcast with John Batchelor. And appears regularly on the Freedom File with Judge Andrew Napolitano.
Deputy Associate Attorney General, Office of the Associate Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
Former General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization, Former United States Ambassador to East Timor
Grover Joseph Rees is a Louisiana native whose family has lived in the Breaux Bridge/Lafayette area since the 1700s.
His first job after college was as an assistant to Congressman Dave Treen (R-LA3), who had just been elected as the first Republican Congressman from Louisiana since Reconstruction.
Rees graduated with honors from LSU Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Louisiana Law Review. While in law school he worked on Ronald Reagan’s 1976 presidential campaign and was a Reagan delegate from Louisiana to the Republican National Convention. He also served as a member of the Lafayette Parish Republican Executive Committee and as a board member of Acadiana Right to Life.
In 1979, when Congressman Treen ran successfully for Governor, he asked Rees to write his authorized biography. The book, Dave Treen of Louisiana, was read and discussed widely during the campaign and after Treen’s election.
In 1985-86 Rees served as Special Counsel for Judicial Selection in President Reagan’s Justice Department, working closely with Attorney General Ed Meese to reorganize the judicial selection process to make it more philosophically oriented. These efforts resulted in the appointment of over 100 federal judges and were widely credited with transforming the federal judiciary.
From 1986 through 1991 Rees served as Chief Justice of the High Court of American Samoa, an Article I federal judicial position.
From 1991 through 1993 he was General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
In 1995 Rees went to work for the new Republican Congress as staff director and chief counsel of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. He worked with subcommittee chairman Chris Smith (R.-N.J.) to cut U.S. funding for the International Planned Parenthood Federation and other organizations that perform and promote abortions overseas. Rees also worked on the drafting and enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and other legislation that has helped to bring U.S. foreign policy into closer alignment not only with our national interests but also with our values.
In 2001-2002 Rees worked for Congressman Henry Hyde (R.-Ill.), who was then serving as Chairman of the House International Relations Committee.
From 2002 until 2006 Rees served as the first United States Ambassador to newly independent East Timor.
From 2006 until 2009 Ambassador Rees was the United States Special Representative for Social Issues, responsible for representing the United States on issues relating to vulnerable persons and the family within the United Nations system.
Ambassador Rees retired from government service in January 2009 and returned to Lafayette. He is married to Lan Dai Nguyen Rees and is a member of St. Genevieve’s Catholic parish in Lafayette. He was recently elected to serve as a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee.
Explainer Episode 24 – The Future of Title IX Implementation
Linda L. Chavez, Edward E. Bartlett
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Podcast
Edward E. Bartlett and Linda Chavez join the podcast to discuss the future of Title...
Carr v. Saul - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Thomas Berry
featuring Thomas Berry
On April 22, 2021 the Supreme Court decided Carr v. Saul. was whether a claimant...
Strengthening the Information Quality Act to Improve Transparency and Regulatory Quality
In a recent Food and Drug Law Journal article, the Heritage Foundation’s Daren Bakst discusses...
Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Michael R. Dimino
featuring Michael R. Dimino
On April 28, 2021 the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Mahanoy Area School District...
Topics
Regulation By Enforcement Is Stifling Cryptocurrency
One of the few things that can make an industry demand more regulation is the...
Topics
Justice Thomas on Controlling the Tech Giants
How to control the tech giants—Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—has continued to raise concerns about both...
The Judiciary and the Role of the Rule of Law [Archive Collection]
Mirjan R. Dama?ka, Gábor Halmai, Daniel Kroupa, Michael J. Novak, Alvin Rubin
1990 National Lawyers Convention
On November 30- December 1, 1990, the Federalist Society hosted its annual National Lawyers Convention...
The Judiciary and the Role of the Rule of Law [Archive Collection]
Mirjan R. Dama?ka, Gábor Halmai, Daniel Kroupa, Michael J. Novak, Alvin Rubin
1990 National Lawyers Convention
On November 30- December 1, 1990, the Federalist Society hosted its annual National Lawyers Convention...
Deep Dive Episode 175 – Big Tech and Antitrust
Asheesh Agarwal, Jessica Melugin, Hal Singer, Richard A. Epstein, John Adams
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Podcast
The debate over “Big Tech” and antitrust has intensified. On one side are those who...
Sanchez v. Mayorkas - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Grover Joseph Rees
featuring Grover Rees
On April 19, 2021 the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Sanchez v. Mayorkas. The question...