The Dirty Dozen

Austin Lawyers Chapter

Speaker:

• William H. Mellor, President and General Counsel, Institute for Justice
  

Speaker:

• William H. Mellor, President and General Counsel, Institute for Justice

William H. (Chip) Mellor serves as President and General Counsel of the Institute for Justice, which he co-founded. Mellor litigates cutting-edge constitutional cases nationwide protecting economic liberty, property rights, school choice, and the First Amendment. He was recently described by Inc. magazine as one of Washington entrepreneurs' best friends.

Under his leadership, the Institute has won two U.S. Supreme Court victories, one upholding Cleveland's voucher program and the other striking down New York's prohibition on interstate wine sales. Mellor is also responsible for breaking open Denver's 50-year-old taxi monopoly, ending the funeral industry's monopoly on casket sales in Tennessee, defending New Jersey's welfare reform, drawing national attention to eminent domain abuse through the now infamous Kelo U.S. Supreme Court case, and launching the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago. He has teamed up with University of Chicago professor Richard Epstein on amicus briefs in eight property rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

How did we get from our Founders' Constitution, which established a strictly limited government, to today's Constitution, which has expanded government and curtailed individual rights? That's the story of THE DIRTY DOZEN: HOW TWELVE SUPREME COURT CASES RADICALLY EXPANDED GOVERNMENT AND ERODED FREEDOM, a new book Mellor co-authored with the Cato Institute's Robert Levy. In their book, Mellor and Levy discuss the 12 worst U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the modern era, highlighting how important it is that our next president appoint judges willing to overturn precedents that undercut fundamental American rights.

Cost is $15 for Federalist Society members, $20 for non-members

1.0 hour of CLE credit applied for by Monday, June 23 to [email protected]  or (512) 533-0125