Stephen Raiola is the current (and first) Solicitor General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and has been recognized by his peers as a “rising star” of the Appellate Bar.
Before being appointed to serve as the first Solicitor General in the history of Pennsylvania, Stephen launched the appellate practice of a boutique law firm and worked as an Associate at Simpson Thacher and Covington & Burling. During that time, Stephen served as counsel of record on two certiorari petitions before the U.S. Supreme Court, one of which was supported by six amici and recognized as the cert petition of the week by SCOTUSblog. In addition, Stephen has briefed over 20 appellate matters across seven federal circuits, the U.S. Supreme Court, the New York State Appellate Division, the California Court of Appeal, the California Supreme Court, and the Pennsylvania Superior Court. He also presented oral argument on 10 occasions before the California Court of Appeal as well as the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, and has served as court-appointed amicus curiae for both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
A magna cum laude graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Georgetown Law, Stephen clerked for the former Attorney General of Pennsylvania—the Honorable D. Michael Fisher—on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and has served in various leadership roles in the Federalist Society for approximately a decade.
Director, Booker T. Washington Initiative and Senior Fellow for Urban Education
Biography
Richard A. Johnson, Ed.D., is the director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Booker T. Washington Initiative, which examines the effects of public policy on African-American communities.
Previously, Johnson served as a chief of staff in both municipal and state governments. As chief of staff for a Houston City Council member, he played a significant role in drafting and navigating policies related to public safety, public works, and housing and community development. During the 85th and 86th Texas Legislatures, he served as a chief of staff and a senior policy analyst for a House member and worked on education, public safety, healthcare, and workforce development legislation.
An educator for more than 20 years, Johnson has extensive experience in teaching and research. He worked as a research assistant at the University of Texas Mental Science Institute, studying the efficacy of counseling and pharmacological therapy on cocaine and heroin addicts. He began counseling inner-city adolescent males and founded an academy for troubled boys which provided education, discipline, and residential substance abuse treatment. In 2007 he began teaching and researching in the areas of psychology and academic performance.
A Texas native, Johnson has an Ed.D. in education administration and an M.A. in clinical psychology from Texas Southern University. He received a B.A. in history and government from Wiley College.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Biography
Reed Charles O'Connor is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He joined the court in 2007 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.
A native of Houston, Texas, O'Connor graduated from the University of Houston with his bachelor's degree in 1986 and from South Texas College of Law with his J.D. in 1989.
Speaker Information
Ryan Raybould
United States Attorney, Northern District of Texas
Biography
Ryan R. Raybould was named the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas on November 17, 2025, by United States Attorney General Pam Bondi.
His appointment followed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Mr. Raybould on October 21, 2025, to serve a four-year term in this role. The President’s nomination of Mr. Raybould is currently pending United States Senate confirmation.
Mr. Raybould is now the chief federal law enforcement officer for the district, which covers 96,000 square miles and a population of approximately eight million, including those in Dallas, Fort Worth, Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene, San Angelo, Wichita Falls, and surrounding areas. Mr. Raybould oversees roughly 220 attorneys and staff across five division offices and is responsible for all federal criminal prosecutions and civil litigation involving the United States government in the region.
Before his tenure as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Mr. Raybould was a litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis in the Government, Regulatory, and Internal Investigations Practice Group.
Mr. Raybould previously served as a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice for almost seven years, including as Deputy Chief of the White Collar and Public Corruption Unit in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Raybould investigated and tried cases involving public corruption, tax fraud, securities fraud, cybercrime, national security, violent crime, money laundering and other white-collar crimes.
Mr. Raybould also served as Chief Counsel to former Assistant Majority Leader and U.S. Senator John Cornyn. As Chief Counsel to Senator Cornyn, Mr. Raybould helped draft and negotiate numerous pieces of legislation that became law on national security, government accountability and drug diversion control. Mr. Raybould also advised Sen. Cornyn’s work on the Judiciary Committee and the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control.
After receiving his J.D. from Notre Dame Law School, Mr. Raybould clerked for Chief United States District Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas. Mr. Raybould is a graduate of Yale University.
Ronald N. Boyce Presidential Professor of Criminal Law and University Distinguished Professor of Law, The University of Utah College of Law
Biography
Paul G. Cassell received a B.A. (1981) and a J.D. (1984) from Stanford University, where he graduated Order of the Coif and was President of the Stanford Law Review. He clerked for then-Judge Antonin Scalia when Scalia was on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1984-85) and then for the Chief Justice of the United States, Warren Burger (1985-86). Cassell then served as an Associate Deputy Attorney General with the U.S. Justice Department (1986-88) and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (1988 to 1991). Cassell joined the faculty at the College of Law in 1992, where he taught full time until he was sworn in as a U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Utah on July 2, 2002. In November 2007, he resigned his judgeship to return full time to the College of Law, to teach, write, and litigate on issues relating to crime victims' rights and criminal justice reform.
Professor Cassell teaches criminal procedure, crime victims' rights, criminal law, and related classes. He has also pubished numerous law review articles on criminal justice issues in journals such as the Stanford Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.
Professor Cassell has argued cases relating to crime victims' rights before the United States Supreme Court, the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, and D.C. Circuits, the Utah Supreme Court, and various other courts around the country.
Director of Federal Affairs, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Biography
India McKinney currently serves as the director of federal affairs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she works to fight for encryption, for consumer privacy, and civil liberties in the digital realm.. She is a former Capitol Hill staffer with over 10 years experience as a legislative staffer.
Speaker Information
Clare Morell
Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Biography
Clare Morell is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s Technology and Human Flourishing Project. Prior to joining EPPC, Ms. Morell worked in both the White House Counsel’s Office and the Department of Justice, as well as in the private and non-profit sectors. She is also the author of the forthcoming book, The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones, which will be published by Penguin Random House.
At the Department of Justice, Ms. Morell worked as an Advisor to Attorney General Bill Barr. As part of her work for the Attorney General, she helped oversee the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice and served as Editor of the Commission’s final report. A major focus of the Commission’s report was the challenges that Big Tech’s end-to-end encryption presents to law enforcement for gaining lawful access to crucial intelligence in criminal investigations, like domestic terrorism, as well as human and drug trafficking crimes. Ms. Morell also supported the Attorney General’s work on Section 230 reform as one of his main priorities.
Prior to her role with the Office of the Attorney General, Ms. Morell worked on judicial nominations for the White House Counsel’s office and monitored all nominations data to create high-level presentations for briefing White House leadership. From her experience, Ms. Morell brings an intimate knowledge and understanding of how policy is advanced within the Executive Branch of the federal government, particularly in the Department of Justice and the White House.
Ms. Morell has had opinion pieces published in the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Newsweek, the Washington Examiner, National Review, American Affairs Journal,Deseret News, The Federalist, Public Discourse, WORLD Magazine, the Washington Times, and the Daily Signal.
Ms. Morell received a B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, where she majored in Science, Technology, and International Affairs. She graduated summa cum laude and received the Edmund A. Walsh Award for academic achievement in international law. She also is proficient in Spanish.
Ms. Morell lives with her husband and three children in Washington, D.C.
Resident Senior Fellow, Technology and Innovation, R Street Institute
Biography
Spence works for the R Street Institute on the impact of misinformation on society and public policy, including creating a new framework for information governance.
Previously, Spence served as the director of technology policy at the Reason Foundation, where he was responsible for managing fundraising efforts and policy implementation. He also served as a graduate fellow in the Executive Office of the Governor in Florida.
Before pursuing his graduate studies, Spence was the business development manager for a technology startup, Dealers United, in Sarasota, Florida.
In recognition of his work, Spence won the Policy Paper of the Year award in the Florida Legislature in 2015 for his policy brief on data sharing and software procurement.
Spence earned his master’s degree in public administration from Florida State University and his bachelor’s degree in political science from Stetson University.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC
Biography
Brandon Smith is a partner at Holtzman Vogel, based in Tennessee, where he focuses on government investigations, white collar matters, and specialty litigation. A seasoned government leader and legal strategist, Brandon has played a central role in shaping conservative policy and litigation at the highest levels of state government.
Before joining the firm, Brandon served as Chief of Staff and Assistant Solicitor General in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office. In that role, he led multi-state litigation, high-profile constitutional challenges, and efforts to counter federal overreach and ESG-related corporate activism. He worked closely with nearly every Republican Attorney General’s Office in the country, coordinating litigation, strategy, and multi-state policy efforts.
Earlier in his career, Brandon served as Executive Director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin and as Policy Director to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, where he helped drive key legislative and budget initiatives. He also held roles as Deputy Director of the Federalist Society and as an adjunct professor at American University.
Brandon’s career has been defined by a commitment to defending federalism, advancing conservative governance, and shaping legal and policy fights that matter.
Mohammad “Mo” Jazil is a partner with Holtzman Vogel. His broad litigation practice includes state and federal constitutional cases, financial disputes, environmental disputes, white-collar criminal matters, and government investigations. Mohammad has served as first chair in federal and state court trials. He has briefed and argued dispositive motions and appeals before the federal courts, state appellate courts, and state supreme courts. He has also briefed cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, though he has never argued a case there.
Chambers USA calls Mohammad “a very good thinker,” “fantastic,” and “an excellent litigator.”
Since the summer of 2018, Mohammad has represented two Florida Governors and four Florida Secretaries of State on election-related and redistricting matters before federal and state trial courts, the Florida Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Notably, this work includes wins in nine federal cases related to Florida’s 2018 recounts; the successful defense of Florida’s felon re-enfranchisement program; federal and state-court decisions upholding Florida’s most recent congressional plan; and the defense of various election-related statutes.
Mohammad represents other public officials as well. He has represented two Speakers of the Florida House of Representatives on issues as varied as cannabis regulation and transportation policy. And he has represented Florida’s Surgeon General, members of Florida’s Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine, and the head of Florida’s Medicaid agency on health-policy issues.
Finally, Mohammad routinely represents companies and individuals on a variety of issues. This work includes pricing and tax disputes involving some of the country’s largest companies, commercial disputes where he has obtained and collected on eight-figure trial judgments, and criminal proceedings.
Statewide Prosecutor, Florida Department of Legal Affairs
Speaker Information
Anthony Sanders
Director of the Center for Judicial Engagement, Institute for Justice
Biography
Anthony Sanders is the Director of the Center for Judicial Engagement (CJE) at the Institute for Justice and a senior attorney. He joined IJ in 2010. As CJE’s director, he educates the public about the proper role of judges in enforcing constitutional limits on the size and scope of government. As a senior attorney he litigates cutting-edge constitutional cases protecting economic liberty, private property, freedom of speech and other individual liberties in both federal and state courts across the country.
One area of Anthony’s expertise is on using state constitutions to protect individual rights. He is the author of the book, published by University of Michigan Press, Baby Ninth Amendments: How Americans Embraced Unenumerated Rights and Why It Matters. He has also written several law review articles on state constitutional law, unenumerated rights, judicial review, economic liberty, property rights, international law, and other subjects. His work has appeared in publications such as the Iowa Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, American University Law Review, and Rutgers Law Review, and he has published opinion pieces in leading media outlets across the country. Further, he frequently speaks to various audiences on these matters and others, including judicial engagement, free speech, civil forfeiture, and the continuing importance of Magna Carta. Additionally, he hosts the weekly Short Circuit podcast, which often records live in front of law student audiences.
Anthony has litigated several cases in various state courts on state constitutional protections, as well as in federal courts on matters such as economic liberty, free speech, administrative law, and fines and fees abuse. Prior to joining IJ, Anthony served as a law clerk to Justice W. William Leaphart on the Montana Supreme Court. Anthony also worked for several years in private practice in Chicago where he was an active member of the Chicago Bar Association and chaired its Civil Rights Committee.
Anthony received his law degree cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2004, where he served as an articles submission editor for the Minnesota Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A dual U.S. and U.K. citizen, Anthony grew up on the islands of Vashon in Washington State, and Alderney in the British Channel Islands.
Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Biography
Josh Blackman is a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court. Josh’s work was quoted during two presidential impeachment trials. He has testified before Congress and advises federal and state lawmakers. Josh regularly appears on TV, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the BBC. Josh is also a frequent guest on NPR and other syndicated radio programs. He has published commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and leading national publications.
Since 2012, Josh has served as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Josh is the Senior Editor of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution (3rd Edition). Josh has written more than seven dozen law review articles that have been cited more than a thousand times. Josh was selected as the Jurist of the Year by the Texas Journal of Law & Public Policy, received the inaugural Meese III Originalism Award from the Heritage Foundation, and was awarded the Inaugural Joseph Story Award. Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy. Josh is the President of the Harlan Institute, and founded FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracy and tweets @JoshMBlackman.