Steve Davis is a Senior Legal Fellow in Pacific Legal Foundation’s Constitutional Scholarship group and chair's the Federalist Society's Property Rights Practice Group Executive Committee. Steve’s work at PLF focuses on the study of the U.S. Constitution’s protection of property rights, and he plans and conducts Pacific Legal Foundation-sponsored conferences, symposia, and academic workshops on property rights issues and the Constitution. He enjoys pursuing constitutional scholarship research, writing, and speaking and is a frequent speaker at law and history seminars.
Prior to joining PLF, Steve litigated all stages of property rights cases in federal trial and appellate courts in private practice at large and small law firms. He filed property rights claims on behalf of hundreds of private property owners who own land in over a dozen states against the federal government, litigating those claims through trial and appeal. He also maintained a robust amicus-party practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, filing briefs on behalf of many legal scholars and public-interest groups.
Beginning in 2006, Steve served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, litigating civil rights, constitutional tort, tort, and employment discrimination claims in federal district court and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Following law school, Steve began his legal career pursing his passion for public policy and the legislative process in the Missouri legislature, where he served first as chief of staff to the minority leader of the Missouri House of Representatives and then was twice elected by the members of the House as the House’s 62nd Chief Clerk and Administrator.
Senior Director of Legislation and Research, California YIMBY
Biography
M. Nolan Gray is the Senior Director of Legislation and Research for California YIMBY and a professional city planner. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in city planning at UCLA. Gray currently lives in Los Angeles, where he serves on the North Westwood Neighborhood Council. He is a widely published author, with work appearing in outlets such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg Citylab, and The Guardian.
Speaker Information
Jennifer L. Hernandez
Partner, Holland & Knight
Biography
Jennifer Hernandez has practiced land use and environmental law for more than 30 years, and leads Holland & Knight's West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group. Ms. Hernandez divides her time between the firm's San Francisco and Los Angeles offices.
Ms. Hernandez is the only California lawyer ranked by her clients and peers in Chambers USA in the top tier of both land use/zoning and environmental lawyers. In addition, she was recognized as the top environmental litigator of the year in the San Francisco Bay Area by Best Lawyers, and received a California Lawyer of the Year award from the State Bar of California for her work on California's largest and most innovative land use and conservation agreement between her private landowner client and five major environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council. She also has received numerous civil rights awards for her work on overcoming environmentalist opposition to housing and other projects needed and supported by minority communities.
During his tenure as mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown named October 9, 2002, as "Jennifer Hernandez Day" in San Francisco in honor of her work as a "warrior on the Brownfields" to restore and redevelop former industrial lands. Ms. Hernandez is the longest-serving minority board member (23 years) of the California League of Conservation voters, was appointed by President Clinton to serve as a trustee for the Presidio National Park in San Francisco, and serves on the board of directors for California Forward and Sustainable Conservation.
Ms. Hernandez works for private sector, public agency and nonprofit clients on a broad range of projects in Bay Area, Southern California and Central Valley communities, including infill and master-planned mixed-use housing and commercial projects, university and research facilities, transportation and infrastructure projects, renewable and other energy projects, and local agency plan and ordinance updates. She has written three books, and more than 50 articles, on environmental and land use topics, and regularly teaches land use, environmental and climate law in law and business schools, colleges and seminars. She also serves on the firm's Directors Committee and received the firm's highest honor – the Chesterfield Smith Award – for her community service.
Ms. Hernandez graduated with honors from Harvard University and Stanford Law School, and clerked for Region 20 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) before beginning her land use and environmental law career. Ms. Hernandez is the daughter and granddaughter of steelworkers and was raised in Pittsburg, California. She and her husband live in Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Somin’s work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Critical Review, and others. Somin has also published articles in a variety of popular press outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, CNN, NBC, The Atlantic, USA Today, Boston Globe, US News and World Report, South China Morning Post, National Law Journal and Reason. He has been quoted or interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, The Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, the Financial Times, The Guardian, the Associated Press, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Reuters, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Al Jazeera, and the Voice of America, among other media.
Somin’s writings have been cited in decisions by the United States Supreme Court, multiple state supreme courts and lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of Israel. He is co-counsel for the plaintiffs in VOS Selections, Inc. v. Trump, a case challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. Somin has testified on the use of drones for targeted killing in the War on Terror before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. In 2009, he testified on property rights issues at the United States Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Somin writes regularly for the popularVolokh Conspiracylaw and politics blog, now affiliated with Reason magazine (previously affiliated with the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017). From 2006 to 2013, he served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review, one of the country’s top-rated law and economics journals.
Somin has served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has also been a visiting professor or scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Hamburg, Germany, the University of Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Uriel Reichman University in Israel, and Zhengzhou University in China. He is a University Affiliate of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, and an affiliated faculty member of the George Mason University Institute for Immigration Research. Before joining the faculty at George Mason, Somin was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Northwestern University Law School in 2002-2003. In 2001-2002, he clerked for the Hon. Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Professor Somin earned his B.A., Summa Cum Laude, at Amherst College, M.A. in Political Science from Harvard University, and J.D. from Yale Law School.
Clinical Professor and Director of the First Amendment Clinic, Florida State University College of Law
Biography
Denise Mayo Harle is a clinical professor and director of the First Amendment Clinic at FSU College of Law, where she leads student advocacy and litigation on free speech, religious liberty, and press freedom issues. Her teaching and scholarship focus on constitutional law, appellate practice, and First Amendment rights. Before entering academia, Professor Harle was a partner at Shutts & Bowen LLP in Tallahassee, where she was a member of the firm’s Appellate Practice Group and Constitutional Law Practice Area. Prior to that, she served as Deputy Solicitor General in the Office of the Florida Attorney General. Professor Harle has briefed and argued high-profile cases involving significant constitutional issues and questions of statutory interpretation in both state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
Professor Harle’s early career includes clerking for Justice Ricky L. Polston on the Florida Supreme Court and practicing appellate law in California. In 2022, she was selected as a finalist for a seat on the Florida Supreme Court. She was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to Florida’s Faith and Community Advisory Council and currently serves on the Judicial Nominating Commission for Florida’s Second Circuit. She was also selected for the prestigious U.S. Supreme Court Fellowship through the National Association of Attorneys General in 2017. She earned her J.D. cum laude from Duke University Law School and her B.A. and B.S. summa cum laude from Florida State University.
Professor Harle is active in the legal and academic communities. She is a member of the American Enterprise Institute’s Leadership Network and the Federalist Society’s Speakers Bureau. She has served on the board of Tallahassee Women Lawyers, the Florida Bar’s Client Security Fund Committee, and the First District Appellate American Inn of Court.
Before practicing law, Professor Harle completed doctoral coursework in Political Science at Stanford University as a Stanford Graduate Fellow, where she taught undergraduate courses on public policy, law, and American politics, and earned a Master’s degree. She continues to serve as a dissertation faculty advisor for Concordia University–St. Paul mentors doctoral students in research and writing.
A frequent speaker and media commentator on constitutional law, Professor Harle has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, and has appeared on national outlets including C-SPAN and Fox News. She has also testified before the U.S. Senate on matters of constitutional significance.
Michael F. Cannon is the Cato Institute’s director of health policy studies. His scholarship spans public health; regulation of clinicians, medical facilities, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices; employer‐sponsored and other private health insurance; Medicare; Medicaid; CHIP; the Veterans Health Administration; medical malpractice litigation; administrative law; international health systems; political philosophy; and more. Cannon is “an influential health‐care wonk” (Washington Post) and “the most famous libertarian health care scholar” (Washington Examiner). Washingtonian magazine named Cannon one of Washington, DC’s “Most Influential People” in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Cannon has appeared on ABC, Al Jazeera, BBC, CBS, CNN, CNBC, C‑SPAN, Fox News Channel, NPR, and other broadcast media. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal; the New York Times; USA Today; the Washington Post; the Los Angeles Times; SCOTUSBlog; Forum for Health Economics and Policy; JAMA Internal Medicine; Health Matrix: Journal of Law‐Medicine; Harvard Health Policy Review; the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics; the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law; and Quinnipiac Health Law Journal. His latest book is Recovery: A Guide to Reforming the U.S. Health Sector.
Cannon was previously a domestic policy analyst for the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee, where he advised the Senate leadership on health, education, labor, welfare, and the Second Amendment. He is a member of the Board of Advisers of Harvard Health Policy Review and the Federalist Society Regulatory Transparency Project’s FDA & Health Working Group.
Cannon holds an MA in economics and a JM in law and economics from George Mason University and a BA in American government from the University of Virginia.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Biography
Eric Murphy has been a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit since March 2019. He previously served as the ninth State Solicitor of Ohio. In that role, Eric briefed and argued appellate cases on behalf of Ohio and its state agencies and officers in the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the Ohio Supreme Court. Before his appointment as State Solicitor, Eric practiced appellate litigation at Jones Day. After graduation from law school, he served as a law clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He received his law degree from the University of Chicago and his undergraduate degree from Miami University.
Judge, United States District Court, District of Columbia
Biography
Judge Trevor N. McFadden was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 2017. He received his B.A. in 2001 from Wheaton College, IL, magna cum laude. In 2006, he received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he graduated Order of the Coif and was an editor for the Virginia Law Review.
Following graduation from law school, Judge McFadden clerked for Judge Steven Colloton, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He then joined the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General and as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia. Judge McFadden subsequently became a partner at Baker & McKenzie LLP in Washington, DC, where he focused on white collar investigations. He is also co-author of a treatise, Corporate Settlement Tools: DPAs, NPAs, and Cooperation Agreements.
After four years in private practice, Judge McFadden returned to the U.S. Department of Justice, where he was Deputy Assistant Attorney General and acted as the second-in-command of the Department's Criminal Division. As Deputy Assistant Attorney General, he managed the Division's Fraud and Appellate Sections.
Judge McFadden also has extensive experience in law enforcement. He served as an officer with the Fairfax County, VA, Police Department and as a deputy sheriff in Madison County, VA.
John A. Sibley Professor in Corporate and Business Law, The University of Georgia School of Law
Biography
Larry D. Thompson has served on the University of Georgia School of Law’s faculty as the holder of the John A. Sibley Chair of Corporate and Business Law since 2011, noting he was on a leave of absence from June 2012 through 2014. He is presently a member of the Faculty Division of the law school's Dean Rusk International Law Center Council.
Thompson first retired from PepsiCo in May 2011. In June 2012, he rejoined the company as executive vice president, government affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary. His responsibilities included leading PepsiCo’s worldwide legal function, as well as its global government affairs and public policy group and its global citizenship and sustainability team. Thompson again retired from PepsiCo in December 2014.
Thompson has extensive leadership experience in both the public and private sectors. In 2001, Thompson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy attorney general of the United States. As deputy attorney general, Attorney General John Ashcroft named Thompson in 2002 to lead the Department of Justice’s National Security Coordination Council. Also in 2002, President George W. Bush named Thompson to head the government-wide Corporate Fraud Task Force.
From 1982 to 1986, he served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia where he led major political corruption and drug trafficking prosecutions brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. As U.S. attorney, Thompson also led the Southeastern Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Thompson has held other significant leadership positions in the public sector. In 1995, he was named independent counsel for the Department of Housing and Urban Development Investigation. In 2000, he was selected by the U.S. Congress to chair the bi-partisan Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Asset Control.
In the private sector, in addition to his leadership roles at PepsiCo, Thompson was a partner in the Atlanta law firm of King & Spalding. He was the founding co-chair of the firm’s special matters and government investigations practice.
Thompson has received numerous awards for his professional achievements, including the Edmund Jennings Randolph Award for outstanding contributions to the accomplishment of the Department of Justice’s mission, the Outstanding Litigator Award from the Federal Bar Association and a Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Pace University in New York. He has also been recognized by Atlanta’s Gate City Bar Association as a member of its hall of fame.
Thompson is an elected Fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. In 2014, Ethisphere magazine recognized him by noting that as “the outgoing General Counsel of one of the world’s most well-recognized corporations [Thompson] has set the bar high for GC’s everywhere. [His] background in both public and private sectors earned him the trust and respect of his peers worldwide as he demonstrated how ethics and integrity are essential components of business success.”
In 2004, Thompson served as a Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
Thompson speaks and writes frequently on a number of legal topics. His recent publications include:
● “The Responsible Corporation: Its Historical Roots and Continuing Promise" in 29 Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy 199 (2015).
● “In-sourcing Corporate Responsibility for Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act" in 51 American Criminal Law Review 199 (2014).
● “Keynote Speech: The Reality of Overcriminalization” in 7 George Mason University Journal of Law, Economics and Policy 577 (2011).
Thompson holds a B.A. from Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, a M.A. from Michigan State University and a law degree from the University of Michigan.
Assistant Professor of Law, Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America
Biography
Chad Squitieri is an Assistant Professor of Law at Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. There he serves as the Director of the Separation of Powers Institute, and as a Managing Director of the Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Professor Squitieri’s scholarship addresses administrative law and constitutional law topics, including separation-of-powers principles. His scholarship has appeared in the Administrative Law Review, the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and the Baylor Law Review, among other publications.
Prior to joining the faculty at the Catholic University of America, Prof. Squitieri practiced law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP as a member of the Appellate and Constitutional Law and Administrative Law and Regulatory practice groups. He also served as a Special Assistant to former United States Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia, and as a law clerk to then-Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
University of Maryland School of Law and President, Center for Progressive Reform
Biography
Rena Steinzor is a Professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and teaches an environmental survey course, as well as offerings in risk assessment, critical issues in law and science, legal methods, contracts, and an introduction to the administrative system. During the course of her academic career, Professor Steinzor has written extensively on efforts to reinvent environmental regulation in the United States, the use and misuse of science in environmental policy making, and the devolution of legal and administrative authority to the states.
Professor Steinzor edited the book A New Progressive Agenda for Public Health and the Environment (Carolina Academic Press 2005) with Professor Christopher Schroeder of the Duke Law School. The book proposes an alternative set of values and principles that should guide efforts to reform environmental law. She worked with Professor Wendy Wagner of the University of Texas School of Law, to edit a book of essays by prominent academics entitled Rescuing Science from Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2005) writing an introduction and conclusion summarizing the issues and recommendations suggested by the book. Professor Steinzor's book entitled Mother Earth and Uncle Sam: How Pollution and Hollow Government Hurt Our Kids was published by the University of Texas Press in the fall of 2007.
Professor Steinzor is the president of the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) (http://www.progressivereform.org/), a think tank comprised of some 52 member scholars from universities across the United States. CPR is committed to developing and sharing knowledge and information, with the ultimate aim of preserving the fundamental value of the life and health of human beings and the natural environment. One component of CPR's mission is to circulate academic papers, studies, and other analyses that promote public policy based on the multiple social values that motivated the enactment of our nation's health, safety and environmental laws. CPR seeks to inform the public about scholarship that envisions government as an arena where members of society choose and preserve their collective values. CPR rejects the idea that government's only function is to increase the economic efficiency of private markets.
Before joining the law school faculty, Professor Steinzor was the partner in charge of the environmental practice at Spiegel & McDiarmid, a Washington D.C. Law firm specializing in the representation of state and local government entities in the energy and environmental areas. Prior to joining the firm, Professor Steinzor was counsel to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Transportation & Tourism of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which was then chaired by James J. Florio (D-N.J.). She advised the Subcommittee during its consideration of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 and the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act of 1986. She also served as an attorney advisor to Commissioner Patricia P. Bailey of the Federal Trade Commission and worked as a consumer protection attorney at the FTC in various staff positions.
Bruce P. Frohnen holds the Ella and Ernest Fisher chair in the College of Law. Prior to joining ONU Law in 2008, he served as a legislative aide for a United States senator, as a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and as secretary and director of program at the Earhart Foundation. He has held visiting posts as Charles Evans Hughes professor of jurisprudence at Colgate University and as Thomas Bahnson and Anne Bassett Stanley professor of ethics and integrity at the Virginia Military Institute.
Frohnen’s most recent book, Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law, co-authored with George W. Carey, was published in 2016 by Harvard University Press. He is the author of two other books and editor or co-editor of eight. His co-edited volume, American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia, was the subject of a front page article in The New York Times. His two most recent volumes, The American Nation: Primary Sources and Rethinking Rights (edited with Kenneth Grasso) were named Outstanding Academic Titles by Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. His articles have appeared in journals such as the George Washington Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the American Journal of Jurisprudence. In 2015, he received the Fowler V. Harper Award for Excellence in Legal Scholarship.
Frohnen teaches a variety of courses in public and commercial law. His research focuses on the development of constitutionalism, rights and the rule of law. He holds a J.D. from Emory University Law School and a Ph.D. in government from Cornell University.