Nicholas Rosenbaum Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School
Biography
Hal Bruff was Dean of the University of Colorado Law School 1996-2003. Professor Bruff, a native of Colorado, received his B.A. in American history and literature from Williams College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation, he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve in San Francisco, performing general duties as a legal officer. Hal has served on the law faculties of Arizona State University, the University of Texas (as the John S. Redditt Professor of Law), and the George Washington University Law School (as the Donald Rothschild Research Professor of Law). From 1979 to 1981, he served as senior attorney and advisor for the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. In this position, he advised the DOJ, the White House, and executive agencies on issues of constitutional and administrative law. He also served as consultant to the chairman of the President's Commission on the accident at Three Mile Island. He has testified before Congress on numerous occasions in his areas of expertise. Professor Bruff's research and teaching interests include constitutional and administrative law. He has co-authored a casebook on separation of powers law, and has written two books about separation of powers and numerous law review articles. His recent public service activities include work on the Council of the Administrative Law Section of the American Bar Association and on Colorado's Judicial Advisory Council.
Professor of Law, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
Biography
Tuan Samahon teaches and writes in the areas of federal courts and constitutional law. His articles have been published in the Stanford Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, Hastings Law Journal, William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, University of Chicago Legal Forum, Denver Law Review, and Villanova Law Review, among others.
Beyond his scholarship, Tuan is engaged in interpreting and fashioning federal constitutional law. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, and has served as counsel in separation-of-powers and Freedom of Information Act litigation in federal trial and appellate courts. Recently, Tuan prevailed against the CIA in a civil action for the release of the draft fifth volume of its secret history of the 1961 Bay of Pigs operation. In addition to representing others, for a book he is researching, Tuan successfully sued the FBI for the release of agency records detailing high-ranking executive and judicial officers' abuses of power.
Tuan received his B.A. from Brigham Young University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was an Olin Law and Economics Research Fellow and was co-awarded the Olin Prize in Law and Economics. Prior to entering teaching, he clerked for U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson on the Eastern District of Virginia and for U.S. Circuit Judge Jay S. Bybee on the Ninth Circuit. He also practiced in the Washington, D.C. office of Covington & Burling. Professor Samahon was named "Professor of the Year" by his students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He teaches civil procedure, federal courts, and constitutional law subjects.
During spring 2017, Tuan served as a Fulbright scholar with the law faculty at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
Biography
Hans A. von Spakovsky is a leading national expert on a wide range of legal and constitutional issues, including civil rights, elections, the First Amendment, immigration, executive authority, the rule of law, and government reform.
He is the former Senior Legal Fellow and Manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal & Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
He is a former member of President Donald Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. From 2006 to 2007, von Spakovsky was a member of the Federal Election Commission. He served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2002 to 2005. Prior to entering public service, Hans von Spakovsky worked for 17 years as a government affairs consultant, in a corporate legal department, and in private practice.
He is a 1984 graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Law and received a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981, which he attended on a National Merit Scholarship. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.
He is the 2016 winner of the Drs. W. Glenn and Rita Ricardo Campbell Award from the Heritage Foundation and received Meritorious Service Awards from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2003, 2004, and 2005.
von Spakovsky is the coauthor of “Who’s Counting? How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk” (Encounter 2012) and “Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department” (HarperCollins/Broadside 2014). His 2011 series “Every Single One” at PJ Media was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and his articles have appeared in Fox News, National Review Online, and the Wall Street Journal.
Roger Pilon is the Cato’s Institute’s vice president for legal affairs, the founding director of Cato’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, the inaugural holder of Cato’s B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies, and the founding publisher of the Cato Supreme Court Review.
Prior to joining Cato, Pilon held five senior posts in the Reagan administration, including at State and Justice, and was a national fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. In 1989 the Bicentennial Commission presented him with its Benjamin Franklin Award for excellence in writing on the U.S. Constitution. In 2001 Columbia University’s School of General Studies awarded him its Alumni Medal of Distinction. Pilon lectures and debates at universities and law schools across the country and testifies often before Congress.
His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Legal Times, National Law Journal, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Stanford Law and Policy Review, and elsewhere. He has appeared on ABC’s Nightline, CBS’s 60 Minutes II, Fox News Channel, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, C-SPAN, and other media.
Pilon holds a BA from Columbia University, an MA and a PhD from the University of Chicago, and a JD from the George Washington University School of Law.
Peter focuses his legal practice on representing management in employment-related litigation and in contract negotiations, NLRB proceedings, EEO matters and arbitration.
Peter Kirsanow is a partner with Benesch’s Labor & Employment Practice Group. He returned to Benesch in January 2008 after serving as a presidential appointee to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington D.C. for two years. While serving on the NLRB, he was involved with significant decisions including Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., Dana/Metaldyne and Oil Capital Sheet Metal, Inc. In addition, Peter testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the nominations of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. He also continues to testify before and advise members of the U.S. Congress on employment law matters, most recently on November 18 before the House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight regarding disparate impact theory.
Peter was recently reappointed by the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives to his fourth consecutive six-year term on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. This is a part-time position which will expire in December 2025.
Recently, Peter and a team of Benesch attorneys served as lead counsel to the National Association of Manufacturers in litigation before the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia against the NLRB, challenging the Board’s Notice of Employer Rights Posting Rule. The court ruled in favor of Benesch’s client, striking down the NLRB’s Rule in its entirety. This ruling impacts over 6,000,000 employers nationwide which would have been subject to the posting requirement.
Additionally, Peter is past chair of the board of directors of the Center for New Black Leadership and is a member of Benesch’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. This committee helps ensure that the firm promotes an environment in which differences are respected, employees are treated fairly, and individual skills and talents are valued.
Professor of Philosophy & Church-Studies at Baylor University
Biography
Francis J. Beckwith is Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies at Baylor University, where he also serves as Associate Director of Graduate Studies in Philosophy. Writing and teaching in the areas of law and religion, jurisprudence, and politics, his over one dozen books include Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith (Cambridge University Press, 2015), A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics (St. Augustine Press, 2013), Politics for Christians: Statecraft as Soulcraft (InterVarsity Press, 2010), Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice (Cambridge University Press, 2007), and Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air (Baker Books, 1998). His articles have appeared in a wide-range of journals including Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, American Journal of Jurisprudence, Journal of Law & Religion, Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy, Nevada Law Journal, International Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Medicine & Philosophy, San Diego Law Review, Liberty University Law Review, Ratio Juris, Christian Bioethics, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Journal of Medical Ethics, Philosophia Christi, Catholic Social Science Review, Journal of Church & State, Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Chapman Law Review, Journal of Social Philosophy, Human Life Review, and Social Theory and Practice.
M.J.S., School of Law, Washington University (St. Louis)
Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Biography
Randy Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He has argued before the United States Supreme Court, tried murder cases to juries as a prosecutor in Chicago, and appeared as a prosecutor in the feature film Inalienable. He is the author of numerous books, including Restoring the Lost Constitution, The Structure of Liberty, Our Republican Constitution, and The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. He has published two memoirs, A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist, and Felony Review: Tales of True Crime and Corruption in Chicago. He is currently working on a new book, Freedom and Flourishing: Libertarianism for the Real World.
Senior Counsel & Director of the Center for Religious Schools, Alliance Defending Freedom
Biography
Gregory S. Baylor serves as senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, where he is the director of the Center for Religious Schools and senior counsel with the Center for Public Policy.
Since joining ADF in 2009, Baylor has focused on defending and advancing the religious freedom of faith-based educational institutions through advice, education, legislative and public advocacy, and representation in disputes. He has testified about religious liberty issues three times before congressional committees and numerous times before state legislative committees.
Greg serves on the board of directors of the International Alliance for Christian Education, the board of directors of the Association for Biblical Higher Education, the board of directors of the Association for Christian Schools International, the board of advisors of the Museum of the Bible, and advisory board of the Center for Academic Faithfulness and Flourishing.
Greg earned his Juris Doctor in 1990 from Duke University School of Law, where he graduated Order of the Coif, with high honors, and served on the editorial board of the Duke Law Journal. He received his bachelor’s degree in Honors English in 1987 from Dartmouth College. Following graduation from law school, he served as law clerk to the Hon. Jerry E. Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He practiced labor and employment law at two large international law firms for three years before joining the staff of Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom, where he served for 15 years prior to joining ADF. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife (a medical doctor) and two daughters.