John R. Lott, Jr. is an economist who has held research and/or teaching positions at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Stanford, UCLA, Wharton, and Rice and was the chief economist at the United States Sentencing Commission during 1988 and 1989. He has published over 100 articles in academic journals. He also is the author of six books including More Guns, Less Crime, Freedomnomics, The Bias Against Guns, and Are Predatory Commitments Credible? He has just released another book entitled "Debacle: Obama's war on jobs and growth and what we can do now to regain our future." Lott is a FoxNews.com contributor and a weekly columnist for them. Opinion pieces by Prof. Lott have appeared in such places as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, USA Today, and The Chicago Tribune. He has appeared on such television programs as the ABC and NBC National Evening News broadcasts, Fox News, "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," and the "Today Show." He received his Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 1984.
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.
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
Biography
William H. Pryor Jr. serves as Chief Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
In 2013–18, he served on the United States Sentencing Commission and, in 2017–18, served as Acting Chair.
He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and previously taught as an adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University.
He served as the 45th Attorney General of Alabama from 1997 to 2004. When he took office, he was the youngest attorney general in the nation. In his reelection, he received the highest percentage of votes of any statewide candidate.
He graduated magna cum laude from Tulane Law School where he finished first in the common-law curriculum and was editor in chief of the Tulane Law Review. He then served as a law clerk for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
He is a member of The American Law Institute and an Adviser for the RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW THIRD, CONFLICT OF LAWS. He is a coauthor with Bryan Garner, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and several other judges of a treatise, THE LAW OF JUDICIAL PRECEDENT. He has published in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Yale Law & Policy Review, George Mason Law Review, Florida Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, and Tulane Law Review. He has published op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Review, and USA Today. He has debated at National Lawyers’ Conventions of the Federalist Society (including on National Public Radio) and at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom. And he is listed among several “widely admired judicial writers” in Bryan Garner’s The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style.
He is a member of the Tulane Law School Hall of Fame and has received the Defender of the Constitution Award from the Heritage Foundation, the Jurist of the Year Award from the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and the St. Thomas More Award from the St. Thomas More Society of Atlanta. Judge Pryor is also a proud member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Athie Livas rejoined Cooper & Kirk in 2022. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Livas clerked for Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh on the United States Supreme Court. Ms. Livas also previously clerked for Judge Amul R. Thapar on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge Dabney L. Friedrich on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Ms. Livas graduated from Yale Law School, where she served as President of the Yale Federalist Society, co-President of the Barristers’ Union trial competition, Student Director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, and Editor on the Yale Law Journal. Ms. Livas is admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives & Special Counsel to the President, Alliance Defending Freedom
Biography
Ryan Bangert serves as senior vice president for strategic initiatives and special counsel to the president at Alliance Defending Freedom. He oversees ADF’s regulatory practice, government relations, and corporate engagement teams. He also advises executive leadership with strategic initiatives and appears as counsel for ADF clients.
Before joining ADF, Bangert served as deputy first assistant attorney general and deputy for legal counsel in the office of the Texas attorney general. In those roles, he oversaw the state’s Special Litigation Unit, which handled critical litigation against the federal government, and oversaw multiple divisions within the office. Prior to that, he served as deputy for civil litigation for Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, overseeing the state’s civil litigation divisions, including the consumer protection and antitrust divisions, with over 200 attorneys and staff. During his time in government service, Bangert handled a diverse array of matters involving Big Tech, election law, civil rights, multistate antitrust and consumer protection investigations, and many other issues.
Prior to his government service, Bangert was a litigation partner at Baker Botts L.L.P., where he was a member of the firm’s commercial litigation and appellate practice sections. A seasoned trial attorney, The Texas Lawyer ranked the verdict Bangert achieved in the Janvey v. Maldonado case as the #1 verdict in the securities category for 2015-2019, and The National Law Journal ranked it in its “Top 100 Verdicts of 2015.” He was named a “Texas Rising Star” for multiple years by Texas Lawyer and Law and Politics magazines. While at Baker Botts, he was a volunteer attorney for ADF and served as amicus counsel in numerous cases, including Trinity Lutheran v. Comer and Salazar v. Buono, receiving the firm’s Opus Justitae Award in recognition of his outstanding commitment to pro bono service.
Bangert earned his J.D. from Southern Methodist University, where he was a Hatton Sumner’s scholar and graduated first in his class. He also participated in ADF’s Blackstone program and is a Blackstone Fellow. Following law school, he clerked for the Honorable Patrick E. Higginbotham on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Bangert is a member of the Philadelphia Society and Federalist Society. He is admitted to practice law in Texas, California (inactive), Missouri (inactive), the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous federal district and appellate courts. A frequent op-ed contributor, his work has appeared in National Review, Daily Wire, The Hill, Washington Examiner, The Federalist, Fox News, and RealClear Religion. He speaks nationally on constitutional, cultural, and religious liberty issues.
Director of Legal Communications, First Liberty Institute
Biography
Lathan Watts is the Director of Legal Communications for First Liberty Institute, responsible for all efforts to increase First Liberty Institute’s profile in local and national markets. His focus is on expanding public awareness of First Liberty’s mission, legal matters, and educational projects by coordinating communication with community leaders, influencers, policy makers, and the public at large.
Prior to joining First Liberty Institute, Watts served in various campaign and official staff positions for U.S. Congressman Jeb Hensarling, U.S. Senator John Cornyn, and Texas Governor Rick Perry. His executive leadership roles in non-profit organizations specializing in political affairs and community outreach contributed to the election of numerous members of the U.S. Congress, multiple state legislators, and governors. His work in and around the political process served him well in the four years he spent as a City Councilman in Lewisville, TX.
Watts received his Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi where he served two terms in the student senate one as President Pro Tempore. He received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Harding University, where he was a member of multiple honor societies and the University Concert Choir.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Biography
Judge Readler earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Michigan. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to Judge Alan Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler then began practicing law in the Columbus office of the international law firm Jones Day, eventually spending ten years as a partner in the firm’s Issues and Appeals Practice Group. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler appeared in state and federal trial and appellate courts around the country, most frequently the Supreme Court of Ohio and the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler also successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court in McQuiggin v. Perkins on behalf of an inmate claiming actual innocence. His other pro bono representations include representing capital defendants before the Tenth Circuit and the Supreme Court of Ohio, as well as representing defendants sentenced to life in prison before the Sixth Circuit. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler traveled to Nairobi with Lawyers Without Borders to train Kenyan lawyers in prosecuting domestic violence cases, and he was also a recipient of the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship awarded by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Following his career in private practice, Judge Readler served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2017 to 2019. In that role, Judge Readler led and supervised over 1,000 lawyers in the Department’s largest litigating division, briefing and arguing several cases on behalf of the United States in federal courts across the country, including high-profile cases significant to the Administration and the Department. In March 2019, Judge Readler was confirmed to serve as a Circuit Judge on the Sixth Circuit. He resides in Columbus.
Judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
Biography
Stephen J. Murphy, III, joined the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan after presidential appointment and confirmation by the United States Senate on June 24, 2008. He assumed the bench on August 18, 2008.
Previously, Judge Murphy served as the presidentially appointed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan after he was confirmed by unanimous consent of the United States Senate on June 8, 2005. Prior to confirmation, Judge Murphy had taken the oath of office and served continuously as United States Attorney from March 8, 2005 until his appointment as a district judge.
As United States Attorney, Judge Murphy oversaw one of the largest and busiest United States Attorney's offices in America, with operations in Detroit, Flint and Bay City, more than 100 Assistant United States Attorneys and a similar number of support staff.
Prior to his service as United States Attorney, Judge Murphy was an attorney with the General Motors Legal Staff in Detroit, where he specialized in litigation, internal investigations, counseling on various business law issues and other "white collar" matters. He served during that period as a public arbitrator for the National Association of Securities Dealers.
Judge Murphy also served with the United States Department of Justice for more than twelve years: first as a trial attorney with the Civil and Tax Divisions in Washington, D.C. (hired under the prestigious Attorney General's Honors Program), in which positions he defended various federal agencies and prosecuted criminal tax cases in federal district courts throughout the United States. Then, as an Assistant United States Attorney in Detroit from 1992-2000, Judge Murphy prosecuted and tried various violent, narcotics and several high profile white-collar criminal cases in Detroit's Federal Court.
A 1987 graduate of the St. Louis University School of Law (where he edited the law review), Judge Murphy has also been active in legal and community affairs. He has served on the boards of the Hospice of Michigan, Brighton Hospital, and the Historical Society of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He was also appointed by his Court to serve as a member of the State Bar of Michigan's Standing Committee on United States Courts. He is presently a member of the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules of Judicial Conference of the United States.
Judge Murphy is also an experienced appellate lawyer who, while in private practice, handled indigent criminal appointments in the United States Court of Appeals. He is a published legal author and he has served as an adjunct professor at the Ave Maria, Thomas M. Cooley, University of Detroit Mercy, and University of Toledo schools of law, where he has taught Business/White Collar Crimes, Evidence, Tax Fraud and Trial Practice.
U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Michigan, U.S. Department of Justice
Biography
Matthew Schneider is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
As the United States Attorney, Mr. Schneider is the chief federal law enforcement official in the Eastern District of Michigan, which contains approximately 6.5 million people in 34 counties. The office is widely recognized for significant prosecutions involving international terrorism, violent crime, public corruption, environmental crime, financial fraud, drug trafficking, civil rights and numerous other criminal and civil matters. As the United States Attorney, Mr. Schneider manages more than 230 employees, including approximately 120 Assistant U.S. Attorneys in Detroit, Flint and Bay City.
Prior to his appointment, Schneider was the Chief Deputy Attorney General for the State of Michigan. In that position, he supervised the office’s 40,000 ongoing cases and managed a budget of over $100 million in taxpayer funds. He had previously served as Chief Legal Counsel for the Michigan Office of Attorney General, where he was the lead counsel representing the Governor and the State of Michigan in the City of Detroit federal bankruptcy case.
Schneider previously served as the Michigan Supreme Court’s Chief of Staff and General Counsel. Schneider provided overall direction for the administration of Michigan’s Judicial Branch of government and served as chief legal counsel to the Chief Justice and the Justices.
Schneider is a former Assistant United States Attorney in Detroit. He focused on prosecuting corrupt public officials and members of organized crime, as well as street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs. He also handled an anti-terrorism caseload.
Prior to becoming a federal prosecutor, Schneider served as Senior Advisor and Assistant General Counsel in the White House Budget Office. He previously practiced international law with the Washington, D.C. firm of Wiley Rein LLP, where he represented American companies in suits against foreign governments for unfair business and trade actions.
Schneider has been an adjunct law professor for several years and has spoken and written on numerous aspects of constitutional law and criminal procedure. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University’s James Madison College. He is originally from Frankenmuth, Michigan.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Biography
Patrick J. Bumatay was confirmed as a U.S. Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in December 2019. He is based in San Diego, California.
Prior to his appointment, Judge Bumatay served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, where he was a member of the Appellate and Narcotics Sections. He also served as a Counselor to the Attorney General on criminal law issues, including on national opioid strategy and combating transnational organized crime. Judge Bumatay has also worked in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Office of the Associate Attorney General, and the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice. Judge Bumatay has twice received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award.
Judge Bumatay previously worked as an associate at Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, and Bohrer in New York, New York. Judge Bumatay clerked for the Honorable Timothy M. Tymkovich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the Honorable Sandra L. Townes of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Judge Bumatay earned his B.A., cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Executive Director, Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, The Ohio State University
Biography
Professor Lee J. Strang serves as the inaugural executive director of the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society at The Ohio State University.
Initiated in 2023 by the state of Ohio, the Chase Center will be an academic home at Ohio State for teaching, research, and programing on the foundations of the American constitutional order and its impact on society. As executive director, Professor Strang is responsible for organizing the center, overseeing the hiring and appointment of the center’s faculty, developing curriculum, and delivering student and academic programming. He also holds a faculty appointment in the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State.
Professor Strang is a nationally recognized legal scholar who has published dozens of articles in leading journals in the fields of constitutional law and interpretation, property law, and religion and the First Amendment. He co-edits the textbook Federal Constitutional Law, and his most recent book, Originalism’s Promise: A Natural Law Account of the American Constitution is the first book-length, natural law justification for originalism. He currently is writing on civic thought and leadership, and he is finalizing a book on the history of American Catholic legal education (with John M. Breen).
Before joining Ohio State, Professor Strang served as the inaugural director of the University of Toledo’s Institute of American Constitutional Thought & Leadership. He joined the Toledo College of Law faculty in 2008, was granted tenure in 2010, and was named John W. Stoepler Professor of Law & Values in 2015. The University of Toledo awarded Professor Strang its Outstanding Faculty Research and Scholarship Award in 2017. Before that, he was a visiting professor at Michigan State University College of Law. A graduate of the University of Iowa, where he was articles editor of the Iowa Law Review and Order of the Coif, Professor Strang holds an LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School.
Professor Strang has been a visiting scholar at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution and a visiting fellow at the James Madison Program at Princeton University. In 2016, he was appointed to the Ohio Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and reappointed as chair in 2023.
Prior to teaching, Professor Strang served as a judicial clerk for Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was also an associate for Jenner & Block LLP in Chicago, where he practiced in general and appellate litigation.
Professor Strang is a frequent presenter at scholarly conferences. He is the president of the Board of Trustees of Northwest Ohio Classical Academy, Ohio’s first classical charter school. He is also a regular participant in debates at law schools across the country, a contributor to the media, and a speaker to political, civic, and religious groups.
Patrick Butler serves as an Associate Counsel to the President in the White House Counsel’s Office.
Patrick previously served as the Deputy General Counsel for Litigation at the Department of Commerce. There, he led and managed litigation spanning the Department of Commerce’s thirteen bureaus, providing legal and strategic advice to the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, and other senior leaders while coordinating with White House counsel and interagency lawyers. For his work at the Department of Commerce, Patrick received the General Counsel’s Award for Outstanding Service.
Before government service, Patrick practiced at Kirkland & Ellis, where his work focused on complex commercial litigation including product liability cases, antitrust suits, consumer class actions, contract disputes, and regulatory matters.
Patrick clerked for Judge Michael B. Brennan on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and Judge James C. Dever III on the Eastern District of North Carolina. He is a permanent member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference, and earned his law degree from Duke University School of Law, his masters degree from University College Dublin, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
Biography
Eric Hamilton serves as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division. He previously served as the Solicitor General for the State of Nebraska and as an Assistant Solicitor General in the Texas Attorney General’s Office. During the first Trump Administration, Eric worked as an Associate Counsel to the President in the Office of White House Counsel. Earlier in his career, he was in private practice in Washington, D.C. and clerked for Judge Thomas M. Hardiman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Eric is a graduate of Stanford Law School, where he served on the Stanford Law Review. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Solicitor General, Iowa Office of the Attorney General
Biography
Eric Wessan serves as Iowa’s Solicitor General in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. In that role, Wessan leads Iowa’s litigation before State and federal appellate courts, including the Iowa and U.S. Supreme Courts. Before that role, Wessan worked on complex commercial litigation at two large law firms in Chicago. Wessan also served as a law clerk for the Honorable James C. Ho on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for the Honorable John F. Kness on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Wessan is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, with honors, and of the University of Chicago.
