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Director, Center for Legal Policy, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
James R. Copland is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and director of Legal Policy. In those roles, he develops and communicates novel, sound ideas on how to improve America’s civil- and criminal-justice systems. His forthcoming book, The Unelected: How an Unaccountable Elite is Governing America (Encounter Books) will be released on September 8, 2020. He has testified before Congress as well as state and municipal legislatures; and has authored many policy briefs, book chapters, articles and opinion pieces in a variety of publications, including the Harvard Business Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation, the Wall Street Journal, National Law Journal, and USA Today. Copland speaks regularly on civil- and criminal-justice issues; has made hundreds of media appearances in such outlets as PBS, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, C-Span, and NPR; and is frequently cited in news articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist, and Forbes. In 2011 and 2012, he was named to the National Association of Corporate Directors “Directorship 100” list, which designates the individuals most influential over U.S. corporate governance.
Prior to joining MI, Copland was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company in New York. Earlier, he was a law clerk for Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Copland has been a director of two privately held manufacturing companies since 1997 and has served on many public and nonprofit boards. He holds a J.D. and an M.B.A. from Yale, where he was an Olin Fellow in Law and Economics; an M.Sc. in the politics of the world economy from the London School of Economics; and a B.A. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar.
Deputy Chief of Appeals, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York
Saritha Komatireddy is Deputy Chief of Appeals at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. She previously served as Chief of International Narcotics and Money Laundering, Deputy Chief of General Crimes, Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Coordinator, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Office's National Security and Cybercrime Section. Komatireddy has tried eight federal criminal trials and has argued more than a dozen cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She has received numerous awards for her work as a federal prosecutor, including three Attorney General’s Awards, two True American Hero Awards, and the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation Prosecutor of the Year Award.
From 2023-2024, Komatireddy served as the Chief of Staff of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Previously, Komatireddy practiced law at Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel P.L.L.C. in Washington, D.C., and was Counsel to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. She clerked for the Honorable Brett M. Kavanaugh on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Michael H. Park was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in May 2019. He earned his A.B. magna cum laude from Princeton University and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Upon graduation from law school in 2001, Judge Park served as a law clerk to then-Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the Third Circuit, for whom he also clerked on the Supreme Court during the 2008 Term. Judge Park was an associate in the New York office of the Wilmer Hale law firm from 2002 to 2006, and he served as an Attorney-Adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel from 2006 to 2008. Judge Park worked in the New York office of the Dechert law firm, first as counsel (2009-2011) and then as a partner (2012-2015). In 2015, Judge Park joined the law firm Consovoy McCarthy Park as a name partner, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. During that time, he also served as an adjunct professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Of Counsel, Holtzman Vogel
Erielle Azerrad is Of Counsel with Holtzman Vogel and focuses her practice on commercial litigation, appellate law, and constitutional law matters.
Prior to joining the firm, Erielle clerked for the Honorable Steven J. Menashi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Erielle is also a co-founder of the Center for the Middle East and International Law through the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Deputy Solicitor General, Ohio
Jana serves in the Office of the Solicitor General as a Deputy Solicitor General. In that role, she works with the Solicitor General on the State’s major appellate cases. She also represents the State of Ohio in the Ohio Supreme Court and in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Before joining the office, Jana clerked for Judge John B. Nalbandian of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and for Judge Allison Jones Rushing of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Director, Project on Criminal Justice, Cato Institute
Matthew Cavedon is the Director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice. He focuses on reforming plea-driven mass adjudication, ensuring police accountability, and defending constitutional criminal originalism. Cavedon’s scholarship has been published (or is forthcoming in) publications including the Arizona State Law Journal, Cato Supreme Court Review, Seattle University Law Review, and Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. Formerly a Georgia public defender and fellow at the Institute for Justice, Cavedon has taught law school courses on criminal law and procedure, as well as the First Amendment. Cavedon clerked for a U.S. district court and the Supreme Court of Georgia. He came to Cato following a fellowship at the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion.
Counsel, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
Amanda Dixon is counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, where her practice focuses on First Amendment litigation at the trial and appellate levels. Before coming to Becket, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Allison Jones Rushing of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the Honorable James C. Dever III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Sheila M. McDevitt Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Election Law Center, Florida State University College of Law
Professor Morley joined FSU Law in 2018, and teaches and writes in the areas of election law, constitutional law, remedies, and the federal courts. He is best known for his work on election emergencies and post-election litigation, nationwide and other defendant-oriented injunctions, the jurisdiction of the federal courts and their equitable powers more generally. He has testified before congressional committees, made presentations to election officials for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and participated in bipartisan blue-ribbon groups to develop election reforms. The governor of Florida also appointed Professor Morley to the Criminal Punishment Code Task Force, to propose potential revisions to the legislature.
The U.S. Supreme Court has cited several of his articles, and he was counsel of record for the successful Petitioner in a landmark campaign finance case. Professor Morley has appeared on C-SPAN, Court TV, Fox News and numerous local news programs, and has been quoted in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Roll Call, Politico, U.S. News and World Report, and a wide range of other national publications. His work has been published in many of the nation’s top law reviews, including the Georgetown Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, Boston University Law Review and Emory Law Journal.
Before joining FSU Law, Professor Morley was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School. Prior to his experience in academia, he served in government as special assistant to the General Counsel of the Army at the Pentagon, as well as a law clerk for Judge Gerald B. Tjoflat of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. During his tenure with the Army General Counsel’s office, he was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the Army Staff Lapel Pin. He also worked as an associate at Williams & Connolly LLP and the Supreme Court & Appellate group of Winston & Strawn, LLP, both in Washington, D.C.
Professor Morley earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 2003, where he was a senior editor on the Yale Law Journal; served on the moot court board; and received the Thurman Arnold Prize for Best Oralist in the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals.
Partner, Baker & Hostetler LLP
Richard Raile is a partner at Baker Hostetler, where he is a member of their Litigation team. He focuses his practice on appeals and major motions. He frequently plays the principal role in drafting briefs for clients and in delivering oral argument, including on dispositive motions, bench trials and appeals. He has represented parties and amici curiae at every level of the judiciary, from trial courts to merits litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and state supreme courts.
His litigation experience runs the gamut of subject matters, including everything from commercial, civil rights, constitutional, campaign finance, voting rights, labor and bankruptcy law.
Partner, Creed & Gowdy
Bryan Gowdy is a board-certified appellate lawyer. His practice is limited to handling appeals, post-conviction motions, and trial support for matters likely to be appealed. His practice encompasses all substantive areas of the law, including plaintiff's injury and products liability, commercial cases, criminal law, and family law. He has briefed and orally argued appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the Supreme Court of Florida, and Florida's district courts of appeal. He also has handled appeals in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits. He is AV-rated by Martindale Hubbell and has been selected as a Top 100 in Florida Super Lawyer, Top 25 in Jacksonville Super Lawyer, and a "Legal Elite" by Florida Trend Magazine. In 2019, Mr. Gowdy began serving as the Chair for the Florida Justice Association Amicus Curiae Committee.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Gowdy was with the national law firm of McGuireWoods LLP, where he primarily handled commercial litigation at the trial and appellate level. Mr. Gowdy began his legal career as a law clerk for federal judges at the trial and appellate level. Mr. Gowdy attended the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he was first in his class, a member of the Order of the Coif, and the management editor of the Florida Law Review.
Before law school, Mr. Gowdy was an active-duty surface warfare officer in the United States Navy, and he graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Founding Principal, Gupta Wessler PLLC
Deepak Gupta is the founding principal of Gupta Wessler PLLC. He focuses on Supreme Court, appellate, and complex litigation on a wide range of issues, including constitutional law, class actions, and consumers’ and workers’ rights.
Deepak is “known as a skilled appellate lawyer” (New York Times), “one of the emerging giants of the appellate and the Supreme Court bar,” a “heavy hitter,” and a “principled” and “incredibly talented lawyer” (Law 360). He is described in Chambers and Partners USA as “an excellent lawyer” with a “vibrant appellate practice focused on public interest cases and plaintiff-side representations.” Fastcase recently recognized him as “one of the country’s top litigators,” noting that “what sets him apart” is his legal creativity. The National Law Journal has singled out Deepak’s “calm, comfortable manner that conveys confidence” in oral argument.
Deepak regularly appears in the U.S. Supreme Court and appellate courts nationwide. In the 2016-2017 U.S. Supreme Court term, Deepak’s firm was counsel of record for parties in three merits cases; he was lead counsel in two, prevailing in both. Beyond the Supreme Court, Deepak has handled appeals in every federal circuit and seven state supreme courts. He is frequently sought out by trial lawyers to defend their most consequential victories or resurrect worthy claims on appeal—often after years of hard-fought litigation. He also works with co-counsel to design cases from the ground up—focusing on class actions and administrative and constitutional challenges. In one class action, Deepak represented all of the nation’s federal bankruptcy judges, recovering more than $50 million in back pay for the judges over Congress’s violation of the Constitution’s Judicial Compensation Clause. As the American Lawyer observed, “it’s hard to imagine a higher compliment than being hired to represent federal judges.”
Deepak’s clients have included national nonprofits, state and local governments, members of Congress, retail merchants, tech companies, and classes of consumers and workers harmed by corporate wrongdoing. He currently represents the American Association for Justice (on forced arbitration and civil justice issues), Everytown for Gun Safety (in Second Amendment litigation), and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (in litigation over the Emoluments Clauses).
Before founding the firm in 2012, Deepak served as Senior Counsel for Litigation and Senior Counsel for Enforcement Strategy at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As the first appellate litigator hired under Elizabeth Warren’s leadership, he launched the Bureau’s amicus program, defended its regulations, and worked with the Solicitor General’s office on Supreme Court matters. For seven years previously, he was an attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group, where he founded and directed the Consumer Justice Project and was the Alan Morrison Supreme Court Project Fellow. Before that, he worked on voting rights litigation at the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, prisoners’ rights litigation at the ACLU, and religion clause litigation at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Deepak frequently engages in public advocacy and speaking, has testified multiple times before the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, and appears frequently in the national print and broadcast media. He is currently a 2018-2019 Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School and has previously taught courses on public interest law and appellate advocacy as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown and American universities. He served as a law clerk to Judge Lawrence K. Karlton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California and studied law at Georgetown, Sanskrit at Oxford, and philosophy at Fordham.
Deepak is an elected member of the American Law Institute and sits on the boards of directors of the National Consumer Law Center, The Impact Fund, and the Alliance for Justice, and the advisory boards of the University of California’s Civil Justice Research Initiative, the Biden Institute, and the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies.
Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
Roman Martinez is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins. As a member of the firm’s Supreme Court and Appellate Practice, he focuses primarily on appeals in the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Courts of Appeals, and state appellate courts. Mr. Martinez has handled civil and criminal matters involving a wide range of constitutional, statutory, and administrative law issues, and he has argued cases in the Supreme Court and the D.C., Sixth, Ninth, and Federal Circuits, among other courts.
Mr. Martinez’s appellate practice encompasses civil and criminal matters spanning virtually all areas of law. He recently rejoined Latham after serving as an Assistant to the Solicitor General at the US Department of Justice. In that role, he represented the United States in litigation before the Supreme Court and advised the Solicitor General on the government’s appellate litigation throughout the country.
Mr. Martinez has personally argued seven cases in the Supreme Court, including important cases in the fields of patent law, criminal law, civil rights, and civil procedure. He has filed over 75 briefs in the Supreme Court involving a wide range of legal issues, including administrative, tax, securities, intellectual property, criminal, environmental, education, civil rights, immigration, and First Amendment law.
Over the past year, Mr. Martinez has led Latham appellate teams in cases involving the Administrative Procedure Act, securities, ERISA, products liability, and employment law. Earlier this year, he successfully persuaded the Supreme Court to reject the State of Connecticut’s high-profile effort to reinstate the murder conviction of Michael Skakel. He frequently consults with clients to develop creative approaches to difficult legal questions that arise in and out of litigation.
Mr. Martinez’s extensive pro bono practice focuses chiefly on administrative law challenges to unlawful agency action by the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as on criminal defense appeals. In 2018, he persuaded the Supreme Court to grant certiorari on behalf of a veteran seeking judicial review of an unlawful regulation promulgated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Before joining Latham, Mr. Martinez served as a law clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts of the Supreme Court of the United States and to then Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the D.C. Circuit.
From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Martinez served as an advisor on the Iraqi political and constitutional process, in various roles at the White House, at the US Embassy and Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and at the Department of Defense. He received the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Global War on Terrorism and the US Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award for his service in Iraq.
Mr. Martinez is a member of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and he serves on the US Chamber of Commerce's Administrative Law & Government Litigation Advisory Committee. He previously served as a member of the D.C. Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Procedures, and he now serves on the US District Court for the District of Columbia’s Committee on Grievances. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and other publications. He has appeared as a guest on the PBS NewsHour and other television programs to discuss the Supreme Court.
Partner, Litigation Department, Paul Hastings
Ben Snyder is a partner in the Litigation Department at Paul Hastings and chair of the firm’s Appellate Litigation practice. An experienced appellate litigator, Ben has argued nine cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and has handled matters in nearly every federal court of appeals. Ben also has extensive experience representing clients before trial courts, including through the preparation of dispositive motions and affirmative challenges to government regulations.
A former Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States, Ben has significant experience in a broad range of civil and criminal subject areas. He has worked on dozens of False Claims Act matters, both within the government and on behalf of private clients in the healthcare and defense industries. Ben also has extensive experience litigating Administrative Procedure Act cases, particularly in the context of banking, consumer finance, and Medicare/Medicaid regulations. In addition, he has represented clients in numerous appeals involving federal antitrust and securities laws, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), the Federal Arbitration Act, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Earlier in his career, Ben served as a law clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts and the Honorable Jeffrey Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Congressman for Texas's 17th District, U.S. House of Representatives
Pete Sessions believes the United States of America is the greatest country on Earth and is a strong advocate for civility among our elected officials. As a Member of the 119th Congress, Pete is a voice of balance, reason, and common sense.
A native of Waco, Texas, Pete attended local public schools until the ninth grade. His father, Judge William Sessions, led a successful career as a Federal District Judge and was appointed to serve as the fourth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation under President Ronald Reagan. His father’s leadership instilled Pete with a sense of duty and integrity for elected and non-elected roles in public.
Pete attended Winston Churchill High School in San Antonio. Afterward, he graduated from Southwestern University in 1978. After college, he began working for the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. Over his 16-year career, Pete never missed a day of work before retiring as District Manager.
He was first elected to Congress in 1996. Throughout his 24 years in Congress, Pete has been an integral player within the Republican Party. He spent a decade in Republican Party leadership and was instrumental in the House Majority balancing the federal budget from 1998 to 2001. Pete was Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee from 2009 through 2012, leading to a net 63-seat victory in 2010. From 2013 to 2019, Congressman Sessions served as Chairman of the House Committee on Rules, where he revived bipartisan efforts and accelerated the Republican agenda in the House of Representatives. He is currently a senior Member on the House Financial Services Committee and is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
No member of the Texas delegation has passed more legislation off the floor than Congressman Sessions. Notably, he sponsored and passed the Border Tunnel Task Force Act in 2018 to create a directorate to intercept illegal tunneling operations on the southern border. One of Pete’s key accomplishments was sponsoring and passing the Family Opportunity Act of 2005, which enables families of medically stressed children to receive comprehensive healthcare. The bill became law in 2006 after Congressman Sessions and his son Alex worked with President Bush.
Pete has always valued his community involvement throughout his life. He, his father, and two sons are Eagle Scouts. Over the years, he has served in various leadership roles with the Boy Scouts of America, disability assistance, and local conservation groups. He also devoted twelve years to serving on the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, Southwestern University.
Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law
Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford), as well as the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. He recently retired from teaching at UCLA, after 30 years there, and is now focusing on research.
Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (8th ed. 2023), and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 100 academic law journal articles, mostly on First Amendment law. He is a member of The American Law Institute; the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Free Speech Law; and the creator and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog founded in 2002 (hosted at the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017 and now at Reason Magazine).
Senior Counsel, Chair, Religious Institutions and Education Practice Groups, First Liberty Institute
Jeremy Dys, Esq., is Senior Counsel for First Liberty.
Dys earned his law degree from West Virginia University College of Law in 2005. After law school, Dys clerked for the Hon. Russell M. Clawges, Jr., chief judge of the Circuit Court of Monongalia County in Morgantown, West Virginia. For six years prior to joining First Liberty Institute, Dys led a public policy organization where he led research and advocacy efforts on matters of life, marriage, and religious freedom.
Dys graduated from Taylor University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, degree in Communication Studies, with minors in U.S. History and Philosophy. During his undergraduate career, Dys studied at the American Studies Program in Washington, D.C., where he interned with the late David Orgon Coolidge as part of the Marriage Law Project of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
In support of his clients, Dys has made numerous appearances in local, state, and national television, print, and radio outlets. His written commentaries have been featured at the Wall Street Journal, FoxNews.com, New York Daily News, TheHill.com, Des Moines Register, Dallas Morning News, DailySignal.com, Washington Examiner, Indianapolis Star, Charleston Gazette-Mail, Outcomes Magazine, TheFederalist.com, and others.
Partner, Clement & Murphy PLLC
Erin Murphy is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading Supreme Court and appellate advocates. She has argued dozens of cases in appellate and trial courts throughout the country, including the Supreme Court and nearly all of the federal courts of appeals. Erin is one of only seven women in the top two bands of Chambers & Partners rankings for Appellate Law–Nationwide, and the National Law Journal has named her one of the nation’s “Outstanding Women Lawyers.” Erin has litigated appeals involving myriad provisions of the Constitution, including several cases involving the Constitution’s structural protections of liberty. She has litigated a wide range of statutory issues as well, including cases involving the Affordable Care Act, the Bankruptcy Code, the False Claims Act, the Federal Arbitration Act, the Federal Power Act, the Natural Gas Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and more. The National Law Journal named Erin a “Litigation Trailblazer” for her work representing institutional clients, which includes successfully arguing before the Supreme Court on behalf of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Wisconsin State Legislature. Erin also has an active pro bono practice, through which she has successfully represented many religious organizations and adherents, criminal defendants, asylum applicants, adoptive parents, and more.
Erin is an adjunct professor at her alma mater the Georgetown University Law Center, a member and former officer of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a frequent speaker on topics relating to the Supreme Court and appellate advocacy. In her spare time, Erin serves on the boards of directors of Street Law and the Mother of Light Center.
Partner, Wiley Rein, LLP
Megan L. Brown is a partner at Wiley Rein LLP. She has significant litigation, appellate and regulatory experience before state and federal courts and agencies.
Ms. Brown helps businesses respond to federal, state and local regulation and investigations raising administrative law, statutory interpretation, and constitutional issues, including the First Amendment.
Professor of Law, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
Reporter, SCOTUSblog
Amy Howe is the co-founder of SCOTUSblog, a news site devoted to coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court, and its primary reporter. She was part of the blog team that won a Peabody Award in 2013, as well as a National Press Club Journalism Award for Breaking News. Since the spring of 2025, she has also served as the Supreme Court analyst for the PBS NewsHour. In the fall of 2025, she is a fellow in Georgetown University's Institute of Politics.
Before turning to full-time journalism, Amy was a practicing lawyer and served as a lawyer in over two dozen cases at the Supreme Court, on issues ranging from international child custody to the death penalty, and argued two cases there. She has taught or co-taught courses on Supreme Court litigation at Vanderbilt Law School, Stanford Law School, and Harvard Law School. Amy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master's in Arab Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University.
Partner, King & Spalding
John Richter is a trial and investigations partner in the Special Matters and Investigations Practice Group, and represents and defends companies, Boards of Directors, Board committees, and individuals facing a variety of white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters, parallel civil litigation, and internal corporate investigations. John previously served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice and as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, having been nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate.
Partner, Hogan Lovells
Jo-Ann Sagar is a Partner at Hogan Lovells, focusing on appellate litigation in both state and federal courts. Her work spans constitutional and administrative law, technology and telecommunications, as well as education and employment. She has briefed and argued cases on these topics before federal and state appellate courts.
Jo-Ann has significant experience practicing before the United States Supreme Court. She has secured grants of certiorari in numerous cases, including three in the last term. Additionally, she has briefed several cases on the merits before the Supreme Court, including as Counsel of Record, and has filed numerous amicus briefs.
President, JCN
Carrie Campbell Severino is the president of the JCN, and co-author with Mollie Hemingway of the bestselling book Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court. As a go-to expert on the confirmation process, Mrs. Severino has been extensively quoted in the media. She regularly appears on television, including FOX, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and ABC’s This Week.
Severino writes and speaks on a wide range of judicial issues, including the constitutional limits on government, the federal nomination process, and state judicial selection. She has testified before Congress on constitutional questions and briefed Senators on judicial nominations, and regularly files briefs in high-profile Supreme Court cases. She was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D.), Duke University (B.A., Biology), and Michigan State University (M.A., Linguistics).
Knights of Columbus Professor of Law and the Catholic Tradition, The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law
Kevin C. Walsh teaches and writes in the areas of federal jurisdiction, constitutional law, and the U.S. Supreme Court. His scholarship explores the doctrines that define—and delimit—the scope of federal judicial power.
Professor Walsh graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was Articles Chair for Volume 115 of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation, he clerked for Judge Paul V. Niemeyer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States. He then practiced law at Hunton & Williams LLP and taught as a visiting assistant professor at Villanova University School of Law. Walsh received his A.B. from Dartmouth College, and an M.A. in Theological Studies from the University of Notre Dame. He taught at the University of Richmond School of Law for thirteen years prior to joining The Catholic University of America, where he currently resides.
In early 2011, Professor Walsh filed two amicus curiae briefs addressing jurisdictional issues in the State challenges to the individual mandate in the federal healthcare reform legislation: a brief in Virginia v. Sebelius (United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit), and a brief in Florida v. HHS (United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit).
Chief Judge, Florida Eleventh Judicial Circuit
Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan was appointed to the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida in April 2012 and was sworn in as the Court's Chief Judge in July 2025. She has also served as a judge in the Criminal Division. Prior to her appointment, Judge Fajardo Orshan was a partner in her law firm where she specialized in the area of Family and Matrimonial Law. Judge Fajardo Orshan began her legal career as an Assistant State Attorney in Miami-Dade County and also worked in the area of civil litigation with the firm of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP.
Throughout her legal and judicial career, Judge Fajardo Orshan has been involved with numerous civic and professional organizations, and in many, she assumed leadership positions. She continues to remain involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Cuban American Bar Association, the Dade County Bar Association, the Federalist Society and Kidside. As a member of the judiciary, Judge Fajardo Orshan is also involved with the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Professionalism Committee, the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges, the Florida Bar Family Law Rules Committee, and the Florida Supreme Court Steering Committee on Families and Children.
Judge Fajardo Orshan also enjoys grooming future lawyers as adjunct professor at Florida International University College of Law where she teaches Family Law.
Judge Fajardo Orshan has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1996 and is a member of the Federal Bar for the Southern District of Florida. Judge Fajardo Orshan graduated from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center and received a Bachelor's in Science degree from Florida International University.
Judge, Florida Third District Court of Appeal
Prior to her appointment to the Court, Judge Gordo served as a Circuit Court Judge for over 8 years presiding in the Criminal, Civil and Family trial court divisions. Judge Gordo also served as Associate Administrative Judge of the Circuit Court Appellate Division in Miami-Dade County.
Judge Gordo is a member of the Education Committee of the Florida Conference of Circuit Court Judges and has taught judicial education courses on criminal sentencing enhancements and mitigation, career criminal designation, Florida corporate business entities and injunctions, receiverships and family rules of procedure relating to default judgments.
Prior to her service on the bench, Judge Gordo served as an Assistant State Attorney for over 11 years where she was a Division Chief responsible for supervising a felony division and investigating, indicting and seeking justice in homicide cases. While at the State Attorney’s Office, she also served as a senior member of the Career Criminal Prosecution Unit and Gang Strike Force Unit. Judge Gordo served on the Board of Directors for the Cuban American Bar Association and the League of Prosecutors.
Judge Gordo is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami School of Law teaching trial skills. Throughout her career as an Assistant State Attorney and Judge she has been actively involved in mentoring students and has sat as a volunteer for moot court competitions and mock trials for both Florida International University and the University of Miami School of Law. For the past four years she has presided over the mock trial final for homeschooled students throughout Miami-Dade County to assist homeschooled children develop a basic understanding of our court system.
Judge Gordo received her Juris Doctorate Degree cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law and is a member of the University’s Iron Arrow Honor Society. She currently serves as a member of the Law School Alumni Board of Directors. Judge Gordo received her Bachelor of Business Administration and graduated with honors from the University of Miami School of Business.
Judge Gordo resides in Coral Gables with her husband, Albert, to whom she has been married for 19 years, and they have two sons—Jacob, 17, and Julian, 11.
Judge, United States District Court, Southern District of Florida
Rodolfo “Rudy” Armando Ruiz II is a District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Prior to his judicial commission on May 3, 2019, Ruiz was a Circuit Court Judge for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida from 2014 through 2019, and a Miami-Dade County Court Judge from 2012 through 2014. Ruiz also served as an Assistant County Attorney with the Miami-Dade County Attorney’s Office and an associate with White & Case LLP.
Ruiz received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Duke University and earned his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University. After graduating from law school, he was a law clerk to the Honorable Federico A. Moreno of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Counsel, First Liberty Institute
Kayla Toney is Associate Counsel with First Liberty Institute, concentrating on religious liberty matters and First Amendment rights for clients of all faiths.
Prior to joining First Liberty, Kayla litigated religious freedom cases as a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. She clerked for Judge Gregory E. Maggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, where she gained valuable experience in the military justice system. Kayla also worked as a litigation associate in the D.C. office of Winston & Strawn LLP, where she enjoyed working on pro bono religious liberty matters.
Kayla earned her law degree from George Washington University, where she served as president of the Federalist Society chapter, a member of the GW International Law Review, and a writing fellow. She graduated summa cum laude from Grove City College with a degree in history and economics.
A native of Michigan, Kayla is based in First Liberty’s Washington, D.C. office and is licensed to practice law in Virginia and D.C.
Associate Counsel, Clement & Murphy, PLLC
Kevin’s practice focuses on briefing complex legal issues at all levels of the federal court system. Before joining Clement & Murphy, Kevin served as a Trial Attorney in the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, where he briefed and argued high-profile cases challenging federal laws as well as Executive Branch policies and decisions. Those cases involved both merits and discovery issues concerning a wide range of constitutional provisions, the Administrative Procedure Act, the Privacy Act, the Freedom of Information Act, Title VII, and various national security issues, including habeas litigation involving Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Kevin earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an Executive Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, a member of the Supreme Court Clinic, a Littleton Fellow in legal writing, and a member of the Moot Court Board. After graduating from Penn, Kevin clerked for Judge David Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Judge D. Brooks Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
