Chairman, Center for Equal Opportunity
Linda Chavez is Chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity. She has published opinions and columns in newspapers across the country and appears regularly on cable news. Chavez is the author of the three books: Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation, An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal, and Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics. She has been honored by the Library of Congress as a "Living Legend" and as nominee for Secretary of Labor by President George W. Bush.
Chavez has held many appointed positions and has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards. Among her appointed positions has been Chairman, National Commission on Migrant Education (1988-1992); White House Director of Public Liaison (1985); Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1983-1985); and member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (1984-1986). Chavez was also the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Maryland in 1986 and was elected by the United Nations' Human Rights Commission to serve a four-year term as U.S. Expert to the U.N. Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
Chavez earned her BA from the University of Colorado.
President, Center for Individual Rights
Todd Gaziano is the President of the Center for Individual Rights. Mr. Gaziano received his J.D. in 1988 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics. He received his B.A. from West Virginia University, summa cum laude in 1985. He was selected as a Truman Scholar from West Virginia while an undergraduate.
Mr. Gaziano’s previous legal work includes service as a law clerk for U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones, as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, as a chief subcommittee counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives, as a Houston trial attorney, and as a chief corporate legal officer. He also served a six-year term as commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2008-2013), where he helped conduct oversight and investigations of civil rights agencies.
For most of the last 25 years, Mr. Gaziano was a legal scholar and public interest law leader, promoting individual liberty in the Supreme Court and Congress. From 1997 to 2013, he was the founding director of the Edwin Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. From 2014 until he joined CIR, he was the Chief of Legal Policy and Strategic Research, and Director of the Center for the Separation of Powers, at Pacific Legal Foundation.
Executive Director, Consumers’ Research
Will Hild is the Executive Director of Consumers’ Research. Will has a decade of non-profit, legal and public policy experience. Prior to joining CR, Will served as the Deputy Director of the Regulatory Transparency Project. Before that, he worked at the Philanthropy Roundtable as the Director of External Affairs for the Culture of Freedom Initiative, and as the Chief Operating Officer of that Initiative when it grew to become a separate organization. He helped co-found the public interest law firm, Cause of Action, and served as the firm’s acting communications director for nearly a year.
Will received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida. He is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Will resides in Bethesda, MD, with his wife Cheryl, a practicing OB/GYN, and their son Liam.
Senior Research Fellow, Center for Equal Opportunity
In D.C. area for over 20 years, Althea Nagai, Ph.D., is a research fellow at the Center for Equal Opportunity. She has conducted numerous statistical analyses on racial and ethnic preferences in higher education, including racial and ethnic preferences in undergraduate education at five public universities in Virginia, the University of Michigan, two Arizona universities, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, two Ohio universities, and various law and medical schools. In addition, she has written two essays for CEO focusing on Asian Americans, “Too Many Asian Americans,” and “Harvard Investigates Harvard.”
She has also has done work on other statistical studies in the field of social policy. Her first study was a content analysis and critique of the national history standards with John Fonte and Lynne Cheney. She has also conducted studies on marriage, religion, and family structure; on adolescent risk behavior; on philanthropy and social change; and on American elites (American Elites, with Robert Lerner and Stanley Rothman, 1996 Yale University Press).
Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Civil Rights, University of North Carolina School of Law
Theodore M. Shaw is the Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill. Professor Shaw teaches Civil Procedure and Advanced Constitutional Law/Fourteenth Amendment. Before joining the faculty of UNC Law School, from 2008-2014 Professor Shaw taught at Columbia University Law School, where he was Professor of Professional Practice. During that time he was also “Of Counsel” to the law firm of Norton Rose Fulbright (formerly Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP). His practice involved civil litigation and representation of institutional clients on matters concerning diversity and civil rights.
Professor Shaw was the fifth Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., for which he worked in various capacities over the span of twenty-six years. He has litigated education, employment, voting rights, housing, police misconduct, capital punishment and other civil rights cases in trial and appellate courts, and in the United States Supreme Court.From 1982 until 1987, he litigated education, housing, and capital punishment cases and directed LDF's education litigation docket. In 1987, under the direction of LDF's third Director-Counsel, Julius Chambers, Mr. Shaw relocated to Los Angeles to establish LDF's Western Regional Office. In 1990, Mr. Shaw left LDF to join the faculty of the University of Michigan Law School, where he taught Constitutional Law, Civil Procedure and Civil Rights. While at Michigan, he played a key role in initiating a review of the law school's admissions practices and policies, and served on the faculty committee that promulgated the admissions program that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 in Grutter v. Bollinger.
In 1993, Mr. Shaw returned to LDF as Associate Director-Counsel, and in 2004, he became LDF's fifth Director-Counsel. Mr. Shaw's legal career began as a Trial Attorney in the Honors Program of the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C., where he worked from 1979 until 1982.
Mr. Shaw has testified on numerous occasions before Congress and before state and local legislatures. His human rights work has taken him to Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. In addition to teaching at Columbia and at Michigan Law School, Professor Shaw held the 1997-1998 Haywood Burns Chair at CUNY School of Law at Queens College and the 2003 Phyllis Beck Chair at Temple Law School. He was a visiting scholar at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia in 2008-2009. He is a member of the faculty of the Practicing Law Institute (PLI).
Mr. Shaw served on the Obama Transition Team after the 2008 presidential election, as team leader for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
Chairman, Center for Equal Opportunity
Linda Chavez is Chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity. She has published opinions and columns in newspapers across the country and appears regularly on cable news. Chavez is the author of the three books: Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation, An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal, and Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics. She has been honored by the Library of Congress as a "Living Legend" and as nominee for Secretary of Labor by President George W. Bush.
Chavez has held many appointed positions and has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards. Among her appointed positions has been Chairman, National Commission on Migrant Education (1988-1992); White House Director of Public Liaison (1985); Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1983-1985); and member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (1984-1986). Chavez was also the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Maryland in 1986 and was elected by the United Nations' Human Rights Commission to serve a four-year term as U.S. Expert to the U.N. Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
Chavez earned her BA from the University of Colorado.
Senior Fellow, Center for Equal Opportunity
Eastland is an accomplished journalist who was editor of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., before working in the Reagan administration as a speechwriter for Attorney General William French Smith and as director of public affairs for Attorney General Edwin Meese.
Eastland was later a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the editor of Forbes MediaCritic. In 2001, he became publisher of The Weekly Standard and, in 2013, an executive editor. He is now a contributing editor at the magazine. Eastland has published seven books, including two on race preferences, Counting by Race (1979) and Ending Affirmative Action (1996). "The Center has done exceptional work on matters involving race and ethnicity," said Eastland, "and I look forward to contributing to its efforts in behalf of equal protection under the law."
CEO president and general counsel Roger Clegg recalled his work with Eastland during their days together in the Reagan Justice Department: "Terry is an expert on the media, a skilled editor, and a brilliant writer." CEO chairman and founder Linda Chavez said, "Eastland's writing on affirmative action has been among the most incisive and compelling on the issue over the years and will add depth to CEO's work in this arena."
Director, Educational Opportunities Project, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Brenda Shum is Director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under law where she oversees complex litigation, public policy advocacy, and programs designed to ensure educational equity for all students and to eliminate discriminatory practices in schools. sHer practice focuses on the enforcement of civil rights in both K-12 and higher education systems. She is part of the legal team representing underrepresented minority students and applicants defending race conscious admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. She was one of the lead counsel in successful litigation which challenged Maryland's failure to desegregate its discriminatory system of higher education, and she served as part of the legal team that settled a lawsuit against the Louisiana State Department of Education which challenged the state's failure to address disability discrimination in New Orleans charter schools. As Director of the Educational Opportunities Project, Brenda works to ensure that federal and state policy protects our most vulnerable students, including students of color, students with disabilities, low-income students, and English Language Learners. Brenda serves on the steering committee for the National Coalition for School Diversity, the Education Civil Rights Alliance, and the Dignity in Schools Campaign. She also oversees the Parental Readiness and Empowerment Program, an initiative designed to support parents and families in becoming more effective advocates for their children, and Let Us Learn, an initiative that protects the right of all students to enroll in public school regardless of immigration status.
Freelance Journalist and Author
Stuart Taylor, Jr. is a Washington writer focusing on legal and policy issues and a National Journal contributing editor. He occasionally practices law.
Taylor has coauthored three books. All have been acclaimed by commentators across the ideological spectrum. In January 2017, KC Johnson and Taylor authored The Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process at America's Universities. In 2012, Richard Sander and Taylor authored Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It. In 2007, Taylor and Johnson authored Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Fraud. Sander and Taylor have also filed amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases involving admissions preferences.
Since 1980, Taylor has done reporting and commentary about issues ranging from the biggest Supreme Court cases to race, voting rights, mindlessly excessive criminal penalties, guilt-presuming campus rape processes, journalistic bias, the death penalty, war powers, gerrymandering, guns, polarization, civil liberties, national security, torture, campaign finance, education, impeachment, and other issues. He has often been called one of the nation's best legal journalists and is known for challenging both liberal and conservative conventional wisdom.
Taylor was a reporter for The New York Times from 1980-1988, covering legal affairs and then the Supreme Court. He wrote commentaries and long features for The American Lawyer, Legal Times and their affiliates from 1989-1997, and for National Journal and Newsweek from 1998 through 2010. He has written (less often) on a freelance basis for numerous publications since 2010. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The New York Daily News and longer commentaries for RealClearPolitics, The Atlantic, The New Republic, the (late) Weekly Standard, National Review, Slate, The Daily Beast, Harper’s, Reader’s Digest, Time and other magazines. He has been interviewed on all major television and radio networks. He taught “Law and the News Media” at Stanford Law School in 2011 and 2012 and practices law on occasion.
Taylor graduated from Princeton University in 1970 with an A.B. in History. After working as a reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun and Sun from 1971-1974, he moved to Harvard Law School, was a Harvard Law Review note editor, and graduated in 1977 at the top of his class, with high honors. He also won a Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship and traveled around the world in 1977-1978 while studying freedom of the press in the United Kingdom and Kenya.
Taylor practiced law with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, in Washington, D.C., from 1977-1980 before returning to journalism in 1980 by joining the Washington Bureau of The New York Times.
Taylor's journalism honors include the 2009 Northern California Innocence Project Media Award for his work on the Duke lacrosse rape fraud; a 2002 National Headliner Award for best special magazine column on one subject; and a share of The American Lawyer’s National Magazine Award for a March 1990 special issue on the drug war. He was a National Magazine Award finalist in 1993 and 1997 and was nominated by The New York Times for a Pulitzer Prize in 1988.
President, Asian American Coalition for Education
Mr. Yukong Zhao is a distinguished Chinese American civil-rights activist, the President of the Asian American Coalition for Education, and the author of the book, The Chinese Secrets For Success: Five Inspiring Confucian Values.
In May 2015 Mr. Zhao and other Asian American leaders united 64 Asian American organizations and filed a civil-rights complaint against Harvard University. As the largest joint action taken by Asian-American communities in recent history, the plaintiffs contend that the complaint helped expose Ivy League colleges’ systematic discrimination against Asian American applicants to the national and world stage. The complaint is currently under the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
In addition to continuing the fight for Asian American children's equal education rights, Mr. Zhao also writes columns in Orlando Sentinel, Forbes, The World Journal, Sing Tao Daily and IndiaWest to promote Chinese culture and advance Asian American social progress.
Senior Research Fellow, Center for Equal Opportunity
In D.C. area for over 20 years, Althea Nagai, Ph.D., is a research fellow at the Center for Equal Opportunity. She has conducted numerous statistical analyses on racial and ethnic preferences in higher education, including racial and ethnic preferences in undergraduate education at five public universities in Virginia, the University of Michigan, two Arizona universities, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, two Ohio universities, and various law and medical schools. In addition, she has written two essays for CEO focusing on Asian Americans, “Too Many Asian Americans,” and “Harvard Investigates Harvard.”
She has also has done work on other statistical studies in the field of social policy. Her first study was a content analysis and critique of the national history standards with John Fonte and Lynne Cheney. She has also conducted studies on marriage, religion, and family structure; on adolescent risk behavior; on philanthropy and social change; and on American elites (American Elites, with Robert Lerner and Stanley Rothman, 1996 Yale University Press).
Chairman, Center for Equal Opportunity
Linda Chavez is Chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity. She has published opinions and columns in newspapers across the country and appears regularly on cable news. Chavez is the author of the three books: Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation, An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal, and Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics. She has been honored by the Library of Congress as a "Living Legend" and as nominee for Secretary of Labor by President George W. Bush.
Chavez has held many appointed positions and has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards. Among her appointed positions has been Chairman, National Commission on Migrant Education (1988-1992); White House Director of Public Liaison (1985); Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1983-1985); and member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (1984-1986). Chavez was also the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Maryland in 1986 and was elected by the United Nations' Human Rights Commission to serve a four-year term as U.S. Expert to the U.N. Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
Chavez earned her BA from the University of Colorado.
Senior Fellow, Center for Equal Opportunity
Eastland is an accomplished journalist who was editor of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., before working in the Reagan administration as a speechwriter for Attorney General William French Smith and as director of public affairs for Attorney General Edwin Meese.
Eastland was later a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the editor of Forbes MediaCritic. In 2001, he became publisher of The Weekly Standard and, in 2013, an executive editor. He is now a contributing editor at the magazine. Eastland has published seven books, including two on race preferences, Counting by Race (1979) and Ending Affirmative Action (1996). "The Center has done exceptional work on matters involving race and ethnicity," said Eastland, "and I look forward to contributing to its efforts in behalf of equal protection under the law."
CEO president and general counsel Roger Clegg recalled his work with Eastland during their days together in the Reagan Justice Department: "Terry is an expert on the media, a skilled editor, and a brilliant writer." CEO chairman and founder Linda Chavez said, "Eastland's writing on affirmative action has been among the most incisive and compelling on the issue over the years and will add depth to CEO's work in this arena."
Director, Educational Opportunities Project, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Brenda Shum is Director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under law where she oversees complex litigation, public policy advocacy, and programs designed to ensure educational equity for all students and to eliminate discriminatory practices in schools. sHer practice focuses on the enforcement of civil rights in both K-12 and higher education systems. She is part of the legal team representing underrepresented minority students and applicants defending race conscious admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. She was one of the lead counsel in successful litigation which challenged Maryland's failure to desegregate its discriminatory system of higher education, and she served as part of the legal team that settled a lawsuit against the Louisiana State Department of Education which challenged the state's failure to address disability discrimination in New Orleans charter schools. As Director of the Educational Opportunities Project, Brenda works to ensure that federal and state policy protects our most vulnerable students, including students of color, students with disabilities, low-income students, and English Language Learners. Brenda serves on the steering committee for the National Coalition for School Diversity, the Education Civil Rights Alliance, and the Dignity in Schools Campaign. She also oversees the Parental Readiness and Empowerment Program, an initiative designed to support parents and families in becoming more effective advocates for their children, and Let Us Learn, an initiative that protects the right of all students to enroll in public school regardless of immigration status.
Freelance Journalist and Author
Stuart Taylor, Jr. is a Washington writer focusing on legal and policy issues and a National Journal contributing editor. He occasionally practices law.
Taylor has coauthored three books. All have been acclaimed by commentators across the ideological spectrum. In January 2017, KC Johnson and Taylor authored The Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process at America's Universities. In 2012, Richard Sander and Taylor authored Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It. In 2007, Taylor and Johnson authored Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Fraud. Sander and Taylor have also filed amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases involving admissions preferences.
Since 1980, Taylor has done reporting and commentary about issues ranging from the biggest Supreme Court cases to race, voting rights, mindlessly excessive criminal penalties, guilt-presuming campus rape processes, journalistic bias, the death penalty, war powers, gerrymandering, guns, polarization, civil liberties, national security, torture, campaign finance, education, impeachment, and other issues. He has often been called one of the nation's best legal journalists and is known for challenging both liberal and conservative conventional wisdom.
Taylor was a reporter for The New York Times from 1980-1988, covering legal affairs and then the Supreme Court. He wrote commentaries and long features for The American Lawyer, Legal Times and their affiliates from 1989-1997, and for National Journal and Newsweek from 1998 through 2010. He has written (less often) on a freelance basis for numerous publications since 2010. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The New York Daily News and longer commentaries for RealClearPolitics, The Atlantic, The New Republic, the (late) Weekly Standard, National Review, Slate, The Daily Beast, Harper’s, Reader’s Digest, Time and other magazines. He has been interviewed on all major television and radio networks. He taught “Law and the News Media” at Stanford Law School in 2011 and 2012 and practices law on occasion.
Taylor graduated from Princeton University in 1970 with an A.B. in History. After working as a reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun and Sun from 1971-1974, he moved to Harvard Law School, was a Harvard Law Review note editor, and graduated in 1977 at the top of his class, with high honors. He also won a Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship and traveled around the world in 1977-1978 while studying freedom of the press in the United Kingdom and Kenya.
Taylor practiced law with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, in Washington, D.C., from 1977-1980 before returning to journalism in 1980 by joining the Washington Bureau of The New York Times.
Taylor's journalism honors include the 2009 Northern California Innocence Project Media Award for his work on the Duke lacrosse rape fraud; a 2002 National Headliner Award for best special magazine column on one subject; and a share of The American Lawyer’s National Magazine Award for a March 1990 special issue on the drug war. He was a National Magazine Award finalist in 1993 and 1997 and was nominated by The New York Times for a Pulitzer Prize in 1988.
President, Asian American Coalition for Education
Mr. Yukong Zhao is a distinguished Chinese American civil-rights activist, the President of the Asian American Coalition for Education, and the author of the book, The Chinese Secrets For Success: Five Inspiring Confucian Values.
In May 2015 Mr. Zhao and other Asian American leaders united 64 Asian American organizations and filed a civil-rights complaint against Harvard University. As the largest joint action taken by Asian-American communities in recent history, the plaintiffs contend that the complaint helped expose Ivy League colleges’ systematic discrimination against Asian American applicants to the national and world stage. The complaint is currently under the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
In addition to continuing the fight for Asian American children's equal education rights, Mr. Zhao also writes columns in Orlando Sentinel, Forbes, The World Journal, Sing Tao Daily and IndiaWest to promote Chinese culture and advance Asian American social progress.
Senior Research Fellow, Center for Equal Opportunity
In D.C. area for over 20 years, Althea Nagai, Ph.D., is a research fellow at the Center for Equal Opportunity. She has conducted numerous statistical analyses on racial and ethnic preferences in higher education, including racial and ethnic preferences in undergraduate education at five public universities in Virginia, the University of Michigan, two Arizona universities, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, two Ohio universities, and various law and medical schools. In addition, she has written two essays for CEO focusing on Asian Americans, “Too Many Asian Americans,” and “Harvard Investigates Harvard.”
She has also has done work on other statistical studies in the field of social policy. Her first study was a content analysis and critique of the national history standards with John Fonte and Lynne Cheney. She has also conducted studies on marriage, religion, and family structure; on adolescent risk behavior; on philanthropy and social change; and on American elites (American Elites, with Robert Lerner and Stanley Rothman, 1996 Yale University Press).
Partner, Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP
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.
Vice President for Legal Affairs, Cato Institute
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.
Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown Law
After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1971, Professor Seidman served as a law clerk for J. Skelly Wright of the D.C. Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. He then was a staff attorney with the D.C. Public Defender Service until joining the Law Center faculty in 1976. He teaches a variety of courses in the fields of constitutional and criminal law. He is co-author of a constitutional law casebook and the author of many articles concerning criminal justice and constitutional law. His most recent books are Silence and Freedom (Stanford 2007), Our Unsettled Constitution: A New Defense of Constitutionalism and Judicial Review (Yale 2001) and Equal Protection of the Laws (Foundation 2002).
Freelance Journalist and Author
Stuart Taylor, Jr. is a Washington writer focusing on legal and policy issues and a National Journal contributing editor. He occasionally practices law.
Taylor has coauthored three books. All have been acclaimed by commentators across the ideological spectrum. In January 2017, KC Johnson and Taylor authored The Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process at America's Universities. In 2012, Richard Sander and Taylor authored Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It. In 2007, Taylor and Johnson authored Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Fraud. Sander and Taylor have also filed amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases involving admissions preferences.
Since 1980, Taylor has done reporting and commentary about issues ranging from the biggest Supreme Court cases to race, voting rights, mindlessly excessive criminal penalties, guilt-presuming campus rape processes, journalistic bias, the death penalty, war powers, gerrymandering, guns, polarization, civil liberties, national security, torture, campaign finance, education, impeachment, and other issues. He has often been called one of the nation's best legal journalists and is known for challenging both liberal and conservative conventional wisdom.
Taylor was a reporter for The New York Times from 1980-1988, covering legal affairs and then the Supreme Court. He wrote commentaries and long features for The American Lawyer, Legal Times and their affiliates from 1989-1997, and for National Journal and Newsweek from 1998 through 2010. He has written (less often) on a freelance basis for numerous publications since 2010. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The New York Daily News and longer commentaries for RealClearPolitics, The Atlantic, The New Republic, the (late) Weekly Standard, National Review, Slate, The Daily Beast, Harper’s, Reader’s Digest, Time and other magazines. He has been interviewed on all major television and radio networks. He taught “Law and the News Media” at Stanford Law School in 2011 and 2012 and practices law on occasion.
Taylor graduated from Princeton University in 1970 with an A.B. in History. After working as a reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun and Sun from 1971-1974, he moved to Harvard Law School, was a Harvard Law Review note editor, and graduated in 1977 at the top of his class, with high honors. He also won a Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship and traveled around the world in 1977-1978 while studying freedom of the press in the United Kingdom and Kenya.
Taylor practiced law with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, in Washington, D.C., from 1977-1980 before returning to journalism in 1980 by joining the Washington Bureau of The New York Times.
Taylor's journalism honors include the 2009 Northern California Innocence Project Media Award for his work on the Duke lacrosse rape fraud; a 2002 National Headliner Award for best special magazine column on one subject; and a share of The American Lawyer’s National Magazine Award for a March 1990 special issue on the drug war. He was a National Magazine Award finalist in 1993 and 1997 and was nominated by The New York Times for a Pulitzer Prize in 1988.
Senior Attorney and Counsel for Special Projects, Competitive Enterprise Institute
CEI’s Counsel for Special Projects is Hans Bader. Coming to CEI in 2003, Hans’s prior casework has included suits involving the First Amendment, federalism, and civil rights issues. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in economics and history, and later earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School. Just before joining CEI, Hans was Senior Counsel at the Center for Individual Rights.
Vice President for Legal Affairs, Cato Institute
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.
Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown Law
After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1971, Professor Seidman served as a law clerk for J. Skelly Wright of the D.C. Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. He then was a staff attorney with the D.C. Public Defender Service until joining the Law Center faculty in 1976. He teaches a variety of courses in the fields of constitutional and criminal law. He is co-author of a constitutional law casebook and the author of many articles concerning criminal justice and constitutional law. His most recent books are Silence and Freedom (Stanford 2007), Our Unsettled Constitution: A New Defense of Constitutionalism and Judicial Review (Yale 2001) and Equal Protection of the Laws (Foundation 2002).
Freelance Journalist and Author
Stuart Taylor, Jr. is a Washington writer focusing on legal and policy issues and a National Journal contributing editor. He occasionally practices law.
Taylor has coauthored three books. All have been acclaimed by commentators across the ideological spectrum. In January 2017, KC Johnson and Taylor authored The Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process at America's Universities. In 2012, Richard Sander and Taylor authored Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It. In 2007, Taylor and Johnson authored Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Fraud. Sander and Taylor have also filed amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases involving admissions preferences.
Since 1980, Taylor has done reporting and commentary about issues ranging from the biggest Supreme Court cases to race, voting rights, mindlessly excessive criminal penalties, guilt-presuming campus rape processes, journalistic bias, the death penalty, war powers, gerrymandering, guns, polarization, civil liberties, national security, torture, campaign finance, education, impeachment, and other issues. He has often been called one of the nation's best legal journalists and is known for challenging both liberal and conservative conventional wisdom.
Taylor was a reporter for The New York Times from 1980-1988, covering legal affairs and then the Supreme Court. He wrote commentaries and long features for The American Lawyer, Legal Times and their affiliates from 1989-1997, and for National Journal and Newsweek from 1998 through 2010. He has written (less often) on a freelance basis for numerous publications since 2010. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The New York Daily News and longer commentaries for RealClearPolitics, The Atlantic, The New Republic, the (late) Weekly Standard, National Review, Slate, The Daily Beast, Harper’s, Reader’s Digest, Time and other magazines. He has been interviewed on all major television and radio networks. He taught “Law and the News Media” at Stanford Law School in 2011 and 2012 and practices law on occasion.
Taylor graduated from Princeton University in 1970 with an A.B. in History. After working as a reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun and Sun from 1971-1974, he moved to Harvard Law School, was a Harvard Law Review note editor, and graduated in 1977 at the top of his class, with high honors. He also won a Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship and traveled around the world in 1977-1978 while studying freedom of the press in the United Kingdom and Kenya.
Taylor practiced law with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, in Washington, D.C., from 1977-1980 before returning to journalism in 1980 by joining the Washington Bureau of The New York Times.
Taylor's journalism honors include the 2009 Northern California Innocence Project Media Award for his work on the Duke lacrosse rape fraud; a 2002 National Headliner Award for best special magazine column on one subject; and a share of The American Lawyer’s National Magazine Award for a March 1990 special issue on the drug war. He was a National Magazine Award finalist in 1993 and 1997 and was nominated by The New York Times for a Pulitzer Prize in 1988.
Senior Attorney and Counsel for Special Projects, Competitive Enterprise Institute
CEI’s Counsel for Special Projects is Hans Bader. Coming to CEI in 2003, Hans’s prior casework has included suits involving the First Amendment, federalism, and civil rights issues. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in economics and history, and later earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School. Just before joining CEI, Hans was Senior Counsel at the Center for Individual Rights.
Journalist/Author
Trevor W. Coleman is a national award-winning journalist and author who served s Chief Speechwriter to Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm and as Director of Communications for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and the Governor’s Southeast Michigan office. Coleman was also a long time member of the editorial board of the Detroit Free Press where he won numerous awards for editorial and column writing prior to his appointment to the Granholm administration. He is currently working fulltime on the authorized biography of legendary federal Judge Damon J. Keith. Its working title is “Crusader for Justice: The Life and Amazing Times of Federal Judge Damon J. Keith.”
As the Director of Communications for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, he was responsible for crafting a global communications strategy which included developing all internal and external communications policies, managing media relations and executive speechwriting responsibilities. Because of his unique joint appointment, he was also required to establish an effective external communications strategy for the Governor’s Office for SE Michigan. In that position he also served as the official liaison to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Arab and Chaldean Affairs and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.
As Chief Speechwriter for Governor Granholm, Coleman wrote or contributed to all major public policy speeches including in the areas of international relations, automotive industry, education, economics, budgetary, race relations, and health, poverty and gender issues. He wrote major commencement addresses and contributed to State of the State address. Coleman also wrote the Governor’s guest OPEDS for state and regional newspapers as well as articles for public policy and other niche magazines. This included the Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Detroit Crain’s Business, Detroit Magazine, the Michigan Chronicle and others. He also helped develop the Governor’s communication strategy for her “One Michigan” tour and campaign to unite citizens.
As a member of the editorial board of the Detroit Free Press, Coleman specialized in writing on education, health care and urban policy. He also frequently wrote on civil rights, civil liberties and the U.S. criminal justice system. He was the editorial board’s senior foreign affairs writer for three years. Prior to joining the Free Press, Coleman was an urban affairs and civil rights reporter for The Detroit News, an editorial writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer, reporter and columnist for the Hartford Courant and city desk reporter for the Times-Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was also a contributing editor and writer for Emerge Magazine, Black Enterprise and the NAACP Crisis Magazine. Coleman also wrote a Sunday column for several years for his hometown newspaper, The Hudson Register Star.
Among his many journalism awards are a 2001 American Diabetes Association Award of Merit for a series of editorials urging the state to expand medical coverage for diabetics; a 1999 Michigan Press Association Award for column writing; a 1999 National Association of Black Journalist Award for Commentary; the 1998 Detroit Press Foundation Michigan Journalism Award for Commentary; the 1993 Detroit Press Foundation Journalism Award for News Reporting, 1993 Best of Gannett Award for News Reporting and the 1993 and 1999 Lincoln University Unity Awards for coverage of minority and social issues. Coleman is listed in “Who’s Who among African-Americans,” and in 2010 was listed in the “Who’s Who of Black Detroiters.”
Among his many honors have been a 2009 Michigan Department of Civil Rights Dedicated Service Award, 2008 Brown Chapel AME Church Civil Rights Leadership Award, 2004 Macomb County NAACP Freedom Fund Leadership Award, 2004 Over Comers Ministries Inc. Leadership Award, 2002 Wayne Community College District Award for Community Service and the 1993 Distinguished Alumni Award, from the Kappa Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at The Ohio State University.
He has been a guest speaker at many colleges and universities across the nation; among them Harvard Law School, The Ohio State University, the University of Michigan and University of Michigan School of Law, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, The University of Toledo Law School, Delaware State University, Schoolcraft College, Wayne Community College and many others. He has also appeared on numerous television and radio talk and public affairs programs.
A native of New York, he received his undergraduate degree in communications from The Ohio State University and is a fellow at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland. He is also is a graduate of the American Press Institute in Reston, VA and Poynter Institute in Fla. Coleman resides in Bloomfield Hills and is the divorced father of two children Sydnie, a college junior and TJ, a high school junior.
Attorney (of counsel), Witte Law Offices
Matthew G. Davis practices in the areas of appellate law, civil rights (including alleged violations of the First and Second Amendments), election law, campaign finance, and defamation. Mr. Davis is also experienced in general civil litigation.
Mr. Davis graduated from the The Ohio State University with a bachelors of arts in journalism in 1990 and earned his juris doctorate from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2005. He started his legal career in the pre-hearing division of the Michigan Court of Appeals before becoming law clerk for Judge Brian K. Zahra. Following his clerkship, Mr. Davis joined Witte Law Offices as an associate.
Prior to his legal career, Mr. Davis spent approximately twelve years as a reporter for various daily newspapers, including the Columbus ( Ohio ) Dispatch, the St. Paul (Minn. ) Pioneer Press, and the Detroit Free Press, where he covered the state Legislature in Lansing. Mr. Davis left newspapers to attend the Thomas M. Cooley Law School and, concomitantly, serve as director of communications for the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Michigan Department of Attorney General. Mr. Davis led the creation and development of the Offender Tracking Information System at the MDOC, which allows Internet access of offender information.
Racial Justice Staff Attorney, ACLU of Michigan
Through his work as the attorney for the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU of Michigan, Mark P. Fancher addresses: racially disproportionate rates of incarceration; racial discrimination against public school students of color, racial profiling, public defender system reform, attacks on affirmative action and juvenile sentencing issues.
Fancher was formerly the Senior Staff Attorney for the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice where he specialized in workers' rights. He served on the staff of the State Bar of Michigan from 1998 to 2000 where he coordinated projects to encourage greater pro bono participation by Michigan's lawyers. He was a visiting assistant clinical professor at the University of Michigan Law School from 1996 through 1998.
Before moving to Michigan, Fancher was the Director of Litigation for Camden Regional Legal Services in New Jersey. He has also been in private practice where he specialized in employment discrimination and community economic development. Fancher is a graduate of Rutgers University School of Law - Camden. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Tennessee.
Fancher has played a leadership role in the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) for numerous years. He is a past chair of the organization’s International Affairs Section, and he served as NCBL’s national co-chair from 1995-1998. He is also a member of the State Bar of Michigan Pro Bono Initiative.
Fancher has lectured across the country and written extensively on issues that include: self-determination for Africa and the African Diaspora; indigenous peoples’ land and resource rights; and political repression in the U.S.
Co-Founder, XIV Foundation
Jennifer Gratz is a modern-day civil rights leader. In 1997 she challenged race preferences (also known as affirmative action) at the University of Michigan and was victorious at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ms. Gratz was the lead plaintiff in the landmark case Gratz v. Bollinger which challenged affirmative action at the University of Michigan. On June 23, 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Gratz was discriminated against and U-M’s admission policy was unconstitutional. However, in a companion case decided the same day (Grutter v. Bollinger), the Supreme Court allowed race preferences to continue at U-M’s law school. Ms. Gratz called the split decision flawed and continued the fight for equality in her home state. She spearheaded the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), a state constitutional amendment that made race and gender preferences unconstitutional in public education, employment and contracting. In Nov 2006 Michigan voters approved MCRI by a 16-point landslide.
At CPAC following the Michigan vote, Ms. Gratz was honored with the prestigious Ronald Reagan Award from the American Conservative Union for leadership. Jennifer has spent many years working to end programs that grant preferential treatment based on race or sex and because of Ms. Gratz’s leadership eight states have now banned race and gender preferences.
Recently, Ms. Gratz co-founded the XIV Foundation (XIV) and Equal Protection Advocates (EPA). XIV, named after the 14th amendment, is a not-for-profit 501c3 dedicated to teaching the personal and societal advantages of fair and equal treatment. EPA is a 501c4 dedicated to advocating for fair and equal treatment without regard to race or gender for all Americans.
Ms. Gratz’s story and work has been featured in nearly every major media outlet – Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Dateline, 60 Minutes, The Today Show, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, LA Times, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, National Review, US News and World Report, Newsweek, Time Magazine, People Magazine, Glamour Magazine – to name a few.
Editorial Cartoonist, Editorial Writer, and Weekly Columnist, The Detroit News
Henry Payne is an editorial cartoonist, editorial writer, and weekly columnist The Detroit News.
A Pulitzer-Prize nominated cartoonist, Payne produces five local editorial cartoons a week for The News. He also writes and draws a weekly column, “Payne & Ink.” Additionally, Payne draws five cartoons a week on national and international subjects for United Feature Syndicate in Kansas City which distributes his cartoons to 40 newspaper clients worldwide. His work is reprinted in USA Today, National Review,Townhall.com and other publications.
Payne has been voted Best Editorial Cartoonist in Michigan by the Associated Press. He has been a runner-up for both the Pulitzer and Mencken awards.
As a writer, Payne reports regularly on economic, consumer and environmental issues. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard magazine, National Review, Reason, Scripps Howard News Service and newspapers around the country. He also is a correspondent for National Review’s popular “Planet Gore” blog.
Payne came to The Detroit News in 1999 after 13 years as an editorial cartoonist, writer, and editor forScripps Howard News Service in Washington, DC .
Payne published his first book, “Payne & Ink: The Cartoons and Commentary of Henry Payne, 2000-2001,” in 2002. He has also illustrated two children’s books for Random House: “Where did Daddy’s Hair Go?” (by Joe O’Connor) in 2006, and Dr. Seuss’ “The Ear Book” in 2007. In 1998, Payne created “Hub & Axel,” a comic panel distributed by the Tribune Company Syndicate about an American family and its very American passion for the automobile.
Born in 1962 in Charleston, West Virginia, Payne received a degree in history from Princeton University in 1984. As editorial cartoonist for two student newspapers, The Daily Princetonian and the Nassau Weekly, Payne won the College Media Advisers Cartoon Contest and the Tribune Company Syndicate’s National College Cartoonist’s Contest. Upon graduation from Princeton, Payne began his newspaper career as staff artist and editorial cartoonist with the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail. In 1986 he joined Scripps Howard News Service and began syndication with United Feature in 1987.
Payne is an active race car driver, tennis and squash player. He is the father of two boys and lives with wife, Talbot, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
President, Thomas M. Cooley Student Chapter
Penelope holds a Political Science and Pre-Law undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. She also received a Master of Science degree in Intelligence and National Security Studies with focus on Latino Immigration from the University of Texas at El Paso. Penelope has worked in several projects within the Latino Community such the LSPI Pre-Law Institute at UTEP as an outreach minority coordinator for recruitment of young Latino and underrepresented minorities to participate in the pre-law institute and later access IVY league Law Schools all across the country. Under the Kauffman Initiative she worked as an outreach specialist for the Hispanic Entrepreneur Center at UTEP She is now a J.D Law candidate 2014 at Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
Accounting for Race 101: Virginia Universities and Racial Preferences
Linda L. Chavez, Todd F. Gaziano, Will Hild, Althea Nagai, Theodore M. Shaw, Hans A. Von Spakovsky
Regulatory Transparency Project
On September 10, 2019, The Federalist Society hosted a luncheon cosponsored with the Center for...
Topics
What Does DOJ’s Statement of Interest Filed in the Harvard Case Mean?
Recently, the Department of Justice filed a Statement of Interest in a lawsuit against Harvard University...
Topics
Affirmative Action Confusion at the College of Charleston
Fast Action! On July 29, 2018, the Charleston Post and Courier ran a story entitled Affirmative...
Are U.S. Colleges and Universities Barring Asian Applicants Based on their Race?
Linda L. Chavez, Terry H. Eastland, Brenda Shum, Stuart S. Taylor, Yukong Zhao, Althea Nagai
Regulatory Transparency Project
On May 22, the Regulatory Transparency Project and the Center for Equal Opportunity co-sponsored a...
Are U.S. Colleges and Universities Barring Asian Applicants Based on their Race?
Linda L. Chavez, Terry H. Eastland, Brenda Shum, Stuart S. Taylor, Yukong Zhao, Althea Nagai
Regulatory Transparency Project
On May 22, the Regulatory Transparency Project and the Center for Equal Opportunity co-sponsored a...
Topics
Affirmative Discrimination Against Asian American Applicants in College Admissions
Above is the livestream feed for this study's panel event with the Center for Equal...
Race, Sex, and the Administrative State
Peter Kirsanow
Short video featuring Peter Kirsanow
What effect has disparate impact theory had on the administrative state? Peter Kirsanow, a partner...
Panel II: Racial Preferences and Promoting Diversity: Are These Policies Taking Us in the Right Direction?
Roger Pilon, Louis Michael Seidman, Stuart S. Taylor, Hans Frank Bader
Civil Rights in the United States
The Obama administration is widely perceived to be an avid proponent of racial preferences. As...
Panel II: Racial Preferences and Promoting Diversity: Are These Policies Taking Us in the Right Direction?
Roger Pilon, Louis Michael Seidman, Stuart S. Taylor, Hans Frank Bader
Civil Rights in the United States
The Obama administration is widely perceived to be an avid proponent of racial preferences. As...
The Twilight of Race-Based Preferences in College Admissions
Trevor W. Coleman, Matthew G. Davis, Mark Fancher, Jennifer Gratz, Henry Payne, Hans A. Von Spakovsky, Penelope S. Williams
Michigan Lawyers Chapter
The Michigan Lawyers Chapter hosted this event on February 12, 2014, at Thomas M. Cooley...