Special Projects Officer, National Guard Bureau, Office of the Inspector General; Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland Global Campus
John McGlothlin currently serves as a special projects officer with the National Guard Bureau. His duties include oversight of the investigation of whistleblower allegations and the development and delivery of training on ethics.
John was previously counsel at Cause of Action, a non-profit law firm dedicated to government transparency. He also teaches as an adjunct professor at University of Maryland Global Campus and previously taught an honors seminar at the Virginia Military Institute.
His military career began in intelligence and included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan along with working across Europe. He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law and transferred to the JAG Corps and to the D.C. National Guard, where he mobilized during the summer 2020 civil unrest and after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, the artist MK Bailey, and recently authored his first book, How to Deal with Damn Near Anything – The Paratrooper’s Guide to Life.
He is here today in his personal capacity and his views do not represent the Department of Defense nor any of its components.
Legal Scholar and Solo Practitioner
Jack received his B.A. in History from the University of Virginia in 1977, graduating with Highest Distinction. After graduating Yale Law School in 1980, he served active duty in the U.S. Army's JAG Corps, rising to the rank of Major, where he represented the United States in more than 250 cases.
He practiced for a decade as an Associate for Bradley Arant in Birmingham, Alabama. He proudly served the State of Alabama in the Office of the Attorney General, both as Deputy and Assistant Attorney General, handling complex civil and criminal litigation cases for the people of Alabama. In 2000, he won the "Best Brief Award" from the National Association of Attorneys General for his brief in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, James Alexander v. Martha Sandoval – a case he won. He was Special Assistant to the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service, Visiting Legal Fellow for the Center for Judicial and Legal Studies for the Heritage Foundation, Of Counsel at Strickland Brockington Lewis, a solo practitioner, and General Counsel for Indigo Energy.
Most recently, he "re-upped" for military service, volunteering his legal services to the Georgia State Defense Force where twice each month he provided legal services for National Guardsmen who were being deployed. He wore his military uniform for the last time in October 2024.
Jack Park passed away on March 16, 2026.
Devon Westhill is the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Westhill on October 7, 2025.
Westhill returns to the USDA where he previously headed the civil rights office as Deputy Assistant Secretary in President Trump’s first term. His previous government appointments also include service at the U.S. Department of Labor, liaison to the Administrative Conference of the U.S., and liaison to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Prior to returning to government service, Westhill was President and General Counsel of a nonprofit civil rights organization.
Westhill has testified on civil rights matters before Congress, federal agencies, and as an expert witness in federal court. He has spoken hundreds of times at college campuses, conferences, and on radio and TV programs, and he is frequently quoted in print publications, and his writing has appeared in numerous national outlets. A U.S. Navy veteran, Westhill earned his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his JD from the University of Florida.
Special Projects Officer, National Guard Bureau, Office of the Inspector General; Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland Global Campus
John McGlothlin currently serves as a special projects officer with the National Guard Bureau. His duties include oversight of the investigation of whistleblower allegations and the development and delivery of training on ethics.
John was previously counsel at Cause of Action, a non-profit law firm dedicated to government transparency. He also teaches as an adjunct professor at University of Maryland Global Campus and previously taught an honors seminar at the Virginia Military Institute.
His military career began in intelligence and included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan along with working across Europe. He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law and transferred to the JAG Corps and to the D.C. National Guard, where he mobilized during the summer 2020 civil unrest and after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, the artist MK Bailey, and recently authored his first book, How to Deal with Damn Near Anything – The Paratrooper’s Guide to Life.
He is here today in his personal capacity and his views do not represent the Department of Defense nor any of its components.
Legal Scholar and Solo Practitioner
Jack received his B.A. in History from the University of Virginia in 1977, graduating with Highest Distinction. After graduating Yale Law School in 1980, he served active duty in the U.S. Army's JAG Corps, rising to the rank of Major, where he represented the United States in more than 250 cases.
He practiced for a decade as an Associate for Bradley Arant in Birmingham, Alabama. He proudly served the State of Alabama in the Office of the Attorney General, both as Deputy and Assistant Attorney General, handling complex civil and criminal litigation cases for the people of Alabama. In 2000, he won the "Best Brief Award" from the National Association of Attorneys General for his brief in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, James Alexander v. Martha Sandoval – a case he won. He was Special Assistant to the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service, Visiting Legal Fellow for the Center for Judicial and Legal Studies for the Heritage Foundation, Of Counsel at Strickland Brockington Lewis, a solo practitioner, and General Counsel for Indigo Energy.
Most recently, he "re-upped" for military service, volunteering his legal services to the Georgia State Defense Force where twice each month he provided legal services for National Guardsmen who were being deployed. He wore his military uniform for the last time in October 2024.
Jack Park passed away on March 16, 2026.
Devon Westhill is the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Westhill on October 7, 2025.
Westhill returns to the USDA where he previously headed the civil rights office as Deputy Assistant Secretary in President Trump’s first term. His previous government appointments also include service at the U.S. Department of Labor, liaison to the Administrative Conference of the U.S., and liaison to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Prior to returning to government service, Westhill was President and General Counsel of a nonprofit civil rights organization.
Westhill has testified on civil rights matters before Congress, federal agencies, and as an expert witness in federal court. He has spoken hundreds of times at college campuses, conferences, and on radio and TV programs, and he is frequently quoted in print publications, and his writing has appeared in numerous national outlets. A U.S. Navy veteran, Westhill earned his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his JD from the University of Florida.
Director, Independent Women's Law Center, Independent Women's
Jennifer C. Braceras, a member of the Federalist Society Board of Visitors, is the director of Independent Women’s Law Center and a former member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Ms. Braceras is a graduate of the Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Law Review. After law school, she clerked for two federal judges and practiced labor and employment law with the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray.
A long time political columnist and editor, Ms. Braceras's writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the Hill, and National Review Online. She co-hosts At the Bar, a bimonthly virtual happy hour discussion about issues at the intersection of law, politics, and culture.
Thomas L. Perkins Distinguished Professor of Law, Duke Law School
Doriane Coleman is the Thomas L. Perkins Distinguished Professor of Law at Duke Law School, where she specializes in interdisciplinary scholarship focused on women, children, medicine, sports, and law. Her work, single- and co-authored, has been published in numerous U.S. and international journals. She also writes op-eds and is regularly cited in the press.
Her most recent scholarship has centered on sex, its evolving definition, and the implications of this evolution for law and society. The first two articles in this series – Sex in Sport and Re-affirming the Value of the Sports Exception to Title IX's General Non-Discrimination Rule – have been widely read and used in the development of eligibility criteria for the female category. A third article – Sex Neutrality – traces the history of sex in law and addresses the merits of a final move from sex skepticism to sex-blindness. Her book On Sex and Gender – A Commonsense Approach (2024) expands on these themes for a broader audience.
At Duke, Coleman is a Faculty Fellow and Member of the Advisory Council of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and a Faculty Associate of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine at the School of Medicine, and the University’s Initiative for Science & Society. She is also a member of the University’s Athletic Council and co-director of the Law School’s Center for Sports Law and Policy.
She received her Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown Law and her Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University. She was a litigation associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering before beginning her academic career at Howard University School of Law.
Before law school, Coleman ran the 800 meters in collegiate and international competition. She was a multiple All American, All East, and All Ivy athlete, the U.S. National Collegiate Indoor Champion in the 800 meters in 1982, the U.S. National Indoor Champion in the 4 x 400 meters relay in 1982, and the Swiss National Champion in the 800 meters in 1982 and 1983. Over the course of her athletic career she competed for Villanova and Cornell, the Swiss and U.S. National Teams, Athletics West, the Santa Monica and Atoms Track Clubs, and Lausanne Sports.
Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation Chair, Lex Politica; Of Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Erin Morrow Hawley serves as Chair of Lex Politica's Supreme Court and Appellate Practice overseeing the firm’s strategic appellate litigation and critical motions practice in the trial courts. Erin is an experienced litigator who represents clients in constitutional, regulatory, and appellate matters in federal and state courts throughout the country.
Erin has represented dozens of clients before the Supreme Court of the United States, served as lead counsel in high-profile cases raising novel constitutional and statutory issues, and authored numerous successful petitions for certiorari and briefs in opposition. She has argued in state and federal appellate and trial courts throughout the country, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Erin represents diverse clients in high-stakes litigation from state governments to faith-based nonprofits to Fortune 100 companies. She possesses expertise on a wide range of subject matters including administrative law, the First Amendment, religious liberty, federal jurisdiction, federal preemption, equitable jurisdiction, tax law, the Affordable Care Act, and Title IX.
Erin represents clients in cases where public communications strategy is paramount. She is a sought-after speaker and writer, has testified multiple times before Congress, and is a frequent presenter on constitutional and administrative law issues, including at the Oxford Union, the National Federalist Society Convention, and university campuses across the country. She is a frequent commentator to media outlets, including Fox News, MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, WORLD, USA Today, the Federalist, and the Hill.
Erin previously oversaw Alliance Defending Freedom’s--where she still serves as Of Counsel--litigation strategies to empower women and protect the dignity of life, defend pregnancy centers’ First Amendment rights from government overreach, and safeguard Americans’ freedoms from the ever-encroaching administrative state.
Chair, United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Solicitor General, Missouri
D. John Sauer has served as the Solicitor General of Missouri since 2017. Before that, he served as a federal prosecutor for five years and spent time in civil practice at boutique law firms, including the firm he founded, the James Otis Law Group. Mr. Sauer has first-chaired many jury and bench trials, and served as lead counsel in many appeals. He has presented oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the Supreme Court of Missouri, and many other state and federal appellate courts. Mr. Sauer served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He was a Rhodes Scholar and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School.
Director, Independent Women's Law Center, Independent Women's
Jennifer C. Braceras, a member of the Federalist Society Board of Visitors, is the director of Independent Women’s Law Center and a former member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Ms. Braceras is a graduate of the Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Law Review. After law school, she clerked for two federal judges and practiced labor and employment law with the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray.
A long time political columnist and editor, Ms. Braceras's writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the Hill, and National Review Online. She co-hosts At the Bar, a bimonthly virtual happy hour discussion about issues at the intersection of law, politics, and culture.
Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation Chair, Lex Politica; Of Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Erin Morrow Hawley serves as Chair of Lex Politica's Supreme Court and Appellate Practice overseeing the firm’s strategic appellate litigation and critical motions practice in the trial courts. Erin is an experienced litigator who represents clients in constitutional, regulatory, and appellate matters in federal and state courts throughout the country.
Erin has represented dozens of clients before the Supreme Court of the United States, served as lead counsel in high-profile cases raising novel constitutional and statutory issues, and authored numerous successful petitions for certiorari and briefs in opposition. She has argued in state and federal appellate and trial courts throughout the country, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Erin represents diverse clients in high-stakes litigation from state governments to faith-based nonprofits to Fortune 100 companies. She possesses expertise on a wide range of subject matters including administrative law, the First Amendment, religious liberty, federal jurisdiction, federal preemption, equitable jurisdiction, tax law, the Affordable Care Act, and Title IX.
Erin represents clients in cases where public communications strategy is paramount. She is a sought-after speaker and writer, has testified multiple times before Congress, and is a frequent presenter on constitutional and administrative law issues, including at the Oxford Union, the National Federalist Society Convention, and university campuses across the country. She is a frequent commentator to media outlets, including Fox News, MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, WORLD, USA Today, the Federalist, and the Hill.
Erin previously oversaw Alliance Defending Freedom’s--where she still serves as Of Counsel--litigation strategies to empower women and protect the dignity of life, defend pregnancy centers’ First Amendment rights from government overreach, and safeguard Americans’ freedoms from the ever-encroaching administrative state.
Chair, United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Solicitor General, Missouri
D. John Sauer has served as the Solicitor General of Missouri since 2017. Before that, he served as a federal prosecutor for five years and spent time in civil practice at boutique law firms, including the firm he founded, the James Otis Law Group. Mr. Sauer has first-chaired many jury and bench trials, and served as lead counsel in many appeals. He has presented oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the Supreme Court of Missouri, and many other state and federal appellate courts. Mr. Sauer served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He was a Rhodes Scholar and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School.
Thomas L. Perkins Distinguished Professor of Law, Duke Law School
Doriane Coleman is the Thomas L. Perkins Distinguished Professor of Law at Duke Law School, where she specializes in interdisciplinary scholarship focused on women, children, medicine, sports, and law. Her work, single- and co-authored, has been published in numerous U.S. and international journals. She also writes op-eds and is regularly cited in the press.
Her most recent scholarship has centered on sex, its evolving definition, and the implications of this evolution for law and society. The first two articles in this series – Sex in Sport and Re-affirming the Value of the Sports Exception to Title IX's General Non-Discrimination Rule – have been widely read and used in the development of eligibility criteria for the female category. A third article – Sex Neutrality – traces the history of sex in law and addresses the merits of a final move from sex skepticism to sex-blindness. Her book On Sex and Gender – A Commonsense Approach (2024) expands on these themes for a broader audience.
At Duke, Coleman is a Faculty Fellow and Member of the Advisory Council of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and a Faculty Associate of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine at the School of Medicine, and the University’s Initiative for Science & Society. She is also a member of the University’s Athletic Council and co-director of the Law School’s Center for Sports Law and Policy.
She received her Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown Law and her Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University. She was a litigation associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering before beginning her academic career at Howard University School of Law.
Before law school, Coleman ran the 800 meters in collegiate and international competition. She was a multiple All American, All East, and All Ivy athlete, the U.S. National Collegiate Indoor Champion in the 800 meters in 1982, the U.S. National Indoor Champion in the 4 x 400 meters relay in 1982, and the Swiss National Champion in the 800 meters in 1982 and 1983. Over the course of her athletic career she competed for Villanova and Cornell, the Swiss and U.S. National Teams, Athletics West, the Santa Monica and Atoms Track Clubs, and Lausanne Sports.
Solicitor General of Nebraska
Cody Barnett previously served as legal counsel on Alliance Defending Freedom’s Appellate Advocacy Team, where he represented various ADF clients before appellate courts across the country.
Before joining ADF, Barnett served as the William H. Rehnquist Fellow at Cooper & Kirk PLLC. He then went on to clerk for the Honorable Amul R. Thapar and the Honorable Raymond M. Kethledge, both of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, and for the Honorable Justin R. Walker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Barnett earned his J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2017, where he graduated first in his class. He also served as president of the Christian Legal Society and as an articles editor for the Kentucky Law Journal. He completed ADF’s Blackstone Legal Fellowship in 2017. Prior to law school, Barnett earned a Bachelor of Arts in both history and political science from Transylvania University.
Barnett is admitted to practice law in Kentucky, the District of Columbia, and before several U.S. Courts of Appeal.
Senior Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee
Tessa E. Shurr serves as Senior Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee (Majority).
Prior to joining the Judiciary Committee staff, Tessa served as a Litigation Associate at the Fairness Center, a non-profit law firm, where she represented clients who had been harmed by their public-sector union. Before that, she counseled high-level leadership at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy on legislative and regulatory matters, assisted the U.S. Department of Defense with procurement of supplies and services, and worked on both civil and criminal cases at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Tessa graduated from Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There, she served as Managing Editor of the Dickinson Law Review, one of the oldest legal journals in the United States. During her time in law school, Tessa earned CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Advanced Federal Income Tax; Congressional Investigations; and Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, & Law. She also published an academic comment proposing a new regulatory scheme for digital assets and cryptocurrency.
Solicitor General of Nebraska
Cody Barnett previously served as legal counsel on Alliance Defending Freedom’s Appellate Advocacy Team, where he represented various ADF clients before appellate courts across the country.
Before joining ADF, Barnett served as the William H. Rehnquist Fellow at Cooper & Kirk PLLC. He then went on to clerk for the Honorable Amul R. Thapar and the Honorable Raymond M. Kethledge, both of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, and for the Honorable Justin R. Walker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Barnett earned his J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2017, where he graduated first in his class. He also served as president of the Christian Legal Society and as an articles editor for the Kentucky Law Journal. He completed ADF’s Blackstone Legal Fellowship in 2017. Prior to law school, Barnett earned a Bachelor of Arts in both history and political science from Transylvania University.
Barnett is admitted to practice law in Kentucky, the District of Columbia, and before several U.S. Courts of Appeal.
Senior Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee
Tessa E. Shurr serves as Senior Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee (Majority).
Prior to joining the Judiciary Committee staff, Tessa served as a Litigation Associate at the Fairness Center, a non-profit law firm, where she represented clients who had been harmed by their public-sector union. Before that, she counseled high-level leadership at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy on legislative and regulatory matters, assisted the U.S. Department of Defense with procurement of supplies and services, and worked on both civil and criminal cases at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Tessa graduated from Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There, she served as Managing Editor of the Dickinson Law Review, one of the oldest legal journals in the United States. During her time in law school, Tessa earned CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Advanced Federal Income Tax; Congressional Investigations; and Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, & Law. She also published an academic comment proposing a new regulatory scheme for digital assets and cryptocurrency.
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Sue, Settle, Rinse, Repeat: DOJ Follows Familiar Pattern in Suit Targeting Rocket Mortgage
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Military Academies Litigation After SFFA
John E. McGlothlin, John J. Park, Devon Westhill
Last year, the Supreme Court decided the cases of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard...
Military Academies Litigation After SFFA
John E. McGlothlin, John J. Park, Devon Westhill
Last year, the Supreme Court decided the cases of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard...
Showcase Panel III: Sex, Gender, and the Law
Jennifer C. Braceras, Doriane Lambelet Coleman, Erin M. Hawley, Andrea R. Lucas, D. John Sauer
2024 National Lawyers Convention
CLE credit for this event is available at On-Demand CLE. The 1964 Civil Rights Act outlaws...
Showcase Panel III: Sex, Gender, and the Law
Jennifer C. Braceras, Erin M. Hawley, Andrea R. Lucas, D. John Sauer, Doriane Lambelet Coleman
2024 National Lawyers Convention
CLE credit for this event is available at On-Demand CLE. The 1964 Civil Rights Act outlaws...
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Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton: Regulating Access to Adult Content Doesn’t Justify Flouting the First Amendment and Long-Established Precedent
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Litigation Update: Chiles v. Salazar
Cody Barnett, Tessa Shurr Levensohn
Chiles v. Salazar arises from a challenge to a Colorado law limiting therapists’ speech when...
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Supreme Court to Review Fifth Circuit’s Deviation from Common Law Limits on Use of Force in Barnes v. Felix
The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Barnes v. Felix. The case concerns how to...
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In this episode, experts GianCarlo Canaparo and Mike Gonzalez provide a legal and historical interpretation of the...