Dr. John Eastman is the former Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service and former Dean at Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law, where he had been a member of the faculty since 1999, specializing in Constitutional Law, Legal History, and Property. He is a founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute that he founded in 1999. He has a Ph.D. in Government from the Claremont Graduate School and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and a B.A. in Politics and Economics from the University of Dallas. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage.
Prior to joining the Chapman law faculty, Dr. Eastman served as a law clerk to the Honorable Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, and to the Honorable J. Michael Luttig, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced law with the national law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. Dr. Eastman has also represented numerous clients in important constitutional law matters and has argued before the Supreme Court. On behalf of the Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, he has participated as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and State Supreme Courts in more than one hundred cases of constitutional significance, including Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (the school vouchers case), Kelo v. New London, Ct. (eminent domain), and Van Orden v. Perry (the 10 Commandments case). He has also appeared as an expert legal commentator on numerous television and radio programs, including C-SPAN, Fox News, PBS, NewsHour, and The O'Reilly Factor.
University of Virginia School of Law Student Chapter
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
ILYA SOMIN is Professor of Law at George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights. He is the author of Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom (Oxford University Press, revised and expanded edition, 2022), Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (Stanford University Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2016), and The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain (University of Chicago Press, 2015, rev. paperback ed., 2016), coauthor of A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and co-editor of Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Democracy and Political Ignorance has been translated into Italian and Japanese.
Somin’s work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Critical Review, and others. Somin has also published articles in a variety of popular press outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, CNN, NBC, The Atlantic, USA Today, Boston Globe, US News and World Report, South China Morning Post, National Law Journal and Reason. He has been quoted or interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, The Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, the Financial Times, The Guardian, the Associated Press, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Reuters, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Al Jazeera, and the Voice of America, among other media.
Somin’s writings have been cited in decisions by the United States Supreme Court, multiple state supreme courts and lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of Israel. He is co-counsel for the plaintiffs in VOS Selections, Inc. v. Trump, a case challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. Somin has testified on the use of drones for targeted killing in the War on Terror before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. In 2009, he testified on property rights issues at the United States Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Somin writes regularly for the popular Volokh Conspiracy law and politics blog, now affiliated with Reason magazine (previously affiliated with the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017). From 2006 to 2013, he served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review, one of the country’s top-rated law and economics journals.
Somin has served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has also been a visiting professor or scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Hamburg, Germany, the University of Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Uriel Reichman University in Israel, and Zhengzhou University in China. He is a University Affiliate of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, and an affiliated faculty member of the George Mason University Institute for Immigration Research. Before joining the faculty at George Mason, Somin was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Northwestern University Law School in 2002-2003. In 2001-2002, he clerked for the Hon. Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Professor Somin earned his B.A., Summa Cum Laude, at Amherst College, M.A. in Political Science from Harvard University, and J.D. from Yale Law School.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Amul R. Thapar serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His judicial career began in 2007 when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Eastern District of Kentucky, making him the first South Asian Article III judge in American history. In 2017, he became President Donald J. Trump’s first appellate court nominee.
Before joining the bench, Judge Thapar served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. While United States Attorney, Judge Thapar worked on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (“AGAC”) and chaired the AGAC’s Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture subcommittee. He also served on the Terrorism and National Security subcommittee, the Violent Crime subcommittee, and the Child Exploitation working group.
Judge Thapar has worked in private practice, at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.
Judge Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, Judge Thapar worked as a law clerk to the Honorable S. Arthur Spiegel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Judge Thapar has also published in the Yale Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, and Catholic University Law Review. He teaches courses on originalism, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and legal writing at Notre Dame Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Vanderbilt Law School.
Joel focuses his litigation practice on the defense of patent infringement claims and challenges to patent validity as well as disputes over trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property. A registered patent attorney, he has deep experience in post-grant practice before the Patent Office, particularly contested review conducted in parallel with patent infringement litigation. Joel works closely with trial teams preparing patent portfolios for assertive litigation through rigorous “pre-examination” claim validity review and owner-directed re-examination and correction. He has also represented clients in copyright matters and related questions involving the rights surrounding various methods of copying, storing, reproducing and streaming digital media.
Joel litigates and advises candidates, election officials and members of the public on election law, including ballot access and integrity provisions of federal law. He has extensive experience in voter roll integrity and language minority ballot access provisions of federal election statutes. Joel has investigated and enforced statewide violations of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act, and implemented election day polling place observers in primary and general elections in numerous jurisdictions.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Judge Carlos Bea serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He received his Bachelor's Degree from Stanford University in 1956 and his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1958. Judge Bea was born in San Sebastian, Spain, and immigrated with his family to Cuba in 1939. In 1952, he represented Cuba on the Cuban National basketball team in the Helsinki Olympics. Judge Bea became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1958. He engaged in private practice in San Francisco, principally in the area of civil trials (jury and non-jury), from 1959-75 at Dunne, Phelps & Mills and from 1975-90 at Carlos Bea, A Law Corporation. He taught courses in civil litigation advocacy at Hastings College of Law and Stanford Law School. From 1990 to 2003, Judge Bea served as a judge of the San Francisco Superior Court. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and was confirmed in 2003.
Judge Bea and his wife Louise reside in San Francisco, where they raised their four sons, Sebastian, Alexander, Nicholas, and Dominic.
Dr. John Eastman is the former Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service and former Dean at Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law, where he had been a member of the faculty since 1999, specializing in Constitutional Law, Legal History, and Property. He is a founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute that he founded in 1999. He has a Ph.D. in Government from the Claremont Graduate School and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and a B.A. in Politics and Economics from the University of Dallas. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage.
Prior to joining the Chapman law faculty, Dr. Eastman served as a law clerk to the Honorable Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, and to the Honorable J. Michael Luttig, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced law with the national law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. Dr. Eastman has also represented numerous clients in important constitutional law matters and has argued before the Supreme Court. On behalf of the Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, he has participated as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and State Supreme Courts in more than one hundred cases of constitutional significance, including Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (the school vouchers case), Kelo v. New London, Ct. (eminent domain), and Van Orden v. Perry (the 10 Commandments case). He has also appeared as an expert legal commentator on numerous television and radio programs, including C-SPAN, Fox News, PBS, NewsHour, and The O'Reilly Factor.
Fox Family Pavilion Distinguished Scholar in Residence, University of Pennsylvania
MARCI A. HAMILTON is a Fox Family Pavilion Distinguished Scholar in Residence in the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the founder, CEO, and Academic Director of CHILD USA, www.childusa.org, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit academic think tank at the University of Pennsylvania dedicated to interdisciplinary, evidence-based research to prevent child abuse and neglect. Before joining the program on religion at Penn, Professor Hamilton was the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.
Hamilton is the leading public intellectual critic of extreme religious liberty and its impact on vulnerable populations including children, LGBTQ, and women. The author of God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty (Cambridge University Press), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, she is also a columnist for Verdict on Justia.com. Hamilton successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”) at the Supreme Court in Boerne v. Flores (1997), and defeated the RFRA claim brought by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee against hundreds of child sex abuse survivors in Committee of Unsecured Creditors v. Listecki (7th Cir. 2015).
Drawing on her experience studying and advising in cases involving clergy sex abuse, Hamilton is the leading expert on child sex abuse statutes of limitations and has submitted testimony and advised legislators in every state where significant reform has occurred. She is the author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge University Press), which advocates for the elimination of child sex abuse statutes of limitations. She has also filed countless pro bono amicus briefs for the protection of children at the United States Supreme Court and the state supreme courts. Her textbook, Children and the Law, co-authored with Martin Gardner, will be published Fall 2017 by Carolina Academic Press, formerly Lexis/Nexis.
Hamilton clerked for United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Judge Edward R. Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Hamilton has been honored with the 2016 Voice Today, Voice of Gratitude Award; the 2015 Religious Liberty Award, American Humanist Association; the 2014 Freethought Heroine Award; the National Crime Victim Bar Association’s Frank Carrington Champion of Civil Justice Award, 2012; the E. Nathaniel Gates Award for outstanding public advocacy and scholarship, 2008; and selected as a Pennsylvania Woman of the Year Award, 2012, among others. She is also frequently quoted in the national media on RFRA, RLUIPA, First Amendment, clergy sex abuse, and statute of limitations issues.
Professor Hamilton is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, B.A., summa cum laude; Pennsylvania State University, M.A. (English, fiction writing, High Honors); M.A. (Philosophy); and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Order of the Coif.
Joel focuses his litigation practice on the defense of patent infringement claims and challenges to patent validity as well as disputes over trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property. A registered patent attorney, he has deep experience in post-grant practice before the Patent Office, particularly contested review conducted in parallel with patent infringement litigation. Joel works closely with trial teams preparing patent portfolios for assertive litigation through rigorous “pre-examination” claim validity review and owner-directed re-examination and correction. He has also represented clients in copyright matters and related questions involving the rights surrounding various methods of copying, storing, reproducing and streaming digital media.
Joel litigates and advises candidates, election officials and members of the public on election law, including ballot access and integrity provisions of federal law. He has extensive experience in voter roll integrity and language minority ballot access provisions of federal election statutes. Joel has investigated and enforced statewide violations of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act, and implemented election day polling place observers in primary and general elections in numerous jurisdictions.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Judge Carlos Bea serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He received his Bachelor's Degree from Stanford University in 1956 and his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1958. Judge Bea was born in San Sebastian, Spain, and immigrated with his family to Cuba in 1939. In 1952, he represented Cuba on the Cuban National basketball team in the Helsinki Olympics. Judge Bea became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1958. He engaged in private practice in San Francisco, principally in the area of civil trials (jury and non-jury), from 1959-75 at Dunne, Phelps & Mills and from 1975-90 at Carlos Bea, A Law Corporation. He taught courses in civil litigation advocacy at Hastings College of Law and Stanford Law School. From 1990 to 2003, Judge Bea served as a judge of the San Francisco Superior Court. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and was confirmed in 2003.
Judge Bea and his wife Louise reside in San Francisco, where they raised their four sons, Sebastian, Alexander, Nicholas, and Dominic.
Dr. John Eastman is the former Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service and former Dean at Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law, where he had been a member of the faculty since 1999, specializing in Constitutional Law, Legal History, and Property. He is a founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute that he founded in 1999. He has a Ph.D. in Government from the Claremont Graduate School and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and a B.A. in Politics and Economics from the University of Dallas. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage.
Prior to joining the Chapman law faculty, Dr. Eastman served as a law clerk to the Honorable Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, and to the Honorable J. Michael Luttig, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced law with the national law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. Dr. Eastman has also represented numerous clients in important constitutional law matters and has argued before the Supreme Court. On behalf of the Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, he has participated as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and State Supreme Courts in more than one hundred cases of constitutional significance, including Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (the school vouchers case), Kelo v. New London, Ct. (eminent domain), and Van Orden v. Perry (the 10 Commandments case). He has also appeared as an expert legal commentator on numerous television and radio programs, including C-SPAN, Fox News, PBS, NewsHour, and The O'Reilly Factor.
Fox Family Pavilion Distinguished Scholar in Residence, University of Pennsylvania
MARCI A. HAMILTON is a Fox Family Pavilion Distinguished Scholar in Residence in the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the founder, CEO, and Academic Director of CHILD USA, www.childusa.org, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit academic think tank at the University of Pennsylvania dedicated to interdisciplinary, evidence-based research to prevent child abuse and neglect. Before joining the program on religion at Penn, Professor Hamilton was the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.
Hamilton is the leading public intellectual critic of extreme religious liberty and its impact on vulnerable populations including children, LGBTQ, and women. The author of God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty (Cambridge University Press), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, she is also a columnist for Verdict on Justia.com. Hamilton successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”) at the Supreme Court in Boerne v. Flores (1997), and defeated the RFRA claim brought by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee against hundreds of child sex abuse survivors in Committee of Unsecured Creditors v. Listecki (7th Cir. 2015).
Drawing on her experience studying and advising in cases involving clergy sex abuse, Hamilton is the leading expert on child sex abuse statutes of limitations and has submitted testimony and advised legislators in every state where significant reform has occurred. She is the author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge University Press), which advocates for the elimination of child sex abuse statutes of limitations. She has also filed countless pro bono amicus briefs for the protection of children at the United States Supreme Court and the state supreme courts. Her textbook, Children and the Law, co-authored with Martin Gardner, will be published Fall 2017 by Carolina Academic Press, formerly Lexis/Nexis.
Hamilton clerked for United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Judge Edward R. Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Hamilton has been honored with the 2016 Voice Today, Voice of Gratitude Award; the 2015 Religious Liberty Award, American Humanist Association; the 2014 Freethought Heroine Award; the National Crime Victim Bar Association’s Frank Carrington Champion of Civil Justice Award, 2012; the E. Nathaniel Gates Award for outstanding public advocacy and scholarship, 2008; and selected as a Pennsylvania Woman of the Year Award, 2012, among others. She is also frequently quoted in the national media on RFRA, RLUIPA, First Amendment, clergy sex abuse, and statute of limitations issues.
Professor Hamilton is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, B.A., summa cum laude; Pennsylvania State University, M.A. (English, fiction writing, High Honors); M.A. (Philosophy); and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Order of the Coif.
Former President & CEO, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Eugene B. Meyer, former President and CEO of the Federalist Society, has served as Executive Director, CEO, and/or President of the organization for more than 40 years. He is responsible for shepherding the organization from a small group of law students to a community of 90,000 lawyers, law students, academics, judges, and others interested in the rule of law. The Society now includes a Student Chapter at nearly every ABA-accredited law school in the country and Lawyers Chapters in 220 major cities across the nation. Gene earned his B.A. in history at Yale in 1975 and his M.A. in political science from the London School of Economics in 1976. Gene currently serves on the boards of the U.S. Chess Center, the Holman Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the advisory board of the Adam Smith Society. He holds the title of International Chess Master.
Former Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Scott Pruitt served as the 14th Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
As Administrator, Mr. Pruitt’s overarching goal was to lead EPA in a way that our future generations inherit a better and healthier environment as he works with the thousands of dedicated public servants at EPA who have devoted their careers to helping realize this shared vision, while faithfully administering environmental laws.
Prior to the EPA, Pruitt served as the Attorney General for Oklahoma. Almost immediately upon taking office, he worked with his Democratic counterpart in Arkansas to reach agreement to study the water quality of the Illinois River, which crosses the border between the two states and has been enjoyed by generations of Oklahomans. The Statement of Joint Principles provides for a best science study using EPA-approved methods, with both states agreeing, for the first time, to be bound by the outcome.
Also during his tenure as Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Pruitt led an historic water rights settlement between Oklahoma, Oklahoma City and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribal Nations that preserved the ecosystems of scenic lakes and rivers on native lands. The agreement, which required Congressional approval, was enacted into Section 3608 of Public Law 114-322 and signed in December 2016. It provides a framework that fosters intergovernmental collaboration on significant water resource concerns with the settlement area, while at the same time protecting existing water rights and affirming the state’s role in water rights permitting and administration.
Water settlement cases can be lengthy, costly, divisive and disruptive; however under Pruitt’s forward-thinking leadership, the process was hailed by all parties as one of commitment, hard work, perseverance and cooperation.
Pruitt became a national leader through a career of advocating to keep power in the hands of hard-working Americans. He has a proven track record of working with others – including industry, farmers, ranchers, landowners and small business owners - who want to do the right thing by the environment.
He has dedicated his career to creating policy that serves the people. He strongly believes that environmental law, policy and progress are all based on cooperation between the states, cooperation between the states and EPA, and cooperation between regulators and the public. As Attorney General for Oklahoma, he led the state’s legal challenges against property rights intrusion, while protecting Oklahoma’s natural resources and environment.
He is recognized as a national leader in the cause to restore the proper balance between the states and federal government, and he established Oklahoma’s first federalism unit to combat unwarranted regulation and overreach by the federal government.
Before being elected attorney general, he served eight years in the Oklahoma State Senate where he was a leading voice for fiscal responsibility.
After earning his Bachelor’s Degree from Georgetown College and graduating from the University of Tulsa College of Law, Pruitt went into private legal practice, specializing in constitutional law.
In addition to his life as a civil servant, Pruitt is a successful entrepreneur. As a co-owner and managing general partner of Oklahoma City’s Triple-A minor league baseball affiliate, the Oklahoma City Redhawks, Mr. Pruitt took over the team’s marketing operations and helped the team become one of the minor league leaders in attendance and merchandise sales.
Pruitt is, first and foremost, a family man. He and Marlyn, his wife of 27 years, proudly raised their daughter, McKenna, and son, Cade, in Tulsa. Pruitt has made it a priority to pass on to his children the same principled family values with which he was raised.
Former President & CEO, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Eugene B. Meyer, former President and CEO of the Federalist Society, has served as Executive Director, CEO, and/or President of the organization for more than 40 years. He is responsible for shepherding the organization from a small group of law students to a community of 90,000 lawyers, law students, academics, judges, and others interested in the rule of law. The Society now includes a Student Chapter at nearly every ABA-accredited law school in the country and Lawyers Chapters in 220 major cities across the nation. Gene earned his B.A. in history at Yale in 1975 and his M.A. in political science from the London School of Economics in 1976. Gene currently serves on the boards of the U.S. Chess Center, the Holman Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the advisory board of the Adam Smith Society. He holds the title of International Chess Master.
Former Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Scott Pruitt served as the 14th Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
As Administrator, Mr. Pruitt’s overarching goal was to lead EPA in a way that our future generations inherit a better and healthier environment as he works with the thousands of dedicated public servants at EPA who have devoted their careers to helping realize this shared vision, while faithfully administering environmental laws.
Prior to the EPA, Pruitt served as the Attorney General for Oklahoma. Almost immediately upon taking office, he worked with his Democratic counterpart in Arkansas to reach agreement to study the water quality of the Illinois River, which crosses the border between the two states and has been enjoyed by generations of Oklahomans. The Statement of Joint Principles provides for a best science study using EPA-approved methods, with both states agreeing, for the first time, to be bound by the outcome.
Also during his tenure as Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Pruitt led an historic water rights settlement between Oklahoma, Oklahoma City and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribal Nations that preserved the ecosystems of scenic lakes and rivers on native lands. The agreement, which required Congressional approval, was enacted into Section 3608 of Public Law 114-322 and signed in December 2016. It provides a framework that fosters intergovernmental collaboration on significant water resource concerns with the settlement area, while at the same time protecting existing water rights and affirming the state’s role in water rights permitting and administration.
Water settlement cases can be lengthy, costly, divisive and disruptive; however under Pruitt’s forward-thinking leadership, the process was hailed by all parties as one of commitment, hard work, perseverance and cooperation.
Pruitt became a national leader through a career of advocating to keep power in the hands of hard-working Americans. He has a proven track record of working with others – including industry, farmers, ranchers, landowners and small business owners - who want to do the right thing by the environment.
He has dedicated his career to creating policy that serves the people. He strongly believes that environmental law, policy and progress are all based on cooperation between the states, cooperation between the states and EPA, and cooperation between regulators and the public. As Attorney General for Oklahoma, he led the state’s legal challenges against property rights intrusion, while protecting Oklahoma’s natural resources and environment.
He is recognized as a national leader in the cause to restore the proper balance between the states and federal government, and he established Oklahoma’s first federalism unit to combat unwarranted regulation and overreach by the federal government.
Before being elected attorney general, he served eight years in the Oklahoma State Senate where he was a leading voice for fiscal responsibility.
After earning his Bachelor’s Degree from Georgetown College and graduating from the University of Tulsa College of Law, Pruitt went into private legal practice, specializing in constitutional law.
In addition to his life as a civil servant, Pruitt is a successful entrepreneur. As a co-owner and managing general partner of Oklahoma City’s Triple-A minor league baseball affiliate, the Oklahoma City Redhawks, Mr. Pruitt took over the team’s marketing operations and helped the team become one of the minor league leaders in attendance and merchandise sales.
Pruitt is, first and foremost, a family man. He and Marlyn, his wife of 27 years, proudly raised their daughter, McKenna, and son, Cade, in Tulsa. Pruitt has made it a priority to pass on to his children the same principled family values with which he was raised.
Staff Director, Florida House of Representatives Health and Human Services Committee
Christa Calamas is a Florida lawyer. She was the former Secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (ACHA). She was appointed by Jeb Bush. She also served as Assistant General Counsel to Governor Bush as well as the Assistant General Counsel at AHCA.
Calamas received her bachelors from Eckerd College, her Masters from Dundee University, and her Juris Doctorate from theUniversity of Florida.
Senior Fellow, Independent Institute
John C. Goodman is Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute, President of the Goodman Institute for Public Policy Research, and author of the widely acclaimed, new Independent book, A Better Choice: Healthcare Solutions for America, and the award-winning Independent book, Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis. The Wall Street Journaland the National Journal, among other media, have called him the “Father of Health Savings Accounts.”
Dr. Goodman is frequently invited to testify before Congress on health care reform, and he is the author of more than fifty studies on health policy, retirement reform and tax issues plus ten books, including Living with Obamacare: A Consumer's Guide; Lives at Risk: Single Payer National Health Insurance Around the World(with Gerald Musgrave and Devon Herrick); Leaving Women Behind: Modern Families, Outdated Laws (with Kimberley A. Strassel and Celeste Colgan); and the trailblazing Patient Power: Solving America's Health Care Crisis, that sold more than 300,000 copies. His other books include The Handbook on State Health Care Reform, National Health Care in Great Britain: Lessons for the U.S.A., Economics of Public Policy: The Micro View (with Edwin Dolan), Fighting the War of Ideas in Latin America, and Privatization.
Dr. Goodman received his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University, he has been President and Kellye Wright Fellow in Health Care at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and he has taught and completed research at Columbia University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Southern Methodist University and the University of Dallas. In 1988, he received the prestigious Duncan Black Award for the best scholarly article on public choice economics.
He regularly appears on television and radio news programs, including those on Fox News Channel, CNN, PBS, Fox Business Network and CNBC, and his articles appear in The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, Forbes, National Review, Health Affairs, Kaiser Health News and other national publications. Dr. Goodman was also the pivotal lead expert in the grassroots public policy campaign, “Free Our Health Care Now,” an unsurpassed national education effort to communicate patient-centered alternatives to a government-run health care system. The initiative resulted in the largest online petition ever delivered on Capitol Hill.
14th Surgeon General of the United States
Antonia Novello was born Antonia Coello in Fajardo, Puerto Rico on August 23, 1944. She received her B.S. degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras in 1965 and her M.D. degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine at San Juan in 1970. She then completed her internship and residency in nephrology at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Novello remained at Michigan in 1973-1974 on a fellowship in the Department of Internal Medicine, and spent the following year on a fellowship in the Department of Pediatrics at Georgetown University. From 1976 to 1978, she was in private practice in pediatrics in Springfield, Virginia.
In 1978, Novello joined the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, her first assignment being as a project officer at the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She held various positions at NIH, rising to the job of Deputy Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 1986. She also served as Coordinator for AIDS Research for NICHD from September, 1987. In this role, she developed a particular interest in pediatric AIDS.
During her years at NIH, Novello earned an M.P.H. degree from the John Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1982. From 1976, she also held a clinical appointment in pediatrics at Georgetown University Hospital. Novello also made major contributions to the drafting and enactment of the Organ Transplantation Procurement Act of 1984 while assigned to the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.
Antonia Novello was appointed Surgeon General by President Bush, beginning her tenure on March 9, 1990. She was the first woman and the first Hispanic to hold the position.
During her tenure as Surgeon General, Novello focused her attention on the health of women, children and minorities, as well as on underage drinking, smoking, and AIDS. She played an important role in launching the Healthy Children Ready to Learn Initiative. She was actively involved in working with other organizations to promote immunization of children and childhood injury prevention efforts. She spoke out often and forcefully about illegal underage drinking, and called upon the Health and Human Services Inspector General to issue a series of eight reports on the subject. Novello also similarly worked to discourage illegal tobacco use by young people, and repeatedly criticized the tobacco industry for appealing to the youth market through the use of cartoon characters such as "Joe Camel." A workshop that she convened led to the emergence of a National Hispanic/Latino Health Initiative.
Novello remained in the post of Surgeon General through June 30, 1993. She then served as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Special Representative for Health and Nutrition from 1993 to 1996. In 1996, she became Visiting Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Novello became Commissioner of Health for the State of New York in 1999.
Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Avik Roy is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He is also the opinion editor at Forbes, and is advising Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on policy. In 2015, Roy was a senior advisor to former Texas governor Rick Perry; in 2012, he served as a health care policy advisor to Mitt Romney. He is the founder of Roy Healthcare Research, an investment research firm, and previously was an analyst and portfolio manager at Bain Capital and J.P. Morgan. Roy is the principal author of The Apothecary (the Forbes blog on health care policy and entitlement reform), as well as author ofTranscending Obamacare: A Patient-Centered Plan for Near-Universal Coverage and Permanent Fiscal Solvency (2014) and How Medicaid Fails the Poor (2013). His research interests include the Affordable Care Act, universal coverage, entitlement reform, international health systems, veterans’ health care, and FDA policy.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes calls The Apothecary “one of the best takes from conservatives on that set of issues.” Ezra Klein, in the Washington Post, called The Apothecary one of the few “blogs I disagree with [that] I check daily.” In addition to his regular work for National Review, Roy’s work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, USA Today, Health Affairs, and National Affairs. He is frequently interviewed on TV, including on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, PBS, CBS, and HBO. Roy serves on the advisory board of the National Institute for Health Care Management and cochaired the Fixing Veterans Health Care Policy Taskforce.
Principal Attorney, Woodring Law Firm
Mr. Daniel Woodring has lived in Florida for almost 30 years, but was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Florida, he has lived and worked in Pensacola, Clearwater, Jacksonville, Gainesville and Tallahassee. His wife Jean, who is also an attorney, was born in Miami, and grew up in Ft. Myers. They have a son and a daughter.
Mr. Woodring is recognized as a Florida Super Lawyer, an honor given to fewer than 5% of Florida Attorneys, and holds an Avvo “Superb” rating. Mr. Woodring also has an AV Preeminent® Peer Reviewrating. AV®, AV Preeminent® are registered certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies, and the ratings are explained at www.martindale.com/ratings.
Mr. Woodring is a member of the Florida and Georgia Bars, and is admitted to practice before the Florida Federal Southern, Middle and Northern District Courts, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has worked at the trial level on cases in many of Florida’s 20 judicial circuits, in addition to cases in state administrative tribunals. He has argued cases at the Florida Supreme Court and Florida District Courts of Appeal, and has briefed cases at the U.S. Supreme Court.
He graduated from the University of Florida, College of Law with a Juris Doctorate, Cum Laude, and received his B.A. degree from Clearwater Christian College, Summa Cum Laude.
After law school, Mr. Woodring was in private practice doing general civil and appellate work. He then left for a two year appellate clerkship at the First District Court of Appeal. During his time at the court, he worked on cases including, but not limited to: criminal; family law; administrative law; workers’ compensation; business and civil law; constitutional law.
Mr. Woodring next worked as a counsel in the Executive Office of the Governor, Office of the General Counsel. During his time in Governor Bush’s Legal Office he had diverse responsibilities, including oversight and strategic litigation management of significant legal matters at numerous Governor’s agencies, including the Department of Education, Department of Management Services, Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Department of Health, Agency for Health Care Administration, Department of Children and Families, Department of Community Affairs, Department of Elder affairs, Agency for Workforce Innovation, Department of Transportation, and the Department of State.
He was also legally responsible for topics as disparate as emergency operations; advising the Governor on the selection of judges; implementation of civil service reform; reform of workers’ compensation; budget and appropriation matters; Indian gaming law; and legally advising the Florida Cabinet sitting in its many capacities, such as the Florida Land and Water Adjudicatory Commission.
Mr. Daniel Woodring was then offered the opportunity to be General Counsel for the Florida Department of Education, which encompassed Pre-K though 12th grade, community colleges(now State colleges) and the Florida University System. He was also the first General Counsel for the Florida Board of Governors, when that Board was constitutionally created to manage the State University System.
During almost five years at the Department of Education, Mr. Woodring advised and litigated on matters including, but not limited to: constitutional challenges to Florida’s education programs, including Opportunity Scholarships and the charter school approval and appeal process; doing away with race as a preference in university admissions and state contracting; teacher and professional discipline cases; union, labor and employment matters; state procurement and bid protest proceedings; administrative rule challenges and rule making proceedings; IDEA and Section 504 proceedings; public records, government in the sunshine and ethical matters; contract negotiations and disputes.
Since 2007, Mr. Woodring has been back in private practice as the principal of the Woodring Law Firm, located in Tallahassee, Florida, but with a statewide practice, including Pensacola, Jacksonville, Gainesville, Tampa Bay, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Ft. Myers, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami. He concentrates his practice on appeals; constitutional cases in both state and federal court; education law matters, including charter school represention; Business litigation; and state administrative matters, including state procurement, regulation and licensing, rule challenges and proposed rule making, although he also handles cases in many other areas.
Please look at the individual practice areas on the left menu for more information.
Mr. Woodring is a member of the Appellate, Administrative, and Governmental Lawyer sections of the Florida Bar and served as Chair of the Education Law Committee of the Florida Bar.
Staff Director, Florida House of Representatives Health and Human Services Committee
Christa Calamas is a Florida lawyer. She was the former Secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (ACHA). She was appointed by Jeb Bush. She also served as Assistant General Counsel to Governor Bush as well as the Assistant General Counsel at AHCA.
Calamas received her bachelors from Eckerd College, her Masters from Dundee University, and her Juris Doctorate from theUniversity of Florida.
Senior Fellow, Independent Institute
John C. Goodman is Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute, President of the Goodman Institute for Public Policy Research, and author of the widely acclaimed, new Independent book, A Better Choice: Healthcare Solutions for America, and the award-winning Independent book, Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis. The Wall Street Journaland the National Journal, among other media, have called him the “Father of Health Savings Accounts.”
Dr. Goodman is frequently invited to testify before Congress on health care reform, and he is the author of more than fifty studies on health policy, retirement reform and tax issues plus ten books, including Living with Obamacare: A Consumer's Guide; Lives at Risk: Single Payer National Health Insurance Around the World(with Gerald Musgrave and Devon Herrick); Leaving Women Behind: Modern Families, Outdated Laws (with Kimberley A. Strassel and Celeste Colgan); and the trailblazing Patient Power: Solving America's Health Care Crisis, that sold more than 300,000 copies. His other books include The Handbook on State Health Care Reform, National Health Care in Great Britain: Lessons for the U.S.A., Economics of Public Policy: The Micro View (with Edwin Dolan), Fighting the War of Ideas in Latin America, and Privatization.
Dr. Goodman received his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University, he has been President and Kellye Wright Fellow in Health Care at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and he has taught and completed research at Columbia University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Southern Methodist University and the University of Dallas. In 1988, he received the prestigious Duncan Black Award for the best scholarly article on public choice economics.
He regularly appears on television and radio news programs, including those on Fox News Channel, CNN, PBS, Fox Business Network and CNBC, and his articles appear in The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, Forbes, National Review, Health Affairs, Kaiser Health News and other national publications. Dr. Goodman was also the pivotal lead expert in the grassroots public policy campaign, “Free Our Health Care Now,” an unsurpassed national education effort to communicate patient-centered alternatives to a government-run health care system. The initiative resulted in the largest online petition ever delivered on Capitol Hill.
14th Surgeon General of the United States
Antonia Novello was born Antonia Coello in Fajardo, Puerto Rico on August 23, 1944. She received her B.S. degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras in 1965 and her M.D. degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine at San Juan in 1970. She then completed her internship and residency in nephrology at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Novello remained at Michigan in 1973-1974 on a fellowship in the Department of Internal Medicine, and spent the following year on a fellowship in the Department of Pediatrics at Georgetown University. From 1976 to 1978, she was in private practice in pediatrics in Springfield, Virginia.
In 1978, Novello joined the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, her first assignment being as a project officer at the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She held various positions at NIH, rising to the job of Deputy Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 1986. She also served as Coordinator for AIDS Research for NICHD from September, 1987. In this role, she developed a particular interest in pediatric AIDS.
During her years at NIH, Novello earned an M.P.H. degree from the John Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1982. From 1976, she also held a clinical appointment in pediatrics at Georgetown University Hospital. Novello also made major contributions to the drafting and enactment of the Organ Transplantation Procurement Act of 1984 while assigned to the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.
Antonia Novello was appointed Surgeon General by President Bush, beginning her tenure on March 9, 1990. She was the first woman and the first Hispanic to hold the position.
During her tenure as Surgeon General, Novello focused her attention on the health of women, children and minorities, as well as on underage drinking, smoking, and AIDS. She played an important role in launching the Healthy Children Ready to Learn Initiative. She was actively involved in working with other organizations to promote immunization of children and childhood injury prevention efforts. She spoke out often and forcefully about illegal underage drinking, and called upon the Health and Human Services Inspector General to issue a series of eight reports on the subject. Novello also similarly worked to discourage illegal tobacco use by young people, and repeatedly criticized the tobacco industry for appealing to the youth market through the use of cartoon characters such as "Joe Camel." A workshop that she convened led to the emergence of a National Hispanic/Latino Health Initiative.
Novello remained in the post of Surgeon General through June 30, 1993. She then served as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Special Representative for Health and Nutrition from 1993 to 1996. In 1996, she became Visiting Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Novello became Commissioner of Health for the State of New York in 1999.
Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Avik Roy is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He is also the opinion editor at Forbes, and is advising Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on policy. In 2015, Roy was a senior advisor to former Texas governor Rick Perry; in 2012, he served as a health care policy advisor to Mitt Romney. He is the founder of Roy Healthcare Research, an investment research firm, and previously was an analyst and portfolio manager at Bain Capital and J.P. Morgan. Roy is the principal author of The Apothecary (the Forbes blog on health care policy and entitlement reform), as well as author ofTranscending Obamacare: A Patient-Centered Plan for Near-Universal Coverage and Permanent Fiscal Solvency (2014) and How Medicaid Fails the Poor (2013). His research interests include the Affordable Care Act, universal coverage, entitlement reform, international health systems, veterans’ health care, and FDA policy.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes calls The Apothecary “one of the best takes from conservatives on that set of issues.” Ezra Klein, in the Washington Post, called The Apothecary one of the few “blogs I disagree with [that] I check daily.” In addition to his regular work for National Review, Roy’s work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, USA Today, Health Affairs, and National Affairs. He is frequently interviewed on TV, including on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, PBS, CBS, and HBO. Roy serves on the advisory board of the National Institute for Health Care Management and cochaired the Fixing Veterans Health Care Policy Taskforce.
Principal Attorney, Woodring Law Firm
Mr. Daniel Woodring has lived in Florida for almost 30 years, but was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Florida, he has lived and worked in Pensacola, Clearwater, Jacksonville, Gainesville and Tallahassee. His wife Jean, who is also an attorney, was born in Miami, and grew up in Ft. Myers. They have a son and a daughter.
Mr. Woodring is recognized as a Florida Super Lawyer, an honor given to fewer than 5% of Florida Attorneys, and holds an Avvo “Superb” rating. Mr. Woodring also has an AV Preeminent® Peer Reviewrating. AV®, AV Preeminent® are registered certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies, and the ratings are explained at www.martindale.com/ratings.
Mr. Woodring is a member of the Florida and Georgia Bars, and is admitted to practice before the Florida Federal Southern, Middle and Northern District Courts, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has worked at the trial level on cases in many of Florida’s 20 judicial circuits, in addition to cases in state administrative tribunals. He has argued cases at the Florida Supreme Court and Florida District Courts of Appeal, and has briefed cases at the U.S. Supreme Court.
He graduated from the University of Florida, College of Law with a Juris Doctorate, Cum Laude, and received his B.A. degree from Clearwater Christian College, Summa Cum Laude.
After law school, Mr. Woodring was in private practice doing general civil and appellate work. He then left for a two year appellate clerkship at the First District Court of Appeal. During his time at the court, he worked on cases including, but not limited to: criminal; family law; administrative law; workers’ compensation; business and civil law; constitutional law.
Mr. Woodring next worked as a counsel in the Executive Office of the Governor, Office of the General Counsel. During his time in Governor Bush’s Legal Office he had diverse responsibilities, including oversight and strategic litigation management of significant legal matters at numerous Governor’s agencies, including the Department of Education, Department of Management Services, Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Department of Health, Agency for Health Care Administration, Department of Children and Families, Department of Community Affairs, Department of Elder affairs, Agency for Workforce Innovation, Department of Transportation, and the Department of State.
He was also legally responsible for topics as disparate as emergency operations; advising the Governor on the selection of judges; implementation of civil service reform; reform of workers’ compensation; budget and appropriation matters; Indian gaming law; and legally advising the Florida Cabinet sitting in its many capacities, such as the Florida Land and Water Adjudicatory Commission.
Mr. Daniel Woodring was then offered the opportunity to be General Counsel for the Florida Department of Education, which encompassed Pre-K though 12th grade, community colleges(now State colleges) and the Florida University System. He was also the first General Counsel for the Florida Board of Governors, when that Board was constitutionally created to manage the State University System.
During almost five years at the Department of Education, Mr. Woodring advised and litigated on matters including, but not limited to: constitutional challenges to Florida’s education programs, including Opportunity Scholarships and the charter school approval and appeal process; doing away with race as a preference in university admissions and state contracting; teacher and professional discipline cases; union, labor and employment matters; state procurement and bid protest proceedings; administrative rule challenges and rule making proceedings; IDEA and Section 504 proceedings; public records, government in the sunshine and ethical matters; contract negotiations and disputes.
Since 2007, Mr. Woodring has been back in private practice as the principal of the Woodring Law Firm, located in Tallahassee, Florida, but with a statewide practice, including Pensacola, Jacksonville, Gainesville, Tampa Bay, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Ft. Myers, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami. He concentrates his practice on appeals; constitutional cases in both state and federal court; education law matters, including charter school represention; Business litigation; and state administrative matters, including state procurement, regulation and licensing, rule challenges and proposed rule making, although he also handles cases in many other areas.
Please look at the individual practice areas on the left menu for more information.
Mr. Woodring is a member of the Appellate, Administrative, and Governmental Lawyer sections of the Florida Bar and served as Chair of the Education Law Committee of the Florida Bar.
Former Secretary; U.S. Department of Labor
Rene Alexander Acosta is an American attorney and politician, who served as the 27th United States Secretary of Labor from 2017 to 2019.
Secretary Acosta is the son of Cuban refugees, a native of Miami, and first-generation college graduate. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University.
Following law school, he worked as a law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He then worked at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis and went on to teach at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law.
Secretary Acosta has served in three presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed positions. In 2002, he was appointed to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board, where he participated in or authored more than 125 opinions. In 2003, he was appointed Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and from 2005 to 2009 he served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
Prior to his tenure at the Department of Labor, Secretary Acosta served as the dean of the FIU College of Law.
Secretary Acosta has twice been named one of the nation’s 50 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business magazine. He was also named to the list of 100 most influential individuals in business ethics in 2008. In 2013, the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce presented him with the Chairman’s Higher Education Award in recognition of his “outstanding achievements, leadership and determination throughout a lifetime of caring and giving back to the community.”
Secretary Acosta and his wife enjoy spending time together as a family, raising their two daughters.
Chief Justice, Florida Supreme Court
Justice Charles Canady was born in Lakeland, Florida, in 1954. He is married to Jennifer Houghton, and they have two children. He received his B.A. from Haverford College in 1976 and his J.D. from the Yale Law School in 1979.
Justice Canady practiced law with the firm of Holland and Knight in Lakeland from 1979 through 1982. He practiced with the firm of Lane, Trohn, et al., from 1983 through 1992.
From November 1984 to November 1990, Justice Canady served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives, and from January 1993 to January 2001, he served four terms in the United States House of Representatives. Throughout his service in Congress, Justice Canady was a member of the House Judiciary Committee. For three terms, from January 1995 to January 2001, Justice Canady was the Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.
Upon leaving Congress, Justice Canady became General Counsel to Governor Jeb Bush. He was appointed by Governor Bush to the Second District Court of Appeal for a term beginning November 20, 2002.
On August 28, 2008, Justice Canady was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court by Governor Charlie Crist and took office on September 8, 2008. He served as Chief Justice from July 2010 through June 2012. In March 2018, he was elected by his colleagues to serve as Chief Justice for a second time, with his two-year term starting July 1, 2018, and a third time starting July 1, 2020.
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
William H. Pryor Jr. serves as Chief Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
In 2013–18, he served on the United States Sentencing Commission and, in 2017–18, served as Acting Chair.
He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and previously taught as an adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University.
He served as the 45th Attorney General of Alabama from 1997 to 2004. When he took office, he was the youngest attorney general in the nation. In his reelection, he received the highest percentage of votes of any statewide candidate.
He graduated magna cum laude from Tulane Law School where he finished first in the common-law curriculum and was editor in chief of the Tulane Law Review. He then served as a law clerk for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
He is a member of The American Law Institute and an Adviser for the RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW THIRD, CONFLICT OF LAWS. He is a coauthor with Bryan Garner, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and several other judges of a treatise, THE LAW OF JUDICIAL PRECEDENT. He has published in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Yale Law & Policy Review, George Mason Law Review, Florida Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, and Tulane Law Review. He has published op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Review, and USA Today. He has debated at National Lawyers’ Conventions of the Federalist Society (including on National Public Radio) and at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom. And he is listed among several “widely admired judicial writers” in Bryan Garner’s The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style.
He is a member of the Tulane Law School Hall of Fame and has received the Defender of the Constitution Award from the Heritage Foundation, the Jurist of the Year Award from the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and the St. Thomas More Award from the St. Thomas More Society of Atlanta. Judge Pryor is also a proud member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Mr. Morgan Wood Streetman is the founder and principal of Streetman Law in Tampa, Florida. Mr. Streetman is licensed to practice law in Florida and Mississippi, where he was born. He is also licensed to practice before all federal courts in the Northern and Middle Districts of Florida, the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Mr. Streetman has a wealth of experience in business transactions and disputes. He advises small and closely-held businesses on all of their legal needs, which range from contracts with customers and vendors, to employee relations and human resources issues, to shareholder or member disputes, just to name a few.
Part of Mr. Streetman’s business practice is his focus on representing construction-related businesses and individuals. He has handled every aspect of construction law, including drafting contracts, helping individuals obtain proper licensing, construction liens, construction defect claims, and payment and performance bond claims against surety bonding companies.
Mr. Streetman represents individuals who have been injured by another’s negligence, which includes everything from car and trucking accidents, to dog bites, to a landlord’s allowing a criminal assailant to enter an apartment building common area and viciously attack a tenant by failing to secure common areas with locks and keys.
Mr. Streetman received his law degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Florida in Gainesville. While at the University of Florida, Mr. Streetman was honored with election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. The Society invites less than 1 percent of graduating seniors to become members.
Former Secretary; U.S. Department of Labor
Rene Alexander Acosta is an American attorney and politician, who served as the 27th United States Secretary of Labor from 2017 to 2019.
Secretary Acosta is the son of Cuban refugees, a native of Miami, and first-generation college graduate. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University.
Following law school, he worked as a law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He then worked at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis and went on to teach at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law.
Secretary Acosta has served in three presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed positions. In 2002, he was appointed to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board, where he participated in or authored more than 125 opinions. In 2003, he was appointed Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and from 2005 to 2009 he served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
Prior to his tenure at the Department of Labor, Secretary Acosta served as the dean of the FIU College of Law.
Secretary Acosta has twice been named one of the nation’s 50 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business magazine. He was also named to the list of 100 most influential individuals in business ethics in 2008. In 2013, the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce presented him with the Chairman’s Higher Education Award in recognition of his “outstanding achievements, leadership and determination throughout a lifetime of caring and giving back to the community.”
Secretary Acosta and his wife enjoy spending time together as a family, raising their two daughters.
Chief Justice, Florida Supreme Court
Justice Charles Canady was born in Lakeland, Florida, in 1954. He is married to Jennifer Houghton, and they have two children. He received his B.A. from Haverford College in 1976 and his J.D. from the Yale Law School in 1979.
Justice Canady practiced law with the firm of Holland and Knight in Lakeland from 1979 through 1982. He practiced with the firm of Lane, Trohn, et al., from 1983 through 1992.
From November 1984 to November 1990, Justice Canady served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives, and from January 1993 to January 2001, he served four terms in the United States House of Representatives. Throughout his service in Congress, Justice Canady was a member of the House Judiciary Committee. For three terms, from January 1995 to January 2001, Justice Canady was the Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.
Upon leaving Congress, Justice Canady became General Counsel to Governor Jeb Bush. He was appointed by Governor Bush to the Second District Court of Appeal for a term beginning November 20, 2002.
On August 28, 2008, Justice Canady was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court by Governor Charlie Crist and took office on September 8, 2008. He served as Chief Justice from July 2010 through June 2012. In March 2018, he was elected by his colleagues to serve as Chief Justice for a second time, with his two-year term starting July 1, 2018, and a third time starting July 1, 2020.
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
William H. Pryor Jr. serves as Chief Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
In 2013–18, he served on the United States Sentencing Commission and, in 2017–18, served as Acting Chair.
He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and previously taught as an adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University.
He served as the 45th Attorney General of Alabama from 1997 to 2004. When he took office, he was the youngest attorney general in the nation. In his reelection, he received the highest percentage of votes of any statewide candidate.
He graduated magna cum laude from Tulane Law School where he finished first in the common-law curriculum and was editor in chief of the Tulane Law Review. He then served as a law clerk for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
He is a member of The American Law Institute and an Adviser for the RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW THIRD, CONFLICT OF LAWS. He is a coauthor with Bryan Garner, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and several other judges of a treatise, THE LAW OF JUDICIAL PRECEDENT. He has published in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Yale Law & Policy Review, George Mason Law Review, Florida Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, and Tulane Law Review. He has published op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Review, and USA Today. He has debated at National Lawyers’ Conventions of the Federalist Society (including on National Public Radio) and at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom. And he is listed among several “widely admired judicial writers” in Bryan Garner’s The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style.
He is a member of the Tulane Law School Hall of Fame and has received the Defender of the Constitution Award from the Heritage Foundation, the Jurist of the Year Award from the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and the St. Thomas More Award from the St. Thomas More Society of Atlanta. Judge Pryor is also a proud member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Mr. Morgan Wood Streetman is the founder and principal of Streetman Law in Tampa, Florida. Mr. Streetman is licensed to practice law in Florida and Mississippi, where he was born. He is also licensed to practice before all federal courts in the Northern and Middle Districts of Florida, the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Mr. Streetman has a wealth of experience in business transactions and disputes. He advises small and closely-held businesses on all of their legal needs, which range from contracts with customers and vendors, to employee relations and human resources issues, to shareholder or member disputes, just to name a few.
Part of Mr. Streetman’s business practice is his focus on representing construction-related businesses and individuals. He has handled every aspect of construction law, including drafting contracts, helping individuals obtain proper licensing, construction liens, construction defect claims, and payment and performance bond claims against surety bonding companies.
Mr. Streetman represents individuals who have been injured by another’s negligence, which includes everything from car and trucking accidents, to dog bites, to a landlord’s allowing a criminal assailant to enter an apartment building common area and viciously attack a tenant by failing to secure common areas with locks and keys.
Mr. Streetman received his law degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Florida in Gainesville. While at the University of Florida, Mr. Streetman was honored with election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. The Society invites less than 1 percent of graduating seniors to become members.
Dr. John Eastman is the former Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service and former Dean at Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law, where he had been a member of the faculty since 1999, specializing in Constitutional Law, Legal History, and Property. He is a founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute that he founded in 1999. He has a Ph.D. in Government from the Claremont Graduate School and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and a B.A. in Politics and Economics from the University of Dallas. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage.
Prior to joining the Chapman law faculty, Dr. Eastman served as a law clerk to the Honorable Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, and to the Honorable J. Michael Luttig, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced law with the national law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. Dr. Eastman has also represented numerous clients in important constitutional law matters and has argued before the Supreme Court. On behalf of the Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, he has participated as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and State Supreme Courts in more than one hundred cases of constitutional significance, including Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (the school vouchers case), Kelo v. New London, Ct. (eminent domain), and Van Orden v. Perry (the 10 Commandments case). He has also appeared as an expert legal commentator on numerous television and radio programs, including C-SPAN, Fox News, PBS, NewsHour, and The O'Reilly Factor.
Paul J. Schierl Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Professor Richard W. Garnett teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law, the First Amendment, and law and religion. He is a leading authority on questions and debates regarding religious freedom and church-state relations, and is the founding director of Notre Dame Law School’s Program on Church, State, and Society.
Garnett clerked for the late Chief Justice of the United States, William H. Rehnquist, and also for the late Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Richard S. Arnold. He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1995 and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Duke University in 1990. He joined the faculty in 1999 after practicing law in Washington, D.C. with Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin.
Thomas W. Smith Fellow; Contributing Editor, City Journal, Manhattan Institute
Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a New York Times bestselling author. She is a recipient of the 2005 Bradley Prize. Mac Donald’s work at City Journal has covered a range of topics, including higher education, immigration, policing, homelessness and homeless advocacy, criminal-justice reform, and race relations. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The New Criterion. Mac Donald's newest book, The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture (2018), argues that toxic ideas first spread by higher education have undermined humanistic values, fueled intolerance, and widened divisions in our larger culture.
Mac Donald’s The War on Cops (2016), a New York Times bestseller, warns that raced-based attacks on the criminal-justice system, from the White House on down, are eroding the authority of law and putting lives at risk. Other previous works include The Burden of Bad Ideas (2001), a collection of Mac Donald’s City Journal essays, details the effects of the 1960s counterculture’s destructive march through America’s institutions. In The Immigration Solution: A Better Plan than Today’s (2007), coauthored with Victor Davis Hanson and Steven Malanga, she chronicles the effects of broken immigration laws and proposes a practical solution to securing the country’s porous borders. In Are Cops Racist? (2010), another City Journal anthology, Mac Donald investigates the workings of the police, the controversy over so-called racial profiling, and the anti-profiling lobby’s harmful effects on black Americans.
A nonpracticing lawyer, Mac Donald clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and was an attorney-advisor in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a volunteer with the Natural Resources Defense Council. She has frequently testified before U.S. House and Senate Committees. In 1998, Mac Donald was appointed to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s task force on the City University of New York. She has received numerous awards for her writing:
A frequent guest on Fox News and other TV and radio programs, Mac Donald holds a B.A. in English from Yale University, graduating with a Mellon Fellowship to Cambridge University, where she earned an M.A. in English and studied in Italy through a Clare College study grant. She holds a J.D. from Stanford University Law School.
At the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation's 2018 annual meeting in downtown Los Angeles, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called Mac Donald, “the greatest thinker on criminal justice in America today.”
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz teaches constitutional law and federal jurisdiction, and he writes articles for the Harvard Law Review and the Stanford Law Review.
He is currently developing a new theory of constitutional interpretation and judicial review. The first installment, entitledThe Subjects of the Constitution, was published in the Stanford Law Review in May of 2010, and it is among the most downloaded articles about constitutional interpretation, judicial review, and/or federal courts in the history of SSRN. The second installment, The Objects of the Constitution, was published in May of 2011, also in the Stanford Law Review. And the comprehensive version is forthcoming as a book by Oxford University Press.
Rosenkranz has served and advised the federal government in a variety of capacities. He clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1999-2000) and for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the U.S. Supreme Court (October Term 2001). He served as an Attorney-Advisor at the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice (November 2002 - July 2004). He often testifies before Congress as a constitutional expert—most recently before the House Financial Services Oversight Subcommittee, regarding the Obama Administration's use of bank settlement agreements to circumvent the Appropriations Clause. He has also filed briefs and presented oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court. His most recent Supreme Court brief, in Los Angeles v. Patel, was cited by Justice Alito in dissent.
Rosenkranz is a member of the New York Bar and the U.S. Supreme Court Bar. He is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). He is a founding member of Heterodox Academy and a member of its Executive Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Federalist Society and as the faculty advisor to the Georgetown chapter.
Arnold I. Shure Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Debate: Immigration Restrictions and the Constitution
John C. Eastman, Nicholas William Rotz, Ilya Somin, Amul R. Thapar
2016 National Student Symposium
Immigration restrictions keep millions of people stuck in impoverished countries – preventing them from improving...
Federalism and Religious Liberty
Joel Ard, Carlos T. Bea, John C. Eastman, Marci A. Hamilton
2016 Annual Western Chapters Conference
How should federalism affect “moral” issues like abortion, traditional marriage, and state RFRA laws? What...
Federalism and Religious Liberty
Joel Ard, Carlos T. Bea, John C. Eastman, Marci A. Hamilton
2016 Annual Western Chapters Conference
How should federalism affect “moral” issues like abortion, traditional marriage, and state RFRA laws? What...
Opening Address by Attorney General Scott Pruitt
Eugene B. Meyer, Scott Pruitt
2016 Annual Western Chapters Conference
James Madison wrote that our system of federalism provides “a double security…to the rights of...
Opening Address by Attorney General Scott Pruitt
Eugene B. Meyer, Scott Pruitt
2016 Annual Western Chapters Conference
James Madison wrote that our system of federalism provides “a double security…to the rights of...
Federalism and Healthcare
Christa Calamas, John Goodman, Antonia C. Novello, Avik Roy, Daniel Woodring
2016 Annual Florida Chapters Conference
This panel will move beyond the Obamacare discussion and address what the current problems in...
Federalism and Healthcare
Christa Calamas, John Goodman, Antonia C. Novello, Avik Roy, Daniel Woodring
2016 Annual Florida Chapters Conference
This panel will move beyond the Obamacare discussion and address what the current problems in...
A Conversation on Judging
R. Alexander Acosta, Charles T. Canady, William H. Pryor, Morgan W. Streetman
2016 Annual Florida Chapters Conference
This panel was part of the 2016 Annual Florida Chapters Conference at Disney's Boardwalk Inn...
A Conversation on Judging
R. Alexander Acosta, Charles T. Canady, William H. Pryor, Morgan W. Streetman
2016 Annual Florida Chapters Conference
This panel was part of the 2016 Annual Florida Chapters Conference at Disney's Boardwalk Inn...
Panel: American Multiculturalism: Its Force and Limits From 1776 to Today
John C. Eastman, Richard W. Garnett, Heather Mac Donald, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Mary Anne Case
18th Annual Faculty Conference
Since before the Revolution, American legal and political traditions have supported many forms of multiculturalism,...