Vice President & Senior Counsel, Becket
Luke Goodrich is the author of Free to Believe: The Battle over Religious Liberty in America and vice president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
While at Becket, Luke has argued and won precedent-setting cases in the Third, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits, and has helped Becket win four major Supreme Court cases in the last seven years: including victories for the Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby against the contraception mandate, a victory for a Muslim prisoner under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and a unanimous victory in the Supreme Court’s first decision ever on the ministerial exception, which The Wall Street Journal called one of “the most important religious liberty cases in a half century.”
He frequently discusses religious freedom on networks such as CNN, Fox News, ABC, and NPR, and in publications like the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times magazine. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, where he teaches constitutional law.
Before joining Becket, he clerked for Judge Michael W. McConnell on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and graduated from the University of Chicago Law School with high honors as a member of the Law Review and the Order of the Coif.
VP and Senior Counsel, Becket Fund
Eric Baxter joined The Becket Fund as Senior Counsel in 2011. Since then he has represented religious organizations and individuals in a wide array of religious liberty disputes at both the trial and appellate level. Recent victories including a Ninth Circuit ruling upholding the “Big Mountain Jesus” statue that has stood on Forest Service land near Kalispell, Montana, for more than sixty years, and a rare Pentagon decision allowing a Sikh soldier to maintain his full beard and turban while serving in the Army. Mr. Baxter has extensive experience fighting efforts under state Blaine amendments to exclude religious organizations and individuals from participating on equal terms in the public square. He also regularly advises religious institutions of higher education in defending their religious missions against government encroachment.
Mr. Baxter has frequently appeared in the national media to discuss religious liberty issues, including appearances on Fox News (Kelly File, Fox & Friends), WSJ Live, CBS New York, Christian Broadcasting Network, Newsmax TV, and Al Jazeera. He has also written op-eds and been quoted in many major newspapers and other print media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Fox News, New York Post, Washington Times, and New Boston Post.
Before joining the Becket Fund, Mr. Baxter was a partner at Arent Fox LLP in Washington, DC, where he maintained a commercial complex litigation practice representing clients primarily in employment, intellectual property, and biotechnology disputes. He also served for many years as outside counsel to a DC church and its affiliated school. In 2007, he was awarded the Albert E. Arent Pro Bono Award for his work representing several parents adopting a total of seven children from foster care.
From 2000 to 2002, Mr. Baxter clerked for the Honorable Robert H. Cleland in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit). Mr. Baxter received a B.A. in Russian Literature and Linguistics from Brigham Young University and graduated magna cum laude from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU, where he served as Executive Editor of the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Eric speaks Russian and some Spanish. He and his wife have seven children and an amateur family bluegrass band.
Mr. Baxter has been featured on the Kelly File, Al Jazeera, WSJ Video, and NewsmaxTV.
Senior Counsel, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
Joe Davis joined Becket in 2017 as Legal Counsel. His work at Becket has included appellate litigation in both federal and state courts, including representing religious entities and governments sued because of their openness to religious expression in precedent-setting victories before the Third, Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Circuits. Joe has appeared in national media to discuss religious liberty issues, including on Fox News and numerous radio and print outlets, and his academic work on topics related to religious liberty has been published at venues including the Yale Law Journal Forum and the Notre Dame Law Review Online.
Before joining Becket, Joe worked as a litigator at Jones Walker LLP in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he worked on a variety of matters from commercial and criminal litigation to bankruptcy. From 2014 to 2015, he clerked for the Honorable E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Joe graduated summa cum laude from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2014, where he served on the Virginia Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. While in law school, Joe studied religious liberty law with one of the top religious liberty scholars and litigators in the nation. He also worked as a researcher for the law school’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. Before going to law school, Joe received his B.A. in Economics with a minor in Religion, summa cum laude, from Mississippi State University.
Joe is married to his high school sweetheart. When he’s not helping her corral their four young children, he tends to be reading the classics, watching college football, or listening to his vinyl collection.
James L. Oberstar Professor of Law and Public Policy, University of St. Thomas School of Law
Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Gerard V. Bradley is Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches Legal Ethics and Constitutional Law. At Notre Dame he directs (with John Finnis) the Natural Law Institute and co-edits The American Journal of Jurisprudence, an international forum for legal philosophy. Bradley has been a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey. He served for many years as President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
Bradley received his B.A and J.D. degrees from Cornell University, graduating Summa cum laude from the law school in 1980. After serving in the Trial Division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office he joined the law faculty at the University of Illinois. He moved to Notre Dame in 1992. Bradley has published over one hundred scholarly articles and reviews. His most recent books are an edited collection of essays titled, Challenges to Religious Liberty in the Twenty-First Century (published by Cambridge University Press in 2012), Essays on Law, Religion, and Morality and Unquiet Americans: U.S. Catholics and the Common Good (both to be published in 2014.) He is currently working on a book about regulating obscenity in the Internet Age.
Deputy Legal Director and Director of Center for Liberty, ACLU
Louise Melling is a Deputy Legal Director at the ACLU and the Director of its Center for Liberty, which encompasses the ACLU’s work on reproductive freedom, women’s rights, lesbian gay bisexual and transgender rights, freedom of religion and belief, and disability rights. In this role, she leads the work of the ACLU to address the intersection of religious freedom and equal treatment, among other issues.
Melling has established the ACLU as a national leader in opposing the use of religion to discriminate and in supporting state advocacy teams that have pushed back legislation that would permit discrimination in the name of religion. She has overseen groundbreaking litigation, including cases challenging Catholic hospitals that refuse to provide care consistent with medical ethics and businesses that claim a right to discriminate in the name of religion or speech.
In her time as Director of the Center for Liberty, the ACLU has pursued a program of litigation, advocacy, and public education campaigns that culminated in the 2015 Supreme Court decision recognizing the fundamental right to marry for same-sex couples. Under her leadership, the Center has also challenged innumerable state laws that restrict women’s access to abortion, the federal government policy barring women from serving in combat, school policies that foster sex stereotypes and deny transgender students’ rights, policies and practices that discriminate against Muslims, the use and abuse of guardianship, and government promotion of religion.
Melling has been with the ACLU since 1992, serving in several roles before becoming a Deputy Legal Director in 2010. In 2003, she became Director of the Reproductive Freedom Project, where she oversaw nationwide litigation, public opinion research, public education campaigns, and advocacy efforts in the state legislatures. She has appeared in federal and state courts around the country, most often to challenge laws that restrict reproductive rights.
Melling has appeared in many media outlets, including CNN, PBS News Hour, Frontline, MSNBC, the New York Times, and USA Today. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the Washington Post and The Guardian, among others.
In addition, she is the author of several articles, including Religious Refusals to Public Accommodations Laws: Four Reasons to Say No, 38 Harv J. of Law and Gender (2015); Follow the Money: Ending Discrimination against Women in Hospitals, 15 Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law 435 (2014) (co-authored with Sarah Lipton-Lubet); Lift the Scarlet Letter from Abortion, 35 Cardozo Law Review 1715 (2014); and The Legal Education of Twenty Women, 40 Stan. L. Rev. 1299 (1988) (co-authored with Catherine Weiss).
She is a graduate of the Yale Law School and Oberlin College. Prior to joining the ACLU, Melling clerked for Judge Morris Lasker of the Southern District of New York and worked for Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Andrew Oldham is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before ascending to the bench, Judge Oldham served as General Counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, where he advised the Governor on a range of issues under federal and state law and managed litigation in which the Governor was an interested party. Before that he served as Deputy Solicitor General for the State of Texas, where he represented Texas in federal courts across the country, including twice before the United States Supreme Court. Before moving to Texas, Judge Oldham was an attorney at Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick in Washington, D.C. His practice focused on appellate litigation in federal courts of appeals throughout the country. Before entering private practice, Judge Oldham served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., at the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He also worked as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2006 to 2008. Judge Oldham earned a B.A. from the University of Virginia with highest honors, a Truman Scholarship for graduate school, an M. Phil., first class (with distinction), from Cambridge University, and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
James L. Oberstar Professor of Law and Public Policy, University of St. Thomas School of Law
Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Gerard V. Bradley is Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches Legal Ethics and Constitutional Law. At Notre Dame he directs (with John Finnis) the Natural Law Institute and co-edits The American Journal of Jurisprudence, an international forum for legal philosophy. Bradley has been a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey. He served for many years as President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
Bradley received his B.A and J.D. degrees from Cornell University, graduating Summa cum laude from the law school in 1980. After serving in the Trial Division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office he joined the law faculty at the University of Illinois. He moved to Notre Dame in 1992. Bradley has published over one hundred scholarly articles and reviews. His most recent books are an edited collection of essays titled, Challenges to Religious Liberty in the Twenty-First Century (published by Cambridge University Press in 2012), Essays on Law, Religion, and Morality and Unquiet Americans: U.S. Catholics and the Common Good (both to be published in 2014.) He is currently working on a book about regulating obscenity in the Internet Age.
Deputy Legal Director and Director of Center for Liberty, ACLU
Louise Melling is a Deputy Legal Director at the ACLU and the Director of its Center for Liberty, which encompasses the ACLU’s work on reproductive freedom, women’s rights, lesbian gay bisexual and transgender rights, freedom of religion and belief, and disability rights. In this role, she leads the work of the ACLU to address the intersection of religious freedom and equal treatment, among other issues.
Melling has established the ACLU as a national leader in opposing the use of religion to discriminate and in supporting state advocacy teams that have pushed back legislation that would permit discrimination in the name of religion. She has overseen groundbreaking litigation, including cases challenging Catholic hospitals that refuse to provide care consistent with medical ethics and businesses that claim a right to discriminate in the name of religion or speech.
In her time as Director of the Center for Liberty, the ACLU has pursued a program of litigation, advocacy, and public education campaigns that culminated in the 2015 Supreme Court decision recognizing the fundamental right to marry for same-sex couples. Under her leadership, the Center has also challenged innumerable state laws that restrict women’s access to abortion, the federal government policy barring women from serving in combat, school policies that foster sex stereotypes and deny transgender students’ rights, policies and practices that discriminate against Muslims, the use and abuse of guardianship, and government promotion of religion.
Melling has been with the ACLU since 1992, serving in several roles before becoming a Deputy Legal Director in 2010. In 2003, she became Director of the Reproductive Freedom Project, where she oversaw nationwide litigation, public opinion research, public education campaigns, and advocacy efforts in the state legislatures. She has appeared in federal and state courts around the country, most often to challenge laws that restrict reproductive rights.
Melling has appeared in many media outlets, including CNN, PBS News Hour, Frontline, MSNBC, the New York Times, and USA Today. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the Washington Post and The Guardian, among others.
In addition, she is the author of several articles, including Religious Refusals to Public Accommodations Laws: Four Reasons to Say No, 38 Harv J. of Law and Gender (2015); Follow the Money: Ending Discrimination against Women in Hospitals, 15 Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law 435 (2014) (co-authored with Sarah Lipton-Lubet); Lift the Scarlet Letter from Abortion, 35 Cardozo Law Review 1715 (2014); and The Legal Education of Twenty Women, 40 Stan. L. Rev. 1299 (1988) (co-authored with Catherine Weiss).
She is a graduate of the Yale Law School and Oberlin College. Prior to joining the ACLU, Melling clerked for Judge Morris Lasker of the Southern District of New York and worked for Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Andrew Oldham is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before ascending to the bench, Judge Oldham served as General Counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, where he advised the Governor on a range of issues under federal and state law and managed litigation in which the Governor was an interested party. Before that he served as Deputy Solicitor General for the State of Texas, where he represented Texas in federal courts across the country, including twice before the United States Supreme Court. Before moving to Texas, Judge Oldham was an attorney at Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick in Washington, D.C. His practice focused on appellate litigation in federal courts of appeals throughout the country. Before entering private practice, Judge Oldham served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., at the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He also worked as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2006 to 2008. Judge Oldham earned a B.A. from the University of Virginia with highest honors, a Truman Scholarship for graduate school, an M. Phil., first class (with distinction), from Cambridge University, and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
Associate Professor of Law and Director, Religious Liberty Clini, Stanford Law School
Jim Sonne is a professor at law at Stanford Law School, and is the founding director of the law school’s Religious Liberty Clinic, the only full-time program in the country where students learn the practice of law through supervised litigation in that field. He is an experienced and award-winning teacher, practitioner, and scholar, with expertise in law and religion issues.
Professor Sonne received his BA with honors from Duke University and his JD with honors from Harvard Law School. He is a former law clerk to Judge Edith Brown Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before joining the law school in 2012, Sonne was an appellate lawyer at Horvitz & Levy in Los Angeles.
Senior Litigation Counsel, American Center for Law and Justice
Walter M. Weber is Senior Counsel for the ACLJ in the Washington, D.C. office. A highly regarded legal writer, Weber received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his law degree from Yale Law School.
Weber emphasizes First Amendment law and has written briefs in many landmark cases at the Supreme Court including NOW v. Scheidler, Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches School District and Bray v. Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic.
Weber has argued more than a dozen times in appeals before federal and state courts. Prior to joining the ACLJ, Weber served as a staff attorney with the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Chief Legal Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Jim Campbell serves as chief legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, where he leads the U.S. Legal Advocacy team. In that role, Campbell oversees all U.S. litigation teams and Allied Legal Affairs.
Prior to joining ADF in March 2023, Campbell was the solicitor general in the office of Nebraska Attorney General Douglas J. Peterson and Michael T. Hilgers. In that role, he represented the state of Nebraska in cases before state and federal courts and oversaw all civil appeals for the state. In February 2023, Campbell argued Biden v. Nebraska before the U.S. Supreme Court, a case in which Nebraska and five other states challenged the Biden administration’s attempt to forgive over $400 billion in federal student loans for over 40 million individuals.
Before joining the Nebraska attorney general’s office in January 2020, Campbell worked as senior counsel with ADF. In that role, he defended his clients’ religious freedom and freedom of speech, with a particular focus on appellate work. Campbell has also authored many articles and legal commentary pieces, including some published by USA Today and The Washington Post.
A native of northeastern Ohio, Campbell earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Akron School of Law, where he graduated summa cum laude in 2006. Following law school, he clerked for the Honorable Alice M. Batchelder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Campbell is admitted to the state bars of Ohio, Arizona, and Nebraska. He is also admitted to multiple federal district and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
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The Supreme Court and the Maryland Peace Cross
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Masterpiece Cakeshop and Its Implications
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Masterpiece Cakeshop and Its Implications
Thomas C. Berg, Gerard V. Bradley, Louise Melling, Andrew Oldham
2018 National Lawyers Convention
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