Senior Fellow & Director of the Military, Veterans, and Society, Center for a New American Security
Phillip Carter is Senior Fellow and Director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security. His research focuses on issues facing veterans and military personnel, force structure and readiness issues, and civil-military relations.
Mr. Carter began his career as an Army officer, serving for several years in the active and reserve components as a military police and civil affairs officer. He deployed to Iraq in 2005-06, where he served as an embedded adviser with the Iraqi police in the Diyala province, and worked closely with the State Department’s Provincial Reconstruction Team. After coming home, Mr. Carter became increasingly involved in veterans and national security policy issues. In 2007, Mr. Carter helped stand up the Obama campaign’s veterans policy committee; in 2008, he joined the campaign as its national veterans director, responsible for policy and political engagement with the veterans and military community. In 2009, Mr. Carter served as a political appointee in the Obama administration, responsible for detainee policy issues.
In addition to his military and government experience, Mr. Carter has worked in the private sector as an attorney and business leader. From 2011 to 2013, Mr. Carter served as chief operating officer and counsel for Caerus Associates, a private-sector strategy and design firm. Prior to that, Mr. Carter practiced law with a major international law firm, where his work focused on government contracts, export controls, and national security law. Mr. Carter authored briefs in the landmark national security cases Hamdan v. Rumsfeld(relating to military commissions at Guantanamo Bay), FAIR vs. Rumsfeld (relating to military recruiting on university campuses) and Al-Aulaqi v. Obama (a challenge to U.S. targeting of al Qaeda personnel in Yemen). Mr. Carter continues to practice law as counsel with the law firm Fluet Huber + Hoang PLLC, focusing on government contracts and national security law.
Mr. Carter currently serves on the Reserve Forces Policy Board, teaches as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal for National Security Law & Policy. He writes extensively on legal and national security issues, and comments on national security issues as @Carter_PE on Twitter.
A native of Southern California, Mr. Carter attended college and law school at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Deputy Secretary of Transportation, US Department of Transportation
Steven G. Bradbury was sworn in as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation on March 13, 2025, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on March 11, 2025. In this role, he oversees the Department’s operating administrations and spearheads initiatives to ensure a safe, efficient, and modern transportation system that strengthens economic productivity and global competitiveness. Deputy Secretary Bradbury also assists Secretary Duffy in managing the Department’s activities, including its workforce of over 58,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $109 billion.
Bradbury previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of Transportation from 2017 to 2021, as the Acting Deputy Secretary from 2019, and as Acting Secretary of Transportation in 2021. As General Counsel, he was the chief legal officer, advising on all legal matters and ensuring the integrity and compliance of the Department’s policies and programs.
Before rejoining DOT, Bradbury was a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation from December 2022 to March 2025. He has extensive experience in the public and private sector, having served as Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Dechert LLP. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge James L. Buckley.
Bradbury holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in English from Stanford University.
Senior Lecturer; Director, The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Adam Klein is Director of the Strauss Center and Director of Strauss’ Program on Technology, Security, and Global Affairs. Adam also serves as a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law. Before joining the Strauss Center, Adam served as Chairman of the United States Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, the independent, bipartisan federal agency responsible for overseeing counterterrorism programs at the NSA, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, and other federal agencies. As the Board’s Senate-confirmed Chairman, he oversaw its oversight and advice engagements with other federal agencies, while also serving as the Board’s chief executive officer.
Before entering government, Adam was the Robert M. Gates Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a bipartisan national-security research institution in Washington, DC. There, his research focused on government surveillance, intelligence powers, and national security law. Previously, Adam practiced law at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, LLP and served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has also worked on national-security policy at the RAND Corporation, the 9/11 Public Discourse Project (the non-profit successor to the 9/11 Commission), and in the U.S. Congress. He received his BA from Northwestern University and his JD from Columbia Law School.
Adam is a former Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow and Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow in Berlin. He speaks German and French.
Freelance Writer and Author
Charles Slack is a freelance writer and the author of Liberty's First Crisis: Adams, Jefferson, and the Misfits Who Saved Free Speech, Hetty, Noble Obsession: Charles Goodyear, Thomas Hancock, and the Race to Unlock the Greatest Industrial Secret of the Nineteenth Century, and Blue Fairways: Three Months, Sixty Courses, No Mulligans. He was previously a reporter with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Mr. Slack lives in Connecticut with his wife, two daughters, and a mischievous beagle.
Partner, Barr & Klein PLLC
Steve Klein, a partner at Barr & Klein PLLC, is an experienced free speech attorney who has successfully fought for the First Amendment rights of his clients against local, state and federal regulators. As a lobbyist, Steve’s advocacy has led to the successful amendment of state laws to respect political engagement and prevented the enactment of laws that burden it. Steve has published articles in several legal journals, and his commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Detroit News, and other outlets. Steve earned a bachelors degree in politics at Hillsdale College and a law degree from Ave Maria School of Law, where he served as Managing Editor of the Ave Maria Law Review. He is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, Illinois and Michigan.
Associate Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
Bessler has taught at the University of Minnesota Law School and The George Washington University Law School. He clerked for U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Mason of the District of Minnesota, and practiced law for many years in the area of civil litigation as a partner at the Minneapolis law firm of Kelly & Berens, P.A. He has written five books, four on the subject of capital punishment and one on the craft of writing. His undergraduate degree is in political science, while his master's degree is in international human rights law. His law review articles have appeared in the Indiana Law Journal, the Arkansas Law Review, the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review and elsewhere. John Bessler also teaches a capital punishment seminar as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Legal Director & General Counsel, Criminal Justice Legal Foundation
Kent S. Scheidegger has been the Legal Director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation since December 1986. He also served as Chairman of the Criminal Law Practice Group of the Federalist Society 2003 to 2005. His articles on criminal and constitutional law have been published in law reviews, national legal publications, and congressional reports. Legal arguments authored by Mr. Scheidegger have been cited and incorporated in several precedent-setting United States Supreme Court decisions.
After receiving a degree in physics with honors from New Mexico State University in 1976, Mr. Scheidegger served for six years in the United States Air Force as a Nuclear Research Officer. He took his law degree with distinction from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1982 and practiced civil law in Northern California. He was general counsel of California Cooler, Inc. from 1984 until 1986, when he joined the Foundation.
Senior Fellow, National Review
Bestselling author Andrew C. McCarthy is a contributing editor at National Review, a senior fellow at National Review Institute, and a Fox News contributor. He is a former Chief Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York and led the terrorism prosecution against the “Blind Sheikh” (Omar Abdel Rahman) and eleven other jihadists for conducting a war of urban terrorism against the United States that included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks. During is 20-year career as a prosecutor, he received numerous honors, including the Justice Department’s highest awards. Andy speaks and writes widely on law and national security, radical Islam, politics, and culture. He has testified before Congress as an expert on issues of constitutional law, counterterrorism, and law-enforcement. He is a columnist for The Hill, and his essays and book reviews appear frequently at The New Criterion. His most recent New York Times bestselling book is Ball of Collusion (Encounter Books, 2019), about the Russiagate controversy (an updated version was published in 2020). His other books include Willful Blindness (2008), The Grand Jihad (2010), Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy (2012), and Faithless Execution (2014). He has also written several pamphlets in the Broadside series published by Encounter Books, most recently Islam and Free Speech (2015).
Former United States Attorney General
Michael B. Mukasey is the former Attorney General of the United States, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. As Attorney General from November 2007 to January 2009, he oversaw the U.S. Department of Justice and advised on critical issues of domestic and international law.
From 1988 to 2006, Judge Mukasey served as a district judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, becoming Chief Judge in 2000.
From 1972 to 1976, Judge Mukasey served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and as Chief of the Official Corruption Unit from 1975 to 1976. His practice consisted of criminal litigation on behalf of the government, including investigation and prosecution of narcotics, bank robbery, interstate theft, securities fraud, fraud on the government and bribery. From 1976 to 1987 and from 2006 to 2007 he was in private practice.
Judge Mukasey has received numerous honors, including the Federal Bar Council’s Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Public Access to Information and Proceedings of the New York Bar Association from 1984 to 1987. He served on the Federal Courts Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York from 1979 to 1982 and its Communications Law Committee from 1983 to 1986. Judge Mukasey was also a part-time lecturer at Columbia School of Law from January 1993 to May 2007, teaching trial advocacy.
He received his LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1967 and his B.A. from Columbia College in 1963.
The Second Annual Mike Lewis Memorial Podcast
Phillip Carter, Steven Gill Bradbury, Adam I. Klein
In the summer of 2015, the Federalist Society lost a great friend with the passing...
Topics
The Indispensable Man's Indispensable Role in Securing IP Rights
In our recent book, The Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property – A Natural Rights Perspective,...
Topics
If Marriage Is a Federal Constitutional Right...
However happy the result for some of us, the Supreme Court’s 5-4 discovery in Obergefell...
Liberty's First Crisis: Adams, Jefferson, and the Misfits Who Saved Free Speech - Podcast
Charles Slack, Stephen R. Klein
When the United States government passed the Bill of Rights in 1791, its uncompromising protection...
Execution Methods and Deciding Implementation of the Death Penalty - Podcast
John Bessler, Kent Scheidegger
During oral argument in Glossip v. Gross, Justice Samuel Alito pointed to what he called "a...
The States and the NLRB: A Study in Comparative Sovereignty
Under a system of government that diffuses power and makes institutional “[a]mbition . . ....
2011 James Madison Award Presentation - Prepared Remarks
Andrew McCarthy, Michael B. Mukasey
On April 25, 2011, the New York City Lawyers Chapter hosted its 25th Anniversary Dinner...