Senior Legal Fellow, Pacific Legal Foundation
Ethan Blevins is a senior legal fellow working primarily on equality and opportunity issues and property rights on PLF’s Constitutional Scholarship team. He previously worked as a staff attorney with PLF, mostly suing his favorite defendant, the City of Seattle. He earned a nickname from The Seattle Times as “the sharpest pin around to the council’s liberal bubble.” He’s had a lifelong dream to earn a superhero name, so he proudly accepts the teasing title of “The Pin” from his coworkers.
In addition to his legal work, Ethan has spoken and written on a variety of legal and policy issues. He has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, and his writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Seattle Times, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Hill, and other major publications.
Ethan’s introduction to liberty began as a teenager when he read Arthur Koestler’s chilling account of communism in Darkness at Noon. He was living in China at the time, and he saw firsthand the corruption and poverty wrought by dictatorship.
He felt inspired to dedicate his legal career to fighting for liberty after clerking for then-Justice Don Willett on the Texas Supreme Court, a judge known for his fierce commitment to constitutional rights (and his Twitter presence).
Ethan earned his law degree cum laude from Duke School of Law, as well as a master’s degree in international and comparative law. He writes poetry and fiction and has completed two fantasy novels, with several other books always in the works. He also enjoys mnemonics, comic books, gaming, and playing the ukulele. He lives in Bountiful, Utah, with his wife and four kids.
Ethan is a member of the bar only in the states of Montana, Utah and Washington.
Partner, Briscoe Prows Kao Ivester & Bazel LLP
Tony Francois is experienced in Water and Real Property Law, Land Use and Zoning, Environmental Regulation, Natural Resources Development, Agricultural Law, and Constitutional Law. He has represented homeowners, builders, farmers and ranchers, trade associations, and water districts in administrative, civil, and criminal proceedings before state and federal administrative agencies and state and federal trial and appellate courts. He is a member of the California State Bar and the Northern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California and the Districts of New Mexico and North Dakota, and has litigated cases in federal courts in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia, as well as the Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals. He has appeared before the Supreme Courts of California, Idaho, Nevada, and the United States.
Prior to attending law school, he served as an infantry officer in the United States Army, and was stationed in the former West Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Tony was an Attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation from 2012 to 2021. He was a lobbyist for 10 years, first with California Farm Bureau Federation from 2003 to 2007, and then with KP Public Affairs from 2007 to 2012. He was an attorney at McQuaid, Bedford & Van Zandt in San Francisco from 1999 – 2003.
U.S. Court of Federal Claims and Jurist-In-Residence Professor of Law, The University of Akron School of Law
Judge Ryan T. Holte was sworn in as a judge on the United States Court of Federal Claims in July 2019. Prior to confirmation he served as the David L. Brennan Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law and Technology at The University of Akron School of Law (2017-2019) and an assistant professor of law at Southern Illinois University School of Law (2013-2017). Judge Holte has written and presented widely on patent law subjects and empirical legal studies of Federal Circuit and district court patent law cases. His most recent articles were published in the Iowa Law Review (2019), George Mason Law Review (2018), and Washington Law Review (2017).
In practice, Judge Holte served for six years as general counsel and partner of an electrical engineering technology company and is co-inventor of multiple patents related to Systems and Methods for Countering Satellite-Navigated Munitions. Prior to entering academia, Judge Holte practiced as a litigation attorney at the Federal Trade Commission and an associate in the Intellectual Property Practice Group at Jones Day. Prior to practice, he served as a law clerk to Judge Stanley F. Birch, Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and as a law clerk to Judge Loren A. Smith on the United States Court of Federal Claims.
Judge Holte received his JD from the University of California Davis School of Law and his BS, magna cum laude, in engineering from the California Maritime Academy where he was a First Class graduate of the Corps of Cadets Third Engineering Division and sailed as a U.S. Merchant Marine oiler.
Associate Professor of Government, Hillsdale College, Washington, D.C. Campus
Richard Samuelson is an Associate Professor of Government at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C., campus. Dr. Samuelson is an historian of the American founding and of American politics and constitutional thought. He graduated from Bates College and received his MA and PhD in American history from the University of Virginia. Dr. Samuelson taught at California State University San Bernardino from 2007 to 2022. He was the 2009-2010 Garwood Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s James Madison Program.
Dr. Samuelson has written extensively on John Adams and on the Adams family of Massachusetts, and on the constitutional politics of the founding more largely. His work also connects the founding with more contemporary issues, with a particular focus on religious liberty, and the challenge the modern American state, and contemporary civil rights laws present to religious liberty.
His essays and reviews have appeared in The Review of Politics, The William and Mary Quarterly, Commentary, The Claremont Review of Books, The Public Interest, National Review, and other publications. He has also contributed many essays and reviews to such online publications as Mosaic, Law and Liberty, Realclearpolitics, and other platforms.
Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence, Independence Institute
Professor Robert G. Natelson is a constitutional scholar and author.
Rob’s constitutional scholarship has been cited repeatedly by justices and parties at the U.S. Supreme Court—as well as by federal appeals courts, and at least 18 state supreme courts.
Rob’s research into the Constitution’s original meaning has carried him to libraries throughout the United States and in Britain, including four months at Oxford University. His books and articles span many different parts of the Constitution, including groundbreaking studies of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the Indian Commerce Clause, federalism, Founding-Era interpretation, regulation of elections, and the amendment process of Article V. He created the first-ever online bibliography for 18th century materials used in constitutional research. He is a contributing author to the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (on Magna Carta). He contributed eight essays to the third edition of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution: five on the amendment procedure and one each on the Guarantee Clause, the Postal Clause, and the Recess Appointments Clause.
U.S. Supreme Court justices have relied explicitly on Rob’s research in 41 citations in 13 separate cases.
Professorial Lecturer in Law, George Washington University Law School
Theodore C. (Ted) Hirt was an attorney in the Department of Justice's Civil Division from August 1979 to March 2016. He was in its Federal Programs Branch from 1979 to 2008 (trial attorney, senior trial counsel, assistant director), and then in its Office of Immigration Litigation from 2008 to 2016 (trial attorney and senior litigation counsel). Among his responsibilities (September 2001 to March 2016) was being an advisor to the Assistant Attorneys General for the Civil Division, who serve ex officio on the Civil Rules Advisory Committee. Mr. Hirt’s areas of specialization include First Amendment issues, internet and telecommunications law, and electronic discovery. From 1976 to 1979, he was an associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Kampelman. From 1975 to 1976 he was an attorney in the Prehearing Division of the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence, Independence Institute
Professor Robert G. Natelson is a constitutional scholar and author.
Rob’s constitutional scholarship has been cited repeatedly by justices and parties at the U.S. Supreme Court—as well as by federal appeals courts, and at least 18 state supreme courts.
Rob’s research into the Constitution’s original meaning has carried him to libraries throughout the United States and in Britain, including four months at Oxford University. His books and articles span many different parts of the Constitution, including groundbreaking studies of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the Indian Commerce Clause, federalism, Founding-Era interpretation, regulation of elections, and the amendment process of Article V. He created the first-ever online bibliography for 18th century materials used in constitutional research. He is a contributing author to the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (on Magna Carta). He contributed eight essays to the third edition of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution: five on the amendment procedure and one each on the Guarantee Clause, the Postal Clause, and the Recess Appointments Clause.
U.S. Supreme Court justices have relied explicitly on Rob’s research in 41 citations in 13 separate cases.
Partner, BakerHostetler, Adjunct Fellow, The Manhattan Institute
Andrew Grossman leads BakerHostetler’s Appellate and Major Motion team. He has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, nearly all the federal courts of appeals, as well as some state appellate courts, litigating high-profile and complex commercial, administrative and constitutional issues.
Andrew works with practice groups across BakerHostetler to identify and tackle complex issues, advise on administrative law and strategy, tee up issues for appeal and tackle appeals. He has developed and implemented litigation and administrative strategies for clients in several fields and industries.
In addition to his practice, Andrew advises members of Congress on matters of constitutional and administrative law, having testified more than a dozen times before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. He has been a frequent legal commentator on radio and television, having appeared on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR and its affiliates, CBN and elsewhere. His legal commentary has also appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times and many others.
Andrew is a Senior Legal Fellow at the Buckeye Institute, an Adjunct Fellow the Manhattan Institute and a member of the leadership of the Federalist Society. He previously served as an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. He clerked for Judge Edith H. Jones on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Associate, Baker Hostetler
Sean Sandoloski is a member of BakerHostetler’s Appellate and Major Motions Team. Sean has represented clients at every level of the federal judiciary, as well as in multiple federal agencies and state courts. He has extensive experience in constitutional, administrative, and antitrust law and litigation.
Sean has developed and implemented litigation, administrative, legislative, and communications strategies for clients—presenting holistic solutions for complex problems. He regularly works across groups and offices to tackle high-stakes, fast-moving issues, and advise clients on strategic and regulatory matters. Throughout his career, Sean has worked to cultivate and foster relationships at all levels from the highest offices in government to corporate executives to benefit his clients.
Prior to joining BakerHostetler, Sean served as Special Assistant and Associate Counsel to the President in the Office of White House Counsel, where his primary responsibilities included the selection and confirmation of judicial nominees. There, Sean worked closely with the Department of Justice, a number of federal agencies, and various congressional committees. He also previously served in the Appellate Section of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, representing the United States in the courts of appeals and advising Division leadership on complex issues of federal law. Additionally, he clerked for Judge Steven M. Colloton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Professor of Law and Jamie L. Whitten Chair in Law and Government, University of Mississippi School of Law
Christopher Green (https://law.olemiss.edu/faculty-directory/christopher-green/) is Professor of Law and Jamie L. Whitten Chair in Law and Government at the University of Mississippi, where he has taught since 2006. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, and has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. He clerked for Judge Rhesa H. Barksdale on the Fifth Circuit and is the author of Equal Citizenship, Civil Rights, and the Constitution: The Original Sense of the Privileges or Immunities Clause (2015) and a large number of articles and essays on constitutional theory and the Fourteenth Amendment, including the two-part Original Sense of the (Equal) Protection Clause and Clarity and Reasonable Doubt in Early State-Constitutional Judicial Review. He is an affiliated scholar with the University of San Diego Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism.
Public Lands at the Founding
The Founders Gave Us the Tools Series
Topics
Does Texas Have The Right to Defend Its Border?
The state of Texas has taken bold steps to secure its southern border and stem...
Topics
The Meaning of “Regulate Commerce” to the Constitution’s Ratifiers: An Update
Constitutional Background The constitutional justification for much of the federal regulatory and administrative apparatus rests...
The False Doctrine of Inherent Sovereign Authority
Robert G. Natelson
This essay examines the hypothesis that the federal government and its departments and officials hold...
Is Congress a Salvageable Institution?
Ted Hirt
A review of Philip A. Wallach, Why Congress (Oxford University Press 2023) Constitutional law...
Topics
The Supreme Court’s Confused Decision in Haaland v. Brackeen
On June 15, the Supreme Court issued Haaland v. Brackeen. Among other issues, the Court...
Topics
Response to The Original Understanding of the Indian Commerce Clause: An Update
I thank the Federalist Society for the opportunity to briefly respond to Robert Natelson’s recent...
The Original Understanding of the Indian Commerce Clause: An Update
Robert G. Natelson
The Congress shall have Power . . . To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and...
The End of Independent Agencies? Restoring Presidential Control of the Executive Branch
Andrew Grossman, Sean Sandoloski
On the day that President Joe Biden took office, among his first official acts was...
State Court Docket Watch: Initiative Measure No. 65: Mayor Butler v. Watson
Christopher R. Green
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...