Constitutional Scholarship Director and Senior Legal Analyst, Pacific Legal Foundation
Anastasia Boden is Director of Constitutional Scholarship at Pacific Legal Foundation, where she leads the organization’s Supreme Court commentary and directs scholarly analysis in support of the firm’s litigation. She has represented entrepreneurs and small businesses nationwide in challenges to onerous licensing regimes, anti-competitive titling restrictions, Certificate of Need (“competitor’s veto”) laws, and other forms of unnecessary red tape that block economic opportunity.
Prior to this role, Anastasia developed nearly a dozen constitutional challenges to Certificate of Need laws across the country, helping spur legislative reform in Montana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Her victories include a ruling invalidating Houston’s busking restrictions, multiple appellate decisions expanding access to the courts for civil rights plaintiffs, and the legislative repeal of Virginia’s happy-hour advertising ban.
Her writings on law and liberty have been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, and more, and she has appeared on Headline News, CBS News, Fox News, ReasonTV, Newsmax, and John Stossel. In 2020, she was featured on Libertarian Party presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen’s Supreme Court shortlist.
Anastasia earned her BA with dean’s honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her JD from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was research assistant to Professor Randy E. Barnett—the “intellectual godfather” of the constitutional challenge to Obamacare. She is the co-creator of the podcast Dissed, about infamous Supreme Court dissents. She authors the biweekly newsletter SCOTUS Scoop and the column, “In Dissent” for SCOTUSblog.
Founder, Chef, Chef Geoff's
Geoff graduated from Georgetown University in 1995 with a degree in theology. He then went on to graduate first in his class at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Geoff opened Chef Geoff’s in 2000 and Chef Geoff’s Downtown in 2002. Both were opened before he reached the age of 30. In 2006 Geoff opened his third restaurant, LIA’S in Chevy Chase, MD. In late 2008 Geoff opened Hank’s Tavern & Eats in Hyattsville, MD. He operates the 200 seat restaurant in partnership with his brother Chris Tracy. Geoff’s fifth restaurant, Chef Geoff’s Tysons Corner opened in 2009 in Vienna, VA. The sixth restaurant, Chef Geoff’s Rockville, opened in 2012.
Geoff, along with a very talented team, oversees restaurant operations as well as managing the concept, menu development, marketing, finances, and growth at each of the restaurants. The restaurants serve 750,000 guests every year and employ more than 400 amazing people.
Geoff is also the co-author of the New York Times Best Seller, Baby Love. Baby Love teaches busy parents how to feed “Healthy, Easy, Delicious Meals for Your Baby and Toddler”. The book is published by St. Martin’s Press.
As an active member of the Washington DC community, Geoff serves as vice chairman on the executive board of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. Additionally, Geoff contributes to more than 150 charities and organization every year in the form of silent auctions, fundraising appearances, and even the Chef Geoff sponsored Little League team. Geoff is also a member of the Washington Baltimore chapter of the Young Presidents Organization.
In 2006 the National Restaurant Association awarded Chef Geoff’s The Best Neighbor Award for its contributions to the community. In 2009 Geoff was awarded the Albert Uster “Chef of the Year Award”. In 2010 Geoff was named one of the top 40 business people under the age of 40 by Washington Business Journal. In 2011 Chef Geoff’s Tysons won the RAMMY award for “Hottest Restaurant Bar Scene”. In 2009 and 2011 Lia’s was selected as “Best Restaurant in Chevy Chase” by Bethesda Magazine in its annual Reader’s Choice Awards. In 2012, the readers of Washingtonian Magazine selected Geoff as “Best Local Chef”.
Geoff is extraordinarily fortunate to be married to the love of his life and CBS This Morning Anchor Norah O’Donnell. They reside in both New York City and Washington DC with their three beautiful children Grace, Henry, and Riley.
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.
Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law
Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford), as well as the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. He recently retired from teaching at UCLA, after 30 years there, and is now focusing on research.
Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (8th ed. 2023), and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 100 academic law journal articles, mostly on First Amendment law. He is a member of The American Law Institute; the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Free Speech Law; and the creator and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog founded in 2002 (hosted at the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017 and now at Reason Magazine).
Executive in Residence, Wake Forest University School of Business
John Allison is an Executive in Residence at the Wake Forest School of Business. He is a member of the Cato Institute’s Board of Directors and Chairman of the Executive Advisory Council of the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. Allison was president and CEO of the Cato Institute from October 2012 to April 2015. Prior to joining Cato, Allison was chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, the 10th-largest financial services holding company headquartered in the United States. During his tenure as CEO from 1989 to 2008, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets. He was recognized by theHarvard Business Reviewas one of the top 100 most successful CEOs in the world over the last decade.
Allison has received the Corning Award for Distinguished Leadership, been inducted into the North Carolina Business Hall of Fame, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from theAmerican Banker. He is the author of The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism Is the World Economy’s Only Hope and The Leadership Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why the Future of Business Depends on the Return to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. In addition, he is a former Distinguished Professor of Practice at Wake Forest University School of Business, and serves on the Board of Visitors at the business schools at Wake Forest, Duke, and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
Allison is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. He received his master’s degree in management from Duke University and is also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking. Allison is the recipient of six honorary doctorate degrees.
Executive in Residence, Wake Forest University School of Business
John Allison is an Executive in Residence at the Wake Forest School of Business. He is a member of the Cato Institute’s Board of Directors and Chairman of the Executive Advisory Council of the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. Allison was president and CEO of the Cato Institute from October 2012 to April 2015. Prior to joining Cato, Allison was chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, the 10th-largest financial services holding company headquartered in the United States. During his tenure as CEO from 1989 to 2008, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets. He was recognized by theHarvard Business Reviewas one of the top 100 most successful CEOs in the world over the last decade.
Allison has received the Corning Award for Distinguished Leadership, been inducted into the North Carolina Business Hall of Fame, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from theAmerican Banker. He is the author of The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism Is the World Economy’s Only Hope and The Leadership Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why the Future of Business Depends on the Return to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. In addition, he is a former Distinguished Professor of Practice at Wake Forest University School of Business, and serves on the Board of Visitors at the business schools at Wake Forest, Duke, and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
Allison is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. He received his master’s degree in management from Duke University and is also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking. Allison is the recipient of six honorary doctorate degrees.
Osborn Maledon
Andrew G. Pappas is an Assistant Solicitor General in the Office of the Attorney General of Arizona. Mr. Pappas is a member of the California Bar, and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. District Courts for the Central District of California, Southern District of California, and Northern District of Illinois. Before joining the Attorney General's Office, Mr. Pappas was an associate attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Los Angeles. He graduated from Occidental College in 2004, and from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in 2009.
David Scott has a Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University and has taught American government courses at a number of Illinois colleges and universities. In retirement he was the president of the Illinois State Historical Society and attended Federalist Society meetings in St. Louis.
United States Magistrate Judge, Eastern District of North Carolina
Robert T. Numbers, II serves as a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Judge Numbers received degrees in Political Science and Economics, with honors, from Wake Forest University. After completing his undergraduate work, Judge Numbers obtained his law degree from the University of Notre Dame where he served on the Notre Dame Law Review.
Upon his graduation from law school, Judge Numbers joined the Winston-Salem office of a large, regional law firm. From 2005 until 2010, Judge Numbers’ practice focused on civil rights claims against local municipalities and government contractors. In 2010, Judge Numbers joined the firm’s Raleigh office and concentrated his practice on complex business litigation in state and federal courts.
Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel, Americans United for Life
Steven H. Aden serves as Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel at Americans United for Life. Aden joined Americans United for Life in August 2017, overseeing all legal operations of America’s most effective pro-life organization. Aden is a highly experienced litigator, having appeared in court against Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry dozens of times and appointed by the attorneys general of six states to defend prolife laws. Mr. Aden secured court victories that upheld an Arizona law that resulted in six abortion businesses ceasing to offer abortion, applied Missouri’s abortion laws to chemical abortion and upheld the right of Louisiana regulators to shut down dangerous abortion facilities. A prolific author and analyst on sanctity of life issues and constitutional jurisprudence, Aden is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Hawaii (inactive), and is a member of the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous federal circuit and district courts. He has practiced law since 1990 and earned his J.D. (cum laude) from Georgetown University Law Center and his B.A. from the University of Hawaii.
Virginia’s (Un)happy Hour: Is the State Restricting Ads and Economic Rights?
Anastasia P. Boden, Geoffrey Tracy
In Virginia, it’s perfectly legal to have a happy hour; it’s just illegal to talk...
Why Nineteenth Century Bans on “Sectarian” Aid Are Facially Unconstitutional: New Evidence on Plain Meaning
Robert G. Natelson
Note from the Editor: This article presents original research on the nineteenth century meaning of...
ABA Rule 8.4 - Podcast
Eugene Volokh
Professor Eugene Volokh of the UCLA School of Law joined us Monday, December 12 to...
14th Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture
John A. Allison
Good evening. It’s really both a pleasure and honor to be here. I want to...
Luncheon Address by John Allison
John A. Allison, Andrew G. Pappas
John Allison, President and CEO of the Cato Institute, delivered the Keynote Address at the...
Conservative & Libertarian Legal Scholarship: Environmental Law
[Return to Table of Contents] XII. Environmental Law Topical Overviews RICHARD L. REVESZ, FOUNDATIONS OF...
The Ohio Constitution of 1803, Jefferson's Danbury Letter, and Religion in Education
David W. Scott
That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to...
North Carolina Appellate Court Questions the Constitutionality of Campus Police at Universities with Religious Heritages in State v. Yencer
Robert T. Numbers
In late August, as colleges and universities across North Carolina were preparing to welcome back...
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Steven H. Aden
Brought to you by the Religious Liberties Practice Group The "Employment Non-Discrimination Act" ("ENDA") would amend...
Bar Watch Bulletin February 15, 2005
Today we report on Monday’s actions from the House of Delegates. A number of new...