Assistant Professor of Law, Capital University Law School
Nathaniel M. Fouch is an Assistant Professor of Law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio. He previously clerked at every level of the state judiciary, including for Justice Pat DeWine of the Ohio Supreme Court. Professor Fouch was the founding president of both the Dayton Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and the Dayton Catholic Lawyers Guild. He earned his B.A. from Berea College and his J.D. cum laude from the University of St. Thomas School of Law. His work on the Ohio Constitution and state constitutionalism has been cited by the Ohio Supreme Court. Professor Fouch lives in Dayton, Ohio, with his wife, Theresa, and their three young children.
Assistant Professor of Law, Capital University Law School
Nathaniel M. Fouch is an Assistant Professor of Law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio. He previously clerked at every level of the state judiciary, including for Justice Pat DeWine of the Ohio Supreme Court. Professor Fouch was the founding president of both the Dayton Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and the Dayton Catholic Lawyers Guild. He earned his B.A. from Berea College and his J.D. cum laude from the University of St. Thomas School of Law. His work on the Ohio Constitution and state constitutionalism has been cited by the Ohio Supreme Court. Professor Fouch lives in Dayton, Ohio, with his wife, Theresa, and their three young children.
Chairman and Founder, Institute for Free Speech; Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law, Capital University Law School
Smith has authored over 40 articles on campaign finance reform, appearing in academic publications such as the Yale Law Journal and Georgetown Law Journal, and popular publications such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Review. He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Bill Moyers Journal, the Lehrer News Hour, Fox News Special Report, ABC News, Washington Journal, and numerous other national and local television and radio programs.
As an FEC Commissioner, Smith won plaudits for his integrity and refusal to put partisan interests ahead of his duties, as well as his steadfast support for free speech. For his honesty and integrity, the Wall Street Journal dubbed him, “the only honorable man in this bordello.” Smith now serves as the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law at Capital University Law School. He has won numerous awards for his scholarship and teaching, and is a past member of the Advisory Committee to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Election Law. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Election Law Journal, and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Smith also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Studies, is a senior fellow at the Goldwater Institute and is a member of the Board of Scholars of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Smith is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Kalamazoo College and holds an honorary doctorate from Augustana College.
Dean, Capital Law School
Reynaldo Anaya Valencia is the dean of the Capital Law School, previously having served as associate dean for Finance and Administration and as professor of Law at University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law.
Valencia has practiced, taught, written, and lectured nationally and internationally on corporate law, corporate bankruptcy, and race and gender issues, and also has served as an expert witness in complex corporate and bankruptcy multimillion dollar litigation.
Valencia earned an undergraduate degree in psychology (with honors) and a graduate degree in sociology from Stanford University, then went on to receive a juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School. He practiced corporate bankruptcy and general corporate law at the Dallas office of the international law firm of Jones Day for five years, while serving as an adjunct professor of Law at Texas Tech School of Law, where at age 25 he became the youngest faculty member in the law school’s history.
In 1995, Valencia joined the faculty at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio as an associate professor, earning tenure in 1999 and promotion to the rank of full professor. In 2008, he was appointed associate dean of Administration and Finance at St. Mary’s and held the Ernest W. Clemmons Professor of Corporate and Securities Law endowed professorship.
President Bill Clinton appointed Valencia as a White House Fellow for 1999-2000, where he served in the Office of the Chief of Staff. He also has served on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Certification (which produces the national bankruptcy certification examination); the Board of Governors of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO); the Board of Trustees of the Law School Admission Council; and as an elected director on the Harvard Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Valencia received the St. Mary’s University Distinguished Faculty Award (Law School) in 2008. In 2003 and again in 2006, he received the Outstanding Legal Achievement award by the Mexican American Bar Association of San Antonio, and in 2012, was awarded the Becky Cross Anchor Award from Equality Texas in recognition of his work with, and support of, LBGTQ students.
He has published several articles in traditional law reviews, and was the lead co-author of “Mexican Americans and The Law: ¡El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!,” the first undergraduate textbook to focus on Latinos/as and the law.
Valencia and his sons, Elias, Leo and Robert, look forward to becoming part of the Capital University community.
President and CEO, The Buckeye Institute
Robert Alt is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Buckeye Institute where he has catalyzed exponential growth since he took the organization’s helm in 2012. He has since founded Buckeye’s renowned Economic Research Center and established its impactful Legal Center.
Alt is a distinguished scholar and attorney with particular expertise in legal policy, criminal justice, national security, and constitutional law. He previously worked for former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III, regularly provides commentary on television and radio programs, and his writings have appeared in countless outlets.
In 2004, Alt spent five months in Iraq as an embedded war correspondent.
Alt has testified before Congress multiple times—including at the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan—the Federal Election Commission regarding matters of constitutional and administrative law, and numerous state legislatures.
Alt serves as an officer on the boards of The Philadelphia Society and the Federalist Society’s Columbus Lawyers Chapter. He taught national security law, criminal law, and legislation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, as well as constitutional law and political parties and interest groups at Ashland University.
Alt earned his Doctor of Law degree from The University of Chicago Law School, where he was Symposium Editor and the winner of the Mulroy Prize for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy as well as research assistant to Professor Richard Epstein. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Alice Batchelder on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Alt graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and political science magna cum laude from Azusa Pacific University where he also won the Outstanding Senior Award in Political Science.
Alt is an accomplished high-altitude alpinist and endurance athlete who has successfully climbed 6.75 of the famed Seven Summits of the World including Mount Everest. He is the creator of PROFOUND CLIMBING™ and a frequent speaker across the country and around the world on legal and public policy topics as well as effective leadership, management, decision-making, and teamwork in contexts ranging from extraordinary life/death situations to ordinary professional/business settings.
U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Danny Julián Boggs is a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was appointed to a newly created seat on that court on January 29, 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 3, and received his commission on March 25. He served as the Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit from 2003 to 2009.
General Counsel, Strive Asset Management
When she was unanimously confirmed by the United States
Senate to serve as United States Attorney for the District of
Minnesota in 2006, Rachel Kunjummen Paulose became
the first Indian American woman in American history to be
nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate
for any federal appointment.
Under Paulose’s leadership, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for
the District of Minnesota recorded the highest number of prosecutions in its history, reflecting the collaborative hard work of law enforcement partners, attorneys, staff, and civic leaders. Paulose also oversaw landmark prosecutions of white collar
crime (including securities, health care, and public corruption cases), narcotics and firearms trafficking cartels, and civil commitment of sexual predators. Paulose tripled child pornography prosecutions, doubled gun prosecutions, and initiated the
first ever prosecutions of human trafficking and aggravated identity theft. Paulose has first chaired jury and bench trials in federal court, briefed and argued cases before the federal appellate courts, and investigated multinational companies in complex parallel criminal and civil international proceedings.
Among other positions in public service, Paulose served as a law clerk to Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James B. Loken; Trial Attorney for the Voting Section, Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice through the Attorney General’s Honors Program; Assistant U.S. Attorney; Senior Counsel to the Deputy
Attorney General; Special Counsel for Health Care Fraud to the Deputy Attorney General; and Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States. Paulose also served as Senior Trial Counsel at the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. Paulose previously worked as a partner at DLA Piper LLP, then the
largest law firm in the world, and an associate at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C.
Paulose has been active in community leadership by serving as a Director of the Yale Law School Fund, Scholarship Judge for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, Eighth Circuit Vice President of the Federal Bar Association, Co-Founder of the Federal Bar Association’s Diversity Committee, Director of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, American Bar Association
Standing Committee on Public Education, American Bar Association Standing Committee Member on Silver Gavel Awards, Girls State Governor Advisor (after election as the 1990 Ohio Girls State Governor of the largest such program in the nation), Director of the League of Women Voters, Chair of the Committee regarding
the reappointment of the Federal Public Defender of the District of Minnesota (by appointment of the judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit),
Director of the YMCA Board, guest columnist for the Asian American Press, and frequent contributing author to the American Bar Association Preview of Supreme
Court Cases.
Paulose is a frequently sought commentator. She has provided legal analysis for the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, MSNBC, The Spectator, LBC, Sky News, FOX MN, ABC MN, CBS MN, NBC MN, MPR, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, among other media representatives. Her live commentary on the Jacob Wetterling plea deal helped KSTP-TV win an Emmy for the day’s
breaking coverage. She has given the keynote addresses at the North American South Asian Bar Association Annual Convention, the North American South Asian Law Students Association Annual Conference, and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Annual Meeting (Minnesota). She also presented at the
Nobel Peace Prize Forum, American Bar Association Annual Convention, International Business Law Institute, Jewish Community Relations Council, Yale Law School, and Harvard Law School, among other institutions.
In February 2015, Paulose was honored as one of the thirty leading Minnesota women history makers by the Chief Judge of the District and the Federal Bar Association in what is now a traveling court exhibit. In April 2016, Paulose’s biography was added to the Smithsonian Institution’s collection and featured in the
Smithsonian’s collection, “Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation” to honor the stories of groundbreaking Indian Americans.
Paulose taught criminal law, criminal procedure, investigations, and human exploitation (human trafficking and child pornography) at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. She served as the faculty advisor to the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) and the Federalist Society. She also served as a faculty mentor
to graduates and current students, particularly women and students of color.
Paulose received her J.D. from the Yale Law School, where she was a Coker Fellow, Editor of the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, and Commencement Standard Bearer. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. from the University of Minnesota, which she attended on full merit scholarships and where she was the Commencement Speaker, Chair of the Student Representatives to the Board of
Regents, and Phi Beta Kappa. Paulose is a 1991 Harry S. Truman Scholar.
Dean, Capital Law School
Reynaldo Anaya Valencia is the dean of the Capital Law School, previously having served as associate dean for Finance and Administration and as professor of Law at University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law.
Valencia has practiced, taught, written, and lectured nationally and internationally on corporate law, corporate bankruptcy, and race and gender issues, and also has served as an expert witness in complex corporate and bankruptcy multimillion dollar litigation.
Valencia earned an undergraduate degree in psychology (with honors) and a graduate degree in sociology from Stanford University, then went on to receive a juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School. He practiced corporate bankruptcy and general corporate law at the Dallas office of the international law firm of Jones Day for five years, while serving as an adjunct professor of Law at Texas Tech School of Law, where at age 25 he became the youngest faculty member in the law school’s history.
In 1995, Valencia joined the faculty at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio as an associate professor, earning tenure in 1999 and promotion to the rank of full professor. In 2008, he was appointed associate dean of Administration and Finance at St. Mary’s and held the Ernest W. Clemmons Professor of Corporate and Securities Law endowed professorship.
President Bill Clinton appointed Valencia as a White House Fellow for 1999-2000, where he served in the Office of the Chief of Staff. He also has served on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Certification (which produces the national bankruptcy certification examination); the Board of Governors of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO); the Board of Trustees of the Law School Admission Council; and as an elected director on the Harvard Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Valencia received the St. Mary’s University Distinguished Faculty Award (Law School) in 2008. In 2003 and again in 2006, he received the Outstanding Legal Achievement award by the Mexican American Bar Association of San Antonio, and in 2012, was awarded the Becky Cross Anchor Award from Equality Texas in recognition of his work with, and support of, LBGTQ students.
He has published several articles in traditional law reviews, and was the lead co-author of “Mexican Americans and The Law: ¡El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!,” the first undergraduate textbook to focus on Latinos/as and the law.
Valencia and his sons, Elias, Leo and Robert, look forward to becoming part of the Capital University community.
Secretary of State, Commonwealth of Kentucky
Joseph P. Chamberlain Professor of Legislation, Columbia Law
Since joining the Columbia Law School faculty in 1983, Richard Briffault has combined public and government service with teaching, research, and scholarship. He is the Law School’s authority on state and local government; the news media often turns to him for his expert insight into and analysis of issues central to democracy and the political process such as campaign finance reform, government ethics, gerrymandering, election administration, and fair elections. He is also a leading thinker on “the new preemption,” a critique of states that are increasingly passing ideological laws that override local ordinances. Working with the Local Solutions Support Center, he educates city and county government officials on how to respond to state preemption.
Briffault is a pillar of the Columbia Law School community. He has served as a vice dean at three different times during his career. He sits on the advisory board of The Max Berger ’71 Public Interest/Public Service Fellows Program and on the board of directors of the Columbia Journal of Law & Social Problems.
A prodigious scholar, Briffault has written or coauthored more than 90 law review and journal articles as well as books and monographs, including Dollars and Democracy: A Blueprint for Campaign Finance Reform; Cleaning Up Hazardous Waste: Is There a Better Way?; the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth editions of the casebook State and Local Government Law; and The New Preemption Reader.
Before becoming an academic, Briffault was a clerk to Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, an assistant counsel to New York Governor Hugh L. Carey, and an associate at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. During his tenure at Columbia Law, he has served as a member of, or consultant to, an array of New York state and city commissions, including the New York State Moreland Act Commission to Investigate Public Corruption. From 2014 to 2020, Briffault served as chair of the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board. He is the reporter for the American Law Institute’s Project on Principles of Government Ethics, vice-chair of the Citizens Union of the City of New York, and a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics.
Professor of Law, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Judge Hardiman was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on January 9, 2007 and was confirmed by the Senate (95-0) on March 15, 2007. Prior to becoming an appellate judge, Judge Hardiman served as a trial judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania as of November 1, 2003. In 2008, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Information Technology Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Judge Hardiman was appointed Chairman of the IT Committee in 2013 and served in that capacity until September 2021. In 2021 he was appointed by the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to serve as Chair of the Judiciary IT Security Task Force, which completed its work in fall 2023. Chief Justice Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Board of the Federal Judicial Center to serve from March 2020 until March 2024. As part of his work with the Center, Judge Hardiman now serves as Editor in Chief for the Manual for Complex Civil Litigation, Fifth.
Before entering judicial service, Judge Hardiman handled a wide variety of litigation matters in state and federal trial and appellate courts as a partner at Reed Smith LLP (1999-2003), a partner at Titus & McConomy LLP (1996-1999), and as an associate with its predecessor firm, Cindrich & Titus (1992-1996). Judge Hardiman began his legal career as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (1990-1992).
A 1987 honors graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Judge Hardiman received his law degree in 1990 from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as a Notes and Comments Editor on the Georgetown Law Journal. In 2012, Judge Hardiman was elected as a member of the American Law Institute and was elected to its Council in 2019 and its Executive Committee in 2025. Judge Hardiman regularly teaches a seminar on Advanced Constitutional Law at Duquesne University School of Law and a one-week course entitled “Constitutional Law: the First and Second Amendments” at Georgetown University Law Center.
A native of Waltham, Massachusetts, Judge Hardiman has chambers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Lori married in 1992 and have three children.
Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law
Richard H. Pildes is one of the nation’s leading scholars of constitutional law and a specialist in legal issues affecting democracy. He is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Law Institute, and has received recognition as a Guggenheim Fellow and a Carnegie Scholar. His acclaimed casebook, The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process (now in its fourth edition), helped create an entirely new field of study in the law schools. The Law of Democracy systematically explores legal and policy issues concerning the structure of democratic elections and institutions, such as the role of money in politics, the design of election districts, the regulation of political parties, the design of voting systems, the representation of minority interests in democratic institutions, and similar issues. He has written extensively on the rise of political polarization in the United States, the Voting Rights Act, the dysfunction of America’s political processes, the role of the Supreme Court in overseeing American democracy, the powers of the American President and Congress, and he has criticized excessively “romantic” understandings of democracy. In addition to his scholarship on these issues, he has written on national-security law, the design of the regulatory state, and American constitutional history and theory.
Respect for his expertise in these areas is reflected in frequent citations of his work in U.S. Supreme Court opinions, the translation of his work into many languages, and his frequent public lectures and appearances around the world, including his nomination with the NBC News Team for an Emmy Award for coverage of the 2000 Presidential election litigation.
His work has been translated and published in Chinese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. In addition to his scholarship, Professor Pildes plays an active role litigating in these areas. He has won two cases before the United States Supreme Court, including a 2015 victory in Alabama Democratic Conference v. Alabama, a case involving race and redistricting. He served as counsel to a group of former chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission in litigation defending the constitutionality of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; as counsel in election litigation to the Puerto Rico Electoral Commission; as counsel to the government of Puerto Rico; as a federal court-appointed independent expert on voting rights litigation; and as counsel in successful Supreme Court litigation that challenged the way the United States Tax Court operated. He was also a senior legal advisor to the 2008 and 2012 campaigns of President Obama.
Pildes received his A.B. in physical chemistry summa cum laude from Princeton, and his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard, where he served as Supreme Court Note Editor on the Harvard Law Review. He clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. After practicing law in Boston, he began his academic career at the University of Michigan Law School, before joining the NYU School of Law in 2001.
Chairman and Founder, Institute for Free Speech; Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law, Capital University Law School
Smith has authored over 40 articles on campaign finance reform, appearing in academic publications such as the Yale Law Journal and Georgetown Law Journal, and popular publications such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Review. He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Bill Moyers Journal, the Lehrer News Hour, Fox News Special Report, ABC News, Washington Journal, and numerous other national and local television and radio programs.
As an FEC Commissioner, Smith won plaudits for his integrity and refusal to put partisan interests ahead of his duties, as well as his steadfast support for free speech. For his honesty and integrity, the Wall Street Journal dubbed him, “the only honorable man in this bordello.” Smith now serves as the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law at Capital University Law School. He has won numerous awards for his scholarship and teaching, and is a past member of the Advisory Committee to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Election Law. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Election Law Journal, and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Smith also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Studies, is a senior fellow at the Goldwater Institute and is a member of the Board of Scholars of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Smith is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Kalamazoo College and holds an honorary doctorate from Augustana College.
Secretary of State, Commonwealth of Kentucky
Joseph P. Chamberlain Professor of Legislation, Columbia Law
Since joining the Columbia Law School faculty in 1983, Richard Briffault has combined public and government service with teaching, research, and scholarship. He is the Law School’s authority on state and local government; the news media often turns to him for his expert insight into and analysis of issues central to democracy and the political process such as campaign finance reform, government ethics, gerrymandering, election administration, and fair elections. He is also a leading thinker on “the new preemption,” a critique of states that are increasingly passing ideological laws that override local ordinances. Working with the Local Solutions Support Center, he educates city and county government officials on how to respond to state preemption.
Briffault is a pillar of the Columbia Law School community. He has served as a vice dean at three different times during his career. He sits on the advisory board of The Max Berger ’71 Public Interest/Public Service Fellows Program and on the board of directors of the Columbia Journal of Law & Social Problems.
A prodigious scholar, Briffault has written or coauthored more than 90 law review and journal articles as well as books and monographs, including Dollars and Democracy: A Blueprint for Campaign Finance Reform; Cleaning Up Hazardous Waste: Is There a Better Way?; the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth editions of the casebook State and Local Government Law; and The New Preemption Reader.
Before becoming an academic, Briffault was a clerk to Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, an assistant counsel to New York Governor Hugh L. Carey, and an associate at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. During his tenure at Columbia Law, he has served as a member of, or consultant to, an array of New York state and city commissions, including the New York State Moreland Act Commission to Investigate Public Corruption. From 2014 to 2020, Briffault served as chair of the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board. He is the reporter for the American Law Institute’s Project on Principles of Government Ethics, vice-chair of the Citizens Union of the City of New York, and a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics.
Professor of Law, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Judge Hardiman was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on January 9, 2007 and was confirmed by the Senate (95-0) on March 15, 2007. Prior to becoming an appellate judge, Judge Hardiman served as a trial judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania as of November 1, 2003. In 2008, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Information Technology Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Judge Hardiman was appointed Chairman of the IT Committee in 2013 and served in that capacity until September 2021. In 2021 he was appointed by the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to serve as Chair of the Judiciary IT Security Task Force, which completed its work in fall 2023. Chief Justice Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Board of the Federal Judicial Center to serve from March 2020 until March 2024. As part of his work with the Center, Judge Hardiman now serves as Editor in Chief for the Manual for Complex Civil Litigation, Fifth.
Before entering judicial service, Judge Hardiman handled a wide variety of litigation matters in state and federal trial and appellate courts as a partner at Reed Smith LLP (1999-2003), a partner at Titus & McConomy LLP (1996-1999), and as an associate with its predecessor firm, Cindrich & Titus (1992-1996). Judge Hardiman began his legal career as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (1990-1992).
A 1987 honors graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Judge Hardiman received his law degree in 1990 from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as a Notes and Comments Editor on the Georgetown Law Journal. In 2012, Judge Hardiman was elected as a member of the American Law Institute and was elected to its Council in 2019 and its Executive Committee in 2025. Judge Hardiman regularly teaches a seminar on Advanced Constitutional Law at Duquesne University School of Law and a one-week course entitled “Constitutional Law: the First and Second Amendments” at Georgetown University Law Center.
A native of Waltham, Massachusetts, Judge Hardiman has chambers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Lori married in 1992 and have three children.
Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law
Richard H. Pildes is one of the nation’s leading scholars of constitutional law and a specialist in legal issues affecting democracy. He is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Law Institute, and has received recognition as a Guggenheim Fellow and a Carnegie Scholar. His acclaimed casebook, The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process (now in its fourth edition), helped create an entirely new field of study in the law schools. The Law of Democracy systematically explores legal and policy issues concerning the structure of democratic elections and institutions, such as the role of money in politics, the design of election districts, the regulation of political parties, the design of voting systems, the representation of minority interests in democratic institutions, and similar issues. He has written extensively on the rise of political polarization in the United States, the Voting Rights Act, the dysfunction of America’s political processes, the role of the Supreme Court in overseeing American democracy, the powers of the American President and Congress, and he has criticized excessively “romantic” understandings of democracy. In addition to his scholarship on these issues, he has written on national-security law, the design of the regulatory state, and American constitutional history and theory.
Respect for his expertise in these areas is reflected in frequent citations of his work in U.S. Supreme Court opinions, the translation of his work into many languages, and his frequent public lectures and appearances around the world, including his nomination with the NBC News Team for an Emmy Award for coverage of the 2000 Presidential election litigation.
His work has been translated and published in Chinese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. In addition to his scholarship, Professor Pildes plays an active role litigating in these areas. He has won two cases before the United States Supreme Court, including a 2015 victory in Alabama Democratic Conference v. Alabama, a case involving race and redistricting. He served as counsel to a group of former chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission in litigation defending the constitutionality of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; as counsel in election litigation to the Puerto Rico Electoral Commission; as counsel to the government of Puerto Rico; as a federal court-appointed independent expert on voting rights litigation; and as counsel in successful Supreme Court litigation that challenged the way the United States Tax Court operated. He was also a senior legal advisor to the 2008 and 2012 campaigns of President Obama.
Pildes received his A.B. in physical chemistry summa cum laude from Princeton, and his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard, where he served as Supreme Court Note Editor on the Harvard Law Review. He clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. After practicing law in Boston, he began his academic career at the University of Michigan Law School, before joining the NYU School of Law in 2001.
Chairman and Founder, Institute for Free Speech; Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law, Capital University Law School
Smith has authored over 40 articles on campaign finance reform, appearing in academic publications such as the Yale Law Journal and Georgetown Law Journal, and popular publications such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Review. He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Bill Moyers Journal, the Lehrer News Hour, Fox News Special Report, ABC News, Washington Journal, and numerous other national and local television and radio programs.
As an FEC Commissioner, Smith won plaudits for his integrity and refusal to put partisan interests ahead of his duties, as well as his steadfast support for free speech. For his honesty and integrity, the Wall Street Journal dubbed him, “the only honorable man in this bordello.” Smith now serves as the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law at Capital University Law School. He has won numerous awards for his scholarship and teaching, and is a past member of the Advisory Committee to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Election Law. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Election Law Journal, and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Smith also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Studies, is a senior fellow at the Goldwater Institute and is a member of the Board of Scholars of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Smith is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Kalamazoo College and holds an honorary doctorate from Augustana College.
Professor of Law and Faculty Director for the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, Georgetown University Law Center
Stephanie Barclay is a Professor of Law at Georgetown Law School, and the Faculty Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. Her research focuses on the role our different democratic institutions play in protecting minority rights, particularly at the intersection of free speech and religious exercise. Barclay‘s work is published or is forthcoming in leading journals such as the Harvard Law Review, the Chicago Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal Forum. One of her articles was also selected for the 2020 Stanford/Harvard/Yale Junior Faculty Forum. Her work has been featured in many media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Bloomberg BNA, The Hill, and Law 360. And her work has also been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Prior to joining Georgetown, Barclay was twice voted Professor of the Year. Barclay has also litigated constitutional cases at both the trial and appellate level, including before the U.S. Supreme Court. Barclay served as a law clerk to Judge N. Randy Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and to Justice Neil M. Gorsuch of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Barclay is a Faculty Affiliate at the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School; and she is a Nootbaar Fellow at the Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics at Pepperdine University. She currently serves as the Chair for the AALS Law and Religion Section and as a Member of the Executive Committee for the AALS Constitutional Law Section. She graduated summa cum laude from BYU Law School, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif. She is completing a Ph.D. in Law at Oxford University as a Clarendon Scholar and a Tang Scholar.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Patrick J. Bumatay was confirmed as a U.S. Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in December 2019. He is based in San Diego, California.
Prior to his appointment, Judge Bumatay served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, where he was a member of the Appellate and Narcotics Sections. He also served as a Counselor to the Attorney General on criminal law issues, including on national opioid strategy and combating transnational organized crime. Judge Bumatay has also worked in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Office of the Associate Attorney General, and the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice. Judge Bumatay has twice received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award.
Judge Bumatay previously worked as an associate at Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, and Bohrer in New York, New York. Judge Bumatay clerked for the Honorable Timothy M. Tymkovich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the Honorable Sandra L. Townes of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Judge Bumatay earned his B.A., cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair and Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Sanford Levinson, who holds the W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law, joined the University of Texas Law School in 1980. Previously a member of the Department of Politics at Princeton University, he is also a Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas. Levinson is the author of approximately 400 articles, book reviews, or commentaries in professional and popular journals--and a regular contributor to the popular blog Balkinization. He has also written six books: Constitutional Faith (1988, winner of the Scribes Award, 2d edition 2011); Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies (1998); Wrestling With Diversity (2003); Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It)(2006); Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance (2012); An Argument Open to All: Reading the Federalist in the 21st Century (2015); and, with Cynthia Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and teh Flaws that Affect Us Today (forthcoming, September 2017). Edited or co-edited books include a leading constitutional law casebook, Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking (6th ed. 2015, with Paul Brest, Jack Balkin, Akhil Amar, and Reva Siegel); Nullification and Secession in Modern Constitutional Thought (2016); Reading Law and Literature: A Hermeneutic Reader (1988, with Steven Mallioux); Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment (1995); Constitutional Stupidities, Constitutional Tragedies (1998, with William Eskridge); Legal Canons (2000, with Jack Balkin); The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion (2005, with Batholomew Sparrow); Torture: A Collection (2004, revised paperback edition, 2006); and The Oxford Handbook on the United States Constitution (with Mark Tushnet and Mark Graber, 2015). He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association in 2010.
He has been a visiting faculty member of the Boston University, Georgetown, Harvard, New York University, and Yale law schools in the United States and has taught abroad in programs of law in London; Paris; Jerusalem; Auckland, New Zealand; and Melbourne, Australia. He was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1985-86 and a Member of the Ethics in the Professions Program at Harvard in 1991-92. He is also affiliated with the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jewish Philosophy in Jerusalem. A member of the American Law Institute, Levinson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001. He is married to Cynthia Y. Levinson, a writer of children's literature, and has two daughters and four grandchildren.
J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law & Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Georgia School of Law
Lori A. Ringhand teaches courses on constitutional law, election law, and state and local government law. She has been a member of the University of Georgia School of Law faculty since 2008 and was named a Hosch Professor in 2012 and awarded a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Professorship, UGA's highest teaching honor, in 2021.
She is a nationally known Supreme Court scholar and the author of the book Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings and Constitutional Change (with Paul M. Collins) published by Cambridge University Press. She also is the co-author of Constitutional Law: A Context and Practices Casebook, which is part of a series of casebooks dedicated to incorporating active teaching and learning methods into traditional law school casebooks. Ringhand recently received a Fulbright Distinguished Chair Award to spend the spring 2019 semester as a visiting professor at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Her Fulbright research explored the different approaches to campaign finance regulation taken by the United States and the United Kingdom.
Ringhand served as the law school's associate dean for academic affairs from 2015 to 2018 and as the interim director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center from January 2020 to July 2021. She was presented with the C. Ronald Ellington Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2010 and 2015, and the John C. O'Byrne Memorial Faculty Award for Furthering Student-Faculty Relations in 2017. For the 2016-17 academic year, she served as a Women Leadership Fellow, a program developed by the UGA Provost's Office.
Ringhand graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she served as an articles editor on the Wisconsin Law Review. She also holds a Bachelor of Civil Law degree, awarded with distinction, from the University of Oxford. Before coming to UGA, she served on the faculty of the University of Kentucky College of Law and as a visiting scholar at the Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law.
Chairman and Founder, Institute for Free Speech; Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law, Capital University Law School
Smith has authored over 40 articles on campaign finance reform, appearing in academic publications such as the Yale Law Journal and Georgetown Law Journal, and popular publications such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Review. He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Bill Moyers Journal, the Lehrer News Hour, Fox News Special Report, ABC News, Washington Journal, and numerous other national and local television and radio programs.
As an FEC Commissioner, Smith won plaudits for his integrity and refusal to put partisan interests ahead of his duties, as well as his steadfast support for free speech. For his honesty and integrity, the Wall Street Journal dubbed him, “the only honorable man in this bordello.” Smith now serves as the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law at Capital University Law School. He has won numerous awards for his scholarship and teaching, and is a past member of the Advisory Committee to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Election Law. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Election Law Journal, and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Smith also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Studies, is a senior fellow at the Goldwater Institute and is a member of the Board of Scholars of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Smith is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Kalamazoo College and holds an honorary doctorate from Augustana College.
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has initiated a proceeding that proposes to require radio and...
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