Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Peggy Little, Senior Counsel at New Civil Liberties Alliance, a new public interest law firm challenging the administrative state founded in 2017 by Professor Philip Hamburger, has over three decades of experience as a trial and appellate litigator in complex, high-stakes regulatory, mass-tort, class-action, products liability, securities, commercial and civil rights litigation representing individuals and high-profile litigants including Fortune 50 companies, financial institutions, public companies, and universities in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court.
Peggy is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Potter Stewart Prize. She was a law clerk to the Hon. Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Prior to starting her own trial and appellate law firm in 1997, where she was appellate consulting counsel to the New Haven firefighters in Ricci v.DeStefano, a landmark 2009 United States Supreme Court decision, Peggy was a partner at Tyler, Cooper & Alcorn in New Haven, Connecticut. From 2004 to early 2018, Peggy directed, part-time, the Federalist Society Pro Bono Center.
Peggy has participated in many national conferences and symposia addressing issues of current importance in constitutional law – specifically state and federal constitutional questions regarding the separation of powers and the first amendment – and regularly speaks, blogs and publishes on the topic of the unconstitutional exercise of governmental power. In May of 2017, she presented her paper, Pirates at the Parchment Gates, to a conference of state and federal judges at the Law and Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School. Her work has been published by law reviews, legal publications, the Federalist Society, the Wall Street Journal, Law and Liberty and the Manhattan Institute.
Recent publications include: How the SEC silences its critics, The SEC should listen to Sen. Cotton, Lucia v. SEC, Opening Salvos in the Opioid Litigation Wars, Straight Dope on the Opioid Crisis
Of Counsel, Erickson & Sederstrom
Professional Positions
Former Member of National Association of Attorneys General Executive Committee (2002)
Member, Society of Attorneys General Emeritus (SAGE)
Washington Legal Foundation, Policy Advisory Board
Federalist Society, Member of the Federalism Subcommittee for Federalism and Separation of Powers
Former Member, TRANSLink Transmission Co., Board of Directors
Former Member, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Federalism Working Group
Former Chair, Nebraska Crime Commission
Honors and Accomplishments
Argued cases in the United States Supreme Court
Phi Beta Kappa
Republican Nominee for U.S. Senate in Nebraska (2000)
Founding Member of the Republican Attorneys General Association
Nebraska Fertilizer and Ag Chemical Institute's Government Official of the Year (2000)
Nebraska Coalition for Victims of Crime's Public Policy Award (1999)
Lincoln Independent Business Association's Business Champion Award (1997)
Lincoln Jaycees Outstanding Young Individual Award (1981)
Prior to Becoming of Counsel to Erickson & Sederstrom, P.C.
Attorney General of Nebraska (1991-2003)
Legal Counsel to the Governor of Nebraska (1979-1983)
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, B.A. (1970)
Harvard Business School, M.B.A. (1974)
Harvard Law School, J.D. (cum laude) (1974)
Attorney General, State of Colorado
John W. Suthers is a lifetime resident of Colorado. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Government in 1974 and from the University of Colorado Law School in 1977. From 1977 to 1981, he served as a deputy and chief deputy district attorney in Colorado Springs. From September of 1979 to January of 1981, he headed the Economic Crime Division of the District Attorney’s Office and co-authored a nationally published book on consumer fraud and white-collar crime.
In January of 1981, Mr. Suthers entered private practice and became a litigation partner in the Colorado Springs firm of Sparks Dix, P.C. He remained with the firm until November of 1988, when he defeated an incumbent to be elected District Attorney of the Fourth Judicial District. He was elected to a second term as District Attorney in November of 1992. At the conclusion of that second term in January of 1997, he returned to Sparks Dix, P.C. as Senior Counsel in charge of the firm’s litigation section.
On January 12, 1999, Gov. Bill Owens appointed Mr. Suthers as the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections. As head of the Colorado correctional system, he was in charge of an organization with nearly 6,000 employees and an annual operational budget of approximately $500 million.
On July 30, 2001, Mr. Suthers was nominated by President George W. Bush to be the United States Attorney for the District of Colorado. He was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Suthers represented the United States in all criminal and civil matters within the District of Colorado.
On January 4, 2005, Mr. Suthers was appointed Attorney General of Colorado. After serving as Attorney General for nearly two years, in November 2006, the voters of Colorado elected Mr. Suthers by a large margin to serve a four-year term. Mr. Suthers was again re-elected in 2010 by the biggest margin or any statewide race that year. As Attorney General, he represents and defends the interests of the people of the state of Colorado and is chief legal counsel and adviser to state government and its many state agencies, boards and commissions.
Mr. Suthers has served on the board of numerous civic organizations. He has served as President of the El Paso County Bar Association in 1990-91 and as Senior Vice President of the Colorado Bar Association in 1996-97. He served as President of the Colorado District Attorney’s Council in 1994-95. In 1992, he was appointed by the Colorado legislature to serve as a Colorado delegate to the National Conference on Uniform State Laws and served until January of 1997. In the Summer of 2000, Mr. Suthers received a Gates Foundation Fellowship to attend the Government Executives Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
John and his wife Janet have two adult daughters. Alison is a Deputy District Attorney in Denver. Kate is a procurement analyst for the Defense Department in Pearl Harbor and a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves.
Suthers has authored five books, including his most recent, No Higher Calling, No Greater Responsibility: A Prosecutor Makes His Case (Fulcrum Publishing, 2008).
In his tenure as Attorney General, Mr. Suthers has initiated successful programs to protect children from Internet predators and to reduce mortgage and foreclosure fraud. He has served as Chairman of the Conference of Western Attorneys General, a member of the NAAG Executive Committee, Co-Chair of the NAAG Criminal Law Committee and as a member of the U.S. Attorney General’s Executive Working Group.
Wisconsin Attorney General
John Byron ("J.B.") Van Hollen, Wisconsin's 43rd Attorney General, was elected on November 7, 2006, and assuming office on January 1, 2007.
During his campaign for Attorney General, Van Hollen identified the backlog of forensic DNA evidence in the State Crime Lab as the single most important public safety issue facing the Department of Justice and Wisconsin's justice system. Within weeks of becoming Attorney General, General Van Hollen worked with members of both parties in the Legislature and Governor Jim Doyle to secure an unprecedented 31 positions to address the Wisconsin Crime Lab backlog. With efficiencies and the cooperation of partner agencies, the State Crime Lab is on track to eliminate the backlog by 2010.
As Wisconsin's "Top Cop," General Van Hollen identified Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) as another priority vital to protecting Wisconsin's children from on-line predators. By raising awareness and partnering with the Legislature and the Governor, General Van Hollen secured additional resources to educate parents and children, identify, stop, and prosecute these predators. Working in partnership with local law enforcement authorities, the Department offers education, resources, and its expertise in this fight for the safety of some of our most vulnerable victims: children.
General Van Hollen has also restored an emphasis on the rule of law to the Department of Justice. Professionally-reasoned legal advice and client representation is now a hallmark of the Department's work.
General Van Hollen has been clear that restoring integrity and fighting crime would define his work as Attorney General. A philosophy of first principles, limited government, and the Department's role as an "exist to assist" state agency has guided his tenure as Attorney General.
Van Hollen graduated from St. Olaf College in 1988 with an undergraduate degree in Political Science and Economics. He earned his law degree two years later from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Van Hollen began his public service career as an Assistant State Public Defender in Spooner, Wisconsin. In 1991, he became a federal prosecutor, serving as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin. Governor Tommy Thompson appointed Van Hollen as District Attorney in Ashland County, where he served for six years. He was subsequently appointed by Governor Thompson to serve as Bayfield County District Attorney. Van Hollen was later elected to the position, enjoying bi-partisan support as Bayfield County's only elected Republican.
Prior to becoming Attorney General, J.B. was appointed United States Attorney for Wisconsin's Western District in 2002 and served there until 2005.
Professor, The Ohio State University
Professor Cornell has written A Well Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America and The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America, 1788-1828. He has also published Whose Right to Bear Arms Did the Second Amendment Protect? part of the Bedford Book's "Historians At Work" series. He has written articles in the Journal of American History, American Studies, William and Mary Quarterly, William and Mary Law Review,Constitutional Commentary, and others. His book reviews have appeared in the Journal of the Early Republic, Reviews in American History, and many others. Prof. Cornell is a co-author of a forthcoming textbook, Visions of America: A History of the American Nation.
His first book won the Society of the Cincinnati Prize and was a Choice Outstanding Book. His most recent book won the 2006 Langum Prize in legal history. He has been a National Endowment for the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Early American History and Culture. He has held an NEH fellowship and ACLS fellowship. He has delivered invited lectures at Oxford University, Columbia University, Duke, NYU Law School, UCLA Law School, Stanford Law School, and Vanderbilt University Law School. He has presented papers at meetings of the American Historical Association, the American Society of Legal History, the American Studies Association, the Organization of American Historians, and many others. He has published editorials in the New York Times and the Detroit Free Press, and appeared on PBS, C-SPAN, and Fox and Friends
He has a strong interest in teaching with technology. He has written about new media in the AHA's Perspectivesand is on the Board of Advisers of Pearson's website, The History Place. He has guest blogged on the Oxford University Press Blog and at Balkinization.
Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Tennessee College of Law
Professor Reynolds is one of the most prolific scholars on the UT faculty. His special interests are law and technology and constitutional law issues and his work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including the Columbia Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Wisconsin Law Review, the William and Mary Law Review, the Southern California Law Review, the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, The Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Law and Policy in International Business, Jurimetrics, the Journal of Space Law, and the High Technology Law Journal. Professor Reynolds has also written in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Washington Times, the Los Angeles Times, Road & Track, Urb, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as other popular publications. He was for many years a contributing editor at Popular Mechanics magazine, and today writes a regular column for USA Today. He is the co-author of Outer Space: Problems of Law and Policy, and The Appearance of Impropriety: How the Ethics Wars Have Undermined American Government, Business, and Society. His most recent books are The Social Media Upheaval, The Judiciary’s Class War, and The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself.
Professor Reynolds has testified before Congressional committees on space law, international trade, and domestic terrorism. He has been executive chairman of the National Space Society and a member of the White House Advisory Panel on Space Policy. A member of the UT faculty since 1989, Professor Reynolds has received the Harold C. Warner Outstanding Faculty Scholarship Award in W. Allen Separk Outstanding Faculty Scholarship Award, and the Carden Award for Outstanding Scholarship.
A songwriter and producer for such bands as Mobius Dick, The Nebraska Guitar Militia, and The Defenders Of The Faith, Professor Reynolds is a member of the American Society of Composers and Performers and a former member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Professor Reynolds blogs at InstaPundit.com.
Vice President, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence
Dennis A. Henigan is the Vice President of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Founder of its Legal Action Project. He is the author of Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths that Paralyze American Gun Policy (Potomac Books 2009).
For twenty years, he has been a leading advocate for stronger gun laws, appearing dozens of times on national television and radio shows, including 60 Minutes, The Today Show, Nightline, Larry King Live and Dateline. He also has written and spoken extensively on liability and constitutional issues relating to gun laws and gun violence, including testifying before several Congressional Committees.
Under his direction, Brady Center lawyers have recovered millions of dollars in damages for gun violence victims, as well as winning precedent-setting decisions on the liability of gun sellers. In 2004, he was named one of the top ten "Lawyers of the Year" by Lawyers' Weekly magazine. His work as a public interest lawyer has been profiled in The New Yorker.
Henigan received his B.A. from Oberlin College in 1973 and his law degree in 1977 from the University of Virginia School of Law. Prior to joining the Brady Center in 1989, he was a partner in the law firm of Foley & Lardner.
Henigan received his B.A. from Oberlin College in 1973 and his law degree in 1977 from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Executive Director, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Mr. Horwitz is a graduate of the University of Michigan and received his law degree from the George Washington University. He is currently a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is working on a book examining the relationship between guns and democracy which will be published by the University of Michigan Press in 2008.
Vice President for Litigation, Institute for Free Speech
Alan joined the Institute for Free Speech as Vice President for Litigation in February 2021. In this role, Alan directs the Institute’s litigation and legal advocacy, leads our in-house legal team, and manages and works to expand our network of volunteer attorneys.
Prior to joining the Institute, Alan litigated complex federal matters for twenty years, in his own practice and as a partner in various Washington-area firms. He argued and won landmark constitutional cases in the United States Supreme Court and has appeared before numerous appellate and district courts throughout the country. Alan often speaks at law schools and continuing legal education seminars. He also teaches strategic/public interest litigation as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Alan began his career clerking for the Hon. Terrence W. Boyle, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He has also served as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California, a litigation associate at the Washington office of Sidley Austin, and as counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.
Alan earned his J.D. at Georgetown (1995) and his B.A. at Cornell University (1992). He is an active member in good standing of the Virginia, District of Columbia, and California bars, the Bar of the United States Supreme Court, and various federal appellate and district court bars.
Senior Vice President for Legal Studies, Cato Institute
Clark Neily is senior vice president for legal studies at the Cato Institute. His areas of interest include constitutional law, overcriminalization, civil forfeiture, police accountability, and gun rights. Neily is the author of Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution’s Promise of Limited Government. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and National Review Online, as well as various law reviews, including the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, George Mason Law Review, Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, NYU Journal of Law and Liberty, and Texas Review of Law and Politics. Neily is a frequent guest speaker and lecturer for the Federalist Society, Institute for Humane Studies, and American Constitution Society.
Before joining Cato in 2017, Neily was a senior attorney and constitutional litigator at the Institute for Justice and director of the Institute’s Center for Judicial Engagement. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, where he teaches constitutional litigation and public-interest law.
Neily served as co-counsel in District of Columbia v. Heller, the historic case in which the Supreme Court held for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a gun for self-defense.
Neily began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Royce Lamberth on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. After that he spent four years in the trial department of the Dallas-based firm Thompson & Knight. Neily received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas, where he was Chief Articles Editor of the Texas Law Review.
Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Peggy Little, Senior Counsel at New Civil Liberties Alliance, a new public interest law firm challenging the administrative state founded in 2017 by Professor Philip Hamburger, has over three decades of experience as a trial and appellate litigator in complex, high-stakes regulatory, mass-tort, class-action, products liability, securities, commercial and civil rights litigation representing individuals and high-profile litigants including Fortune 50 companies, financial institutions, public companies, and universities in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court.
Peggy is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Potter Stewart Prize. She was a law clerk to the Hon. Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Prior to starting her own trial and appellate law firm in 1997, where she was appellate consulting counsel to the New Haven firefighters in Ricci v.DeStefano, a landmark 2009 United States Supreme Court decision, Peggy was a partner at Tyler, Cooper & Alcorn in New Haven, Connecticut. From 2004 to early 2018, Peggy directed, part-time, the Federalist Society Pro Bono Center.
Peggy has participated in many national conferences and symposia addressing issues of current importance in constitutional law – specifically state and federal constitutional questions regarding the separation of powers and the first amendment – and regularly speaks, blogs and publishes on the topic of the unconstitutional exercise of governmental power. In May of 2017, she presented her paper, Pirates at the Parchment Gates, to a conference of state and federal judges at the Law and Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School. Her work has been published by law reviews, legal publications, the Federalist Society, the Wall Street Journal, Law and Liberty and the Manhattan Institute.
Recent publications include: How the SEC silences its critics, The SEC should listen to Sen. Cotton, Lucia v. SEC, Opening Salvos in the Opioid Litigation Wars, Straight Dope on the Opioid Crisis
Of Counsel, Erickson & Sederstrom
Professional Positions
Former Member of National Association of Attorneys General Executive Committee (2002)
Member, Society of Attorneys General Emeritus (SAGE)
Washington Legal Foundation, Policy Advisory Board
Federalist Society, Member of the Federalism Subcommittee for Federalism and Separation of Powers
Former Member, TRANSLink Transmission Co., Board of Directors
Former Member, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Federalism Working Group
Former Chair, Nebraska Crime Commission
Honors and Accomplishments
Argued cases in the United States Supreme Court
Phi Beta Kappa
Republican Nominee for U.S. Senate in Nebraska (2000)
Founding Member of the Republican Attorneys General Association
Nebraska Fertilizer and Ag Chemical Institute's Government Official of the Year (2000)
Nebraska Coalition for Victims of Crime's Public Policy Award (1999)
Lincoln Independent Business Association's Business Champion Award (1997)
Lincoln Jaycees Outstanding Young Individual Award (1981)
Prior to Becoming of Counsel to Erickson & Sederstrom, P.C.
Attorney General of Nebraska (1991-2003)
Legal Counsel to the Governor of Nebraska (1979-1983)
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, B.A. (1970)
Harvard Business School, M.B.A. (1974)
Harvard Law School, J.D. (cum laude) (1974)
Attorney General, State of Colorado
John W. Suthers is a lifetime resident of Colorado. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Government in 1974 and from the University of Colorado Law School in 1977. From 1977 to 1981, he served as a deputy and chief deputy district attorney in Colorado Springs. From September of 1979 to January of 1981, he headed the Economic Crime Division of the District Attorney’s Office and co-authored a nationally published book on consumer fraud and white-collar crime.
In January of 1981, Mr. Suthers entered private practice and became a litigation partner in the Colorado Springs firm of Sparks Dix, P.C. He remained with the firm until November of 1988, when he defeated an incumbent to be elected District Attorney of the Fourth Judicial District. He was elected to a second term as District Attorney in November of 1992. At the conclusion of that second term in January of 1997, he returned to Sparks Dix, P.C. as Senior Counsel in charge of the firm’s litigation section.
On January 12, 1999, Gov. Bill Owens appointed Mr. Suthers as the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections. As head of the Colorado correctional system, he was in charge of an organization with nearly 6,000 employees and an annual operational budget of approximately $500 million.
On July 30, 2001, Mr. Suthers was nominated by President George W. Bush to be the United States Attorney for the District of Colorado. He was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Suthers represented the United States in all criminal and civil matters within the District of Colorado.
On January 4, 2005, Mr. Suthers was appointed Attorney General of Colorado. After serving as Attorney General for nearly two years, in November 2006, the voters of Colorado elected Mr. Suthers by a large margin to serve a four-year term. Mr. Suthers was again re-elected in 2010 by the biggest margin or any statewide race that year. As Attorney General, he represents and defends the interests of the people of the state of Colorado and is chief legal counsel and adviser to state government and its many state agencies, boards and commissions.
Mr. Suthers has served on the board of numerous civic organizations. He has served as President of the El Paso County Bar Association in 1990-91 and as Senior Vice President of the Colorado Bar Association in 1996-97. He served as President of the Colorado District Attorney’s Council in 1994-95. In 1992, he was appointed by the Colorado legislature to serve as a Colorado delegate to the National Conference on Uniform State Laws and served until January of 1997. In the Summer of 2000, Mr. Suthers received a Gates Foundation Fellowship to attend the Government Executives Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
John and his wife Janet have two adult daughters. Alison is a Deputy District Attorney in Denver. Kate is a procurement analyst for the Defense Department in Pearl Harbor and a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves.
Suthers has authored five books, including his most recent, No Higher Calling, No Greater Responsibility: A Prosecutor Makes His Case (Fulcrum Publishing, 2008).
In his tenure as Attorney General, Mr. Suthers has initiated successful programs to protect children from Internet predators and to reduce mortgage and foreclosure fraud. He has served as Chairman of the Conference of Western Attorneys General, a member of the NAAG Executive Committee, Co-Chair of the NAAG Criminal Law Committee and as a member of the U.S. Attorney General’s Executive Working Group.
Wisconsin Attorney General
John Byron ("J.B.") Van Hollen, Wisconsin's 43rd Attorney General, was elected on November 7, 2006, and assuming office on January 1, 2007.
During his campaign for Attorney General, Van Hollen identified the backlog of forensic DNA evidence in the State Crime Lab as the single most important public safety issue facing the Department of Justice and Wisconsin's justice system. Within weeks of becoming Attorney General, General Van Hollen worked with members of both parties in the Legislature and Governor Jim Doyle to secure an unprecedented 31 positions to address the Wisconsin Crime Lab backlog. With efficiencies and the cooperation of partner agencies, the State Crime Lab is on track to eliminate the backlog by 2010.
As Wisconsin's "Top Cop," General Van Hollen identified Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) as another priority vital to protecting Wisconsin's children from on-line predators. By raising awareness and partnering with the Legislature and the Governor, General Van Hollen secured additional resources to educate parents and children, identify, stop, and prosecute these predators. Working in partnership with local law enforcement authorities, the Department offers education, resources, and its expertise in this fight for the safety of some of our most vulnerable victims: children.
General Van Hollen has also restored an emphasis on the rule of law to the Department of Justice. Professionally-reasoned legal advice and client representation is now a hallmark of the Department's work.
General Van Hollen has been clear that restoring integrity and fighting crime would define his work as Attorney General. A philosophy of first principles, limited government, and the Department's role as an "exist to assist" state agency has guided his tenure as Attorney General.
Van Hollen graduated from St. Olaf College in 1988 with an undergraduate degree in Political Science and Economics. He earned his law degree two years later from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Van Hollen began his public service career as an Assistant State Public Defender in Spooner, Wisconsin. In 1991, he became a federal prosecutor, serving as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin. Governor Tommy Thompson appointed Van Hollen as District Attorney in Ashland County, where he served for six years. He was subsequently appointed by Governor Thompson to serve as Bayfield County District Attorney. Van Hollen was later elected to the position, enjoying bi-partisan support as Bayfield County's only elected Republican.
Prior to becoming Attorney General, J.B. was appointed United States Attorney for Wisconsin's Western District in 2002 and served there until 2005.
Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Peggy Little, Senior Counsel at New Civil Liberties Alliance, a new public interest law firm challenging the administrative state founded in 2017 by Professor Philip Hamburger, has over three decades of experience as a trial and appellate litigator in complex, high-stakes regulatory, mass-tort, class-action, products liability, securities, commercial and civil rights litigation representing individuals and high-profile litigants including Fortune 50 companies, financial institutions, public companies, and universities in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court.
Peggy is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Potter Stewart Prize. She was a law clerk to the Hon. Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Prior to starting her own trial and appellate law firm in 1997, where she was appellate consulting counsel to the New Haven firefighters in Ricci v.DeStefano, a landmark 2009 United States Supreme Court decision, Peggy was a partner at Tyler, Cooper & Alcorn in New Haven, Connecticut. From 2004 to early 2018, Peggy directed, part-time, the Federalist Society Pro Bono Center.
Peggy has participated in many national conferences and symposia addressing issues of current importance in constitutional law – specifically state and federal constitutional questions regarding the separation of powers and the first amendment – and regularly speaks, blogs and publishes on the topic of the unconstitutional exercise of governmental power. In May of 2017, she presented her paper, Pirates at the Parchment Gates, to a conference of state and federal judges at the Law and Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School. Her work has been published by law reviews, legal publications, the Federalist Society, the Wall Street Journal, Law and Liberty and the Manhattan Institute.
Recent publications include: How the SEC silences its critics, The SEC should listen to Sen. Cotton, Lucia v. SEC, Opening Salvos in the Opioid Litigation Wars, Straight Dope on the Opioid Crisis
Of Counsel, Erickson & Sederstrom
Professional Positions
Former Member of National Association of Attorneys General Executive Committee (2002)
Member, Society of Attorneys General Emeritus (SAGE)
Washington Legal Foundation, Policy Advisory Board
Federalist Society, Member of the Federalism Subcommittee for Federalism and Separation of Powers
Former Member, TRANSLink Transmission Co., Board of Directors
Former Member, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Federalism Working Group
Former Chair, Nebraska Crime Commission
Honors and Accomplishments
Argued cases in the United States Supreme Court
Phi Beta Kappa
Republican Nominee for U.S. Senate in Nebraska (2000)
Founding Member of the Republican Attorneys General Association
Nebraska Fertilizer and Ag Chemical Institute's Government Official of the Year (2000)
Nebraska Coalition for Victims of Crime's Public Policy Award (1999)
Lincoln Independent Business Association's Business Champion Award (1997)
Lincoln Jaycees Outstanding Young Individual Award (1981)
Prior to Becoming of Counsel to Erickson & Sederstrom, P.C.
Attorney General of Nebraska (1991-2003)
Legal Counsel to the Governor of Nebraska (1979-1983)
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, B.A. (1970)
Harvard Business School, M.B.A. (1974)
Harvard Law School, J.D. (cum laude) (1974)
Attorney General, State of Colorado
John W. Suthers is a lifetime resident of Colorado. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Government in 1974 and from the University of Colorado Law School in 1977. From 1977 to 1981, he served as a deputy and chief deputy district attorney in Colorado Springs. From September of 1979 to January of 1981, he headed the Economic Crime Division of the District Attorney’s Office and co-authored a nationally published book on consumer fraud and white-collar crime.
In January of 1981, Mr. Suthers entered private practice and became a litigation partner in the Colorado Springs firm of Sparks Dix, P.C. He remained with the firm until November of 1988, when he defeated an incumbent to be elected District Attorney of the Fourth Judicial District. He was elected to a second term as District Attorney in November of 1992. At the conclusion of that second term in January of 1997, he returned to Sparks Dix, P.C. as Senior Counsel in charge of the firm’s litigation section.
On January 12, 1999, Gov. Bill Owens appointed Mr. Suthers as the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections. As head of the Colorado correctional system, he was in charge of an organization with nearly 6,000 employees and an annual operational budget of approximately $500 million.
On July 30, 2001, Mr. Suthers was nominated by President George W. Bush to be the United States Attorney for the District of Colorado. He was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Suthers represented the United States in all criminal and civil matters within the District of Colorado.
On January 4, 2005, Mr. Suthers was appointed Attorney General of Colorado. After serving as Attorney General for nearly two years, in November 2006, the voters of Colorado elected Mr. Suthers by a large margin to serve a four-year term. Mr. Suthers was again re-elected in 2010 by the biggest margin or any statewide race that year. As Attorney General, he represents and defends the interests of the people of the state of Colorado and is chief legal counsel and adviser to state government and its many state agencies, boards and commissions.
Mr. Suthers has served on the board of numerous civic organizations. He has served as President of the El Paso County Bar Association in 1990-91 and as Senior Vice President of the Colorado Bar Association in 1996-97. He served as President of the Colorado District Attorney’s Council in 1994-95. In 1992, he was appointed by the Colorado legislature to serve as a Colorado delegate to the National Conference on Uniform State Laws and served until January of 1997. In the Summer of 2000, Mr. Suthers received a Gates Foundation Fellowship to attend the Government Executives Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
John and his wife Janet have two adult daughters. Alison is a Deputy District Attorney in Denver. Kate is a procurement analyst for the Defense Department in Pearl Harbor and a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves.
Suthers has authored five books, including his most recent, No Higher Calling, No Greater Responsibility: A Prosecutor Makes His Case (Fulcrum Publishing, 2008).
In his tenure as Attorney General, Mr. Suthers has initiated successful programs to protect children from Internet predators and to reduce mortgage and foreclosure fraud. He has served as Chairman of the Conference of Western Attorneys General, a member of the NAAG Executive Committee, Co-Chair of the NAAG Criminal Law Committee and as a member of the U.S. Attorney General’s Executive Working Group.
Wisconsin Attorney General
John Byron ("J.B.") Van Hollen, Wisconsin's 43rd Attorney General, was elected on November 7, 2006, and assuming office on January 1, 2007.
During his campaign for Attorney General, Van Hollen identified the backlog of forensic DNA evidence in the State Crime Lab as the single most important public safety issue facing the Department of Justice and Wisconsin's justice system. Within weeks of becoming Attorney General, General Van Hollen worked with members of both parties in the Legislature and Governor Jim Doyle to secure an unprecedented 31 positions to address the Wisconsin Crime Lab backlog. With efficiencies and the cooperation of partner agencies, the State Crime Lab is on track to eliminate the backlog by 2010.
As Wisconsin's "Top Cop," General Van Hollen identified Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) as another priority vital to protecting Wisconsin's children from on-line predators. By raising awareness and partnering with the Legislature and the Governor, General Van Hollen secured additional resources to educate parents and children, identify, stop, and prosecute these predators. Working in partnership with local law enforcement authorities, the Department offers education, resources, and its expertise in this fight for the safety of some of our most vulnerable victims: children.
General Van Hollen has also restored an emphasis on the rule of law to the Department of Justice. Professionally-reasoned legal advice and client representation is now a hallmark of the Department's work.
General Van Hollen has been clear that restoring integrity and fighting crime would define his work as Attorney General. A philosophy of first principles, limited government, and the Department's role as an "exist to assist" state agency has guided his tenure as Attorney General.
Van Hollen graduated from St. Olaf College in 1988 with an undergraduate degree in Political Science and Economics. He earned his law degree two years later from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Van Hollen began his public service career as an Assistant State Public Defender in Spooner, Wisconsin. In 1991, he became a federal prosecutor, serving as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin. Governor Tommy Thompson appointed Van Hollen as District Attorney in Ashland County, where he served for six years. He was subsequently appointed by Governor Thompson to serve as Bayfield County District Attorney. Van Hollen was later elected to the position, enjoying bi-partisan support as Bayfield County's only elected Republican.
Prior to becoming Attorney General, J.B. was appointed United States Attorney for Wisconsin's Western District in 2002 and served there until 2005.
Partner, Schaerr | Jaffe LLP
Erik Jaffe has been involved in appeals on a broad range of legal issues, including First Amendment challenges to campaign finance reform, Commerce Clause challenges to Health Care Reform and other federal legislation, Equal Protection Clause challenges to affirmative action in education, First Amendment challenges to school vouchers, Fifth Amendment challenges to takings of property, Second Amendment challenges to restrictions on gun ownership, and a wide variety of cases involving patents, copyrights, ERISA, securities fraud, federal preemption, environmental regulation, and other state and federal constitutional and statutory matters. He has represented businesses and non-profit groups, Judges, Senators, former government officials, Nobel Prize winners, and a broad cross-section of private individuals. Mr. Jaffe has been involved in over 120 Supreme Court matters, including filing over 30 cert. petitions, representing half-a-dozen parties on the merits, and filing over 70 amicus briefs at both the cert. and merits stages.
A 1990 graduate of the Columbia University School of Law, Mr. Jaffe was a law clerk to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1990 to 1991. Following that clerkship he spent five years in litigation practice with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly. In the summer of 1996 he left Williams & Connolly to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. At the end of that clerkship he started his own practice, and he was a sole practitioner from 1997 to 2018. He joined the firm of Schaerr | Jaffe LLP in 2018.
Board Member, Center for Equal Opportunity
Roger Clegg is a Board Member at and former President and General Counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity. He focuses on legal issues arising from civil rights laws--including the regulatory impact on business and the problems in higher education created by affirmative action. A former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Reagan and Bush administrations, Clegg held the second highest positions in both the Civil Rights Division (1987-91) and in the Environment and Natural Resources Division (1991-93). He has held several other positions at the U.S. Justice Department, including Assistant to the Solicitor General (1985-87), Associate Deputy Attorney General (1984-85), and Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy (1984). Clegg is a graduate of Yale University Law School (1981).
Topics Concerning Colorado Public Policy
Denver, ColoradoParker v. District of Columbia: DC Gun Ban Case
Saul Cornell, Glenn Reynolds, Dennis A. Henigan, Joshua Horwitz, Alan Gura, Clark Neily
Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled...
Barwatch Bulletin -- August 13, 2007
ABA MedalUnited States Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was awarded the ABA's highest honor, its...
Reaching Too Far? The Role of State Attorneys General
Margaret A. Little, Robert F. McDonnell, Donald B. Stenberg, John W. Suthers, J.B Van Hollen
Recently there has been growing discussion concerning the appropriate role of state Attorneys General. Some...
Reaching Too Far? The Role of State Attorneys General
Margaret A. Little, Robert F. McDonnell, Donald B. Stenberg, John W. Suthers, J.B Van Hollen
Recently there has been growing discussion concerning the appropriate role of state Attorneys General. Some...
Reaching Too Far? The Role of State Attorneys General
State Attorney General Project
Washington, DCWar on Terror: Congress v. the President?
Denver, ColoradoSCOTUScast 3-20-07 featuring Erik S. Jaffe
Erik S. Jaffe
Sinochem Int'l Co. v. Malaysia Int'l Shipping Corp. Justice Ginsburg, speaking for a unanimous Court,...
Bar Watch Bulletin February 12, 2007
Today, we report from the ABA House of Delegates Meeting. Most of the recommendations were...
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and the Future of Racial Preferences
Roger B. Clegg
On November 7, 2006, the people of Michigan voted by an overwhelming 58-42% margin in...