Senior Counsel, Vice President of Allied Legal Affairs, Alliance Defending Freedom
Brett Harvey serves as senior counsel and vice president of Allied Legal Affairs with Alliance Defending Freedom.
Since joining ADF in 2000, Harvey has coordinated the efforts of the volunteer network of attorneys who collaborate with ADF. In 2002, his role expanded to direct the grant program. To date, Harvey and his team have awarded approximately $54 million in grant funds to thousands of legal projects and cases, many of which have set national and multinational precedents.
Harvey leads the Allied Legal Affairs team, which is dedicated to creating opportunities for attorneys aligned with the ADF mission to actively engage in the protection and promotion of religious liberty. Harvey and his team focus on recruitment, professional engagement, and integration of allies into ADF’s advocacy efforts, including coordinating amicus efforts at state supreme courts, circuit courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Harvey has also litigated in a variety of state and federal courts, focusing on the protection of life and religious freedom. Most notably, he successfully spearheaded a national litigation strategy culminating in Town of Greece v. Galloway, in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the freedom of Americans to pray at public meetings.
Harvey earned his J.D. in 1995 from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University in Georgia. He is admitted to the bar in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia. He has also been admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court in Colorado, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 4th, 6th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Joel L. Oster serves as senior legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom at its Kansas City Regional Service Center in Kansas, where he plays a significant role in litigation efforts defending church autonomy. Before joining Alliance Defending Freedom in 2004, he earned his J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law. Oster is admitted to the bar in Kansas, Missouri, Florida, and numerous federal courts, and has practiced law since 1997.
Director of the Program in Human Rights, Catholic University of America
William L. Saunders is Chair Emeritus of the Religious Liberties Practice Group of the Federalist Society. He is also a religious liberty and human rights scholar as well as director of the Center for Human rights at The Catholic University of America. He is Law Fellow with the Institute for Human Ecology, Professor and Director of the Program in Human Rights in the School of Arts & Sciences and Co-director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Columbus School of Law. Before joining The Catholic University of America, Mr. Saunders served as Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel with Americans United for Life for ten years. From 1999 to 2009, he was Senior Fellow in Bioethics and Human Rights Counsel at the Family Research Council.
Mr. Saunders attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a Morehead scholarship. He obtained his degree in law from the Harvard Law School.
Mr. Saunders was featured in Harvard’s first Guide to Conservative Public Interest Law in 2003 and again in the 2008 edition. He served on Harvard’s Advisory Committee for its 2008 celebration of public interest law. A member of the Supreme Court bar, he has authored numerous legal briefs in state, federal, foreign, and international courts.
Mr. Saunders’ book, Unborn Human Life and Fundamental Rights: Leading Constitutional Cases Under Scrutiny, was published in 2019. His articles and book chapters have been published by the university presses of Harvard, Villanova, Brigham Young, Fordham, Georgetown, Houston, Scranton, and the Catholic University of America, as well as by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Freedom House, Greenhaven Press, Rowan & Littlefield, Praeger, St. Augustine’s, and Intervarsity press. He has given lectures and participated in debates at many colleges, universities, and law schools, including Princeton, Harvard, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. He delivered the annual J. Michael Miller Lecture at the University of St. Thomas (on international law) in February 2007, the annual R. Wayne Kraft Memorial Lecture (on bioethics) at DeSales University in February 2004 and the annual James Moore Lecture (on human rights violations in Sudan) at Millikin University in 1999. He has also lectured, and/or has been published, in many foreign countries, including Italy, Germany, Poland, Austria, Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Mexico, Qatar, Malaysia, Romania, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom.
In addition to speaking and writing frequently on bioethics topics, Mr. Saunders has submitted testimony to the President’s Council on Bioethics, as well as to UNESCO’s Committee on Bioethics, and has briefed Congressional staff and state legislatures. He is a regular columnist for the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly.
Mr. Saunders has appeared often in the media, including BBC World News, CNN, Fox News, Vatican Radio, and National Public Radio. His articles on issues have appeared in a variety of journals, such as First Things, Human Events, Human Life Review, The Legal Times, Communio, The Family in America: A Journal of Public Policy, Ethics & Medics, and Touchstone.
Mr. Saunders served on the official United States delegation to the UN Special Session on Children in 2001/02. In 2011, he was a speaker at an official briefing at the UN, addressing the topic, why euthanasia is not a human right.
In 2004, he served on the NGO Working Committee in connection with the Doha Intergovernmental Conference for the Family.
Mr. Saunders is Senior Fellow with the Religious Freedom Institute, and Affiliated Scholar with the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Ethics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He is President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and a member of the boards of the International Association of Catholic Bioethicists, the International Right to Life Federation, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, and the Society of Catholic Social Scientists.
In 1999, Mr. Saunders founded Sudan Relief and Rescue, Inc., to aid the persecuted church in Sudan. He has worked for and written on behalf of the persecuted church for many years.
Partner, Williams & John LTD
David L. Applegate is a partner of Williams & John Ltd., where he chairs the firm's intellectual property practice group and is a member of the commercial litigation practice group. He focuses his practice on patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition, and business litigation and arbitration, and on U. S. Supreme Court and related amicus brief practice.
Mr. Applegate is a Fellow of Litigation Counsel of America, the Intellectual Property Institute, and the Diversity Law Institute; a Senior Master Member of the Richard Linn American Inn of Court; a Past President of the Chicago Lincoln American Inn of Court; and a Legal Policy Advisor to The Heartland Institute. He is "AV Preeminent" peer review rated by Martindale-Hubbell, reflecting the highest peer recognition for both ethical standards and legal ability, and has been named by his peers for inclusion in Illinois Leading Lawyers and IllinoisSuper Lawyers in both commercial and intellectual property litigation for decades.
Throughout his career, Mr. Applegate has represented corporations and individuals as both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal litigation at the trial and appellate levels. He has tried multiple cases to verdict in both jury and bench trials nationwide and has argued appeals in the Illinois appellate courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh and Federal Circuits; his amicus brief was cited twice in the U. S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 majority opinion in the Janus case. Mr. Applegate also has extensive commercial arbitration and private mediation experience in both national and international dispute resolution forums, and is a former member of the Chicago International Dispute Resolution Association. In 2001, the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association recognized him for his outstanding individual commitment to pro bono service to indigent clients throughout the Northern District of Illinois.
In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Applegate has written and spoken frequently on matters of law and public policy, including on both local and national television and radio. He is an avid collector and amateur historian of original comic strip and editorial cartoon art, and has written extensively in that field as well for over three decades.
Partner, Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP
Ryan Schermerhorn is a registered patent attorney in the firm's Industrial & Mechanical Technologies Practice Group. His engineering background provides him with an understanding of clients’ technologies and enables him to effectively and efficiently provide a range of patent procurement services. He also leverages his experience to assist on intellectual property litigation as well as develop strategies for acquiring and protecting intellectual property.
Since 2017, Ryan has been listed as an "Emerging Lawyer" by Emerging Lawyers Magazine and has been selected for inclusion in the Illinois Rising Stars® lists. Ryan was recognized in Chicago Daily Law Bulletin's 2023 40 Under Forty list. Since 2024, Ryan has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© list in the practice areas of Litigation - Patent and Patent Law. In 2025, Ryan was selected by the Law Bulletin Publishing Company’s Leading Lawyer Network as a “Leading Lawyer.”
Tazewell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor, William & Mary Law School
Jonathan H. Adler joined the William & Mary law faculty as the Tazwell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor in 2025. Prior to joining the faculty, he was the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution (Palgrave, 2023), Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Brookings Institution Press, 2020), Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (AEI Press, 2011).
His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2024 study identified Professor Adler as the seventh most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law from 2019 to 2023.
Professor Adler is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook and a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, ranging from the PBS Newshour and National Public Radio to the Fox News Channel and Entertainment Tonight.
Professor Adler is a senior fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. In 2018, Professor Adler was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and helped co-found the organization Checks and Balances. In 2024, Professor Adler was appointed a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
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.
Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Andy excels at solving complex problems for his clients using a variety of effective strategies. As former Chief Deputy Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin, Andy Cook has extensive experience representing businesses before state Attorneys General involving investigations and lawsuits. His strong relationships with Attorneys General and their senior staff frequently facilitate the successful resolution of client issues through diplomacy and negotiations. When litigation becomes necessary, Andy effectively advocates for clients throughout the litigation process.
Andy combines his legal expertise in numerous areas of law covered by state Attorneys General, an understanding of how state AG offices operate, and vast knowledge of legal and regulatory issues facing his clients. This substantive and comprehensive legal approach is crucial to effectively representing clients before state Attorneys General. Andy also has substantial experience drafting and enacting complex civil liability reforms before state legislatures to successfully address client goals.
Andy’s main practice focuses on advising Fortune 500 companies before state Attorneys General in the areas of antitrust, consumer protection, False Claims Act, environmental law, and cybersecurity and data privacy. Andy, in collaboration with a team of attorneys, successfully navigated a client through antitrust regulatory review by state Attorneys General in one of the nation’s largest mergers of two major telecommunication companies. Andy also worked with a team of lawyers representing a large corporation involving the multistate opioids litigation brought by state Attorneys General.
Andy gained valuable experience serving as Deputy Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin where he was the second in command of the 700-plus state agency. In his role as Chief Deputy Attorney General, Andy oversaw the day-to-day operations at the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ); directed the State’s litigation strategy; negotiated, reviewed, and approved all settlements; drafted and reviewed attorney general opinions; managed the agency’s budget; oversaw civil and criminal investigations handled by DOJ; and managed DOJ’s legislative agenda.
Andy played college hockey and remains active by running, cross country skiing, and playing golf. On the weekends, Andy and his wife enjoy watching their kids’ sporting events, including soccer, baseball, gymnastics, and track. In his rare spare time, Andy reads history books.
Of Counsel, Stanley Law Group
Stephen Gardner serves of counsel to the Dallas-based Stanley Law Group, a plaintiffs firm. Previously, Mr. Gardner was Director of Litigation for the Washington, DC based advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest 2004-2014); Of Counsel to the National Consumer Law Center (2002-2006); Assistant Dean of Clinical Education at Southern Methodist University School of Law (1994-1995); Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University School of Law (1992-1995); Assistant Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Division of the State of Texas (1984-1991); Assistant Attorney General in the Bureau of Consumer Frauds of the State of New York (1982-1984); Students Attorney at the University of Texas (1981-1982); and a staff attorney at the legal aid office in Austin, now part of Texas RioGrande Legal Services (1976-1981). He is a frequent author and speaker on consumer advocacy issues.
Who Said That?: A Simple Question That May Change the Way Courts View Legislative Prayer
Brett Harvey, Joel Oster
Related Opinions & Briefs: • Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Town of Greece v. Galloway:...
Does Neutrality Equal Secularism? The European Court of Human Rights Decides Lautsi v. Italy
William L. Saunders
Introduction Religion can be an intensely personal activity. However, the idea that religion is only...
Hot News: The "Hot-News" Doctrine Is Hot Again! Or Is It?
David L. Applegate, Ryan Schermerhorn
Copyright law, like contract law, is deceptively complex. Just as the familiar elements of offer,...
The Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act
Jonathan H. Adler
Brought to you by the Administrative Law & Regulation Practice Group The Federalist Society takes no position...
Parker 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...
Washington Supreme Court Upholds Talk Show Hosts’ Right to Free Speech
Andrew Cook
In San Juan County, et al v. No New Gas Tax, the Washington Supreme Court...
The Problem with Metaullics
Stephen Gardner
INTRODUCTION The Supreme Court's and the Federal Circuit's opinions in Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc.,...