Partner, Clement & Murphy, PLLC
Erin Murphy is founding partner of Clement & Murphy, PLLC. She is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading Supreme Court and appellate advocates. She has argued dozens of cases in appellate and trial courts throughout the country, including the Supreme Court and nearly all of the federal courts of appeals. Erin has long been ranked by Chambers & Partners rankings as a leading appellate practitioner, and the National Law Journal has named her one of the nation’s “Outstanding Women Lawyers.” Erin also has an active pro bono practice, through which she has successfully represented many religious organizations and adherents, criminal defendants, asylum applicants, adoptive parents, and more.
Erin is an adjunct professor at her alma mater the Georgetown University Law Center, a member and former officer of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a frequent speaker on topics relating to the Supreme Court and appellate advocacy. In her spare time, Erin serves on the board of directors of Street Law.
Associate Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics, The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business
Amanda Shanor is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, where her scholarship focuses on constitutional and administrative law, and in particular the First Amendment.
Shanor is a graduate of Yale Law School and Yale College, and a PhD candidate in law at Yale University. She served as a law clerk to Judges Cornelia T.L. Pillard and Judith W. Rogers on the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Robert W. Sweet in the Southern District of New York. She has taught at both Yale and Georgetown law schools and has published in the New York University Law Review, the Harvard Law Review Forum, and the Yale Law Journal Forum, among others. She is a contributor to Take Care and the co-author of a textbook on counterterrorism law.
Prior to joining the academy, Amanda worked in the National Legal Department of the American Civil Liberties Union on the organization’s Supreme Court litigation, including Masterpiece Cakeshop. Previously, she litigated a number of constitutional and national security cases with Professor David Cole, including Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder, while a fellow at Georgetown.
Host, The Prosecutors Podcast; Partner, Culper Law
Brett J. Talley is former a federal prosecutor (appellate chief in the Middle District of Alabama) and host of the true crime podcast "The Prosecutors." Brett has served as nominations chief and deputy assistant attorney general at the US Department of Justice, Advisor to the White House Counsel, speechwriter to Senator Rob Portman, a political and legal communications professional, deputy state solicitor general, staff writer for a presidential campaign, award-nominated horror fiction author (possibly related to the previous items on the list), US District and 11th Circuit judicial clerk, and adjunct law school professor. He is currently a partner ar Culper Law. Along the way, Brett has been involved at some level in the confirmation of a full majority of the sitting justices on the U.S. Supreme Court and scores of U.S. district and appellate court judges. A native Alabamian, Brett earned his undergraduate degree in History and Philosophy from the University of Alabama and JD from Harvard Law School. He lives in Montgomery with his wife Annie and their three small kids.
Solicitor General, Iowa Office of the Attorney General
Eric Wessan serves as Iowa’s Solicitor General in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. In that role, Wessan leads Iowa’s litigation before State and federal appellate courts, including the Iowa and U.S. Supreme Courts. Before that role, Wessan worked on complex commercial litigation at two large law firms in Chicago. Wessan also served as a law clerk for the Honorable James C. Ho on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for the Honorable John F. Kness on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Wessan is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, with honors, and of the University of Chicago.
Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance, American Enterprise Institute; Executive Director, Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State
Adam J. White is the Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on the Supreme Court and the administrative state. He also directs the Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State.
He writes on regulation and constitutional government for a variety of publications. He practiced law in Washington, D.C., after clerking for the D.C. Circuit's Judge David Sentelle. He also has been chairman of the ABA's Administrative Law Section.
In 2021, he served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, where he criticized “Court packing” and other efforts to restructure the Supreme Court.
General Counsel, U.S. Department of the Air Force
William K. Lane III is the General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force. As the Chief Legal Officer and Ethics Official for the Air Force and Space Force, Mr. Lane provides oversight and guidance to 680,000 active duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian Airmen and Guardians. Mr. Lane additionally serves ex officio as Administrator of Wake Island.
Prior to his current position, Mr. Lane was a Partner with Wiley Rein, LLP, a Washington, D.C. based law firm. In his practice, Mr. Lane advocated on behalf of corporate and individual clients in a broad spectrum of appellate, constitutional, regulatory and complex commercial litigation.
During President Trump’s first administration, Mr. Lane served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, representing agencies in federal court throughout the United States.
Prior to attending law school, Mr. Lane received a U.S. Army commission in 2008 and served on active duty until 2012 as a Cavalry Officer, before transitioning to the Maryland Army National Guard and ultimately the U.S. Army Reserve. During his time on active duty, Mr. Lane completed a combat deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Founding Partner, The Sander Group, PLLC; Former General Counsel, U.S. Department of the Navy
Bob is the Founding Partner of The Sander Group, PLLC, which is a National Security and Government Contracts Boutique Law Firm located in Alexandria, VA. Bob previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of the Navy after his unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate on December 19, 2019. As General Counsel, Bob served as the Department of the Navy’s (DON) Chief Legal Officer and head of the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) where he led a team of over 1,100 civilian and uniformed attorneys and professional support staff in 140 offices worldwide. During this time, Bob provided legal advice to the Secretary of the Navy, the Under Secretary of the Navy, the Assistant Secretaries of the Navy and their staffs, and the multiple components of the Department, including the Navy and the Marine Corps.
Previously, in July 2018, Bob became the Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Department of the Army. He then became the Chief Legal Officer for the Army serving as The Senior Official Performing the Duties of the General Counsel of the Army in June 2019. During his time with the Army Office of General Counsel, Bob’s duties included providing legal and policy advice to the Secretary of the Army, the Army Secretariat, and other Senior Army leaders.
Prior to becoming Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Army, Bob performed a detail to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Office of General Counsel. From 2010 to 2019, Bob worked as a Federal Prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice, National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section. Previously, Bob served as the Chief of the Economic Crimes Unit and the Captain of the Narcotics Enforcement Team in the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney’s Office. Bob also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. As a state and federal prosecutor, Bob has handled thousands of cases, which includes trying dozens of jury trials to verdict.
In his military capacity, Bob is a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he serves as the Senior Legal Advisor/Staff Judge Advocate (IMA) for the Network Enterprise Technology Command and the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence at Fort Huachuca, AZ. Bob previously served as the Chief of the Procurement Fraud/Business Integrity Section for the Defense Logistics Agency at Fort Belvoir, VA and has performed duties as an Adjunct Professor at the National Intelligence University in Bethesda, Maryland. Bob previously deployed to Djibouti, Africa for 13 months as the Acting/Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, and was deployed for six months in support of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, where he served as Trial Counsel for V Corps in Darmstadt, Germany.
Bob received his Juris Doctor Degree from the Widener University School of Law, where he was a member of Law Review for the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law and a member of the Student Bar Association. Bob also has a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence Degree from the National Intelligence University and a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Finance from Temple University. Bob holds an active Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS-SCI) Security Clearance.
General Counsel, U.S. Department of the Air Force
William K. Lane III is the General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force. As the Chief Legal Officer and Ethics Official for the Air Force and Space Force, Mr. Lane provides oversight and guidance to 680,000 active duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian Airmen and Guardians. Mr. Lane additionally serves ex officio as Administrator of Wake Island.
Prior to his current position, Mr. Lane was a Partner with Wiley Rein, LLP, a Washington, D.C. based law firm. In his practice, Mr. Lane advocated on behalf of corporate and individual clients in a broad spectrum of appellate, constitutional, regulatory and complex commercial litigation.
During President Trump’s first administration, Mr. Lane served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, representing agencies in federal court throughout the United States.
Prior to attending law school, Mr. Lane received a U.S. Army commission in 2008 and served on active duty until 2012 as a Cavalry Officer, before transitioning to the Maryland Army National Guard and ultimately the U.S. Army Reserve. During his time on active duty, Mr. Lane completed a combat deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Founding Partner, The Sander Group, PLLC; Former General Counsel, U.S. Department of the Navy
Bob is the Founding Partner of The Sander Group, PLLC, which is a National Security and Government Contracts Boutique Law Firm located in Alexandria, VA. Bob previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of the Navy after his unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate on December 19, 2019. As General Counsel, Bob served as the Department of the Navy’s (DON) Chief Legal Officer and head of the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) where he led a team of over 1,100 civilian and uniformed attorneys and professional support staff in 140 offices worldwide. During this time, Bob provided legal advice to the Secretary of the Navy, the Under Secretary of the Navy, the Assistant Secretaries of the Navy and their staffs, and the multiple components of the Department, including the Navy and the Marine Corps.
Previously, in July 2018, Bob became the Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Department of the Army. He then became the Chief Legal Officer for the Army serving as The Senior Official Performing the Duties of the General Counsel of the Army in June 2019. During his time with the Army Office of General Counsel, Bob’s duties included providing legal and policy advice to the Secretary of the Army, the Army Secretariat, and other Senior Army leaders.
Prior to becoming Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Army, Bob performed a detail to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Office of General Counsel. From 2010 to 2019, Bob worked as a Federal Prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice, National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section. Previously, Bob served as the Chief of the Economic Crimes Unit and the Captain of the Narcotics Enforcement Team in the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney’s Office. Bob also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. As a state and federal prosecutor, Bob has handled thousands of cases, which includes trying dozens of jury trials to verdict.
In his military capacity, Bob is a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he serves as the Senior Legal Advisor/Staff Judge Advocate (IMA) for the Network Enterprise Technology Command and the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence at Fort Huachuca, AZ. Bob previously served as the Chief of the Procurement Fraud/Business Integrity Section for the Defense Logistics Agency at Fort Belvoir, VA and has performed duties as an Adjunct Professor at the National Intelligence University in Bethesda, Maryland. Bob previously deployed to Djibouti, Africa for 13 months as the Acting/Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, and was deployed for six months in support of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, where he served as Trial Counsel for V Corps in Darmstadt, Germany.
Bob received his Juris Doctor Degree from the Widener University School of Law, where he was a member of Law Review for the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law and a member of the Student Bar Association. Bob also has a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence Degree from the National Intelligence University and a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Finance from Temple University. Bob holds an active Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS-SCI) Security Clearance.
Associate Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
Haley Proctor joined Notre Dame Law School in 2024 as an Associate Professor of Law. She teaches and writes on procedure, evidence, constitutional law, and federal courts. Her scholarship explores the connections between judicial and administrative procedures and the powers legislators, administrators, and courts exercise. Before coming to ND Law, she was a faculty fellow at the University of Missouri School of Law and the Kinder Institute for Constitutional Democracy and practiced law at the law firm of Cooper & Kirk PLLC. She also served as a clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Thomas Griffith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Proctor earned her B.A., magna cum laude, in political science and international studies from Yale College, and her J.D. from Yale Law School.
Senior Legal Fellow, Advancing American Freedom
Amy Swearer is a leading national expert on a wide range of public policy, legal, and constitutional issues, including the Second Amendment, criminal justice, and mental health policy. She has long been a respected conservative voice on gun policy and is routinely asked to testify before state and federal legislative bodies. Her work on birthright citizenship, meanwhile, has been featured extensively in litigation over the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.
Swearer was formerly a Senior Legal Fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal & Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. At Heritage, she ran the Defensive Gun Use Database and was the primary author of the e-book “The Essential Second Amendment.” She was also a driving force behind the organization’s School Safety Initiative.
She was the 2022 recipient of the Heritage Foundation’s Joseph Shattan Award for “writing that presents conservative ideas in a powerful and compelling fashion to policymakers and the American people.” She was also named the Second Amendment Institute’s 2022 Gun Rights Champion.
Swearer received her law degree from the University of Nebraska College of Law and was a member of the Nebraska Law Review. She holds a B.S. in Criminology & Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska, where she was a Chancellor’s Scholar and a goalkeeper on the women’s soccer team
General Counsel, American Suppressor Association
Michael first joined ASA in 2014, and served as ASA’s General Counsel from 2015 to 2016, before leaving to join the Administration in 2017.
Michael began his federal service at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where he served two years as an attorney in the Office of General Counsel and focused on federal budget and regulatory matters. He then transitioned to the West Wing in March of 2019, where he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Counselor to White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. During his time in the West Wing, Michael advised the Chief of Staff and the President on numerous matters, and served as the top White House policy advisor on Second Amendment issues. Michael left the West Wing in July of 2020 to serve as Acting General Counsel at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he managed a budget of over $100 million and supervised a staff of nearly 300 attorneys and 250 other professionals.
Senior Legal Fellow, Pacific Legal Foundation
Ethan Blevins is a senior legal fellow working primarily on equality and opportunity issues and property rights on PLF’s Constitutional Scholarship team. He previously worked as a staff attorney with PLF, mostly suing his favorite defendant, the City of Seattle. He earned a nickname from The Seattle Times as “the sharpest pin around to the council’s liberal bubble.” He’s had a lifelong dream to earn a superhero name, so he proudly accepts the teasing title of “The Pin” from his coworkers.
In addition to his legal work, Ethan has spoken and written on a variety of legal and policy issues. He has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, and his writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Seattle Times, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Hill, and other major publications.
Ethan’s introduction to liberty began as a teenager when he read Arthur Koestler’s chilling account of communism in Darkness at Noon. He was living in China at the time, and he saw firsthand the corruption and poverty wrought by dictatorship.
He felt inspired to dedicate his legal career to fighting for liberty after clerking for then-Justice Don Willett on the Texas Supreme Court, a judge known for his fierce commitment to constitutional rights (and his Twitter presence).
Ethan earned his law degree cum laude from Duke School of Law, as well as a master’s degree in international and comparative law. He writes poetry and fiction and has completed two fantasy novels, with several other books always in the works. He also enjoys mnemonics, comic books, gaming, and playing the ukulele. He lives in Bountiful, Utah, with his wife and four kids.
Ethan is a member of the bar only in the states of Montana, Utah and Washington.
Partner, Briscoe Prows Kao Ivester & Bazel LLP
Tony Francois is experienced in Water and Real Property Law, Land Use and Zoning, Environmental Regulation, Natural Resources Development, Agricultural Law, and Constitutional Law. He has represented homeowners, builders, farmers and ranchers, trade associations, and water districts in administrative, civil, and criminal proceedings before state and federal administrative agencies and state and federal trial and appellate courts. He is a member of the California State Bar and the Northern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California and the Districts of New Mexico and North Dakota, and has litigated cases in federal courts in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia, as well as the Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals. He has appeared before the Supreme Courts of California, Idaho, Nevada, and the United States.
Prior to attending law school, he served as an infantry officer in the United States Army, and was stationed in the former West Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Tony was an Attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation from 2012 to 2021. He was a lobbyist for 10 years, first with California Farm Bureau Federation from 2003 to 2007, and then with KP Public Affairs from 2007 to 2012. He was an attorney at McQuaid, Bedford & Van Zandt in San Francisco from 1999 – 2003.
U.S. Court of Federal Claims and Jurist-In-Residence Professor of Law, The University of Akron School of Law
Judge Ryan T. Holte was sworn in as a judge on the United States Court of Federal Claims in July 2019. Prior to confirmation he served as the David L. Brennan Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law and Technology at The University of Akron School of Law (2017-2019) and an assistant professor of law at Southern Illinois University School of Law (2013-2017). Judge Holte has written and presented widely on patent law subjects and empirical legal studies of Federal Circuit and district court patent law cases. His most recent articles were published in the Iowa Law Review (2019), George Mason Law Review (2018), and Washington Law Review (2017).
In practice, Judge Holte served for six years as general counsel and partner of an electrical engineering technology company and is co-inventor of multiple patents related to Systems and Methods for Countering Satellite-Navigated Munitions. Prior to entering academia, Judge Holte practiced as a litigation attorney at the Federal Trade Commission and an associate in the Intellectual Property Practice Group at Jones Day. Prior to practice, he served as a law clerk to Judge Stanley F. Birch, Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and as a law clerk to Judge Loren A. Smith on the United States Court of Federal Claims.
Judge Holte received his JD from the University of California Davis School of Law and his BS, magna cum laude, in engineering from the California Maritime Academy where he was a First Class graduate of the Corps of Cadets Third Engineering Division and sailed as a U.S. Merchant Marine oiler.
Associate Professor of Government, Hillsdale College, Washington, D.C. Campus
Richard Samuelson is an Associate Professor of Government at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C., campus. Dr. Samuelson is an historian of the American founding and of American politics and constitutional thought. He graduated from Bates College and received his MA and PhD in American history from the University of Virginia. Dr. Samuelson taught at California State University San Bernardino from 2007 to 2022. He was the 2009-2010 Garwood Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s James Madison Program.
Dr. Samuelson has written extensively on John Adams and on the Adams family of Massachusetts, and on the constitutional politics of the founding more largely. His work also connects the founding with more contemporary issues, with a particular focus on religious liberty, and the challenge the modern American state, and contemporary civil rights laws present to religious liberty.
His essays and reviews have appeared in The Review of Politics, The William and Mary Quarterly, Commentary, The Claremont Review of Books, The Public Interest, National Review, and other publications. He has also contributed many essays and reviews to such online publications as Mosaic, Law and Liberty, Realclearpolitics, and other platforms.
Boochever and Bird Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law
Ash Bhagwat joined the UC Davis School of Law faculty in 2011. Prior to joining UC Davis, he taught at UC Hastings College of the Law for seventeen years. Bhagwat is the author of The Myth of Rights, published by the Oxford University Press in 2010, as well as numerous books, articles, and book chapters on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from the structure of constitutional rights, to free speech law, to the California Electricity Crisis. Journals his articles have appeared in include the Yale Law Journal, the Supreme Court Review, the California Law Review, the Administrative Law Review, and the University of Illinois Law Review.
Bhagwat is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, where he received a B.A. with Honors in History. He is also a graduate of The University of Chicago Law School, where he served as Articles Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. He then completed clerkships with Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court. Prior to joining the Hastings faculty, Bhagwat practiced appellate and regulatory law for two years in the Washington, D.C. offices of the Sidley & Austin law firm.
In May of 2011, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Bhagwat to serve on the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator, a public benefit corporation responsible for running the high-voltage electricity grid in California. In 2003, he was awarded the Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence at UC Hastings. Bhagwat is a member of the American Law Institute.
Managing Attorney of the Washington Office, Institute for Justice
William R. Maurer is the Managing Attorney of the Washington state office of the Institute for Justice, which engages in litigation in the areas of economic liberty, private property rights, educational choice, & freedom of speech.
Maurer is an advocate against the criminalization of poverty and the governmental use of the criminal and civil enforcement systems to raise revenue. He was lead counsel in a class action challenging the use of tickets to raise revenue in the city of Pagedale, Missouri. The suit resulted in a federal consent decree that reformed the city’s ticketing and municipal court system. He regularly speaks, teaches, and writes about the abuse of fines and fees in the criminal justice system. He was a participant in summits on taxation by citation put on by the White House and Department of Justice during the Obama Administration. His work on the issue includes serving as an advisory board member of the Fines and Fees Justice Center.
In addition to his work on criminal and civil justice reform, Maurer is a First Amendment litigator. In 2011, he successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that Arizona’s punitive campaign financing regime was unconstitutional. Before the Washington Supreme Court, he successfully argued against efforts to classify radio commentary as a contribution under the state’s campaign finance law.
His cases and advocacy have been covered in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and other major media outlets.
Maurer was named a “Washington Superlawyer” by Washington Law & Politics Magazine for several years. He is a chapter author in numerous legal reference works and has written several articles for law reviews and legal publications across the country.
Prior to joining IJ-WA, Maurer clerked for Washington Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders and then practiced law at Perkins Coie LLP. Maurer received his law degree in 1994 from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he was an editor of the Wisconsin Law Review. He received his BA from Bard College in 1989.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
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.
Executive Director, Alliance For Consumers; President & CEO, American Juris Link
O.H. Skinner is the President & CEO of American Juris Link, a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating nonprofit litigation to advance freedom, liberty, and the rule of law. O.H. has a long track record in facilitating strategic nonprofit litigation in his role as the Executive Director at Alliance For Consumers as well as from his time serving Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich in senior positions, including as Arizona Solicitor General. O.H. is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School. Prior to joining the Arizona Attorney General's Office, O.H. practiced at WilmerHale and Ropes & Gray in Boston, and clerked for the Hon. J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In 2023, O.H. was a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School, where he counseled students as a Harvard-identified “outstanding public interest attorney.”
Partner, Luther Strange & Associates
Annie Donaldson Talley is Partner at Luther Strange and Associates. She recently departed the White House after serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President. Over the past four years, she provided outside counsel to the Donald J. Trump for President campaign; helped stand up and manage the White House Counsel’s Office; interfaced with agencies across the federal government; and advised the President of the United States, White House Counsel, Chief of Staff and other senior staff across the Executive Office of the President on a broad range of issues from regulatory reform to executive nominations to the day-to-day issues facing the Administration.
Prior to her White House service, Annie Donaldson Talley counseled clients in the non-profit, for-profit, political, and government sectors, as well as high-profile individuals in private practice at Jones Day and Patton Boggs. She provided strategic counseling to clients structuring their affairs to ensure compliance with a web of state and federal laws and represented clients in complex, multi-faceted investigations, leading teams navigating issues of intense public scrutiny.
Annie Donaldson Talley is also a veteran of three presidential campaigns and served in state government. She holds a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Alabama and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served on the Harvard Law Review. She lives in Montgomery, Alabama with her husband, Brett.
Solicitor General, West Virginia
Michael Williams is the Solicitor General for the State of West Virginia. In that role, Michael represents the State in appeals before state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Michael also coordinates strategic affirmative litigation on the State’s behalf, including litigation against the federal government.
Before joining the Attorney General’s Office, Michael co-led the complex briefing and appeals group at a Michigan boutique firm, representing Fortune 50 companies and others in actions across the country. He also practiced in the litigation groups of two Washington, D.C. firms and clerked with the Appellate Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine.
Michael’s work has been honored with a Best Brief Award from the National Associationof Attorneys General and a Leader in the Law Award from Michigan Lawyers Weekly. He often speaks and writes on appellate-related issues.
Michael clerked twice in the Fourth Circuit: once with then-Chief Judge Deborah Chasanow of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and later with Judge G. Steven Agee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He attended George Washington University Law School and Bates College.
Supreme Court Preview: What Is in Store for October Term 2026?
Erin E. Murphy, Amanda Shanor, Brett J. Talley, Eric Wessan, Adam White
Registration is now closed No registration is needed to view the live stream, which will be...
Virtual Fireside Chat with The Air Force General Counsel William Lane
William K. Lane, Robert J. Sander
Join us for a virtual fireside chat with William Lane, General Counsel of the Department...
Virtual Fireside Chat with The Air Force General Counsel William Lane
William K. Lane, Robert J. Sander
Join us for a virtual fireside chat with William Lane, General Counsel of the Department...
"The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction" with Prof. Wurman
Connecticut Lawyer Chapter
Stamford, CTBeyond Bruen: Exploring the Supreme Court's Second Amendment Jurisprudence Past, Present and Future
Haley N. Proctor, Amy E. Swearer, Michael Williams
The Supreme Court's Second Amendment jurisprudence continues to evolve. This past Term, the Court issued...
Public Lands at the Founding
Ethan Blevins, Tony Francois, Ryan T. Holte, Richard Samuelson
In this Federalist Society America 250 series, experts analyze modern legal and policy debates through...
Plenary Session 1: Executive Power in Action– A View of Presidential Priorities from Trump 45 & 47
Featuring: Hon. Jonathan Berry, Solicitor, U.S. Department of Labor Hon. David Fotouhi, Deputy Administrator, U.S....
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Featuring: Hon. Stanley E. Woodward Jr., Associate Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
Anonymity, Masking, and Civil Rights
Ashutosh Bhagwat, William R. Maurer, Hans A. Von Spakovsky
Since September 2025, California, Washington, and Oregon have barred federal agents from wearing masks. Other states...
Suncor Energy v. Boulder County: Federalism, Judicial Power, and the Future of Climate Litigation
Jonathan H. Adler, O.H. Skinner, Annie Donaldson Talley, Michael R. Williams
In Suncor Energy, Inc., v. Commissioners of Boulder County, the Supreme Court will consider whether...