Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence, Independence Institute
Professor Robert G. Natelson is a constitutional scholar and author.
Rob’s constitutional scholarship has been cited repeatedly by justices and parties at the U.S. Supreme Court—as well as by federal appeals courts, and at least 18 state supreme courts.
Rob’s research into the Constitution’s original meaning has carried him to libraries throughout the United States and in Britain, including four months at Oxford University. His books and articles span many different parts of the Constitution, including groundbreaking studies of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the Indian Commerce Clause, federalism, Founding-Era interpretation, regulation of elections, and the amendment process of Article V. He created the first-ever online bibliography for 18th century materials used in constitutional research. He is a contributing author to the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (on Magna Carta). He contributed eight essays to the third edition of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution: five on the amendment procedure and one each on the Guarantee Clause, the Postal Clause, and the Recess Appointments Clause.
U.S. Supreme Court justices have relied explicitly on Rob’s research in 41 citations in 13 separate cases.
Associate Justice, Alabama Supreme Court
James L. “Jay” Mitchell was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court in 2018.
Prior to serving on the Supreme Court, Justice Mitchell was an accomplished litigation attorney with Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C. During his time in private practice, he tried a number of complex cases to verdict, successfully handled appeals, and obtained favorable settlements for clients. He was rated as one of the top litigators in the United States and Alabama, and received the highest possible rating for professional ethics. He also served on Maynard, Cooper & Gale’s executive committee, helping to lead strategic and growth initiatives for the firm.
Justice Mitchell was born in Mobile and grew up in South Alabama and in Homewood. He is a graduate of Homewood High School and received his Bachelor of Arts with honors from Birmingham-Southern College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, served as president of the student body, and played forward on the school’s 1995 national championship basketball team. He holds a Master of Arts from University College in Dublin, Ireland, and received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Justice Mitchell has long been active in organizations that benefit the community and enhance the legal profession. In addition to his service with other organizations, he is a member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham and serves on the board of directors at Cornerstone School, an inner city Christian school. He is also a member of the Federalist Society.
Justice Mitchell and his wife, Elizabeth, have been married for 20 years and have four children. They reside in Homewood and are longtime members of Church of the Highlands.
Partner, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP
Erika C. Birg is a partner based out of the Atlanta office of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP. She focuses her practice on helping companies protect their businesses before, during, and after litigation, with experience in resolving business-to-business disputes through litigation, alternative dispute resolution, and state and federal appeals involving business torts, contract disputes, trade secrets, misappropriation, computer fraud, and non-compete matters.
Solicitor General, Montana Attorney General's Office
Christian is currently Solicitor General of Montana, where he serves as the chief litigator and principal legal advisor to Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen. In that capacity, he manages litigation before the federal district courts, courts of appeal, and the United States Supreme Court, as well as the Montana Supreme Court. He previously served in the Trump Administration as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to government service, he was a public interest constitutional litigator at Mountain States Legal Foundation and a fellow at the Institute for Justice. He clerked for Justice Caleb Stegall on the Kansas Supreme Court. He also served as Director of Publications for the Federalist Society's national headquarters.
Christian earned his B.A. in Political Science in 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania before attending the University of Kansas School of Law. Christian is admitted to practice law in Kansas and Montana. A Kansas native, he is a die-hard fan of the Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas City Chiefs, and Kansas City Royals.
Christian is a member of the Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group's Executive Committee.
Former Deputy Attorney General for Virginia
Kennerly Davis has over forty years of experience in corporate management, public service, and the private practice of law. He has held senior executive positions in a Fortune 500 electric and gas company. He has served as Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as a legislative aide to a U.S. Senator and a U.S. Congressman. He practiced law for 25 years with Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP.
Davis is active in the Federalist Society as a member of the Regulatory Process Working Group of the Regulatory Transparency Project, and as a member of the Execuitve Committee of the Administrative Law and Regulation Practice Group. He is active in the national Alumni Free Speech Alliance, and involved in AFSA-chapter initiatives, including litigation, to publicize and correct the serious legal problems created by university Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and the anonymous bias reporting systems used to enforce those DEI programs.
Davis writes and speaks on a wide variety of topics, including those related to the Founding of America, the natural rights foundation of our Republic, the constitutional rule of law, equal protection and free speech, DEI programs and bias reporting systems, capitalism, regulation and regulatory reform, and economic development. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Examiner, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Federalist Society Review, the FedSoc Blog, Real Clear Energy, Townhall, the Daily Caller, reports of the Center for Strategic & International Studies, and other publications. He appears frequently on radio, podcasts, and television.
Davis graduated with honors from Cornell University with an A.B. degree in Government. He earned an M.A. degree from Pembroke College, Oxford, in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He was awarded a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, and an M.B.A. degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Davis lives in Richmond, Virginia. He can be contacted by email: j.kendavis@verizon.net, and by phone: (804) 624-8525.
Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law Emeritus and Professor of History Emeritus, Vanderbilt University
James Ely is a renowned legal historian and property rights expert whose career accomplishments were recognized with both the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize and the Owner's Counsel of American Crystal Eagle Award in 2006. He is the author of several books that have received widespread critical acclaim from legal scholars and historians, including The Guardian of Every Other Right: A Constitutional History of Property Rights, The Fuller Court: Justices, Rulings and Legacy in which he examines the work of the Supreme Court between 1888 and 1910, Railroads and American Law in which he systematically explores the way that the rise of the railroad shaped American legal culture, and The Contract Clause: A Constitutional History. He also is the author of numerous articles dealing with the rights of property owners. He served as an editor of both the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court, and the second edition of the Oxford Guide to Supreme Court Decisions. Professor Ely received the Tennessee History Book Award in 2002 for A History of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Between 1987 and 1999, he served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Legal History. Since Professor Ely joined Vanderbilt faculty in 1972, he has been frequently recognized by students as one of the law school's outstanding teachers.
Professor of Law, Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law
Eric Alden is a Professor of Law who came to Chase from Palo Alto, California, where he had previously been a full equity partner with two major AmLaw 100 firms in corporate and securities law in Silicon Valley. He has broad securities regulatory and transactional experience, including public company disclosure counseling, securities regulatory compliance, corporate governance, public and private offerings of equity, debt and hybrid securities, mergers and acquisitions, the formation of private investment funds and the representation of banks and hedge funds in their interactions with the public markets, with an overall emphasis on technical securities law and SEC compliance matters.
During 2005-2006, Alden served as an Attorney Fellow at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C., in the Division of Corporation Finance, Office of Chief Counsel. In that capacity, he oversaw and administered for the 2006 proxy season the SEC's Rule 14a-8 shareholder proposal program, which has functioned as the central battleground of corporate governance disputes between institutional shareholders and public company boards of directors.
Prior to joining Chase, Alden taught Corporate Governance as a Lecturer at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, and taught Securities Regulation as an Adjunct Professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law. During 2010-2011, he was a Research Fellow in Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance at the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy. He has published articles in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Berkeley Business Law Journal, Hawaii Law Review, the Nevada Law Journal, and Northeastern University Law Review (forthcoming), in addition to various industry publications. His areas of teaching focus are Contracts, Corporations, Business Organizations, Startups and Venture Capital, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Securities Regulation.
Assistant Professor of Law & Director of Field Placements, Belmont University College of Law
Prior to joining the Belmont faculty, Ellen Black was an associate at Chadbourne & Parke LLP in New York City where she practiced in the areas of products liability and commercial litigation. While at Chadbourne, she served on the recruiting committee and was actively engaged in pro bono projects, including counseling incarcerated women on their child visitation and custodial rights, representing a criminal defendant in a pro bono appeal, and assisting New York Interfaith Disaster Services on various legal issues. Professor Black also attended and graduated from the International Association Defense Counsel Trial Academy. Prior to practicing at Chadbourne, Professor Black worked as an associate at the firm Gholson, Hicks & Nichols in Columbus, Mississippi, where she focused on litigation involving medical malpractice, toxic tort, and construction cases. She also taught as an adjunct instructor at Mississippi University for Women.
Professor Black serves on the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services Board and the Mississippi University for Women Foundation Board and is a member of the Food and Drug Law Institute. She is admitted to the New York, Tennessee, and Mississippi bars. She teaches Medical Malpractice, Products Liability and Family Law and serves as Director of the Field Placements Program. She is also the faculty sponsor for the Women’s Law Student Association.
Professor Black earned her Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from Mississippi University for Women and her Juris Doctor degree magna cum laude from Texas Tech University School of Law, where she held the position of articles editor on the Texas Tech Law Review.
Professor of Law, Washburn University School of Law
Professor Boyack has an extensive background practicing, teaching and writing about legal topics at the nexus of contract and property law. She has written and presented on issues relating to the housing crisis, the secondary mortgage market, common interest community governance, and bankruptcy, and is currently working on projects exploring transactional freedom and individual liberties in the context of real property development and control. Professor Boyack is an innovative teacher and is involved in the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning as well as other joint pedagogical projects focused on improving teaching in law schools. Professor Boyack has participated in Washburn Law's commercial law project in the Republic of Georgia, and was a featured presenter at Free University's 2013 Commercial Law Symposium in Tbilisi. She was voted Professor of the Year at Washburn Law in 2015.
Prior to joining the faculty at Washburn University School of Law, Professor Boyack taught Contracts, Property, Real Estate Transactions, Professional Responsibility and Public International Law as a visiting professor at Fordham University School of Law, George Washington University School of Law, and Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. She also taught Real Estate Finance as an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law.
After graduating from University of Virginia School of Law in 1995, Professor Boyack practiced corporate finance and real estate law for 13 years in New York City and the Washington, D.C. area with Reed Smith; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; Goodwin Proctor; and O'Melveny & Myers and as in-house regional counsel to Toll Brothers, Inc., the largest publicly held national development company. While in law school, she was notes editor for the Virginia Journal of International Law and directed the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition. Professor Boyack also clerked for Judge John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York.
Professor Boyack is admitted to practice in New York, the District of Columbia, and Virginia. She is proficient in Russian.
Professor Boyack is Co-Director of the Business and Transactional Law Center.
Professor of Law and the Mike and Teresa Baker College Professor, The University of Houston Law Center
Johnny Rex Buckles has been a faculty member of the University of Houston Law Center since August of 2000. He has also served as a Visiting Professor of Law at the Washington & Lee University School of Law. Professor Buckles has taught Taxation of Exempt Organizations, Federal Income Tax, Law & Theology, Estate Planning, Trusts & Wills, Contracts and Tax Policy Seminar. Professor Buckles’ primary research interests are in the law of tax and charity, and in law and theology. His publications include a number of law review articles and contributions to collective works. Professor Buckles holds a Juris Doctorate from the Harvard Law School, a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Science from Oklahoma State University.
Director of Legal Studies, The University of Southern Mississippi
Mike Lavender was born and raised in Athens, Georgia. After attending the University of Georgia and completing his undergraduate degree at Liberty University, he received his JD from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University. He has studied European Human Rights Law and Russian Law at the University of London.
Mr. Lavender practiced law in Georgia for 10 years primarily in the areas of corporate law, nonprofit law and real estate law. While practicing law, he was recognized as a future leader by the Georgia Bar Association and as a Rising Star by Super Lawyer in the area of Nonprofit Organizations.
Mr. Lavender serves as the Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and Civil Liberties. Mr. Lavender serves as a site team member for the American Bar Association and is a frequent speaker on undergraduate legal education.
Professor of Law, University of Wyoming College of Law
George Mocsary is an expert in corporate and small-business law, and the law of firearms.
Currently, he is Professor of Law, Founder & Director of Firearms Research Center, and Director of the Business Planning Practicum and at the University of Wyoming College of Law.
Professor Mocsary teaches and writes about Agency & Partnership, Contracts, Corporations, Securities Regulation, the Second Amendment, and Firearms Law, including the intersection of Firearms Law and private law. He is a co-author of Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy (3rd ed. 2021), the first casebook on this topic.
Prior to his appointment at Wyoming, he served as an Associate Professor of Law at the Southern Illinois University School of Law and spent two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He practiced corporate and bankruptcy law at Cravath, Swaine and Moore in New York, and clerked for the Honorable Harris L. Hartz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Professor Mocsary holds a J.D. from Fordham Law School and an M.B.A. from the University of Rochester Simon School of Business. At Fordham, he graduated first in his class, and served as Notes and Articles Editor of the Fordham Law Review. He has published in the George Washington Law Review, George Mason Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Duke Law Journal Online, and other journals. His work has been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States, several U.S. Courts of Appeals, the Supreme Court of Illinois, the Delaware Court of Chancery, and other courts.
Professor of Law and Director, Intellectual Property and Information Law Program, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
Saurabh Vishnubhakat is a Professor of Law and Director of the Intellectual Property and Information Law Program at Cardozo Law. He is also a Research Fellow at the Duke Law Center for Innovation Policy and a Senior Scholar at the George Mason University Center for IP and Innovation Policy. Previously, he held joint appointments as a Professor of Law and Professor of Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Professor Vishnubhakat’s expertise is in intellectual property, administrative law and federal litigation, especially from an empirical perspective. His legal writings have been cited in federal judicial opinions, agency regulations and over two dozen Supreme Court briefs. His latest work is published or forthcoming in the Indiana Law Journal, the Washington and Lee Law Review and the Iowa Law Review as well as the peer-reviewed Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
His research explores the interaction of the U.S. intellectual property system with federal courts and agencies, among other topics. With a background in the natural sciences, Professor Vishnubhakat brings a scientific mindset to legal thinking and is dedicated to teaching students how to build arguments with analytical rigor.
Prior to his appointment at Texas A&M, Professor Vishnubhakat served in the United States Patent and Trademark Office as principal legal advisor to that agency’s first two chief economists. He was also a faculty fellow at Duke Law School, where he co-taught patent law and was a postdoctoral associate at the Duke Center for Public Genomics, where he researched law and policy issues surrounding innovation in genetics and biomedicine.
Professor Vishnubhakat holds both a J.D. and LL.M. in intellectual property from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, where he was an editor of the Law Review. He also holds a B.S. in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is admitted to the bars of Texas, Illinois, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Topics
Say the Magic Word, Counselor: Oral Argument in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic
On Wednesday, April 2, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Medina v. Planned Parenthood...
Applying the Founders' Originalism
Robert G. Natelson
The 1787 Federal Convention drafted, and the ratifiers approved, the United States Constitution under the...
Textualism in Alabama
Jay Mitchell
Textualism is alive and well in Alabama. This interpretive doctrine teaches that legal texts have...
TransUnion, Article III, and Expanding the Judicial Role
Jacob Phillips
In 2021’s TransUnion v. Ramirez, the Supreme Court confirmed that Article III standing requires a...
Henry Schein Inc. v. Archer and White Sales Inc. - Post-Decision SCOTUSCast
Erika C. Birg
On January 25, 2021 the Supreme Court decided Henry Schein Inc. v. Archer and White...
Topics
Love Terminal Partners v. United States: Where Wright Amendment Reform Went Wrong
What was the Wright Amendment? George Will once characterized the Wright Amendment and the situation...
Violet Dock Port, Inc, LLC v. St. Bernard Port, Harbor & Terminal District
Christian Corrigan
One of this year’s most acclaimed films, Little Pink House, has resurrected old wounds from the...
Regulating Under the Rule of Law
John Kennerly Davis
A review of: How to Regulate: A Guide for Policymakers, by Thomas A. Lambert (Cambridge...
Sveen v. Melin - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
James W. Ely
On March 19, 2018, the Supreme Court heard argument in Sveen v. Melin, a case...
7 Minute Presentations of Works in Progress Panel 1-B
20th Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference
San Diego, CA