U.S. Attorney, Middle District of Tennessee, U.S. Department of Justice
Braden Boucek was sworn in on December 24, 2025, as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. Prior to becoming United States Attorney, Mr. Boucek served as the senior vice president of litigation at the Southeastern Legal Foundation having previously served as the vice president of legal affairs at the Beacon Center. Mr. Boucek has extensive experience as a prosecutor, starting his career at the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office before serving for two years as an Assistant District Attorney General in Williamson County. He was a federal prosecutor for ten years, first serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Tennessee from 2005 to 2011. From 2011 to 2015, Mr. Boucek was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee, the district he now leads as the United States Attorney.
United States Attorney, Western District of Tennessee
D. Michael Dunavant is currently serving for the second time as the Presidentially Appointed, Senate Confirmed United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, and was sworn into office on October 10, 2025. In that role, he is the 50th and 54th person to serve as the chief federal prosecutor and legal representative of the United States for the 22 counties and approximately 1.6 million citizens of West Tennessee. Mr. Dunavant is the first person to serve the district twice as the Presidential appointee, having previously served as U.S. Attorney from 2017–2021 during the first Trump administration. In addition to his service as the U.S. Attorney, Mr. Dunavant has served as the Deputy Executive Director of Legal Services & Policy for the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference from 2023-2025; the Chief Investigative Counsel for the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Division of Investigations from 2021-2023; and the elected District Attorney General for the 25th Judicial District of Tennessee, where he served as the chief state criminal prosecutor for Lauderdale, Tipton, Fayette, Hardeman, and McNairy counties in West Tennessee from 20062017. Prior to his service as District Attorney, Mr. Dunavant was a partner in the law firm of Carney, Wilder & Dunavant in Ripley, Tennessee. A native of Ripley, Mr. Dunavant holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and a Doctor of Jurisprudence Degree with honors from the University of Mississippi at Oxford, and has been practicing law in Tennessee since 1995.
United States District Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee
Brian Lea is a district judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Before taking the bench, Judge Lea served as Deputy Associate Attorney General in President Trump’s second administration. Prior to his public service, Judge Lea was a partner with the Issues and Appeals practice of Jones Day. He also served on the faculty of the University of Georgia School of Law, where his research and publications focused on the operation of the federal courts. Judge Lea began his legal career with two clerkships, one for Justice Clarence Thomas and the other with Judge Ed Carnes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Judge Lea graduated first in his class from the University of Georgia School of Law, where he served as an editor on the Law Review. He earned his undergraduate degree from Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.
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
Panel 3: Making a Federal Case of It: Tennessee's Chief Law and Civil Rights Enforcers Speak
2026 Tennessee Chapters Conference
Nashville, TNAnonymity, Masking, and Civil Rights