Kaplan Johnson Abate & Bird
Cassie Chambers Armstrong focuses her practice on litigation. She has significant courtroom experience; prior to joining the firm, she was the lead attorney on multiple trials. She has worked on class actions, appeals, and other complex litigation.
Previously, she was a Skadden Fellow at a Kentucky nonprofit, where she formulated and implemented impact litigation strategies.
Her graduate degrees in Public Health and Public Management give her a unique perspective on the intersection between health care, government, and law.
Sheila M. McDevitt Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Election Law Center, Florida State University College of Law
Professor Morley joined FSU Law in 2018, and teaches and writes in the areas of election law, constitutional law, remedies, and the federal courts. He is best known for his work on election emergencies and post-election litigation, nationwide and other defendant-oriented injunctions, the jurisdiction of the federal courts and their equitable powers more generally. He has testified before congressional committees, made presentations to election officials for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and participated in bipartisan blue-ribbon groups to develop election reforms. The governor of Florida also appointed Professor Morley to the Criminal Punishment Code Task Force, to propose potential revisions to the legislature.
The U.S. Supreme Court has cited several of his articles, and he was counsel of record for the successful Petitioner in a landmark campaign finance case. Professor Morley has appeared on C-SPAN, Court TV, Fox News and numerous local news programs, and has been quoted in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Roll Call, Politico, U.S. News and World Report, and a wide range of other national publications. His work has been published in many of the nation’s top law reviews, including the Georgetown Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, Boston University Law Review and Emory Law Journal.
Before joining FSU Law, Professor Morley was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School. Prior to his experience in academia, he served in government as special assistant to the General Counsel of the Army at the Pentagon, as well as a law clerk for Judge Gerald B. Tjoflat of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. During his tenure with the Army General Counsel’s office, he was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the Army Staff Lapel Pin. He also worked as an associate at Williams & Connolly LLP and the Supreme Court & Appellate group of Winston & Strawn, LLP, both in Washington, D.C.
Professor Morley earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 2003, where he was a senior editor on the Yale Law Journal; served on the moot court board; and received the Thurman Arnold Prize for Best Oralist in the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals.
Member, Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC
John is a Member in Stoll Keenon Ogden’s Louisville office and has been with the firm since 2007. He has a track record of success in Labor and Employment Law spanning 35 years, and is honored to serve as Chair of the Kentucky State Labor Relations Board, which resolves disputes between public employers and their labor organizations.
He is responsible for creating binding legal precedent entitling employers to secure indemnity from other parties in harassment or retaliation cases. He has also established legal precedent holding that the claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress is preempted by statute. In a class discrimination case, he prevailed in challenging a claim brought by the federal government that women were categorically excluded from coal mining jobs.
For his many accomplishments, John has been distinguished with multiple local, state and national recognitions, including more than eight consecutive years of being listed in the Best Lawyers in America® peer-review publication.
Labor, Employment & Employee Benefits: John’s extensive experience encompasses the full breadth of employment law, including traditional labor law, claims of harassment and retaliation, breach of contract disputes and enforcement of trade secrets.
Appellate: Once a trial court decision has been made, John is fully prepared to take cases to court at the state or federal level as necessary to obtain a satisfactory resolution. He has obtained favorable verdicts for both appellants and appellees.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Amul R. Thapar serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His judicial career began in 2007 when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Eastern District of Kentucky, making him the first South Asian Article III judge in American history. In 2017, he became President Donald J. Trump’s first appellate court nominee.
Before joining the bench, Judge Thapar served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. While United States Attorney, Judge Thapar worked on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (“AGAC”) and chaired the AGAC’s Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture subcommittee. He also served on the Terrorism and National Security subcommittee, the Violent Crime subcommittee, and the Child Exploitation working group.
Judge Thapar has worked in private practice, at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.
Judge Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, Judge Thapar worked as a law clerk to the Honorable S. Arthur Spiegel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Judge Thapar has also published in the Yale Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, and Catholic University Law Review. He teaches courses on originalism, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and legal writing at Notre Dame Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Vanderbilt Law School.
Justice, Supreme Court of Kentucky
Laurance B. VanMeter was elected to the Kentucky Supreme Court in November 2016 from the 5th Appellate District, comprising Anderson, Bourbon, Boyle, Clark, Fayette, Franklin, Jessamine, Madison, Mercer, Scott, and Woodford Counties. Upon taking office on January 2, 2017, he became just the third Justice to have served at all four levels of Kentucky unified court system. Prior to being elected to the Supreme Court, Justice VanMeter served thirteen years as a Judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, having been elected in November 2003, and being re-elected unopposed in 2006 and 2014.
Justice VanMeter currently serves as the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Kentucky Judicial Form Retirement Systems, having previously served as chairman of that Board for two terms (2012-16), with an intervening term as chairman of the Judicial Retirement Fund Investment Committee (2016-18). Justice VanMeter is the Supreme Court’s liaison to the Kentucky Bar Association’s Continuing Legal Education Commission. He served the Court of Appeals as acting Chief Judge during 2010 and as Chief Judge Pro Tempore from 2007 to 2010, and served as the Court of Appeals’ representative on the Ethics Committee of the Kentucky Judiciary from 2004 to 2012 and as its alternate member on the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission from 2012 to 2016. In addition, Justice VanMeter has served on the Probate and Trust Legislative Committee of the Kentucky Bar Association, the Family Court Rules and the Civil Rules Committees of the Kentucky Supreme Court, the Chief Justice’s Fayette County Family Court Task Force, and is a frequent speaker for continuing legal education.
Justice VanMeter was born in 1958 in Lexington, and was raised in Winchester. He received his undergraduate degree with a major in history in 1980 from Vanderbilt University, and his law degree in 1983 from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and the Kentucky Law Journal.
Justice VanMeter practiced law with the Lexington firm of Stoll, Keenon & Park from 1983 to 1994, where his practice areas included equine law, business planning and organizations, real estate, taxation, estate planning, trusts and probate. He has been admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, and is a member of the Kentucky and Fayette County Bar Associations. From 1994 to 1999, he served as a judge of the Fayette District Court, 22nd District, Division 1. Justice VanMeter was appointed and then elected to the Fayette Circuit Court bench in 1999 on which he served until his election to the Court of Appeals.
Justice VanMeter has been actively involved in a number of community organizations, including Little League Baseball, Lexington Youth Soccer, Boys' and Girls' Clubs of America, Parents’ Place, the University of Kentucky Libraries National Advisory Board, and has served on the vestry of Christ Church Cathedral, on the Vanderbilt University Alumni Board of Directors, and on the Sayre School Board of Trustees. He is a Fellow of the University of Kentucky, a Life Fellow of the Kentucky Bar Foundation, and a Founding Fellow of the Fayette County Bar Foundation. He is a member of Christ Church Cathedral. Justice VanMeter and his late wife, Lucy, are the parents of four children.
Principal, Legis Matters
Karl T. Kurtz is principal of Legis Matters, a consulting firm that focuses on strengthening democratic institutions, especially legislatures, at home and abroad. He previously worked for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) from its founding in 1975 until his retirement in 2014.
Karl has written, consulted and lectured widely on American state legislatures, elections and public opinion. He is coauthor of Republic on Trial: The Case for Representative Democracy and coeditor of Institutional Change in American Politics: The Case of Term Limits. He has provided advice and assistance in the development of democratic institutions to legislators and legislative staff throughout the world. As a consultant to NCSL, Karl is currently leading a national study of how legislatures can overcome problems of political polarization and effectively reach settlements and negotiate differences on critical issues.
Before joining NCSL, Karl taught political science at the University of Georgia. He worked on the staff of the United States Congress as a Congressional Fellow of the American Political Science Association. He holds an AB degree from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from Washington University (St. Louis).
Former Congressman, VP and Dir., Center for Law and Government, Liberty University
Former Congressman Hurt is the Vice President and Director of the Center for Law and Government at Liberty University. From 2011 to 2017 he represented Virginia’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and served on the House Financial Services Committee.
Congressman Hurt began his time in public service in 2001 as a member of the Chatham Town Council. From 2002 to 2007, Hurt served in the Virginia House of Delegates, and from 2008 to 2010, he represented the 19th District in the Senate of Virginia for two years.
Congressman Hurt lives in Chatham, Virginia with his wife, Kathy, and their three sons, Charles, Clement and John.
Principal, Legis Matters
Karl T. Kurtz is principal of Legis Matters, a consulting firm that focuses on strengthening democratic institutions, especially legislatures, at home and abroad. He previously worked for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) from its founding in 1975 until his retirement in 2014.
Karl has written, consulted and lectured widely on American state legislatures, elections and public opinion. He is coauthor of Republic on Trial: The Case for Representative Democracy and coeditor of Institutional Change in American Politics: The Case of Term Limits. He has provided advice and assistance in the development of democratic institutions to legislators and legislative staff throughout the world. As a consultant to NCSL, Karl is currently leading a national study of how legislatures can overcome problems of political polarization and effectively reach settlements and negotiate differences on critical issues.
Before joining NCSL, Karl taught political science at the University of Georgia. He worked on the staff of the United States Congress as a Congressional Fellow of the American Political Science Association. He holds an AB degree from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from Washington University (St. Louis).
Former Congressman, VP and Dir., Center for Law and Government, Liberty University
Former Congressman Hurt is the Vice President and Director of the Center for Law and Government at Liberty University. From 2011 to 2017 he represented Virginia’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and served on the House Financial Services Committee.
Congressman Hurt began his time in public service in 2001 as a member of the Chatham Town Council. From 2002 to 2007, Hurt served in the Virginia House of Delegates, and from 2008 to 2010, he represented the 19th District in the Senate of Virginia for two years.
Congressman Hurt lives in Chatham, Virginia with his wife, Kathy, and their three sons, Charles, Clement and John.
Director, Campaign Finance Strategy, Campaign Legal Center
Erin Chlopak joined the Campaign Legal Center in August 2018, after spending nearly a decade working on a wide range of campaign finance issues in the Federal Election Commission’s Office of General Counsel. Her areas of focus include CLC’s appellate and district court litigation and its Federal Reform and State & Local Reform programs.
From 2017 to 2018, Erin served as the head of the FEC’s Policy Division, overseeing all of the Division’s work on FEC regulations, advisory opinions, and other legal policy guidance. From 2009 to 2017, Erin worked in the FEC’s Litigation Division as a staff attorney and then as Assistant General Counsel, litigating numerous constitutional and other campaign finance cases. She has argued before federal district and appellate courts, including before the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Holmes v. FEC, in which the court unanimously upheld the federal per-election limits on individual contributions to candidates.
Erin began her legal career as a litigation associate at Sullivan & Cromwell, after clerking for Judge Helen Gillmor of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. She received her undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University and her law degree from American University’s Washington College of Law.
Senior Attorney, National Taxpayers Union Foundation
Tyler Martinez is a Senior Attorney at the Taxpayer Defense Center, the strategic litigation arm of National Taxpayers Union Foundation. He has experience setting up nonprofit public interest arms for multiple organizations in the Washington, DC area and thus has experience in First Amendment, Tax, and Administrative Law. He has practiced strategic litigation against government overreach since 2011, handling federal and state cases across the country.
Tyler’s interest in strategic public interest work and in tax law comes down to the simple principle: getting the government out of people’s business. Transparency is for the government, but privacy is for the people. He finds and focuses on examples of government overreach particularly those involving use of private information, dragnet data collection, and other attacks on privacy of association.
Tyler earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Colorado Law School, while winning accolades for his advocacy skills and serving as Executive Editor of the Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law. He is licensed to practice law in Colorado and the District of Columbia. He is further admitted to the bars of the following federal courts: Supreme Court of the United States, D.C. Circuit, First Circuit, Second Circuit, Third Circuit, Fourth Circuit, Fifth Circuit, Eighth Circuit, Tenth Circuit, and various federal district courts across the country.
Chief Counsel, Constitutional Accountability Center
Brianne is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Chief Counsel. Brianne joined CAC from private practice at O'Melveny & Myers (OMM), where she was Counsel in the firm’s Supreme Court and appellate practice. From 2009-11, prior to joining OMM, Brianne was an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. She also served as a law clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court, a law clerk for Judge Robert A. Katzmann on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and a law clerk for Judge Jed S. Rakoff on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Brianne’s academic writings have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Duke Law Journal, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Washington Law Review, the American University Law Review, and the Yale Law & Policy Review. Brianne received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her M.A./B.S. from Emory University. Her master's thesis in political science examined judicial behavior on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Professor of Law and Executive Director, Law and Economics Center, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Donald Kochan is Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Law & Economics Center (LEC). Professor Kochan is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and serves as an Adviser to ALI's Restatement of the Law Fourth, Property project. Professor Kochan is a Nonresident Scholar at the Center for the Constitution at Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a Visiting Scholar in residence during Fall 2018. Before joining the Antonin Scalia Law School faculty, he was the Parker S. Kennedy Professor in Law at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law from 2004 to 2020. From 2003 to 2004, Professor Kochan was an Olin Fellow at the University of Virginia School of Law. During 2002-2003, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at George Mason’s Scalia Law School.
Professor Kochan’s scholarship focuses on areas of property law, constitutional law, administrative law, local government law, natural resources and environmental law, and law & economics. He has published several books and more than 50 scholarly articles and essays in well-regarded law journals. His work has been cited in more than a dozen state and federal court opinions, in more than 75 briefs filed in state and federal courts including more than 25 filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, in dozens of books and treatises, and in more than 800 scholarly articles.
Professor Kochan received his JD from Cornell Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics and managing editor of the Cornell International Law Journal. During law school, he also served as editor and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy symposium issues in 1997 and 1998. He received his BA from Western Michigan University, magna cum laude, with majors in both political science and philosophy, where he studied as the John W. Gill Medallion Scholar and was honored as the Presidential Scholar (awarded to the top graduate in the political science department).
After graduating from law school, Professor Kochan was a law clerk to The Honorable Richard F. Suhrheinrich of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Following his clerkship, Professor Kochan was an associate with the firm of Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in natural resources & environmental law as well as tort, products, and consumer civil litigation & legislative affairs.
Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Glenn Roper joined Pacific Legal Foundation in 2019. Based in Colorado, he litigates across the country on behalf of individuals and organizations to advance the principles of individual freedom, separation of powers, and the rule of law.
With experience in both private practice and government, Roper has seen the dangers posed to liberty when agencies, bureaucrats, and politicians ignore individual rights in favor of expediency or advancing a political agenda. His interest in combating those dangers spans PLF’s practice areas, including equal protection, separation of powers, environmental law, property rights, and the First Amendment.
Although he grew up in California’s Central Valley, Roper has spent most of his career in the Mountain West. Immediately prior to joining PLF, he served as Deputy Solicitor General in Colorado’s Office of the Attorney General, where he handled select appellate and constitutional litigation on behalf of the State and its agencies and officials. Before joining the Attorney General’s Office, Roper was a partner in a Denver law firm, where he focused on complex civil litigation, e-discovery, and appellate matters. He previously served as Deputy Associate Counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office for President George W. Bush and as a law clerk to Judge David M. Ebel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. He graduated first in his class from Brigham Young University Law School.
Senior Counsel and VP, Appellate Advocacy, Alliance Defending Freedom
John Bursch is senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy with Alliance Defending Freedom. Bursch has argued 12 U.S. Supreme Court cases and more than 30 state supreme court cases since 2011, and a recent study concluded that among all frequent Supreme Court advocates who did not work for the federal government, he had the 3rd highest success rate for persuading justices to adopt his legal position.
Bursch served as solicitor general for the state of Michigan from 2011-2013. He has argued multiple Michigan Supreme Court cases in eight of the last ten terms and has successfully litigated hundreds of matters nationwide, including six with at least $1 billion at stake. As part of his private firm, Bursch Law PLLC, he has represented Fortune 500 companies, foreign and domestic governments, top public officials, and industry associations in high-profile cases, primarily on appeal. He was inducted into the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and serves as a member of the American Law Institute. His work has resulted in repeated listings in Michigan Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers.
Before entering private practice, Bursch served as a law clerk to the Honorable James B. Loken on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1997 from the University of Minnesota Law School, where he served as Chief Note & Comment Editor for the Minnesota Law Review. Prior to that, he attended Western Michigan University, where he received degrees in mathematics and music performance summa cum laude.
Stare Decisis Panel
Cassie Chambers Armstrong, Michael T. Morley, John O. Sheller, Amul R. Thapar, Laurance B. VanMeter
On October 7, 2019, The Federalist Society held a panel on Stare Decisis at its...
Topics
Nondelegation After Gundy
While the Supreme Court repeatedly has proclaimed that Congress cannot delegate its law-making power, in...
Topics
Questions about Money
A retired university professor, a veteran central bank watcher, the former head of a Federal...
Topics
51 Imperfect Solutions for the Ethical Practice of Law
Each of the States and the District of Columbia regulates the practice of law. In...
Necessary & Proper Episode 50: Laboratories of Democracy, Part 2: Can Congress learn from State Legislatures?
Karl Kurtz, Robert Hurt
The concept of states serving as important test cases for national governance dates to the...
Necessary & Proper Episode 50: Laboratories of Democracy, Part 2: Can Congress learn from State Legislatures?
Karl Kurtz, Robert Hurt
The concept of states serving as important test cases for national governance dates to the...
Is It Transparency or Is It Censorship? Washington Post v. McManus
Erin Chlopak, Tyler Martinez
In Washington Post v. McManus, various newspapers brought suit to strike down a new Maryland law...
Courthouse Steps Preview Teleforum: County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund
Brianne Gorod, Donald J. Kochan, Glenn Roper
The oral argument for County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund will be heard before...
Sexual Orientation Consolidated - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
John J. Bursch
On October 8, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in two consolidated cases asking...
The Federalist Paper, Fall 2019
Federalist Society chapters at law schools and in cities across the country hosted Supreme Court...