Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Josh Blackman is a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court. Josh’s work was quoted during two presidential impeachment trials. He has testified before Congress and advises federal and state lawmakers. Josh regularly appears on TV, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the BBC. Josh is also a frequent guest on NPR and other syndicated radio programs. He has published commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and leading national publications.
Since 2012, Josh has served as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Josh is an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Josh has written more than seven dozen law review articles that have been cited more than a thousand times. Josh was selected as the Jurist of the Year by the Texas Journal of Law & Public Policy, received the inaugural Meese III Originalism Award, and was awarded the Inaugural Joseph Story Award. Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy. Josh is the President of the Harlan Institute, and founded FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracyand posts@JoshMBlackman.
Judge William Hawley Atwell Chair of Constitutional Law, SMU Dedman School of Law
Professor Carpenter is the Judge William Hawley Atwell Chair of Constitutional Law. He previously served as the Charles J. and Inez Wright Murray Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at SMU, teaching Constitutional Law I as well as LGBT Rights and the Law. This fall he will teach Constitutional Law II.
Prior to joining SMU, Professor Carpenter taught for 16 years at the University of Minnesota, where he served as a Distinguished University Teaching Professor and the Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law. He won multiple teaching awards. He is also an editor of Constitutional Commentary.
The Texas native received his B.A. degree in history, magna cum laude, from Yale College and received his J.D., with honors, from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review. After serving as a law clerk for Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones, he practiced at the firms Vinson & Elkins LLP in Houston, and at Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, P.C. in San Francisco.
As the author of numerous articles and an award-winning book —FLAGRANT CONDUCT: THE STORY OF LAWRENCE V. TEXAS (W.W. Norton & Co., 2012), about the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that invalidated America's sodomy laws — he is often asked by the media to comment on constitutional law, the First Amendment, and LGBT Rights and the Law. Since 2005, he has been an active blogger on the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, which is hosted by the Washington Post.
Of Counsel, Christian Legal Society's Center for Law & Religious Freedom
Kim Colby has worked for Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom since graduating from Harvard Law School in 1981. She has represented religious groups in several appellate cases, including two cases heard by the United States Supreme Court. She has filed numerous amicus briefs in federal and state courts. In 1984, she assisted in congressional passage of the Equal Access Act, 20 U.S.C. § 4071, et seq., which protects the right of secondary school students to meet for prayer and Bible study on campus. Ms. Colby has prepared several CLS publications addressing issues about religious expression in public schools, including released time programs, implementation of the Equal Access Act, and teachers’ religious expression.
Ms. Colby graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois with a major in American History and a particular interest in slavery in colonial North America.
Executive Director, Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, The Ohio State University
Professor Lee J. Strang serves as the inaugural executive director of the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society at The Ohio State University.
Initiated in 2023 by the state of Ohio, the Chase Center will be an academic home at Ohio State for teaching, research, and programing on the foundations of the American constitutional order and its impact on society. As executive director, Professor Strang is responsible for organizing the center, overseeing the hiring and appointment of the center’s faculty, developing curriculum, and delivering student and academic programming. He also holds a faculty appointment in the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State.
Professor Strang is a nationally recognized legal scholar who has published dozens of articles in leading journals in the fields of constitutional law and interpretation, property law, and religion and the First Amendment. He co-edits the textbook Federal Constitutional Law, and his most recent book, Originalism’s Promise: A Natural Law Account of the American Constitution is the first book-length, natural law justification for originalism. He currently is writing on civic thought and leadership, and he is finalizing a book on the history of American Catholic legal education (with John M. Breen).
Before joining Ohio State, Professor Strang served as the inaugural director of the University of Toledo’s Institute of American Constitutional Thought & Leadership. He joined the Toledo College of Law faculty in 2008, was granted tenure in 2010, and was named John W. Stoepler Professor of Law & Values in 2015. The University of Toledo awarded Professor Strang its Outstanding Faculty Research and Scholarship Award in 2017. Before that, he was a visiting professor at Michigan State University College of Law. A graduate of the University of Iowa, where he was articles editor of the Iowa Law Review and Order of the Coif, Professor Strang holds an LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School.
Professor Strang has been a visiting scholar at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution and a visiting fellow at the James Madison Program at Princeton University. In 2016, he was appointed to the Ohio Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and reappointed as chair in 2023.
Prior to teaching, Professor Strang served as a judicial clerk for Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was also an associate for Jenner & Block LLP in Chicago, where he practiced in general and appellate litigation.
Professor Strang is a frequent presenter at scholarly conferences. He is the president of the Board of Trustees of Northwest Ohio Classical Academy, Ohio’s first classical charter school. He is also a regular participant in debates at law schools across the country, a contributor to the media, and a speaker to political, civic, and religious groups.
Professor of Law and Public Policy, Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law
Greg McNeal is an award winning entrepreneur, professor, and investor. He co-founded AirMap, a multinational aerospace and defense company honored as one of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies” by Fast Company and ranked as an Inc.com 25 Most Disruptive Company. The company also received a Los Angeles Business Journal Innovation Award, and a Consumer Electronics Show “Innovation Award.” The company was acquired in 2021.
He invests in and advises companies and entrepreneurs in SAAS, Defense, AI, and entertainment. The companies he founded or serves on the corporate board of have raised over $100 million in funding with his direct participation in the process. Those investors include Microsoft, Flexport, Sony, Qualcomm, Rakuten, Baidu, Airbus, and top global financial services and venture capital funds including Greycroft, Social Capital, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Bullpen Capital, Bay Bridge Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures, Operate Studio, TenOneTen, Temasek, Macquarie Group, Graph Ventures and many others. The companies he advises have raised substantially more funding, in part due to his advice and mentorship.
He is a tenured Professor of Law and Public Policy at Pepperdine University and a faculty member with the Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and the Law and teaches courses in technology, public policy, internet, and privacy law.
As a public policy and legal expert, Greg has worked with the White House, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and independent regulatory agencies on matters related to technology, law and policy. He has on multiple occasions testified before Congress and state legislatures about entrepreneurship and emerging technology and has aided state legislators, cities, municipalities, and executive branch officials in drafting legislation and ordinances related to technological advances and has been appointed by Cabinet officials to serve on Federal Rulemaking Committees.
He is a frequent keynote speaker at industry events and academic conferences related to technology, law, and public policy. He advises venture capital firms and other investors, start-ups, law enforcement, consulting firms, and Fortune 500 companies about the legal and regulatory issues associated with emerging technologies.
He regularly appears on television and radio to discuss technology and business, wrote a column on business and technology for Forbes and has authored Op-Eds for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Washington Times, among others. In his early career he worked on national security, international criminal law and counterterrorism matters and served as an Army officer.
Director, Faculty Programs & Division Administrator, The Federalist Society
Anthony Deardurff serves as Director of Faculty Programs & Division Administrator. He previously practiced complex commercial and appellate litigation in the Washington, D.C. office of WilmerHale, LLP, and clerked on both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Mr. Deardurff earned his J.D. cum laude from Notre Dame Law School and his B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Dallas, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He holds a license to practice in both Illinois and the District of Columbia.
David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Frederick Schauer is David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, and previously was Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Harvard University. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Schauer is the author of The Law of Obscenity (BNA, 1976), Free Speech: A Philosophical Enquiry (Cambridge, 1982), Playing By the Rules: A Philosophical Examination of Rule-Based Decision-Making in Law and in Life (Oxford, 1991), Profiles, Probabilities, and Stereotypes (Harvard, 2003), Thinking Like a Lawyer: A New Introduction to Legal Reasoning (Harvard, 2009), and The Force of Law (Harvard, 2015). The editor of Karl Llewellyn, The Theory of Rules (Chicago, 2011), and a founding editor of Legal Theory, he has chaired the Section on Constitutional Law of the Association of American Law Schools and the Committee on Philosophy and Law of the American Philosophical Association. In 2005 he wrote the Foreword to the Harvard Law Review’s Supreme Court issue, and has written widely on freedom of speech, constitutional interpretation, evidence, legal reasoning, and the philosophy of law.
David Boies Professor of Law, Yale Law School
President, Oklahoma City University
Robert Henry is the 17th president of Oklahoma City University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the American Bar Association, serving as Chair of the Middle East and North Africa Council, board member of the Rule of Law Initiative, and was a board member of the Committee for the Africa Law Initiative Council. He is a member of the Judicial Advisory Board of the American Society of International Law. Henry is also a member of the American Law Institute, the Oklahoma Bar Association, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Law and the William J. Holloway Jr. American Inn of the Court, Master of the Court. He has served on the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Group, the Oklahoma Constitutional Revision Committee and the National Association of Attorneys General (Committees on Agricultural Law, Civil Rights, and Supreme Court Advocacy).
He returns to OCU after having served as Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Henry has a long-standing relationship with OCU, serving as Dean of the OCU School of Law and tenured Professor of Law from 1991-1994. He taught graduate and undergraduate courses at OCU and has been a frequent guest lecturer.
Henry has been a lifelong advocate for common and higher education. He co-authored the legislation that established the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM), established the Sen. Penny Williams Lecture in Arts and Sciences at OSSM, and established the Henry Family Lecture Series at the University of Oklahoma College of Law and was the co-founder of the Oklahoma Symposium.
Henry has served on the Court of Appeals for 16 years. Prior to his appointment to the Court by President William J. Clinton, Henry served as Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma. He served ten years as a state representative in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, where he was Chair of the Majority Caucus, and Chair of the Committees on the Judiciary, Common Education and Appropriations and Budget Committee - General Government and Judiciary.
In addition to teaching at OCU, Henry also taught at the University of Oklahoma Honors College, Oxford Program; University of Oklahoma College of Law, served as Distinguished Judge in Residence, University of Tulsa College of Law and taught Business Law at Oklahoma Baptist University. He was a former chairman of the Board of Trustees of St. Gregory's College. He practiced law in Shawnee, Oklahoma for ten years.
Henry serves on the Committee on International Judicial Relations of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which he chaired from July 2005 – May 2008. He has also served on the Committee on Codes of Conduct of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He is also a Director and Honorary Lifetime Member of the Tenth Judicial Circuit's Historical Society Committee, and a member of the Tenth Judicial Circuit Court of Appeals Lawyer's Advisory Committee. He serves on the Board of Directors of the VERA Institute of Justice in New York; the Foundation for the Future, based in Amman, Jordan; and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation; on the Board of Visitors of the University of Oklahoma International Programs Center and Honors College; and on the Board of Advisors of the Jasmine Moran Foundation Children's Museum and the Columbia University National State Attorneys General Program.
The recipient of many honors and awards, Henry was inducted into the 2008 Oklahoma Hall of Fame. He was named "The Honored One," Oklahoma Sovereignty Symposium, Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2008; received Certificate of Appreciation, US Department of State, 2008 and the Certificate of Gratitude, Council of Judges of the Russian Federation and Justice for substantial contribution to the development of relations between American and Russian Judges. Henry received the Distinguished Alumni award, University of Oklahoma Arts & Sciences, 2004; the E.T. Dunlap Award for Public Service, Southeastern Oklahoma University, 1998; Humanitarian of the Year Award, National Conference of Community and Justice, 1996. In 1993, Henry received the Myrtle Wreath Award for Humanitarianism, Oklahoma City Chapter of Hadassah; Conservationist of the Year, Oklahoma Wildlife Federation, 1989; Oklahoma Human Rights Award, Oklahoma Human Rights Commission, 1988; and Outstanding Young Oklahoman, Oklahoma Jaycees, 1988; the A. C. Hamlin Award, National Black Caucus of State Legislatures, 1984.
Henry has authored numerous chapters in a variety of volumes including: "Civil Rights Movement" in The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture; "The Rehnquist Court: A Schwartzian Critique," in The Rehnquist Court: Farewell to the Old Order?; and "The Play and The Players," in The Burger Court: Counter-Revolution or Confirmation?. He was the principal author and narrator for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority's series on arts and culture, "The People's Art," which received "Best of the Best" (program production) and also named 2008's finest news and information program for 2008 by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA). In addition, Henry has authored scores of law review articles, scholarly journal articles and other published works. Henry serves as outside evaluator, reader, and columnist for World Literature Today Magazine, University of Oklahoma Press, Oklahoma Today, and Oklahoma Gazette.
Henry is married to Dr. Jan Ralls Henry, an Oklahoma City dentist, who will serve as first lady of Oklahoma City University. President and Dr. Henry reside in Wilson House on the OCU campus.
He has two children and four stepchildren: Rachel Henry, a recent graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University; Joshua Henry, a junior at OCU; Amie Bostian, a speech therapist in Edmond; Scott Ralls, a graphic designer in Seattle; Greg Ralls, an airline pilot in Edmond; and Daniel Ralls, an architect in Seattle.
Partner, Spencer Fane LLP
Andy Lester has a civil litigation and appellate practice in both state and federal court. His fields of emphasis include complex business, civil rights, commercial, constitutional, and state and local government law. He has faced off against the White House over the use of Executive Privilege, has appeared as counsel before committees of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, and has been a featured guest on television shows such as Hardball with Chris Matthews and The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. He has also served as Acting General Counsel for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and has twice served as Chief Counsel to Special House Committees investigating public corruption.
While in law school, Lester served on President Ronald Reagan’s Transition Team for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In 2002, he chaired Governor Brad Henry’s Law Enforcement/Corrections Transition Team and, as a member of the Budget/Finance Transition Team, helped write Governor Henry’s first State budget.
He is a former United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma, and has served as Adjunct Professor at Oklahoma City University School of Law, having taught State & Local Government, Employment Law, Criminal Law, and International Law. Lester has written over 100 articles and papers on professional and public policy issues, and has published one book, Constitutional Law and Democracy, a collection of speeches he gave in 1993 in the former Soviet Union.
Lester is a former member of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, and in 2019 was named a State Regent Emeritus. He served on the board of Eureka College (President Reagan’s alma mater), is a former chairman of the Oklahoma Advisory Committee for the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and is a past president, past board chairman, and current board member of the Tenth Circuit Historical Society. He co-chaired the bipartisan Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, which conducted the first-ever independent, objective, and thorough review of the state’s entire capital punishment system.
In 2012, Lester was named Citizen of the Year of Edmond, Oklahoma. He is a past president of the Rotary Club of Edmond, and in 2011 was named Rotarian of the Year.
Of Counsel, Crowe & Dunlevy
Highly distinguished and respected, William G. Paul serves as an of counsel attorney in the Firm’s Oklahoma City office. His areas of practice encompass alternative dispute resolution, commercial transactions, corporate governance, and trusts and estates law.
William’s prestige and respect are evidenced by his leadership in various professional organizations. He has served as president of both the Oklahoma and American Bar Associations, the American Bar Endowment, the Oklahoma County Bar Association, and the National Conference of Bar Presidents to name a few.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
LAURENCE HIRSCH SILBERMAN, senior circuit judge; recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, June 19, 2008; born in York, PA, October 12, 1935; son of William Silberman and Anna (Hirsch); married to Rosalie G. Gaull on April 28, 1957 (deceased), married Patricia Winn on January 5, 2008; children: Robert Steven Silberman, Katherine DeBoer Fischer, and Anne Gaull Otis; B.A., Dartmouth College, 1957; LL.B., Harvard Law School, 1961; admitted to Hawaii Bar, 1962; District of Columbia Bar, 1973; associate, Moore, Torkildson and Rice, 1961–64; partner (Moore, Silberman and Schulze), Honolulu, 1964–67; attorney, National Labor Relations Board, Office of General Counsel, Appellate Division, 1967–69; Solicitor, Department of Labor, 1969–70; Under Secretary of Labor, 1970–73; partner, Steptoe and Johnson, 1973–74; Deputy Attorney General of the United States, 1974–75; Ambassador to Yugoslavia, 1975–77; President’s Special Envoy on ILO Affairs, 1976; senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute, 1977–78; visiting fellow, 1978–85; managing partner, Morrison and Foerster, 1978–79 and 1983–85; executive vice president, Crocker National Bank, 1979–83; lecturer, University of Hawaii, 1962–63; board of directors, Commission on Present Danger, 1978–85, Institute for Educational Affairs, New York, NY, 1981–85, member: General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament, 1981–85; Defense Policy Board, 1981–85; vice chairman, State Department’s Commission on Security and Economic Assistance, 1983–84; American Bar Association (Labor Law Committee, 1965–72, Corporations and Banking Committee, 1973, Law and National Security Advisory Committee, 1981–85); Hawaii Bar Association Ethics Committee, 1965–67; Council on Foreign Relations, 1977–present; Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management, 1994; member, U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court of Review, 1996–2003; Adjunct Professor of Law (Administrative Law and Labor Law) Georgetown Law Center, 1987–94; 1997; Adjunct Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, 1994-95, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York University Law School, 1995–96; Distinguished Visitor from the Judiciary, Georgetown Law Center, 2003–2019; co-chairman of the President’s Commission on The Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, 2004–05; appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President Reagan on October 28, 1985.
President, Oklahoma City University
Robert Henry is the 17th president of Oklahoma City University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the American Bar Association, serving as Chair of the Middle East and North Africa Council, board member of the Rule of Law Initiative, and was a board member of the Committee for the Africa Law Initiative Council. He is a member of the Judicial Advisory Board of the American Society of International Law. Henry is also a member of the American Law Institute, the Oklahoma Bar Association, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Law and the William J. Holloway Jr. American Inn of the Court, Master of the Court. He has served on the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Group, the Oklahoma Constitutional Revision Committee and the National Association of Attorneys General (Committees on Agricultural Law, Civil Rights, and Supreme Court Advocacy).
He returns to OCU after having served as Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Henry has a long-standing relationship with OCU, serving as Dean of the OCU School of Law and tenured Professor of Law from 1991-1994. He taught graduate and undergraduate courses at OCU and has been a frequent guest lecturer.
Henry has been a lifelong advocate for common and higher education. He co-authored the legislation that established the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM), established the Sen. Penny Williams Lecture in Arts and Sciences at OSSM, and established the Henry Family Lecture Series at the University of Oklahoma College of Law and was the co-founder of the Oklahoma Symposium.
Henry has served on the Court of Appeals for 16 years. Prior to his appointment to the Court by President William J. Clinton, Henry served as Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma. He served ten years as a state representative in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, where he was Chair of the Majority Caucus, and Chair of the Committees on the Judiciary, Common Education and Appropriations and Budget Committee - General Government and Judiciary.
In addition to teaching at OCU, Henry also taught at the University of Oklahoma Honors College, Oxford Program; University of Oklahoma College of Law, served as Distinguished Judge in Residence, University of Tulsa College of Law and taught Business Law at Oklahoma Baptist University. He was a former chairman of the Board of Trustees of St. Gregory's College. He practiced law in Shawnee, Oklahoma for ten years.
Henry serves on the Committee on International Judicial Relations of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which he chaired from July 2005 – May 2008. He has also served on the Committee on Codes of Conduct of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He is also a Director and Honorary Lifetime Member of the Tenth Judicial Circuit's Historical Society Committee, and a member of the Tenth Judicial Circuit Court of Appeals Lawyer's Advisory Committee. He serves on the Board of Directors of the VERA Institute of Justice in New York; the Foundation for the Future, based in Amman, Jordan; and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation; on the Board of Visitors of the University of Oklahoma International Programs Center and Honors College; and on the Board of Advisors of the Jasmine Moran Foundation Children's Museum and the Columbia University National State Attorneys General Program.
The recipient of many honors and awards, Henry was inducted into the 2008 Oklahoma Hall of Fame. He was named "The Honored One," Oklahoma Sovereignty Symposium, Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2008; received Certificate of Appreciation, US Department of State, 2008 and the Certificate of Gratitude, Council of Judges of the Russian Federation and Justice for substantial contribution to the development of relations between American and Russian Judges. Henry received the Distinguished Alumni award, University of Oklahoma Arts & Sciences, 2004; the E.T. Dunlap Award for Public Service, Southeastern Oklahoma University, 1998; Humanitarian of the Year Award, National Conference of Community and Justice, 1996. In 1993, Henry received the Myrtle Wreath Award for Humanitarianism, Oklahoma City Chapter of Hadassah; Conservationist of the Year, Oklahoma Wildlife Federation, 1989; Oklahoma Human Rights Award, Oklahoma Human Rights Commission, 1988; and Outstanding Young Oklahoman, Oklahoma Jaycees, 1988; the A. C. Hamlin Award, National Black Caucus of State Legislatures, 1984.
Henry has authored numerous chapters in a variety of volumes including: "Civil Rights Movement" in The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture; "The Rehnquist Court: A Schwartzian Critique," in The Rehnquist Court: Farewell to the Old Order?; and "The Play and The Players," in The Burger Court: Counter-Revolution or Confirmation?. He was the principal author and narrator for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority's series on arts and culture, "The People's Art," which received "Best of the Best" (program production) and also named 2008's finest news and information program for 2008 by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA). In addition, Henry has authored scores of law review articles, scholarly journal articles and other published works. Henry serves as outside evaluator, reader, and columnist for World Literature Today Magazine, University of Oklahoma Press, Oklahoma Today, and Oklahoma Gazette.
Henry is married to Dr. Jan Ralls Henry, an Oklahoma City dentist, who will serve as first lady of Oklahoma City University. President and Dr. Henry reside in Wilson House on the OCU campus.
He has two children and four stepchildren: Rachel Henry, a recent graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University; Joshua Henry, a junior at OCU; Amie Bostian, a speech therapist in Edmond; Scott Ralls, a graphic designer in Seattle; Greg Ralls, an airline pilot in Edmond; and Daniel Ralls, an architect in Seattle.
Partner, Spencer Fane LLP
Andy Lester has a civil litigation and appellate practice in both state and federal court. His fields of emphasis include complex business, civil rights, commercial, constitutional, and state and local government law. He has faced off against the White House over the use of Executive Privilege, has appeared as counsel before committees of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, and has been a featured guest on television shows such as Hardball with Chris Matthews and The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. He has also served as Acting General Counsel for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and has twice served as Chief Counsel to Special House Committees investigating public corruption.
While in law school, Lester served on President Ronald Reagan’s Transition Team for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In 2002, he chaired Governor Brad Henry’s Law Enforcement/Corrections Transition Team and, as a member of the Budget/Finance Transition Team, helped write Governor Henry’s first State budget.
He is a former United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma, and has served as Adjunct Professor at Oklahoma City University School of Law, having taught State & Local Government, Employment Law, Criminal Law, and International Law. Lester has written over 100 articles and papers on professional and public policy issues, and has published one book, Constitutional Law and Democracy, a collection of speeches he gave in 1993 in the former Soviet Union.
Lester is a former member of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, and in 2019 was named a State Regent Emeritus. He served on the board of Eureka College (President Reagan’s alma mater), is a former chairman of the Oklahoma Advisory Committee for the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and is a past president, past board chairman, and current board member of the Tenth Circuit Historical Society. He co-chaired the bipartisan Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, which conducted the first-ever independent, objective, and thorough review of the state’s entire capital punishment system.
In 2012, Lester was named Citizen of the Year of Edmond, Oklahoma. He is a past president of the Rotary Club of Edmond, and in 2011 was named Rotarian of the Year.
Of Counsel, Crowe & Dunlevy
Highly distinguished and respected, William G. Paul serves as an of counsel attorney in the Firm’s Oklahoma City office. His areas of practice encompass alternative dispute resolution, commercial transactions, corporate governance, and trusts and estates law.
William’s prestige and respect are evidenced by his leadership in various professional organizations. He has served as president of both the Oklahoma and American Bar Associations, the American Bar Endowment, the Oklahoma County Bar Association, and the National Conference of Bar Presidents to name a few.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
LAURENCE HIRSCH SILBERMAN, senior circuit judge; recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, June 19, 2008; born in York, PA, October 12, 1935; son of William Silberman and Anna (Hirsch); married to Rosalie G. Gaull on April 28, 1957 (deceased), married Patricia Winn on January 5, 2008; children: Robert Steven Silberman, Katherine DeBoer Fischer, and Anne Gaull Otis; B.A., Dartmouth College, 1957; LL.B., Harvard Law School, 1961; admitted to Hawaii Bar, 1962; District of Columbia Bar, 1973; associate, Moore, Torkildson and Rice, 1961–64; partner (Moore, Silberman and Schulze), Honolulu, 1964–67; attorney, National Labor Relations Board, Office of General Counsel, Appellate Division, 1967–69; Solicitor, Department of Labor, 1969–70; Under Secretary of Labor, 1970–73; partner, Steptoe and Johnson, 1973–74; Deputy Attorney General of the United States, 1974–75; Ambassador to Yugoslavia, 1975–77; President’s Special Envoy on ILO Affairs, 1976; senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute, 1977–78; visiting fellow, 1978–85; managing partner, Morrison and Foerster, 1978–79 and 1983–85; executive vice president, Crocker National Bank, 1979–83; lecturer, University of Hawaii, 1962–63; board of directors, Commission on Present Danger, 1978–85, Institute for Educational Affairs, New York, NY, 1981–85, member: General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament, 1981–85; Defense Policy Board, 1981–85; vice chairman, State Department’s Commission on Security and Economic Assistance, 1983–84; American Bar Association (Labor Law Committee, 1965–72, Corporations and Banking Committee, 1973, Law and National Security Advisory Committee, 1981–85); Hawaii Bar Association Ethics Committee, 1965–67; Council on Foreign Relations, 1977–present; Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management, 1994; member, U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court of Review, 1996–2003; Adjunct Professor of Law (Administrative Law and Labor Law) Georgetown Law Center, 1987–94; 1997; Adjunct Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, 1994-95, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York University Law School, 1995–96; Distinguished Visitor from the Judiciary, Georgetown Law Center, 2003–2019; co-chairman of the President’s Commission on The Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, 2004–05; appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President Reagan on October 28, 1985.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Joseph Tartakovsky, Author of The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that Shaped America's Supreme Law.
Joseph Tartakovsky is author of The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that Shaped America’s Supreme Law (2018) and the former Deputy Solicitor General of Nevada. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times.
Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives
First elected in 2016, Congressman Mike Gallagher represents Wisconsin’s 8th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mike is a 7th generation Wisconsin native, born and raised in Green Bay.
Mike joined the United States Marine Corps the day he graduated from college and served for seven years on active duty as a Counterintelligence/Human Intelligence Officer and Regional Affairs Officer for the Middle East/North Africa, eventually earning the rank of Captain. He deployed twice to Al Anbar Province, Iraq as a commander of intelligence teams, served on General Petraeus’s Central Command Assessment Team in the Middle East, and worked for three years in the intelligence community, including tours at the National Counterterrorism Center and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Mike also served as the lead Republican staffer for Middle East, North Africa and Counterterrorism on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Prior to taking office, Mike worked in the private sector at a global energy and supply chain management company in Green Bay.
After earning his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, Mike went on to earn a master’s degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University, a second in Strategic Intelligence from National Intelligence University, and his PhD in International Relations from Georgetown.
Mike currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee, where he is a member of the Seapower and Projection Forces, as well as the Readiness Subcommittees. He also serves on the Homeland Security Committee, where he is a member of the Counterterrorism and Intelligence (CTI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Subcommittees.
Vice President, Networks, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Nathan Kaczmarek is Vice President for Networks at the Federalist Society. He began his legal career in Detroit representing nationwide clients in all phases of healthcare litigation and complex medical malpractice claims. He has since served as a Senior Legal and Policy Advisor in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Counsel for the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management in the U.S. Senate. Prior to overseeing the Networks, he was Director of the Practice Groups, the Regulatory Transparency Project, and the Article I Initiative for the Federalist Society.
Nathan holds degrees from Hillsdale College and Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He is a Liaison Representative for The Administrative Conference of the United States. He also serves as Vice President of the Associates of St. John Bosco, a Virginia based non-profit dedicated to Catholic high school and college students.
Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Elliot School of International Affairs, The George Washington University
Henry R. Nau is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University. From 1989-2016, he directed the US-Japan- South Korea Legislative Exchange Program, semiannual meetings among Members of the US Congress, Japanese Diet, and South Korean National Assembly. During the academic year 2011-12 he was the W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow and the Susan Louise Dyer Peace National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Professor Nau holds a B.S. degree in Economics, Politics and Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Previously, he taught at Williams College and as Visiting Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, Stanford, and Columbia Universities. He is the recipient of grants from, among others, the Council on Foreign Relations, National Science Foundation, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Smith- Richardson Foundation, Century Foundation, Japan US Friendship Commission, Rumsfeld Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the Hoover Institution. From August 1975 to January 1977 he served as a special assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs and from January 1981 to July 1983 as senior staff member and White House sherpa on President Reagan’s National Security Council responsible for G-7 Summits and international economic affairs.
Among numerous publications, he is the author of five single-authored University press books, including Conservative Internationalism: Armed Diplomacy Under Jefferson, Polk, Truman and Reagan (Princeton University Press, 2013; paperback with new preface 2015); Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions, and Ideas (Sage/CQ Press, 5th Edition, 2016); At Home Abroad: Identity and Power in American Foreign Policy (Cornell University Press, 2002); The Myth of America's Decline: Leading the World Economy into the 1990s (Oxford University Press, 1990) and National Politics and International Technology: Nuclear Reactor Development in Western Europe (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974). His most recent articles and book chapters include “How Restraint Leads to War,” Commentary Magazine, (September 2015; Lead Article on Front Cover); “The ‘Great Expansion:’ The Economic Legacy of Ronald Reagan,” in Reagan’s Legacy in a World Transformed, edited by Jeffrey L. Chidester and Paul Kengor, (Harvard University Press, 2015); and “Ideas have consequences: The Cold War and today,” International Politics, (July 2011).
He is the recipient of the State Department's Superior Honor Award (1977), the Elliott School Harry Harding Teaching Prize (2007), and the Japanese Government's Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon (2016). From 1963-65 he served as a Lieutenant in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Professor Emeritus of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Jeremy A. Rabkin is a Professor Emeritus of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. Before joining the faculty in June 2007, he was for over two decades a professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Professor Rabkin serves on the board of directors of the Center for Individual Rights, a public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C. Previously he was a board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the board of academic advisors of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Rabkin’s books include Law Without Nations? (Princeton University Press, 2005). He authored “If You Need a Friend, Don’t Call a Cosmopolitan,” a chapter in Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship (Sigal R. Ben-Porath & Rogers M. Smith eds., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). His articles have appeared in major law reviews and political science journals and his journalistic contributions in a range of magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Judge William Hawley Atwell Chair of Constitutional Law, SMU Dedman School of Law
Professor Carpenter is the Judge William Hawley Atwell Chair of Constitutional Law. He previously served as the Charles J. and Inez Wright Murray Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at SMU, teaching Constitutional Law I as well as LGBT Rights and the Law. This fall he will teach Constitutional Law II.
Prior to joining SMU, Professor Carpenter taught for 16 years at the University of Minnesota, where he served as a Distinguished University Teaching Professor and the Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law. He won multiple teaching awards. He is also an editor of Constitutional Commentary.
The Texas native received his B.A. degree in history, magna cum laude, from Yale College and received his J.D., with honors, from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review. After serving as a law clerk for Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones, he practiced at the firms Vinson & Elkins LLP in Houston, and at Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, P.C. in San Francisco.
As the author of numerous articles and an award-winning book —FLAGRANT CONDUCT: THE STORY OF LAWRENCE V. TEXAS (W.W. Norton & Co., 2012), about the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that invalidated America's sodomy laws — he is often asked by the media to comment on constitutional law, the First Amendment, and LGBT Rights and the Law. Since 2005, he has been an active blogger on the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, which is hosted by the Washington Post.
Of Counsel, Christian Legal Society's Center for Law & Religious Freedom
Kim Colby has worked for Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom since graduating from Harvard Law School in 1981. She has represented religious groups in several appellate cases, including two cases heard by the United States Supreme Court. She has filed numerous amicus briefs in federal and state courts. In 1984, she assisted in congressional passage of the Equal Access Act, 20 U.S.C. § 4071, et seq., which protects the right of secondary school students to meet for prayer and Bible study on campus. Ms. Colby has prepared several CLS publications addressing issues about religious expression in public schools, including released time programs, implementation of the Equal Access Act, and teachers’ religious expression.
Ms. Colby graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois with a major in American History and a particular interest in slavery in colonial North America.
2018 Joseph Story Award: Prof. Josh Blackman [NSS 2018]
Josh Blackman
On March 10, 2018, the Federalist Society presented Prof. Josh Blackman of South Texas College...
The Lives of the Constitution
Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group Teleforum
TeleforumFounding Principles as Pillars of Our Foreign Policy
Co-sponsored by the Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Groups and the Article I Initiative
Washington, DCCourthouse Steps: Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado CRC Decided
Dale A. Carpenter, Kim Colby
Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado CRC, one of the most highly publicized of the term, was decided 7-2...
The Declaration of Independence & the Constitution [NSS 2018]
Lee J. Strang
Can the Declaration of Independence be used to support unconventional theories of constitutional interpretation? Professor...
Courthouse Steps: Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado CRC Decided
Religious Liberties Practice Group Teleforum
TeleforumIntroduction to the IT & Emerging Technology Working Group
Gregory S. McNeal
Gregory McNeal is the Chairman of RTP’s IT & Emerging Technology working group and Professor...
Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech
Anthony M. Deardurff, Frederick Schauer, Keith E. Whittington
In Speak Freely, Prof. Whitting ton argues that universities have a distinctive and important mission...
Lawyers & the U.S. Justice System [Archive Collection]
Robert H. Henry, Andy Lester, William G. Paul, Laurence H. Silberman
On June 22, 1999, the Oklahoma City Federalist Society Chapter hosted a panel discussion on...
Lawyers & the U.S. Justice System [Archive Collection]
Robert H. Henry, Andy Lester, William G. Paul, Laurence H. Silberman
On June 22, 1999, the Oklahoma City Federalist Society Chapter hosted a panel discussion on...