Boochever and Bird Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom a, UC-Davis School of Law
Alan Brownstein, a nationally recognized Constitutional Law scholar, teaches Constitutional Law, Law and Religion, and Torts at UC Davis School of Law. While the primary focus of his scholarship relates to church-state issues and free exercise and establishment clause doctrine, he has also written extensively on freedom of speech, privacy and autonomy rights, and other constitutional law subjects. His articles have been published in numerous academic journals including the Stanford Law Review, Cornell Law Review, UCLA Law Review and Constitutional Commentary. Brownstein received the UC Davis School of Law's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1995 and the UC Davis Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2008. He is a member of the American Law Institute.
Professor Brownstein has testified on several occasions before various California Senate Committees on legislation promoting religious liberty and bills that raise Establishment Clause concerns. His assistance is often sought by advocacy groups on issues relating to religious liberty and equality. He is a frequent invited lecturer at academic conferences and regularly participates as a speaker or panelist in law related programs before civic, legal, religious, and educational groups. He is the co-author of dozens of Findlaw columns discussing a range of legal issues.
A graduate of Antioch College and Harvard Law School (where he served as a Case Editor of the Harvard Law Review), Brownstein was an attorney in general litigation and corporate practice with the law firm of Tuttle & Taylor in Los Angeles before joining the UC Davis law faculty. From 1977-78, he clerked for the Honorable Frank M. Coffin, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Portland, Maine.
"Most lawyers do not practice constitutional law," Brownstein notes, "but members of the Bar bear a special responsibility for understanding constitutional doctrine and communicating its meaning to non-lawyers. The role that constitutional law plays in our society depends in part on the interplay between courts and the political culture. If judicial decisions are unintelligible to the polity and no group accepts responsibility for explaining the Constitution's evolving meaning to the polity, we undermine part of the foundation of the constitutional scheme of things."
Senior Counsel, First Liberty Institute
Jordan Lorence is Senior Counsel in FLI’s Washington, D.C. office, where he represents First Liberty in strategic efforts promoting religious liberty, and works on important First Amendment projects and litigation, including those at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lorence has a long career of litigating religious liberty cases since 1984. He has worked for many public interest law firms, including Alliance Defending Freedom, Home School Legal Defense Association, the North Star Legal Center and Concerned Women for America.
He has worked on important religious liberty cases. Lorence worked on school choice cases at the Supreme Court, such as Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind (1986), and Trinity Lutheran (2016), which laid the foundation for First Liberty’s crucial win in Carson v. Makin (2022), requiring Maine to include religious schools in its school choice program.
Lorence argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Regents of the University of Wisconsin v. Southworth (2000). He represented prolife Christian law students from the University of Wisconsin Law School who objected to the University’s requirement that they pay a mandatory student fee that funded the advocacy of student pro-abortion groups. Other Supreme Court cases Lorence has worked on include NIFLA v. Becerra (2018), protecting prolife pregnancy centers from a California statute requiring them to post signs explaining how pregnant women could obtain state-funded abortions; Masterpiece Cakeshop (2017), involving a Christian cake artist sued by the State of Colorado for declining to design a case celebrating the wedding of a same-sex couple and other cases such as Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2012), Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995), Hurley v. GLIB (1995) and Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches Center Moriches School District (1993).
Churches and other religious groups in New York City obtained the right to rent vacant public schools on weekends to conduct worship services after Lorence’s tenacious 20 years of litigation in Bronx Household of Faith. Lorence won protection for churches facing eviction from discriminatory zoning ordinances in Minnesota in Cornerstone Bible Church v. City of Hastings, Minnesota (1991). He also argued at the New Mexico Supreme Court one of the first cases in the nation defending a Christian wedding photographer charged by the State of New Mexico with discrimination for declining to create photos celebrating the commitment ceremony of a lesbian couple in Elane Photography v. Willock (2013).
Lorence defended home schooling families from intrusive school officials during his time working at Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) in the 1980s and 1990s. HSLDA also tasked Lorence with establishing a sister organization in Canada to protect home schooling families there. He traveled extensively in Canada from British Columbia to Prince Edward Island speaking to families how they could protect their right to home school under relevant Canadian law.
Lorence earned his undergraduate degree in journalism from Stanford University and his law degree from the University of Minnesota, his home state. Lorence was born and raised in Minnesota, where he worked one summer building Mighty Dump trucks at Tonka Toys in Mound, Minnesota. For two years immediately after he graduated from law school, Lorence served as the head administrator for a Minnesota Senate committee.
He speaks extensively on First Amendment and other legal issues. Lorence has spoken at least 75 law schools and many legal conferences. Prominent publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and others have printed his opinion pieces on key legal issues involving religious liberty and freedom of speech. He has appeared on such media outlets as Fox News, CNN, National Public Radio, NBC’s Today Show, BBC radio and many others.
Lorence and his wife Marilyn have been married 40 years. They live in the Washington, D.C. area where they raised their seven children.
Partner, Mayer Brown LLP
An experienced appellate lawyer, Tim Bishop has argued five cases and briefed more than 60 before the US Supreme Court and has successfully handled dozens of appeals in federal and state appellate courts. He also represents clients in dispositive dismissal, summary judgment, and class certification motions in federal and state trial courts. Tim is co-author of the leading treatise, Supreme Court Practice(9th ed., 2007), a contributor to Federal Appellate Practice (2008), and a prolific author and speaker in the areas of appellate practice, environmental law, and securities law.
Tim has substantial experience in environmental and land use litigation (especially under the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, federal and state Takings Clauses, and nuisance law), securities and antitrust litigation, class certification, federal and state tax controversies, labor and employment law, and constitutional appeals and litigation. In the securities area, he has submitted successful party or amicus briefs in most of the Supreme Court’s recent cases, including Dabit, Dura, Tellabs, Billing, Stoneridge, andAmchem, as well as in leading lower-court cases such as In re IPO Securities Litigation and Newton. He has broad experience in defeating class certification in complex litigation.
In the environmental law area Tim has been ranked as a top practitioner by Chambers, Best Lawyers in America, Euromoney's Best of the Best USA, and other publications, which have called him "the go-to guy if you have a serious environmental issue on appeal - he is excellent at spotting issues and is a great appellate advocate" (Chambers 2009). Tim is ranked Band 1 in Chambers USA 2012 in Environmental Law ("sources unanimously consider Bishop to be an exceptionally strong appellate lawyer") and Legal 500 2012 comments, "Bishop is 'superb and provides exemplary service.'" Tim successfully argued Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County in the Supreme Court, in which the Court struck down the Corps of Engineer’s "migratory bird rule." One leading environmental law professor and practitioner has written that Tim is "industry’s leading Supreme Court lawyer in environmental cases."
Since 1995, Tim has been a partner in Mayer Brown LLP’s 60-strong Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Practice (which "stands head and shoulders above its competitors," according to Chambers USA 2008). Previously, he served as Law Clerk to US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and to Judge James L. Oakes, US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and was Staff Counsel and Skadden Fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union. Recently, Tim was named one of Benchmark’s 2013 Appellate Illinois Litigation Stars.Chambers USA (2007) notes Tim’s “high visibility” and “incredible reputation for appellate law,” and he has been described in theLawdragon 500 as "a high court superstar" and a "top advocate" (2006).
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
Judge Tymkovich, of Denver, Colorado, was nominated to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals by President George W. Bush, and confirmed in April 2003. On October 1, 2015 he became Chief Circuit Judge and held this position until October 2022. He was Chair of the US Judicial Conference’s Committee on Judicial Resources from 2011 to 2015. Since 2008 he has been an adjunct professor of law at the University of Colorado School of Law, teaching Election Law. He is a member of the Doyle Inn of Court, the American Law Institute, and the International Society of Barristers. Since he joined the Circuit, Judge Tymkovich has hosted judicial delegations from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Afghanistan, and has also represented the United States in programs at Kiev and Yalta in Ukraine.
Senior Writer, The Weekly Standard
Jonathan V. Last is a senior writer at The Weekly Standard inWashington. His writings have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Post, The Claremont Review of Books, First Things, The Week,Salon, Slate, TV Guide, and elsewhere. He writes the column “One Last Thing” for the iPad paper, The Daily.
Senior Writer, National Review
Ramesh Ponnuru is a senior editor for National Review, a columnist for Bloomberg View, and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Ponnuru grew up in Kansas City and graduated summa cum laude from Princeton’s history department. Ponnuru has published articles in numerous newspapers including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Newsday, and the New York Post. He has also written for First Things, Policy Review, The Weekly Standard, The New Republic,Reason, and other publications. He has appeared on numerous television news programs. He is the author of The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life. He is also the author of the monograph The Mystery of Japanese Growth (American Enterprise Institute/Centre for Policy Studies).
Vice President, Government Affairs, Retail Industry Leaders Association
As a member of RILA's Government Affairs team, Evan Armstrong leads advocacy efforts related to workforce and employment issues before Congress and federal agencies, including the Department of Labor (DOL), the EEOC and NLRB.
Counsel to the Firm, Cascadia Cross-Border Law
Margaret Stock focuses her practice on immigration and citizenship law. She is a nationally known expert on immigration and national security laws, and has testified regularly before Congressional committees on immigration, homeland security, and military matters. As a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Military Police, U.S. Army Reserve, Margaret has extensive experience with U.S. military issues. She has also worked as a professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and she has served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Alaska. Margaret served as a member of the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration from 2008-2012. She regularly authors articles on military-related immigration issues, and is well-versed on “parole in place” for military family members and the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (“MAVNI”) Program. Margaret authored the book Immigration Law & the Military, which was published by the American Immigration Lawyers Association in 2012.
Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr. is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Gibson Dunn and one of the nation’s leading litigators. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
As The New York Times has noted, Mr. Boutrous has “a long history of pushing the courts and the public to see the bigger picture on heated issues.” The American Lawyer named Mr. Boutrous the 2019 “Litigator of the Year, Grand Prize Winner” and the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journals in 2021 named him a “Top Lawyer of the Decade.” According to The National Law Journal, which in 2013 named him one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America,” he “is known for his wise, strategic advice to clients in crisis and is a media law star.”
Mr. Boutrous has represented clients in federal and state appellate courts throughout the nation in a wide spectrum of cases, and he is currently serving as Co-Chair of the firm's First Amendment and Free Expression Practice Group. He has argued hundreds of appeals, including before the Supreme Court of the United States, 12 different federal circuit courts of appeals, and 12 different state supreme courts (including 14 arguments in the California Supreme Court), and he has led a multitude of other complex civil, constitutional and criminal matters. Mr. Boutrous has successfully persuaded courts to overturn some of the largest jury verdicts and class actions in history, and prevailed in many cutting-edge cases. In 2011, he successfully represented Walmart before the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dukes case, which unanimously reversed what had been the largest employment class action in history and established important standards governing class actions (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes). In 2013, he successfully represented the prevailing party in obtaining a unanimous Supreme Court decision enforcing the Class Action Fairness Act (Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Knowles). Also in 2013, Mr. Boutrous successfully represented plaintiffs in the Supreme Court in a case invalidating California’s prohibition on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8 (Hollingsworth v. Perry), in which he also served as one of the lead trial lawyers and architects of the legal strategy that led to this landmark victory. In 2018, Mr. Boutrous successfully represented CNN and its reporter Jim Acosta in bringing First Amendment and due process claims against then-President Donald Trump and other White House officials, forcing the White House to restore Mr. Acosta’s press credentials. “Litigators of the Week: Gibson Dunn’s Two Teds Score for the Free Press,” The AmLaw Litigation Daily (November 30, 2018). And in 2021, he secured a major victory for Hewlett-Packard Company when the California Court of Appeal affirmed a more than $3 billion verdict in HP’s long-running contract dispute with Oracle Corporation. “Litigators of the Week: Gibson Dunn Protects Its $3B Trial Win for HP Against Oracle on Appeal,” The AmLaw Litigation Daily (June 18, 2021).
As both a crisis management strategist and a seasoned appellate and media lawyer, Mr. Boutrous has extensive experience handling high-profile litigation, media relations and media legal issues. He routinely advises clients in planning how to respond, and in responding, to crises and other especially significant legal problems that attract the media spotlight.
Mr. Boutrous has also received the 2021 Freedom of the Press Award from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Distinguished Leadership Award from PEN America in 2019 for his leadership in advancing First Amendment rights and protecting freedom of expression. As The Hollywood Reporter noted in naming him to its 2022 “Power Lawyers” list, “When issues of free speech are in play, Boutrous is the attorney on speed dial.” Hollywood’s Top 100 Attorneys (March 2022). Mr. Boutrous was also named a “First Amendment Rights Trailblazer” by The National Law Journal in 2020.
Numerous profiles of Mr. Boutrous and his practice have appeared in the media. Prominent mentions include: “Mr. Boutrous, You Have 4 Minutes’: On Rebuttal With Ted Boutrous of Gibson Dunn,” The AmLaw Litigation Daily (August 25, 2022); “Litigator of the Week: How Gibson Dunn Helped Hit Print on Mary Trump’s Best-Seller,” The AmLaw Litigation Daily (July 17, 2020); “Litigation Department of the Year,” The American Lawyer (January 2020); “Litigator of the Week: Gibson Dunn’s Theodore Boutrous Jr. Scores Another Win for the Fourth Estate,”The AmLaw Litigation Daily (September 6, 2019); “Lawyer of the week: Theodore Boutrous Jr, attorney in White House press pass victory,” The Times of London (November 29, 2018); Ted Boutrous, CNN’s Champion, Is Fired Up,” Law.com (November 30, 2018); “Litigator of the Week: From Zero to Hero in Seven Days” The AmLaw Litigation Daily (April 27, 2017); “Litigator of the Week” The AmLaw Litigation Daily (September 8, 2016); “Practice Group Performs In Spotlight and Under Pressure,” Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal (March 14, 2012); “Litigator of the Week,” The AmLaw Litigation Daily (June 23, 2011); “Lawyer of the Week,” The Times of London (June 30, 2011); “Appellate Lawyer of the Week,” National Law Journal (March 23, 2011); “Litigation Department of the Year,” The American Lawyer (January 2016); “Litigation Department of the Year,” The American Lawyer (January 2012); “Litigation Department of the Year,” The American Lawyer (January 2010); and “He’s a Hired Gun of the Highest Caliber,” The Los Angeles Times (June 24, 2007).
In 2025, The Daily Journal recognized Mr. Boutrous with its inaugural Distinguished Counsel award, which honors lawyers “whose consistent excellence and enduring influence in California’s legal community have earned them a place among the Top 100 lawyers for 15 years or more,” and has repeatedly named him to its list of “Top 100 Lawyers” and “Leading Commercial Litigators” in California for over two decades. The Hollywood Reporter, featuring him in Power Lawyers 2021: Hollywood’s Top 100 Attorneys, declared that “Boutrous is there when an industry’s future rides on a big argument.” He has been named a California “Litigation Star” in Benchmark Litigation, as well as a “National Practice Area Star.” Chambers USA ranks him as a leading lawyer in five different categories, describing him as “an absolute star,” with clients praising his skills as “an amazing orator” and his “incredible knack of picking the winning argument and his oral advocacy skills are peerless. He picks the right point in response to every question without even blinking.” The Legal 500 named Mr. Boutrous a “Leading Lawyer” for Supreme Court and Appellate litigation, calling him a “renowned advocate” and “the preeminent authority on punitive damages defenses in the U.S.” Lawdragon recognizes Mr. Boutrous as one of its distinguished "Lawdragon Legends," an honor reserved for those who have appeared in Lawdragon's guide at least ten times since its inception in 2005. Over the years, he has been named to the following Lawdragon lists: 500 Leading Litigators in America, Leading Global Litigators, 500 Leading Lawyers in America, 500 Leading Global Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyers, 500 Global Leaders in Crisis Management, and 100 Leading AI & Tech Legal Advisors.
Mr. Boutrous is a frequent commentator on legal issues. His articles include: Spare the ‘Dreamers’ a Nightmare by According Them Due Process,” The Wall Street Journal (May 2, 2017); “Poor Children Need a New Brown v. Board of Education,” The Wall Street Journal (August 28, 2016); “A First Amendment Blind Spot,” The Wall Street Journal (May 27, 2014); “California Kids Go to Court to Demand a Good Education,” The Wall Street Journal (January 28, 2014); “A Radical Departure on Press Freedom,” The Wall Street Journal (May 23, 2013); “A Killer’s Notebook, a Reporter’s Rights,” The New York Times (April 9, 2013); and “Broadcast ‘Indecency’ on Trial,” The Wall Street Journal (January 17, 2012).
Mr. Boutrous is a member of the Steering Committee of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and was a recipient of its 2021 Freedom of the Press Awards. He also sits on the Advisory Board of the International Women’s Media Foundation, which named him its 2015 Leadership Honoree. In addition, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which advises the Chief Judge on matters related to the effective administration of the courts in the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Boutrous received his law degree, summa cum laude, from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1987, where he was Valedictorian and Editor-in-Chief of the San Diego Law Review.
Mr. Boutrous is admitted to practice in California, New York, and the District of Columbia.
United States District Court, Central District of California
Andrew Guilford is a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He joined the court in 2006 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.
Born in Santa Monica, California, Guilford graduated from the University of California-Los Angeles with his Bachelor's Degree in 1972 and his Juris Doctor degree in 1975.
Former President & CEO, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Eugene B. Meyer, former President and CEO of the Federalist Society, has served as Executive Director, CEO, and/or President of the organization for more than 40 years. He is responsible for shepherding the organization from a small group of law students to a community of 90,000 lawyers, law students, academics, judges, and others interested in the rule of law. The Society now includes a Student Chapter at nearly every ABA-accredited law school in the country and Lawyers Chapters in 220 major cities across the nation. Gene earned his B.A. in history at Yale in 1975 and his M.A. in political science from the London School of Economics in 1976. Gene currently serves on the boards of the U.S. Chess Center, the Holman Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the advisory board of the Adam Smith Society. He holds the title of International Chess Master.
Partner, Horvitz & Levy LLP
Jeremy Rosen is nationally renowned for his proficiency in numerous issues arising under the First Amendment and California’s anti-SLAPP law. Using that knowledge, Jeremy has helped a wide variety of clients – including churches, private businesses, and individuals – defeat lawsuits that seek to impose liability on clients for exercising their rights of petition, free speech, and free exercise of religion. He has also handled hundreds of appeals in numerous appellate courts, including the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the California Supreme Court, and California’s intermediate appellate courts. In addition to First Amendment and anti-SLAPP cases, his cases have involved numerous important issues regarding anti-trust, class actions, wage and hour law, employment law, breach of contract, California’s Unfair Competition Law, CEQA, the enforceability of arbitration clauses, hospital peer review, the scope of public employee whistleblower protection, and the application of the primary assumption of risk doctrine.
Jeremy is a partner at the firm, which he joined in 2001. He is a California State Bar Certified Appellate Specialist and a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
Jeremy directed the Pepperdine University School of Law Ninth Circuit Appellate Advocacy Clinic for 6 years. The Clinic represents individuals in the Ninth Circuit who are identified by the court as needing pro bono counsel. Jeremy also previously served a three-year term where he was appointed by the Ninth Circuit to serve as one of 18 appellate lawyer representatives to the court.
Jeremy is a member of the National Chamber Litigation Center’s California Litigation Advisory Committee. Before joining the firm, Jeremy was a Litigation Associate with Munger, Tolles & Olson.
Partner, Trygstad, Schwab & Trygstad
Mr. Schwab is a partner at Trygstad, Schwab & Trygstad A Law Corporation in Los Angeles, CA.
Education Law; Employee Benefits; Criminal Law; Civil Rights; Administrative Law; Appellate Practice; Civil Practice; Federal Practice; Labor and Employment
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Judge Carlos Bea serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He received his Bachelor's Degree from Stanford University in 1956 and his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1958. Judge Bea was born in San Sebastian, Spain, and immigrated with his family to Cuba in 1939. In 1952, he represented Cuba on the Cuban National basketball team in the Helsinki Olympics. Judge Bea became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1958. He engaged in private practice in San Francisco, principally in the area of civil trials (jury and non-jury), from 1959-75 at Dunne, Phelps & Mills and from 1975-90 at Carlos Bea, A Law Corporation. He taught courses in civil litigation advocacy at Hastings College of Law and Stanford Law School. From 1990 to 2003, Judge Bea served as a judge of the San Francisco Superior Court. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and was confirmed in 2003.
Judge Bea and his wife Louise reside in San Francisco, where they raised their four sons, Sebastian, Alexander, Nicholas, and Dominic.
Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego
Julian Betts is a Professor in (and former Chair of) the Department of Economics at the University of California, San Diego. He is also the Executive Director of the San Diego Education Research Alliance at UCSD (sandera.ucsd.edu), a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Bren Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).
His research focuses on the economics of education. He has written extensively on the link between student outcomes and measures of public school spending including class size, teachers' salaries, and teachers' level of education. He has also examined the role that standards and expectations play in student achievement. Examples of his work include a theoretical analysis of the impact of educational standards published in the American Economic Review (1998), the book “Taking Measure of Charter Schools: Better Assessments, Better Policymaking, Better Schools,” co-edited with Paul Hill, the book “Getting Choice Right: Ensuring Equity and Efficiency in Education Policy” (Brookings Institution Press 2005) co-edited with Tom Loveless, and the co-authored books “Predicting Success, Preventing Failure: An Investigation of the California High School Exit Exam” (PPIC 2008), “Does School Choice Work?” (PPIC 2006), “From Blueprint to Reality: San Diego’s Education Reforms” (PPIC 2005), “Determinants of Student Achievement: New Evidence from San Diego” (PPIC 2003) and “Equal Resources, Equal Outcomes? The Distribution of School Resources and Student Achievement in California” (PPIC, 2000). Current research includes studies of school choice, California’s Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project, and San Diego’s controversial Blueprint for Student Success.
His other main areas of research include higher education; immigration; technology, skills, and the labor market; and the economics of unions.
Betts is Principal Investigator on a multi-year study of magnet elementary schools funded by the U.S. Department of Education. This project, which is examining the impact of magnet schools on the achievement of both local and non-local enrollees, is joint with the American Institutes of Research (AIR) and Berkeley Policy Associates (BPA). He was also Principal Investigator of a three-year study for the U.S. Department of Education of the effects of career and technical education on students’ academic trajectories. Betts has served on two National Academy of Sciences panels, including (from 2005-2008) the congressionally mandated “Committee on Evaluation of Teacher Certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)”. Betts became a council member of the California Council on Science and Technology in 2007. Betts has also served on several technical review panels for the U.S. Department of Education, and the national advisory committees for the National Charter School Research Center at the University of Washington. In 2001-2003 Betts served on the National Working Commission on Choice in K-12 Education. He is a member of the editorial board of Education Finance and Policy, published by MIT Press.
At UCSD Betts is a professor in the Department of Economics, where he served as Department Chair from 2008 through 2011. Within the Department of Economics Betts has also served as Computing Director and more recently as Vice Chair, Graduate Studies, for the Department between 2004 and 2007. Betts was a member of the UCSD Admissions Committee from 1999 to 2003, serving as both Chair and Vice Chair in various years. In 2001 he served on the University’s Gender Equity Taskforce. Between 1999 and 2008 he also served on the Board of Directors of the Preuss School at UCSD, a
charter school on the UCSD campus that admits disadvantaged students from the local area. Betts also serves as UCSD campus director of the UC Educational Evaluation Center.
Betts obtained a Bachelor's degree in chemistry from McGill University, the M.Phil. in economics from Oxford University, Oxford, England, and a Ph.D. in economics from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Justice, Supreme Court of Arizona
Clint Bolick was appointed by Governor Doug Ducey in January 2016 to serve on the Arizona Supreme Court and was retained by the voters in 2018 and 2024.
Prior to joining the Court, Justice Bolick litigated constitutional cases in state and federal courts from coast to coast, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Among other positions, he served as Vice President for Litigation at the Goldwater Institute and as Co-founder and Vice President for Litigation at the Institute for Justice. He has litigated in support of school choice, freedom of enterprise, private property rights, freedom of speech, and federalism, and against racial classifications and government subsidies.
Justice Bolick received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of California at Davis, where he has been recognized as a distinguished alumnus, and his Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Drew University. He serves as a research fellow with the Hoover Institution. Among other honors, he was named one of the 90 Greatest DC Lawyers in the Last 30 Years by Legal Times in 2008, received a Bradley Prize in 2006, and was recognized as one of the nation’s three lawyers of the year by American Lawyer in 2002 for his successful defense of school vouchers in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris.
Justice Bolick is a prolific author of a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Among his most recent books are Unshackled: Freeing America’s K-12 Education System: Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, co-authored with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush; and David’s Hammer: The Case for an Activist Judiciary. Bolick serves as an adjunct professor of constitutional law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law and has served as a lecturer at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Professor of Education and Public Policy, University of Californ, Berkeley
Working inside policy organizations and the academy over the past three decades, Bruce Fuller has asked how public action best strengthens families and schools. He helped to design policy reforms for a free-thinking California governor, and advised opposition leaders on education reform as democracy emerged in southern Africa. Professor Fuller has studied child care programs arising at the grassroots or state run in Latin America. A fundamental question continues to motivate this array of research and writings: How can central governments enrich families and schools when situated in colorfully pluralistic societies? In short, what happens when government confronts culture?
Trained in political sociology, Professor Fuller's recent projects center on small-scale organizations that sprout across diverse communities, such as charter schools and preschools, which often spread in response to the clumsy or gray character of central states. Yet, decentralized institutions can disempower central governments, a worrisome scenario for those concerned with equity. Professor Fuller's current research delves into how young children are socialized in diverse Mexican-American homes, and what neighborhood organizations effectively advance their development. His recent book, Standardized Childhood: The Political and Cultural Struggle over Early Education, examines how elite reformers often push for state incorporation of community programs, even eroding the authority and resources spread across diverse ethnic leaders.
Professor Fuller also looks into fields that have become hyper-centralized, exemplified by his critical work on No Child Left Behind. A college dropout, he eventually received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Before coming to Berkeley, Professor Fuller was a research sociologist at the World Bank and taught at Harvard's School of Education.
Co-Chairman, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Leonard is Co-Chairman and former Executive Vice President of the Federalist Society, joining the organization over 25 years ago. Since that time he has been instrumental in helping the organization top 70,000, focusing on the growth of lawyers membership, operations and activities advancing limited, constitutional government. In addition to his work at the Society, Leonard has advised President Trump on judicial selection, assisted with the Gorsuch and Kavanaugh Supreme Court selection and confirmation process, and served as a member of the transition team. He also organized the outside coalition efforts in support of the Roberts and Alito U.S. Supreme Court confirmations. Leonard was appointed by President George W. Bush to three terms to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom as chairman. He was also a U.S. Delegate to the UN Council and UN Commission on Human Rights during the Bush Administration. Leonard was the recipient of the 2009 Bradley Prize, along with the other founders and directors of the Federalist Society, for his work in advancing freedom and the rule of law. He is the coeditor of Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House, as well as the author of opinion editorials in the New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Leonard holds degrees from Cornell University and Cornell Law School. He presently resides in Northern Virginia, where he and his wife Sally have raised their seven children.
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.
State Director, Democrats for Education Reform and former California State Senator
Former California State Senator Gloria Romero is the State Director of Democrats for Education Reform and has been a forceful advocate for education reform and civil rights.
She brings to the post not only a great passion for quality education opportunities for all children, but a keen knowledge of the legislative and political process. She was elected to the 24th Senate District in 2001, representing East Los Angeles and the greater San Gabriel Valley. Upon her election she was recognized as one of the hardest working members of the Legislature and quickly rose in leadership positions. She was elected by her peers to serve as Senate Democratic Caucus Chair and as Senate Majority Leader -- the first woman to ever hold that leadership position in the history of the California State Senate.
Romero served as Chair of both the Education Committee and the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Education, making her one of the most influential voices on education policy in California. She believes that education is the civil rights issue of our time. States Romero, "My mother had a sixth grade education; I have a PhD. I understand the transformational power of education and the key it holds to accessing the American Dream".
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