Senior Counsel and Vice President of U.S. Litigation, Alliance Defending Freedom
David A. Cortman, Esq., serves as senior counsel and vice president of U.S. litigation with Alliance Defending Freedom. He joined ADF in 2005 and currently supervises a team of nearly 40 attorneys and legal staff who specialize in constitutional law, focusing on religious freedom, sanctity of life, and marriage and family.
Cortman has successfully litigated over 200 constitutional law cases in both federal and state court at all levels. He has also litigated several U.S. Supreme Court cases, including arguing before the Court in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, which resulted in a 9-0 victory, with the Court holding that the government could not discriminate against religious speech while favoring political speech. He served as lead counsel in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Pauley, which was decided in the Church's favor. He has also served as lead or co-counsel in victories at the high court in Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Burwell, successfully challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services abortion pill mandate that forces employers to provide healthcare coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs in violation of their religious convictions; Town of Greece v. Galloway, successfully defending the freedom of Americans to pray at public meetings.
Cortman earned his J.D. from Regent University School of Law in 1996, graduating magna cum laude. He is a member of the state bar in Georgia, Florida, Arizona, and the District of Columbia, and is admitted to practice in over two dozen federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He also teaches legal courses on the First Amendment and civil rights litigation.
Senior Counsel, Storzer and Associates; Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law
Eric Treene is Senior Counsel at Storzer and Associates in Washington, D.C., and an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of America School of Canon Law. He served for 19 years in four administrations in the U.S. Department of Justice as Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination, where he provided leadership for the Department on a wide range of religious liberty issues, including developing and overseeing the Department’s enforcement program for the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), testifying before the U.S. Senate on religious hate crimes and developing training programs to protect places of worship from violence, and leading the Department’s efforts to protect religious liberty rights during the COVID-19 epidemic. Prior to serving at the Department of Justice, Mr. Treene was Litigation Director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C, and was a law clerk to the Hon. John M. Walker, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School.
Senior Counsel and Vice President of U.S. Litigation, Alliance Defending Freedom
David A. Cortman, Esq., serves as senior counsel and vice president of U.S. litigation with Alliance Defending Freedom. He joined ADF in 2005 and currently supervises a team of nearly 40 attorneys and legal staff who specialize in constitutional law, focusing on religious freedom, sanctity of life, and marriage and family.
Cortman has successfully litigated over 200 constitutional law cases in both federal and state court at all levels. He has also litigated several U.S. Supreme Court cases, including arguing before the Court in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, which resulted in a 9-0 victory, with the Court holding that the government could not discriminate against religious speech while favoring political speech. He served as lead counsel in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Pauley, which was decided in the Church's favor. He has also served as lead or co-counsel in victories at the high court in Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Burwell, successfully challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services abortion pill mandate that forces employers to provide healthcare coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs in violation of their religious convictions; Town of Greece v. Galloway, successfully defending the freedom of Americans to pray at public meetings.
Cortman earned his J.D. from Regent University School of Law in 1996, graduating magna cum laude. He is a member of the state bar in Georgia, Florida, Arizona, and the District of Columbia, and is admitted to practice in over two dozen federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He also teaches legal courses on the First Amendment and civil rights litigation.
Senior Counsel, Storzer and Associates; Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law
Eric Treene is Senior Counsel at Storzer and Associates in Washington, D.C., and an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of America School of Canon Law. He served for 19 years in four administrations in the U.S. Department of Justice as Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination, where he provided leadership for the Department on a wide range of religious liberty issues, including developing and overseeing the Department’s enforcement program for the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), testifying before the U.S. Senate on religious hate crimes and developing training programs to protect places of worship from violence, and leading the Department’s efforts to protect religious liberty rights during the COVID-19 epidemic. Prior to serving at the Department of Justice, Mr. Treene was Litigation Director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C, and was a law clerk to the Hon. John M. Walker, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School.
Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Rachel N. Morrison is an attorney and Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s Administrative State Accountability Project. Her legal and policy work focuses on religious liberty, health care rights of conscience, the right to life, nondiscrimination, and civil rights.
Before joining EPPC, Ms. Morrison served as an Attorney Advisor and Special Assistant to General Counsel Sharon Fast Gustafson at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she focused on religious discrimination issues and was a member of the General Counsel’s Religious Discrimination Work Group. Before that, she served as Litigation Counsel for Americans United for Life and as a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, defending the right to life and religious freedom for all. She also clerked on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Ms. Morrison’s legal analysis has been published in the Seton Hall Law Review, the Pepperdine Law Review, and the Ave Maria Law Review, as well as various other print media outlets.
Ms. Morrison earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the Pepperdine University School of Law, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as an editor for the Pepperdine Law Review and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. She received her B.A. in Mathematics and Speech Communication, summa cum laude, from Whitworth University (Spokane, WA). She is a member of the District of Columbia and the Washington State bars.
Ms. Morrison lives with her husband and daughter in Virginia.
Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Professor Willis joined the UF Law Faculty in 1981, having taught previously in the New York University Graduate Tax Program. He teaches tax courses in both the J.D. and the Graduate Tax Programs plus Family Law Economics and Accounting and Finance for Lawyers. In the fall of 2013, Professor Willis took a sabbatical from teaching in order to lend his expertise in tax law to Hobby Lobby Stores in its religious liberty fight against the PPACA. To this end, he authored the lead article in volume 65 of the South Carolina Law Review titled: Corporations, Taxes, and Religion: The Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Contraceptive Cases. He is also the lead author for the amicus curiae brief on behalf of Freedom X in support of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga.
Professor Willis is licensed to practice law in Florida, a member of the Louisiana Bar, and a CPA (inactive) in Louisiana. He is a faculty advisor for numerous student groups such as the Christian Legal Society and the Law College Republicans. He has also honorably served as the faculty advisor for the student chapter of the UF Federalist Society since its inception.
Judge, Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal
In April 2023, Judge Jordan E. Pratt was commissioned as a member of the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal following his appointment by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Before joining the court, Judge Pratt worked as senior counsel at First Liberty Institute and served in various roles in state and federal government: as senior counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice, deputy general counsel in the U.S. Small Business Administration, and deputy solicitor general in the Florida Office of the Attorney General. As a deputy solicitor general, he defended significant Florida legislation and executive actions at every level of the state and federal court systems, with successful arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the Florida Supreme Court, and Florida’s First District Court of Appeal.
Judge Pratt graduated as a co-valedictorian of his undergraduate class at the University of Florida. He then received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Florida College of Law, where he was a law review editor and president of the school’s Federalist Society and Christian Legal Society chapters. During law school, he interned for the Hon. Jeffrey S. Sutton on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
After his graduation from law school, Judge Pratt served as a law clerk to the Hon. Harvey E. Schlesinger on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division. He then clerked for the Hon. Jennifer W. Elrod on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Judge Pratt has held several fellowships, including an Olin–Searle Fellowship at Florida State University’s College of Law, and has published scholarship in the Tennessee Law Review, the Nebraska Law Review, and the Mississippi Law Journal. He is a member of the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies, and he has held several leadership roles in the organization, including service as president of its Tallahassee Lawyers Chapter from 2016 to 2019.
Senior Counsel and Vice President of U.S. Litigation, Alliance Defending Freedom
David A. Cortman, Esq., serves as senior counsel and vice president of U.S. litigation with Alliance Defending Freedom. He joined ADF in 2005 and currently supervises a team of nearly 40 attorneys and legal staff who specialize in constitutional law, focusing on religious freedom, sanctity of life, and marriage and family.
Cortman has successfully litigated over 200 constitutional law cases in both federal and state court at all levels. He has also litigated several U.S. Supreme Court cases, including arguing before the Court in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, which resulted in a 9-0 victory, with the Court holding that the government could not discriminate against religious speech while favoring political speech. He served as lead counsel in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Pauley, which was decided in the Church's favor. He has also served as lead or co-counsel in victories at the high court in Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Burwell, successfully challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services abortion pill mandate that forces employers to provide healthcare coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs in violation of their religious convictions; Town of Greece v. Galloway, successfully defending the freedom of Americans to pray at public meetings.
Cortman earned his J.D. from Regent University School of Law in 1996, graduating magna cum laude. He is a member of the state bar in Georgia, Florida, Arizona, and the District of Columbia, and is admitted to practice in over two dozen federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He also teaches legal courses on the First Amendment and civil rights litigation.
Senior Counsel, Storzer and Associates; Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law
Eric Treene is Senior Counsel at Storzer and Associates in Washington, D.C., and an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of America School of Canon Law. He served for 19 years in four administrations in the U.S. Department of Justice as Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination, where he provided leadership for the Department on a wide range of religious liberty issues, including developing and overseeing the Department’s enforcement program for the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), testifying before the U.S. Senate on religious hate crimes and developing training programs to protect places of worship from violence, and leading the Department’s efforts to protect religious liberty rights during the COVID-19 epidemic. Prior to serving at the Department of Justice, Mr. Treene was Litigation Director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C, and was a law clerk to the Hon. John M. Walker, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School.
Litigation Update: Mid Vermont Christian School v. Saunders
David A. Cortman, Eric W. Treene
From the Olympics to San Jose State, each month we hear of new controversies where...
Litigation Update: Mid Vermont Christian School v. Saunders
David A. Cortman, Eric W. Treene
From the Olympics to San Jose State, each month we hear of new controversies where...
Litigation Update: Mid Vermont Christian School v. Saunders
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