Director - Office of Litigation, NRA-ILA
Joseph Greenlee is the Director of the Office of Litigation Counsel at the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. He is also a Research Associate at the Independence Institute and a Policy Advisor for Legal Affairs at the Heartland Institute.
Greenlee has worked on more than 100 constitutional law cases (representing a party or amicus curiae) and has filed more than 30 briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Greenlee has published 15 scholarly articles on firearms law. He has been cited in over 120 cases, including five United States Supreme Court cases, as well as decisions by five federal circuit courts of appeals, over thirty district courts, the highest courts of six states and Puerto Rico, and three state appellate courts.
Greenlee has also authored dozens of short articles on the right to keep and bear arms, which have appeared in The Hill, Washington Post, Washington Times, and SCOTUSblog, among others.
Professor Emerita of Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia School of Law
Professor Emerita Joyce Lee Malcolm is an historian and constitutional scholar active in the area of constitutional history, focusing on the development of individual rights in Great Britain and America. She is the author of eight books, most recently The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold: An American Life, May 2018. Professor Malcolm has written many books and articles on gun control, the Second Amendment, and individual rights. Her work was cited several times in the recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller.
Professor Malcolm has previously taught at Princeton University, Bentley College, Boston University, Northeastern University and Cambridge University. She was also a Senior Advisor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program, a Visiting Scholar at Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies, and is a Bye Fellow at Robinson College, Cambridge University.
Her seventh book, Peter's War: A New England Slave Boy and the American Revolution, was published by Yale University Press in 2009. "Magna Carta in America: Entrenched," a chapter authored by Professor Malcolm, appears in Magna Carta: The Foundation of Freedom 1215-2015 (Nicholas Vincent, Third Millennium Publishing). Her essays have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe and other newspapers.
UC Foundation Assistant Professor, U.T. Chattanooga
Senior Fellow, Independent Institute
Dr. Stephen P. Halbrook is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute. He has taught legal and political philosophy at George Mason University, Howard University, and Tuskegee Institute, and he received his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and Ph.D. in social philosophy from Florida State University.
The winner of three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court (Printz v. United States, United States v. Thompson/Center Arms Company, and Castillo v. United States), he has testified before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Subcommittee on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and House Committee on the District of Columbia.
A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes, he is the author of the books, Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and Resistance; Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and “Enemies of the State”; The Founders’ Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms; That Every Man Be Armed: Evolution of a Constitutional Right; A Right to Bear Arms; Firearms Law Deskbook: Federal and State Criminal Practice; Securing Civil Rights: Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms; State and Federal Bills of Rights and Constitutional Guarantees; and Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II. Dr. Halbrook’s scholarly articles have appeared in such journals as the Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law, Drug Law Report, George Mason University Law Review, Journal of Air Law and Commerce, Journal of Law and Policy, Law & Contemporary Problems, National Law Journal, Northern Kentucky Law Review, St. John’s Journal of Legal Commentary; Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal, Tennessee Law Review, University of Dayton Law Review, Valparaiso University Law Review, Vermont Law Review, and William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal.
Dr. Halbrook's popular articles have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, San Francisco Chronicle, National Review, Investor’s Business Daily, Kansas City Star, Washington Examiner, Shreveport Times, Sacramento Bee, Providence Journal, Tampa Tribune, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, History News Network, San Antonio Express-News, The Daily Caller, Detroit News, Honolulu Star Advertiser, Birmingham News, Environmental Forum, USA Today, and Washington Times. He has also appeared on numerous national TV/radio programs on CNN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Court TV, NewsMax TV, CBN, Voice of America, and C-SPAN.
Senior Fellow, Independent Institute
Dr. Stephen P. Halbrook is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute. He has taught legal and political philosophy at George Mason University, Howard University, and Tuskegee Institute, and he received his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and Ph.D. in social philosophy from Florida State University.
The winner of three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court (Printz v. United States, United States v. Thompson/Center Arms Company, and Castillo v. United States), he has testified before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Subcommittee on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and House Committee on the District of Columbia.
A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes, he is the author of the books, Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and Resistance; Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and “Enemies of the State”; The Founders’ Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms; That Every Man Be Armed: Evolution of a Constitutional Right; A Right to Bear Arms; Firearms Law Deskbook: Federal and State Criminal Practice; Securing Civil Rights: Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms; State and Federal Bills of Rights and Constitutional Guarantees; and Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II. Dr. Halbrook’s scholarly articles have appeared in such journals as the Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law, Drug Law Report, George Mason University Law Review, Journal of Air Law and Commerce, Journal of Law and Policy, Law & Contemporary Problems, National Law Journal, Northern Kentucky Law Review, St. John’s Journal of Legal Commentary; Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal, Tennessee Law Review, University of Dayton Law Review, Valparaiso University Law Review, Vermont Law Review, and William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal.
Dr. Halbrook's popular articles have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, San Francisco Chronicle, National Review, Investor’s Business Daily, Kansas City Star, Washington Examiner, Shreveport Times, Sacramento Bee, Providence Journal, Tampa Tribune, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, History News Network, San Antonio Express-News, The Daily Caller, Detroit News, Honolulu Star Advertiser, Birmingham News, Environmental Forum, USA Today, and Washington Times. He has also appeared on numerous national TV/radio programs on CNN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Court TV, NewsMax TV, CBN, Voice of America, and C-SPAN.
Donald Phillip Rothschild Research Professor, George Washington University Law School
Renée Lettow Lerner is Donald Phillip Rothschild Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School.
Professor Lerner works in the fields of U.S. and English legal history, civil and criminal procedure, and comparative law. She advises judges, lawyers, and government officials from the United States and countries in Europe, Latin America, and Asia about the differences between adversarial and nonadversarial legal systems.
She writes extensively about the history of American juries. Her work includes not only scholarly articles, but also online publications intended for a broader audience of legal professionals and the public. In many different settings, she has debated the role of juries with other academics and with lawyers. She has a book forthcoming with Oxford University Press in the Very Short Introduction Series entitled “The Jury.” She is also working on a book about the American civil jury, from the colonial period to the present.
She is the author, with John Langbein and Bruce Smith, of the book History of the Common Law: The Development of Anglo-American Legal Institutions (2009).
Her recent writings include a book review of Amalia D. Kessler’s Inventing American Exceptionalism: The Origins of American Adversarial Legal Culture, 1800-1877, 67 J. Legal Ed. 888 (2018); “How the Creation of Appellate Courts in England and the United States Limited Judicial Comment on Evidence to the Jury,” 40 Journal of the Legal Profession 215 (2016); “The Troublesome Inheritance of Americans in Magna Carta and Trial by Jury,” in Magna Carta and its Modern Legacy 77-98 (Robert Hazell and James Melton eds., Cambridge University Press 2015); and “The Failure of Originalism in Preserving Constitutional Rights to Civil Jury Trial,” 22 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 811 (2014).
Professor Lerner received an A.B. summa cum laude in history from Princeton University. She was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where she studied English legal history. At Yale Law School, she was Articles Editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as a law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 2003 to 2005, she served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Vice President, Legal & Chief Counsel, Legal, Brady
Jonathan E. Lowy is the Vice President, Legal and Chief Counsel at Brady. Since 1997 Jon has argued in courts across the country to reduce gun violence, providing pro bono legal representation to victims of gun violence in lawsuits to reform dangerous gun industry practices, and assisting governments and public officials in defense of reasonable gun laws. Jon has litigated in over 40 states, successfully arguing several precedent-setting cases in appellate and trial courts establishing gun industry liability and Second Amendment law, obtaining several multi-million dollar settlements, and reforming gun industry practices. Jon has been named one of the 500 Leading Lawyers in America by Lawdragon magazine for the past 10 years, and has published numerous articles on gun litigation and policy including, The Right Not To Be Shot: Public Safety, Private Guns, and the Constellation of Constitutional Liberties in the Georgetown Journal of Law and Policy. He graduated from Harvard College and the University of Virginia School of Law.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Andrew Oldham is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before ascending to the bench, Judge Oldham served as General Counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, where he advised the Governor on a range of issues under federal and state law and managed litigation in which the Governor was an interested party. Before that he served as Deputy Solicitor General for the State of Texas, where he represented Texas in federal courts across the country, including twice before the United States Supreme Court. Before moving to Texas, Judge Oldham was an attorney at Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick in Washington, D.C. His practice focused on appellate litigation in federal courts of appeals throughout the country. Before entering private practice, Judge Oldham served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., at the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He also worked as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2006 to 2008. Judge Oldham earned a B.A. from the University of Virginia with highest honors, a Truman Scholarship for graduate school, an M. Phil., first class (with distinction), from Cambridge University, and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
Senior Fellow, Ave Maria School of Law and Host of the Four Boxes Diner Second Amendment Channel
Mark W. Smith is Visiting Fellow in Pharmaceutical Public Policy and Law in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford; Presidential Scholar and a Senior Fellow in Law and Public Policy at The King’s College; and Distinguished Scholar and Senior Fellow of Law and Public Policy at the Ave Maria School of Law.
He is a constitutional attorney and Host of the Four Boxes Diner YouTube channel—which provides scholarly and historical analyses of the Second Amendment. Mark is also a New York Times bestselling author.
Principal, Gupta Wessler PLLC
Jonathan E. Taylor is a principal at Gupta Wessler PLLC in Washington, DC, where he focuses on representing plaintiffs and public-interest clients in Supreme Court, appellate, and constitutional litigation.
Since joining the firm in 2012, Jon has presented argument before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, and District of Columbia Circuits, as well as the Supreme Court of Alaska. He has also been a principal author of dozens of briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court and all levels of the state and federal judiciaries. His work has spanned a wide range of topics, including the First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Article III standing, class certification, civil rights, administrative law, and a broad array of issues involving consumers’ and workers’ rights.
Of particular relevance here, Jon presented argument in the First Circuit for the Town of Brookline, Massachusetts, successfully defending against a Second Amendment challenge to its restrictions on the public carry of firearms. He now serves as counsel to both Brookline and Boston in opposing a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court.
Jon has also represented Everytown for Gun Safety, the nation’s largest gun-violence-prevention organization. In that capacity, he has written over a dozen briefs in important Second Amendment cases, including New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. New York (U.S. Supreme Court), Worman v. Healy (First Circuit), Wilson v. Cook County (Seventh Circuit), Malpasso v. Pallozzi (Fourth Circuit), Wrenn v. District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit), Kolbe v. Hogan (en banc Fourth Circuit), Peruta v. San Diego (Ninth Circuit), Silvester v. Harris (Ninth Circuit), and Peña v. Lindley (Ninth Circuit). The briefs in these cases opposed constitutional challenges to state public-carry regulations, state prohibitions on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, and a state waiting period and “microstamping” law.
Vice President for Litigation, Institute for Free Speech
Alan joined the Institute for Free Speech as Vice President for Litigation in February 2021. In this role, Alan directs the Institute’s litigation and legal advocacy, leads our in-house legal team, and manages and works to expand our network of volunteer attorneys.
Prior to joining the Institute, Alan litigated complex federal matters for twenty years, in his own practice and as a partner in various Washington-area firms. He argued and won landmark constitutional cases in the United States Supreme Court and has appeared before numerous appellate and district courts throughout the country. Alan often speaks at law schools and continuing legal education seminars. He also teaches strategic/public interest litigation as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Alan began his career clerking for the Hon. Terrence W. Boyle, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He has also served as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California, a litigation associate at the Washington office of Sidley Austin, and as counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.
Alan earned his J.D. at Georgetown (1995) and his B.A. at Cornell University (1992). He is an active member in good standing of the Virginia, District of Columbia, and California bars, the Bar of the United States Supreme Court, and various federal appellate and district court bars.
Topics
Incorporation through the Privileges or Immunities Clause
Since the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, the Supreme Court has incrementally incorporated...
State Court Docket Watch: State of Ohio v. Weber
Joseph Greenlee
At 4:00 a.m. on February 17, 2018, Frederick Weber’s wife called the police to report...
McDonald v. City of Chicago, Illinois [SCOTUSbrief]
Joyce Lee Malcolm
When Chicago resident Otis McDonald attempted to purchase a handgun, he was turned down because...
How the Founders’ Natural Law Theory Illuminates the Original Meaning of Free Exercise
Kody Cooper
In Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, the Supreme Court will consider whether Philadelphia’s 2018 policy...
Topics
Supreme Silence: A Decade of Second Amendment Litigation in the Circuits
The Federalist Society is pleased to announce its Student Blog Initiative, a project of the...
Topics
Second Amendment Historian Stephen Halbrook Demonstrates that Americans Have—and Always Had—a Fundamental Right to Carry Firearms Outside of the Home
Stephen Halbrook’s recent, important paper in the Federalist Society Review, To Bear Arms for Self-Defense:...
To Bear Arms for Self-Defense: A “Right of the People” or a Privilege of the Few? Part 2
Stephen P. Halbrook
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
To Bear Arms for Self-Defense: A “Right of the People” or a Privilege of the Few? Part 1
Stephen P. Halbrook
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
The Second Amendment and the Puerto Rico Weapons Act of 2020
Puerto Rico Lawyers Chapter
San Juan, PROriginalism, Populism, and the Second Amendment Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Renée Lettow Lerner, Jonathan Lowy, Andrew Oldham, Mark W. Smith, Jonathan E. Taylor
On November 15, 2019, the Federalist Society's practice groups hosted a special session for the...