Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence, Independence Institute
Professor Robert G. Natelson is a constitutional scholar and author.
Rob’s constitutional scholarship has been cited repeatedly by justices and parties at the U.S. Supreme Court—as well as by federal appeals courts, and at least 18 state supreme courts.
Rob’s research into the Constitution’s original meaning has carried him to libraries throughout the United States and in Britain, including four months at Oxford University. His books and articles span many different parts of the Constitution, including groundbreaking studies of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the Indian Commerce Clause, federalism, Founding-Era interpretation, regulation of elections, and the amendment process of Article V. He created the first-ever online bibliography for 18th century materials used in constitutional research. He is a contributing author to the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (on Magna Carta). He contributed eight essays to the third edition of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution: five on the amendment procedure and one each on the Guarantee Clause, the Postal Clause, and the Recess Appointments Clause.
U.S. Supreme Court justices have relied explicitly on Rob’s research in 41 citations in 13 separate cases.
Former Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service
Gerald Walpin, the new Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service, has vowed a vigorous effort to investigate and prosecute all persons who betray the public’s trust by defrauding the Corporation and its programs.
A prominent New York attorney, Walpin was nominated by President George W. Bush, confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn into office on January 8, 2007. He leads the Office of Inspector General (OIG), an independent Federal agency charged with oversight over the taxpayer-supported Corporation and its service programs, including AmeriCorps, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA)and Senior Corps.
“My major objective is to expand upon the good work of this office by preventing, detecting and prosecuting all thefts and frauds,” said Walpin. “The reality is that such misconduct takes precious resources away from deserving people, the same way the theft of a welfare check hurts a single mother who needs that money to buy milk for her children. For that reason, this office will seek out and ensure sanctions for all wrongdoing involving Corporation funds.”
Walpin said his other major goal is to “assist the Corporation in making its services efficient and accessible for all national service stakeholders.”
A New York City native, Walpin graduated from College of the City of New York in 1952. He earnedhis law degree, cum laude, in 1955 from Yale Law School, where he was managing editor of the Yale Law Journal. From 1957-60, he served as a lieutenant in the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General.
His career included a five-year stint as Chief of Prosecutions for the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he successfully prosecuted a number of high-profile cases. He spent more than 40 years as senior partner and, more recently, of counsel to New York-based Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP.
Mr. Walpin has represented a wide range of clients, including large public corporations, securities brokerage firms, accounting firms, law firms, banks in lender liability claims, and individuals, both American and foreign, in securities litigations, employment litigations, criminal prosecutions, and investigations by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Both as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and in his law firm, he was frequently called upon to investigate fraudulent conduct.
Included in the published compilation “The Best Lawyers in America,” Mr. Walpin served from 2002-2004 as president of the Federal Bar Council, the association of attorneys practicing in the Second Circuit Federal courts. In 2003, he was honored with the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for outstanding professionalism as an attorney and for mentoring younger lawyers.
Walpin and his wife Sheila, married for almost 50 years, have three children and six grandchildren.
Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service
Chief of Prosecutions in the New York U.S. Attorney's Office.
President of the Federal Bar council
Senior Partner of and Council to Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Chief of Prosectutions for the US Attornery for the Southern District of New York
Lieutenant in the US Air Force Judge Advocate General
B.A., College of the City of New York, 1952
J.D., Yale Law School
Partner, Baker Hostetler LLP
David Rivkin is a member of the firm's litigation, international and environmental teams and is co-leader of the firm's national appellate practice. He has extensive experience in constitutional, administrative and international law litigation and has been involved in numerous high-profile cases. With his prior experience in the government sector, David draws on a wealth of knowledge when providing compliance advice to companies and handling enforcement proceedings before government agencies on issues arising out of multilateral and unilateral sanctions, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-boycott issues, bankruptcy and financial fraud matters, and environmental and energy issues.
David has developed and implemented legislative, regulatory and litigation initiatives for two presidential administrations. Over the years, he has published hundreds of articles, op-eds, book reviews and book chapters on a variety of international, legal, constitutional, defense, arms control, foreign policy, environmental and energy issues for various newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times, and has been a frequent commentator and guest on TV and radio shows including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, NPR and PBS.
Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley; Senior Research Fellow, School of Civic Leadership, Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin; Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law. He is also Distinguished Visiting Scholar, School of Civic Leadership and Senior Research Fellow, Civitas Institute, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
His most recent book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, co-authored with Robert Delahunty, was published in 2023. Professor Yoo’s other books include Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power; Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War, Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare, and Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush.
Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals on subjects including national security, constitutional law, international law, and the Supreme Court. He also regularly contributes to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review, among others.
Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government. He was an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on national security and terrorism issues after the 9/11 attacks. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He has been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman. He has been a visiting professor at Seoul National University in South Korea, the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, Keio University in Japan, Trento University in Italy, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam.
Professor Yoo supervises the Public Law and Policy Program and the California Constitution Center. He also serves on the boards of the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Federalist Society’s Separation of Powers and Federalism Division, the Universidad Cientifica del Sur Law School, and the Asia-Pacific Law Institute at Seoul National University. He is a winner of the Federalist Society’s Paul Bator award and been the Edwin Meese III Originalism Lecturer at the Heritage Foundation.
Professor Yoo graduated from Yale Law School and summa cum laude from Harvard College.
Counsel, The Judicial Confirmation Network
Wendy Long is legal counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network. Until March 2005, she was a litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Wendy was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge Ralph Winter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. She is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law, cum laude and Order of the Coif, where she was articles editor of the Northwestern University Law Review, and of Dartmouth College. She previously served as a press secretary in the U.S. Senate, for former U.S. Senator Bill Armstrong (R-Colo.) and former U.S. Senator Gordon Humphrey (R-N.H.).
Vice President and Legal Director, Legal Momentum
The Original Understanding of the Indian Commerce Clause: An Update
Robert G. Natelson
The Congress shall have Power . . . To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and...
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