Richard and Frances Mallery Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Constitutional Law Center, Stanford Law School
Michael W. McConnell is the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. From 2002 to 2009, he served as a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He was nominated by President George W. Bush, a Republican, and confirmed by a Democratic Senate by unanimous consent. McConnell has previously held chaired professorships at the University of Chicago and the University of Utah, and visiting professorships at Harvard and NYU. He teaches courses on constitutional law, constitutional history, First Amendment, and interpretive theory. He has published widely in the fields of constitutional law and theory, especially church and state, equal protection, and separation of powers. His book, “The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution,” was published by Princeton University Press in 2020, based on the Tanner Lectures in Human Values, which he delivered at Princeton in 2019. His latest book, co-authored with Nathan Chapman, “Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Protects Religious Diversity and Freedom of Conscience,” was published by Oxford University Press in mid-2023. McConnell has argued sixteen cases in the United States Supreme Court, most recently Carney v. Adams (2020). defending a provision of the Delaware Constitution requiring political balance on that state’s courts. More recently, he was co-counsel in Gonzalez v. Google. He earned his B.A. from Michigan State University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago, and has received honorary degrees from Notre Dame University and Michigan State. He served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. and D.C. Circuit Chief Judge J. Skelly Wright. He has been Assistant General Counsel of the Office of Management & Budget, Assistant to the Solicitor General of the Department of Justice, and a member of the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board. He is Senior of Counsel to the law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, and is co-chair of Meta’s Oversight Review Board.
Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Akhil Reed Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law in both Yale College and Yale Law School. After graduating from Yale College, summa cum laude, in 1980 and from Yale Law School in 1984, and clerking for Judge (later Justice) Stephen Breyer, Amar joined the Yale faculty in 1985 at the age of 26. He is Yale’s only living professor to have won the University’s unofficial triple crown — the Sterling Chair for scholarship, the DeVane Medal for teaching, and the Lamar Award for alumni service.
Amar’s work has won awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, and he has been cited by Supreme Court justices across the spectrum in more than 50 cases — tops among scholars under age 70. According to both Fred Shapiro’s landmark 2021 study of lifetime scholarly citations and Heinonline’s most recent tabulation of lifetime law-review citations, Amar is America’s second most-cited legal scholar still under age 70. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has written widely for popular publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and The Atlantic. He was an informal consultant to the popular TV show The West Wing and his scholarship has been showcased on many broadcasts, including The Colbert Report, Morning Joe, AC360, Velshi, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fareed Zakaria GPS, Erin Burnett Outfront, and Constitution USA with Peter Sagal.
He is the author of more than a hundred law review articles and several books, including The Bill of Rights (1998 — winner of the Yale University Press Governors’ Award), America’s Constitution (2005 — winner of the ABA’s Silver Gavel Award), America’s Unwritten Constitution (2012 — named one of the year’s 100 best nonfiction books by The Washington Post), and The Constitution Today (2016 — named one of the year’s top ten nonfiction books by Time magazine). The first volume of his ambitious trilogy on American constitutional history from the Founding to the present, The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, came out in May 2021. The second volume, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920, will be published in September 2025 and is already available for pre-order. All together, his nonfiction books have won two starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and three starred reviews from Kirkus—tops, it is believed, among legal scholars under age 70. Together with Vikram David Amar (YLS ’88), he has a bi-weekly column on the Supreme Court on the distinguished website SCOTUSblog. Along with Andy Lipka, he co-hosts a popular and free weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution, whose listeners are eligible for CLE credit in most American jurisdictions. A wide assortment of his articles and op-eds and video links to many of his public lectures and free online courses may be found at akhilamar.com.
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.
Associate Professor of Law, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Jonathan Green is an Associate Professor of Law at Arizona State University teaching Civil Procedure and Statutory Interpretation. His scholarship focuses on the history of political and legal thought. He is especially interested in the history of constitutionalism, theories of interpretation, and the concept of judicial power. His research has been published in the Arizona State Law Journal, the Journal of the History of Ideas, Modern Intellectual History, and the Historical Journal.
Prior to joining the ASU faculty in 2024, Professor Green was a Harry A. Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago. He previously clerked for Judge Neomi Rao of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and worked as a litigation associate at DLA Piper in Philadelphia.
Professor Green holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he was a joint recipient of Prince Consort & Thirwall Prize, awarded annually for the best dissertation in the Cambridge History Faculty. He also received his MPhil from Cambridge, and earned his B.A., summa cum laude, from Northwestern University.
John S. Battle Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Julia D. Mahoney teaches courses in property, government finance, constitutional law and nonprofit organizations. A graduate of Yale Law School, she joined the University of Virginia faculty as an associate professor in 1999 and is now John S. Battle Professor of Law. She has also taught at the University of Southern California Law School and the University of Chicago Law School, and before entering the legal academy, practiced law at the New York firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Her scholarly articles include works on land preservation, eminent domain, health care reform and property rights in human biological materials.
Carl and Shelia Spaeth Professor of Law; Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life, Stanford Law School
Bernadette Meyler, JD ’03, is a scholar of British and American constitutional law and of law and the humanities. She returned in 2013 to Stanford Law School, where she had previously served as Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor in Human Rights. Her research and teaching bring together the sometimes surprisingly divided fields of legal history and law and literature. They also examine the long history of constitutionalism, reaching back into the English common law ancestry of the U.S. Constitution. Professor Meyler’s current book projects stem from these respective areas of her scholarship. Theaters of Pardoning (Cornell UP, forthcoming 2019) demonstrates that the representation of pardoning tracks changing conceptions of sovereignty within the plays and politics of seventeenth-century England. In doing so, the book considers how the shared audiences of dramatic and historical tragicomedy—whether Kings, students at the Inns of Court, or potential jurors—brought concepts from the literary into the legal arena and back again. Common Law Originalism shifts to the American context, looking at the multiple eighteenth-century common law meanings—both colonial and English—of various constitutional terms and phrases. Based on this variety, as well as on the practices of common law interpretation with which members of the Founding generation were familiar, the book argues that we should, in large part, reject the pursuit of a singular and determinate original meaning; instead, it contends, we must embrace a more vigorous debate in the present over contested constitutional meanings. Professor Meyler is also the co-editor of several collections of essays in law and the humanities designed to introduce scholars and students to the field, including, with Elizabeth Anker, New Directions in Law and Literature (Oxford UP, 2017) and, with Simon Stern and Maksymilian Del Mar, The Oxford Handbook of Law and the Humanities (Oxford UP, forthcoming 2019).
After receiving her BA in Literature with a focus on Classics at Harvard University, Professor Meyler obtained her JD from Stanford Law School and completed a PhD in English at UC, Irvine as a Mellon Fellow in Humanistic Studies and a Chancellor’s Fellow. Following law school, Professor Meyler clerked for the Hon. Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Professor Meyler previously taught at Cornell University, where she served, most recently, as Professor of Law and English and Faculty Director of Research at the Cornell Law School. She also visited Princeton University as the inaugural Mellon/LAPA Fellow in Law and the Humanities.
Sheila M. McDevitt Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Election Law Center, Florida State University College of Law
Professor Morley joined FSU Law in 2018, and teaches and writes in the areas of election law, constitutional law, remedies, and the federal courts. He is best known for his work on election emergencies and post-election litigation, nationwide and other defendant-oriented injunctions, the jurisdiction of the federal courts and their equitable powers more generally. He has testified before congressional committees, made presentations to election officials for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and participated in bipartisan blue-ribbon groups to develop election reforms. The governor of Florida also appointed Professor Morley to the Criminal Punishment Code Task Force, to propose potential revisions to the legislature.
The U.S. Supreme Court has cited several of his articles, and he was counsel of record for the successful Petitioner in a landmark campaign finance case. Professor Morley has appeared on C-SPAN, Court TV, Fox News and numerous local news programs, and has been quoted in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Roll Call, Politico, U.S. News and World Report, and a wide range of other national publications. His work has been published in many of the nation’s top law reviews, including the Georgetown Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, Boston University Law Review and Emory Law Journal.
Before joining FSU Law, Professor Morley was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School. Prior to his experience in academia, he served in government as special assistant to the General Counsel of the Army at the Pentagon, as well as a law clerk for Judge Gerald B. Tjoflat of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. During his tenure with the Army General Counsel’s office, he was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the Army Staff Lapel Pin. He also worked as an associate at Williams & Connolly LLP and the Supreme Court & Appellate group of Winston & Strawn, LLP, both in Washington, D.C.
Professor Morley earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 2003, where he was a senior editor on the Yale Law Journal; served on the moot court board; and received the Thurman Arnold Prize for Best Oralist in the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals.
Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia Law
Bertrall Ross joined the law faculty in 2021. He teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, constitutional theory, election law, administrative law and statutory interpretation.
Ross’ research is driven by a concern about democratic responsiveness and accountability, as well as the inclusion of marginalized communities in administrative and political processes. His past scholarship has been published in several books and journals, including the Columbia Law Review, New York University Law Review and the University of Chicago Law Review. Two of his articles were selected by the Yale/Harvard/Stanford Junior Faculty Forum.
Ross earned his undergraduate degree in international affairs and history from the University of Colorado, Boulder; his graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs; and his law degree from Yale Law School. After law school, he clerked for Judge Dorothy Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Myron Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.
Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
Ilan Wurman is the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches administrative law and constitutional law. He previously taught at Arizona State University. He writes primarily on the Fourteenth Amendment, administrative law, separation of powers, and constitutionalism. His academic writing has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Minnesota Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the Texas Law Review among other journals.
Professor Wurman is the author of a casebook, Administrative Law Theory and Fundamentals: An Integrated Approach (Foundation Press 2d ed. 2024). He is also the author of A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism (Cambridge 2017), and The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment (Cambridge 2020). His next book, The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction, is also forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.
Professor Wurman practices law with the firm Tully Bailey. He has litigated a variety of administrative law and constitutional law cases, including cases involving COVID-19 restrictions, transmission lines, and Appointments Clause challenges. He also devised winning public nuisance theories to force city governments to address the increasingly challenging public camping crises throughout the country.
University of VIrginia
Risa Goluboff is the 12th, and the first female, dean of the University of Virginia School of Law. She is a renowned legal historian whose scholarship and teaching focuses on American constitutional and civil rights law, and especially their historical development in the 20th century.
Goluboff is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Law Institute and a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. She received the Law School’s Carl McFarland Award for excellence in faculty scholarship in 2008, and the University of Virginia’s All-University Teaching Award in 2011. She is also a professor of history in the Corcoran Department of History, a faculty affiliate at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, and a faculty senior fellow at the Miller Center. She chaired the University’s Deans Working Group, established to lead the University’s response to the events of Aug. 11-12, 2017. From 2011 to 2016, she directed the University’s J.D.-M.A. in History Program. Goluboff has served as a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Columbia, Chicago and New York University law schools.
Before joining the Law School in 2002, Goluboff clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court. She also served as a Fulbright Scholar to South Africa.
Governor, Virginia
Governor Glenn Youngkin is a homegrown Virginian who grew up in Richmond and Virginia Beach. As his father changed jobs, Governor Youngkin learned that moving around didn’t equal moving up – nothing was handed to him. From his first job washing dishes and frying eggs at a diner in Virginia Beach, he embraced hard work and responsibility to help his family when his father lost his job. His determination to succeed earned him multiple high school basketball honors in Virginia and an athletic scholarship to college.
After earning an engineering degree at Rice University, and his MBA at Harvard Business School, Governor Youngkin and his wife Suzanne moved to Northern Virginia. He landed a job at The Carlyle Group, where he spent the next 25 years. Working his way to the top of the company, Governor Youngkin played a key role in building Carlyle into one of the leading investment firms in the world. His efforts have helped fund the retirements of teachers, police officers, firefighters and other frontline public servants and supported hundreds of thousands of American jobs.
Married for over 27 years to his amazing wife Suzanne, Governor Youngkin is a dedicated father of four wonderful children. Their family journey has been and continues to be guided by their faith.
University of VIrginia
Risa Goluboff is the 12th, and the first female, dean of the University of Virginia School of Law. She is a renowned legal historian whose scholarship and teaching focuses on American constitutional and civil rights law, and especially their historical development in the 20th century.
Goluboff is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Law Institute and a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. She received the Law School’s Carl McFarland Award for excellence in faculty scholarship in 2008, and the University of Virginia’s All-University Teaching Award in 2011. She is also a professor of history in the Corcoran Department of History, a faculty affiliate at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, and a faculty senior fellow at the Miller Center. She chaired the University’s Deans Working Group, established to lead the University’s response to the events of Aug. 11-12, 2017. From 2011 to 2016, she directed the University’s J.D.-M.A. in History Program. Goluboff has served as a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Columbia, Chicago and New York University law schools.
Before joining the Law School in 2002, Goluboff clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court. She also served as a Fulbright Scholar to South Africa.
Governor, Virginia
Governor Glenn Youngkin is a homegrown Virginian who grew up in Richmond and Virginia Beach. As his father changed jobs, Governor Youngkin learned that moving around didn’t equal moving up – nothing was handed to him. From his first job washing dishes and frying eggs at a diner in Virginia Beach, he embraced hard work and responsibility to help his family when his father lost his job. His determination to succeed earned him multiple high school basketball honors in Virginia and an athletic scholarship to college.
After earning an engineering degree at Rice University, and his MBA at Harvard Business School, Governor Youngkin and his wife Suzanne moved to Northern Virginia. He landed a job at The Carlyle Group, where he spent the next 25 years. Working his way to the top of the company, Governor Youngkin played a key role in building Carlyle into one of the leading investment firms in the world. His efforts have helped fund the retirements of teachers, police officers, firefighters and other frontline public servants and supported hundreds of thousands of American jobs.
Married for over 27 years to his amazing wife Suzanne, Governor Youngkin is a dedicated father of four wonderful children. Their family journey has been and continues to be guided by their faith.
Judge, United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio
Judge J. Philip Calabrese was confirmed to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in December 2020. Previously, he served on the State trial court in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. Before taking the bench, he had a complex litigation practice for nearly two decades and was a partner at what is now Squire Patton Boggs and at Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur, LLP, where he co-chaired the firm’s class action practice. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Judge Calabrese began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he teaches an advanced course on expert evidence and at the University of Akron School of Law where he teaches the First Amendment’s Speech Clause.
Member, Ohio House of Representatives
State Representative Brian Stewart is currently serving his first term as State Representative for the 78th Ohio House district, which includes Hocking and Morgan Counties, as well as portions of Athens, Fairfield, Muskingum and Pickaway Counties.
In addition to his career in public service, Rep. Stewart maintains a successful law practice representing businesses and individuals with The Law Office of Brian Stewart, LLC.
Rep. Stewart enlisted for active duty in the Army after experiencing 9/11 as a high school senior. He is an infantry veteran of the Iraq War and earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge (CIB) in addition to twice receiving the Army Commendation Medal. Following his service, he returned to school and earned both his Bachelor’s and law degree from the Ohio State University.
A lifelong resident of Southern Ohio, Rep. Stewart is very active in his community. He is a past Vice President and Spokesman for the Ohio Fallen Heroes Memorial, a statewide memorial dedicated to all Ohio service members killed in the line of duty since 9/11. He has also been a member of the Pickaway County Farm Bureau, the Veterans of Foreign Warns, the Association of Ohio Commodores, the Pickaway County and Ohio State Bar Associations, the Pickaway Senior Center Board of Directors and the Pickaway County Republican Central Committee.
In his free time, Rep. Stewart is a dedicated movie buff, a passionate sports fan and enjoys target shooting, books on American history and the music of Johnny Cash. Rep. Stewart lives in Ashville and attends Village Chapel Church with his wife, Letanya, and their three children.
Partner, DiCello Levitt Gutzler LLC
David is a litigator and privacy advocate based in the New York office of DiCello Levitt Gutzler LLC. He is one of the nation’s leading voices for the recognition of property rights in personal data, a 10-year effort culminating in the Ninth Circuit’s landmark April 2020 decision in In re: Facebook Internet Tracking Litigation and the Northern District of California’s March 2021 decision in Calhoun v. Google, both of which he argued. David also successfully argued for the extraterritorial application of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in 2019 in In re: Apple Device Performance Litigation, and filed the first-ever data privacy class action under seal to address a dangerous website vulnerability under Court supervision in Rodriguez v. Universal Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co. As M.I.T. Technology Review magazine put it in 2012, David is “something of a pioneer” in the field.
David also frequently teaches, most recently as an adjunct professor at Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business, teaching Business Law and Ethics every fall semester from 2015 to 2021. Prior to joining DiCello Levitt, David was a partner with Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP, and helped launch the US offices of London-based Stewarts Law LLP before that, where he was the global head of investor protection litigation. Prior to joining the plaintiffs’ bar, David was an associate with the New York office of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP. Although not currently an active member, David first joined the Federalist Society in law school in 1994, one of the few Society alums in the plaintiffs’ bar.
Vice President and General Counsel, NetChoice
Senior Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Alice M. Batchelder obtained her first judicial post as a judge on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio in 1983. After two years, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. In 1991 President George H.W. Bush appointed her to her position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. From August 2009 to August 2014, Judge Batchelder served as Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit. In March 2019, she took Senior Status and continues to work nearly full time.
Director of Engagement, New Civil Liberties Alliance
NCLA’s Director of Engagement, Clegg Ivey, began his career as a software developer when he sold his first piece of code at the age of 15. Later, as a tech attorney, he represented clients like Google, Apple, Netscape, and Sun. Clegg then became a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, raising millions in venture capital for a series of startups he co-founded that were eventually acquired by firms like Cisco, Actel, and others. Most recently, he spent years building a local retail empire in Savannah that the COVID lockdown forced him to close.
Clegg has been fighting against the encroachment of the administrative state for three decades. As a tech lawyer in the ‘90s, he worked to keep the fledgling Internet free of government regulation. In the ‘00s he defended his own startups – against the FDA when it came after his energy drink company and against the FTC when it threatened his telephony and computer monitoring startups. During the ‘10s Clegg fought the good fight against countless state and local bureaucrats and regulatory agencies that made life difficult for his retail businesses.
Clegg is a graduate of Tulane University and the University of Chicago Law School. He also clerked for the Hon. Alice M. Batchelder on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He taught classes on technology and public policy as an adjunct at Tulane University and classes on entrepreneurship as a visiting professor at Zhejiang University.
C. Blake McDowell, Jr. Professor of Law, University of Akron
William S. Jordan, III is Emeritus Professor of Law, retired from The University of Akron School of Law, where he taught Administrative Law. He also taught Property, Environmental Law, and Evidence. He received his B.A. from Stanford University and his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan. He served as an attorney-advisor at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, then with the Washington, D.C., firm of Sheldon, Harmon, Roisman & Weiss, which became Harmon, Weiss, and Jordan, where he engaged primarily in environmental and administrative litigation. Dean Jordan is an active member and Fellow of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice of the ABA. He has served on the Council of the Section, as Chair of the Judicial Review Committee, the Membership Committee, and the Publications Committee. He served for eighteen years as a contributing editor to the Administrative and Regulatory Law News.
Partner, Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC
Mr. Strawbridge provides clients with advice and representation at the pre-litigation, trial, and appellate stages. He has represented a broad range of individual and institutional clients on matters of constitutional law, financial and securities regulation, environmental laws, complex commercial disputes, and consumer protection statutes. His experience includes arbitrations, trial and appellate litigation, and administrative and regulatory proceedings.
Mr. Strawbridge served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Judge Morris Sheppard Arnold of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and Justice Howard Dana of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. Previously, Mr. Strawbridge was a partner at two large international law firms. He worked as a newspaper reporter for four years before attending law school. Mr. Strawbridge is an adjunct professor for the Supreme Court Clinic at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Mr. Strawbridge earned a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri, and his J.D. summa cum laude from Creighton University School of Law. Mr. Strawbridge is a member of the Maine and Massachusetts bars.
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
William H. Pryor Jr. serves as Chief Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
In 2013–18, he served on the United States Sentencing Commission and, in 2017–18, served as Acting Chair.
He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and previously taught as an adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University.
He served as the 45th Attorney General of Alabama from 1997 to 2004. When he took office, he was the youngest attorney general in the nation. In his reelection, he received the highest percentage of votes of any statewide candidate.
He graduated magna cum laude from Tulane Law School where he finished first in the common-law curriculum and was editor in chief of the Tulane Law Review. He then served as a law clerk for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
He is a member of The American Law Institute and an Adviser for the RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW THIRD, CONFLICT OF LAWS. He is a coauthor with Bryan Garner, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and several other judges of a treatise, THE LAW OF JUDICIAL PRECEDENT. He has published in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Yale Law & Policy Review, George Mason Law Review, Florida Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, and Tulane Law Review. He has published op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Review, and USA Today. He has debated at National Lawyers’ Conventions of the Federalist Society (including on National Public Radio) and at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom. And he is listed among several “widely admired judicial writers” in Bryan Garner’s The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style.
He is a member of the Tulane Law School Hall of Fame and has received the Defender of the Constitution Award from the Heritage Foundation, the Jurist of the Year Award from the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and the St. Thomas More Award from the St. Thomas More Society of Atlanta. Judge Pryor is also a proud member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Judge Readler earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Michigan. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to Judge Alan Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler then began practicing law in the Columbus office of the international law firm Jones Day, eventually spending ten years as a partner in the firm’s Issues and Appeals Practice Group. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler appeared in state and federal trial and appellate courts around the country, most frequently the Supreme Court of Ohio and the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler also successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court in McQuiggin v. Perkins on behalf of an inmate claiming actual innocence. His other pro bono representations include representing capital defendants before the Tenth Circuit and the Supreme Court of Ohio, as well as representing defendants sentenced to life in prison before the Sixth Circuit. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler traveled to Nairobi with Lawyers Without Borders to train Kenyan lawyers in prosecuting domestic violence cases, and he was also a recipient of the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship awarded by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Following his career in private practice, Judge Readler served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2017 to 2019. In that role, Judge Readler led and supervised over 1,000 lawyers in the Department’s largest litigating division, briefing and arguing several cases on behalf of the United States in federal courts across the country, including high-profile cases significant to the Administration and the Department. In March 2019, Judge Readler was confirmed to serve as a Circuit Judge on the Sixth Circuit. He resides in Columbus.
Attorney, Institute for Justice
Anya Bidwell (née Cherkasova) leads IJ’s Project on Immunity and Accountability (“PIA”). Through this project, Anya works to promote judicial engagement and ensure that government officials are held to account when they violate individuals’ constitutional rights. Anya also serves as an adviser on the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, Constitutional Torts project.
One of Anya’s PIA cases—Gonzalez v. Trevino—was heard by the United States Supreme Court on March 20, 2024. She argued the case for the petitioner, with the goal of convincing the Justices that retaliatory arrests not involving on-the-spot decisions by police officers should be actionable under the First Amendment regardless of probable cause. The decision is expected in June.
This was Anya’s third appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court. She second-chaired Brownback v. King (an excessive force case) and Tennessee Wine & Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas (a commerce clause case) in November 2020 and January 2019 respectfully.
Before joining IJ, Anya worked for a top national law firm, handling cases in trial and appellate courts. She earned her J.D. with honors from the University of Texas. Two years prior to entering law school, Anya received a master’s degree in Global Policy Studies, also from the University of Texas, and wrote a thesis on asymmetric warfare.
Anya spent her childhood in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. At 16, she left her family behind and came to America on a university scholarship. Her upbringing motivated her to study law and become an advocate for a strong, independent judiciary.
Anya’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, and the Guardian. She is also the host of live recordings of our Short Circuit podcast and a co-producer of our documentary-style podcast Bound by Oath.
Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation Chair, Lex Politica; Of Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Erin Morrow Hawley serves as Chair of Lex Politica's Supreme Court and Appellate Practice overseeing the firm’s strategic appellate litigation and critical motions practice in the trial courts. Erin is an experienced litigator who represents clients in constitutional, regulatory, and appellate matters in federal and state courts throughout the country.
Erin has represented dozens of clients before the Supreme Court of the United States, served as lead counsel in high-profile cases raising novel constitutional and statutory issues, and authored numerous successful petitions for certiorari and briefs in opposition. She has argued in state and federal appellate and trial courts throughout the country, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Erin represents diverse clients in high-stakes litigation from state governments to faith-based nonprofits to Fortune 100 companies. She possesses expertise on a wide range of subject matters including administrative law, the First Amendment, religious liberty, federal jurisdiction, federal preemption, equitable jurisdiction, tax law, the Affordable Care Act, and Title IX.
Erin represents clients in cases where public communications strategy is paramount. She is a sought-after speaker and writer, has testified multiple times before Congress, and is a frequent presenter on constitutional and administrative law issues, including at the Oxford Union, the National Federalist Society Convention, and university campuses across the country. She is a frequent commentator to media outlets, including Fox News, MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, WORLD, USA Today, the Federalist, and the Hill.
Erin previously oversaw Alliance Defending Freedom’s--where she still serves as Of Counsel--litigation strategies to empower women and protect the dignity of life, defend pregnancy centers’ First Amendment rights from government overreach, and safeguard Americans’ freedoms from the ever-encroaching administrative state.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
David Stras became a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on January 31, 2018. Before serving on the Eighth Circuit, Judge Stras was an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, a position he occupied from July 1, 2010 until his appointment to the Eighth Circuit.
Prior to becoming a judge, Stras was a member of the faculty of the University of Minnesota Law School from 2004 through 2010. He taught and wrote in the areas of federal courts and jurisdiction, constitutional law, criminal law, and law and politics.
Judge Stras received his Bachelor of Arts degree, with highest distinction, in 1995 and his Master of Business Administration in 1999, both from the University of Kansas. He also received his law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1999, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Criminal Procedure Edition of the Kansas Law Review.
Following law school, Stras clerked for The Honorable Melvin Brunetti of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then for The Honorable J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
From 2001 to 2002, he practiced white-collar criminal and appellate litigation with the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood. Following his year in practice, he clerked for The Honorable Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States.
President and CEO, The Buckeye Institute
Robert Alt is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Buckeye Institute where he has catalyzed exponential growth since he took the organization’s helm in 2012. He has since founded Buckeye’s renowned Economic Research Center and established its impactful Legal Center.
Alt is a distinguished scholar and attorney with particular expertise in legal policy, criminal justice, national security, and constitutional law. He previously worked for former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III, regularly provides commentary on television and radio programs, and his writings have appeared in countless outlets.
In 2004, Alt spent five months in Iraq as an embedded war correspondent.
Alt has testified before Congress multiple times—including at the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan—the Federal Election Commission regarding matters of constitutional and administrative law, and numerous state legislatures.
Alt serves as an officer on the boards of The Philadelphia Society and the Federalist Society’s Columbus Lawyers Chapter. He taught national security law, criminal law, and legislation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, as well as constitutional law and political parties and interest groups at Ashland University.
Alt earned his Doctor of Law degree from The University of Chicago Law School, where he was Symposium Editor and the winner of the Mulroy Prize for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy as well as research assistant to Professor Richard Epstein. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Alice Batchelder on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Alt graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and political science magna cum laude from Azusa Pacific University where he also won the Outstanding Senior Award in Political Science.
Alt is an accomplished high-altitude alpinist and endurance athlete who has successfully climbed 6.75 of the famed Seven Summits of the World including Mount Everest. He is the creator of PROFOUND CLIMBING™ and a frequent speaker across the country and around the world on legal and public policy topics as well as effective leadership, management, decision-making, and teamwork in contexts ranging from extraordinary life/death situations to ordinary professional/business settings.
Justice, Ohio Supreme Court
On November 3, 2020 Judge Jennifer Brunner was elected Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. Previously she served as a judge of the Tenth District Court of Appeals for 6 years and the Franklin County Common Pleas Court for nearly 5 years. As a trial court judge Brunner founded the county’s adult felony drug court, known as the TIES (Treatment is Essential to Success) Program, now in its seventeenth year of operation. She was elected Ohio’s first woman Secretary of State on November 7, 2006 and held the office for four years. While in that office, she became the first Ohioan to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award from the bipartisan board of the JFK Library and Museum in Boston. Justice Brunner has 17 years of private law practice experience and has provided rule of law technical expertise to the government of the Republic of Serbia, election observation in the Arab Republic of Egypt, and rule of law instruction at the bar association of Sri Lanka through the U.S. state department (USAID), as well as provided remote rule of law and civic participation training through the American Bar Association to the Republic of Kazakhstan. She has gained a deep understanding of the importance of a strong and well-functioning judiciary to preserving peace and growing democracy through the rule of law. A native of Springfield, Ohio, Justice Brunner has been married to Rick Brunner since 1978. They have 3 adult children and 6 grandchildren, 2 dogs and 2 cats and spend time at their home in Columbus and at their farm in Columbiana County in Northeast Ohio.
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of Ohio
Justice Pat DeWine began his six-year term on the Supreme Court of Ohio on Jan. 2, 2017, following his statewide election in November 2016. An excellent writer, Justice DeWine is known for the quality and thoroughness of his legal opinions. His opinions reflect his strong belief in judicial restraint and his respect for the constitutional roles of the other coequal branches of government.
Justice DeWine has served at all levels of the Ohio judiciary. Prior to his election to the Supreme Court, Justice DeWine served for four years on the First District Court of Appeals, and prior to that, for four years on the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
Justice DeWine has a strong commitment to furthering the rule of law through education. He is an adjunct professorat the University of Cincinnati College of Law where he teaches Appellate Practice and Procedure. In addition, he has taught undergraduate courses at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio Government & Politics and American Courts.
Justice DeWine has strong academic credentials. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in the top ten percent of his class with Order of the Coif honors. As an undergraduate student at Miami University, he maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average and received summa cum laude honors. He was also a member of the Varsity Track and Cross Country teams.
After law school, he was selected for a clerkship on United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He served under the Honorable David A. Nelson, who had been appointed to the Sixth Circuit by President Ronald Reagan.
Justice DeWine understands the litigant’s perspective, having practiced law for 13 years with one of Cincinnati’s top law firms, Keating, Muething & Klekamp. He represented clients in appellate matters in Ohio and in federal courts across the country. He handled a diverse range of litigation matters, including mass tort bankruptcies, securities fraud litigation, and constitutional issues.
Other Public Service
Justice DeWine brings a unique perspective to the bench because of his public service as a County Commissioner and a member of Cincinnati City Council.
As a member of the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners, he focused on reforming County government, lowering the tax burden, eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy and promoting public safety. He led the citizens referendum that ultimately repealed the nearly $1 billion sales tax increase that was enacted by his colleagues on the Commission. The Reason Foundation named him an “Innovator in Action,” along with such leaders as Rudy Giuliani and Jeb Bush, for his efforts to reform County government.
On Cincinnati City Council, he was known as a taxpayer watchdog, successfully rooting out wasteful spending and abuse in city government. He helped eliminate unnecessary regulations, led the effort to crack down on quality of life issues affecting city neighborhoods and created a development fund that leveraged private capital to spur new housing development downtown and across city neighborhoods. He also led the Issue Four charter change that created a more accountable city government by allowing the city to hire the most qualified individuals for key positions in city government.
He was a founder of the Build Cincinnati reform group that successfully passed a charter amendment to allow Cincinnati voters to directly elect the Mayor.athon.
Justice, Ohio Supreme Court
Justice Patrick F. Fischer began his six-year term on the Supreme Court of Ohio on Jan. 1, 2017, following his election in November 2016. Previously, he was elected to serve as a judge on the Ohio First District Court of Appeals in 2010, and was re-elected in 2012.
Justice Fischer has dedicated himself to the practice of law for more than 30 years. An honors graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College, as a practicing lawyer he tried cases throughout the country, and was named to Best Lawyers in America, one of the Top 50 Lawyers in Cincinnati, and one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Ohio. He was routinely named to Ohio Super Lawyers.
A respected member of the legal community, from 2012 to 2013 then-Judge Fischer served as president of the Ohio State Bar Association. He previously had served on the Ohio State Bar Association’s Board of Governors, chaired its budget and headquarters committee, and served on numerous other Ohio State Bar Association committees and task forces, and in its House of Delegates. Justice Fischer recently completed his second tenure on the board of the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program. He also was elected by his peers to serve as president of the Cincinnati Bar Association for 2006 through 2007.
Justice Fischer has an abiding interest in ethics and professionalism. As an attorney he served two terms on the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on Professionalism, including serving as vice chair. He also chaired the Cincinnati Bar Association's ethics and professional responsibility, as well as its professionalism, committees.
Having represented plaintiffs and defendants while an attorney, Justice Fischer knows the importance of being able to see and listen to both sides of an issue. Knowing and understanding the law as he does, Justice Fischer is keenly aware of how important it is that the law be applied properly to the facts in each case. The late chief justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, Thomas J. Moyer, named him to co-chair a task force to make the Ohio judicial system more efficient and just. Justice Fischer served on the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission, and was vice chair of its committee on the judicial branch.
Justice Fischer began his legal career with a clerkship for U.S. District Court Judge William Bertelsman, and in 1987, he began working for the law firm of Keating Muething & Klekamp. Just four years later, he became a partner in the trial department. Although on inactive status, he also is a licensed attorney in Texas.
In his free time, Justice Fischer is a dedicated public servant. He served on numerous local boards such as the Hamilton County Mental Health & Recovery Services Board, Visions Community Services Board, St. Ursula Villa, and the Pleasant Ridge Community Council. He was a founding member of the Cincinnati Children’s Museum and served on its board.
Justice Fischer, his wife Jane, and their dog live in Cincinnati. He has one married daughter who is a practicing attorney in Ohio, and two grandsons. A graduate of St. Xavier High School, Justice Fischer also is an active, long-time member of St. Xavier Catholic Church in downtown Cincinnati, serving as both a lector and Eucharistic minister.
Judge, Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals
Judge Terri Jamison’s journey from the coal fields of West Virginia to the highest reaches of the legal profession is a testament to her strength, intelligence, perseverance, and persistence. Her life story is truly a personification of the American Dream.
Judge Jamison was born and raised in Welch, WV where she attended Welch Dunbar and Welch Elementary School before graduating from Welch High School. While in high school she was active in sports, including baseball and track, was a cheerleader for the Welch Maroon Waves and worked after school at J. C. Penney’s.
Immediately after graduation she was employed by the Department of Welfare as a Daycare Provider Coordinator, Eligibility Specialist and Fraud Investigator but soon left the Department, joined the United Mine Workers, District 17, Union Local 7635 and became one of the few women who worked as an underground coal miner. After being laid off due to the declining economy in her hometown, Terri moved to Columbus, Ohio.
She enrolled in the CETA program and obtained the training she needed to enter the workforce. She was employed by Xerox Corporation, OCLC, Nationwide Insurance and was an office manager for Howard Tyler's State Farm Insurance Agency. At Mr. Tyler’s urging she opened her own Allstate Insurance Agency which she owned and operated for more than 16 years.
Terri decided to return to college to complete her bachelor’s degree while continuing to run the agency on a full-time basis. She initially enrolled in Columbus State Community College then transferred to Franklin University where she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a minor in Human Resources Management.
When Allstate made changes to its contracts with agents that made the insurance business less lucrative, Terri sold her agency and enrolled in the Capital University School of Law and obtained her Juris Doctorate in 2004.
After being admitted to the Bar, Attorney Jamison worked in the Franklin County Public Defender’s Office as an assistant public defender representing indigent clients in the Franklin County Municipal Court System and served as a Hearing Office for the Ohio Unemployment Compensation Review Commission.
On February 1, 2005, she was admitted to the United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio. In May of 2005, she was once again bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and opened the Jamison Law Offices Co. L.P.A. where she practiced Criminal, Juvenile, Domestic Relations and Probate law at the trial and appellate level. On October 29, 2007, she was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
In 2012, she made her first foray into the political world, earning 55.08% of the vote, and was elected judge of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Division of Domestic Relations and Juvenile Branch. In 2018, she was overwhelmingly reelected to the Common Pleas bench. In 2020, she was then elected to the Ohio Court of Appeals, Tenth District. During her time on the bench Judge Jamison has used her experience, perspective, talent, and knowledge to develop new strategies to empower families, including the Compass Program, a collaboration with the Franklin County Child Support Enforcement Agency that provided child support obligors with the training and support needed to become employed. Compass received an award from the National Association of Counties in 2017 as part of CSEA's Procedural Justice Informed Alternatives to Contempt, or P-JAC.
She has also devoted considerable time, energy, and attention to issues related to equal access to justice, diversity, inclusion, and the need to develop alternatives to detention for juveniles. Her work has been featured in two documentaries, "The Walking Logo" and "PUSHOUT: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School" which shined a spotlight on troubling disparities in school discipline that impact Black girls.
Judge Jamison is a member of numerous committees, boards, and associations including:
● National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
● American Judges Association
● Ohio Black Judges Association Executive Board
● Ohio State Bar Association
● Columbus Bar Association
● Franklin County Women Lawyers
● National Council of Negro Women
● NAACP
● Ohio Women in Government
● COLERA
● National Bar Association
● Ohio Supreme Court Advisory Committee for Court Security
● Ohio Supreme Court Sentencing Commission
● Board of Counselors at Capital University Law School
● Advisory Board, the Franklin University Global Center for Healthcare Education
She is also an adjunct faculty member at Capital University Law School, volunteers as an American Red Cross Blood Ambassador, YWCA and performs community service through the National Council of Negro Women, Women2Women, and the Divine Kingdom Builders Church.
Judge Jamison has gained a national reputation as a prolific and energetic speaker. She has delivered commencement addresses at high schools and colleges, presented at national conferences, and participated in panels on the need for equal access to justice, greater diversity and inclusion in the judicial system, and alternatives to detention for juveniles.
Along with her many other accomplishments, Judge Jamison is most proud of being a spouse to Ricardo “Ty” Gary, a retired Franklin County Deputy Sheriff who has started a new career as a realtor with E-Merge Realty. Their blended family includes three sons, Tremayne, Demetrius, and Sean, eight grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.
Justice, Ohio Supreme Court
On November 4, 2014, Justice Sharon L. Kennedy was re-elected to a full term on the Supreme Court of Ohio in a decisive victory winning all 88 counties and garnering 73 percent of the vote. Justice Kennedy first joined the court in 2012, having been elected to fill an unexpired term.
Prior to her term on the Ohio Supreme Court, Justice Kennedy served at the Butler County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division beginning in 1999. From 2005 until December of 2012, Justice Kennedy served as the administrative judge of that division. During her time as administrative judge, she improved the case management system to ensure the timely resolution of cases for families and children. Working with state legislators she championed a "common sense" family law initiative to reduce multiple-forum litigation for Butler County families.
When Butler County faced tough economic times, Justice Kennedy organized concerned elected officials in a county-wide Budget Work Group. Seeing the need to bring private sector financial know-how to the government, she worked to create the Advisory Committee to the Budget Work Group. Justice Kennedy served as the facilitator and led discussions between county officials and private sector leaders to analyze county finances, study and implement cost saving measures, and present business driven fiscal policy to the county commissioners.
In 1991, after obtaining her law degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, Justice Kennedy ran a small business of her own as a solo practitioner. While in private practice she served the legal needs of families, juveniles, and the less fortunate. As special counsel for Attorney General Betty D. Montgomery, Justice Kennedy fought on behalf of Ohio’s taxpayers to collect monies due the State of Ohio. As a part-time magistrate in the Butler County Area Courts, Justice Kennedy presided over a wide array of civil litigation and assisted law enforcement officers and private citizens seeking the issuance of criminal warrants for arrest.
Justice Kennedy began her career in the justice system as a police officer at the Hamilton Police Department. She was assigned to a rotating shift, single-officer road patrol unit working to protect and serve the citizens of the City of Hamilton. From the routine, to the heart-pounding, to the heart-breaking, she has seen it all. During her time as an officer, Justice Kennedy also worked undercover operations, implemented crime prevention programs, and later, as a civil assistant, assisted in drafting police policy and procedure for the Accreditation Program.
Throughout her career Justice Kennedy has served on numerous boards, developed and facilitated programs to address the needs of young people, and worked with judges across the state. As a dedicated jurist she has received multiple awards of recognition including: Leadership Ohio Community Leadership Award, 2016; The University of Cincinnati College of Law Nicholas Longworth, III Alumni Achievement Award, May 17, 2014; Northwest High School Distinguished Alumnus Award, April 25, 2014; named one of 13 professional women to watch by The Cincinnati Enquirer, March 17, 2013; Excellence in Public Service, June 2009; Judge of the Year, 2006; Above the Fold Award, 2002; and the Furtherance of Justice Award, 2001. Justice Kennedy was also featured in Trends in the Judiciary: Interviews with Judges Across the Globe, Volume II, published by CRC Press in February 2015.
Judge, Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals
In 2018, Judge Marilyn Zayas was re-elected to the First District Court of Appeals. She first joined the Court in 2016 after her election to fill an unexpired term. Since joining the Court, Judge Zayas has sat by appointment of Ohio’s Chief Justice on the Ohio Supreme Court and on the Second, Sixth, Eight, and Tenth District Courts of Appeals.
After her election, Judge Zayas created the “Educating Tomorrow’s Leaders” program, an educational program for high school, undergraduate and law school students. The program invites students to the Court of Appeals to interact with judges and attorneys, learn about the law, and inspire them to dream big and to never give up. Judge Zayas is committed to promoting accessibility and accountability through student outreach and community forums.
She currently serves on the Ohio Supreme Court’s Board of Character and Fitness, the Ohio Supreme Court’s Ethics, Professionalism, and Diversity Committee, the board of the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center, and the board of Beech Acres Parenting Center.
Prior to joining the First District Court of Appeals, Judge Zayas served the community as an attorney for nearly 20 years after obtaining her law degree. In 2001, she founded a private practice and built a strong reputation by successfully handling complex cases. She has an extensive legal background including investor, business, and family immigration law, intellectual property law, labor and employment law, criminal defense, and juvenile law. She has also served as an adjunct professor at her alma mater, the University Of Cincinnati College of Law and provided legal training to judges, magistrates, attorneys, and the Cincinnati FBI.
Judge Marilyn Zayas was celebrated for her community contributions by Good Morning America as a GMA 2021 Inspiration List: Who’s Making Hispanic Latinx History Right Now. She was one of the 2021 City of Cincinnati City Council Women’s History Month honorees and a 2019 YWCA Career Women of Achievement award recipient. In 2017, she received the prestigious University of Cincinnati College of Law Nicholas Longworth, III Alumni Achievement Award. She was also awarded the LULAC Women’s National Convention Service and Commitment Award in 2014, and the Ohio Commission of Hispanic and Latino Affairs, Distinguished Hispanic Ohioan Award in 2013.
Judge Zayas was born in New York City and grew up in a tough neighborhood. Her dad worked in a printing shop and her mom worked as a seamstress in a garment factory. Judge Zayas overcame numerous obstacles to earn a college degree in computer science. In 1988, Judge Zayas moved to Cincinnati to begin her career as an Information Technology Manager at Procter and Gamble. In 1994, she left P & G to pursue her dream to become a lawyer. Her family includes her three adult children and two adopted rescue dogs, Thor and Sparkle Lou.
Judge, Ohio Twelfth District Court of Appeals
Judge Matthew R. Byrne was elected to the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Twelfth District in 2020, and his first term began on January 1, 2021. He is currently serving as the court's elected Administrative Judge. The Twelfth District Court of Appeals hears civil and criminal appeals from the trial courts in eight counties in southwest Ohio. Judge Byrne is active in the Ohio Judicial Conference and the Ohio Court of Appeals Judges Association. He also currently serves as a member and vice chair of the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on the Rules of Practice and Procedure (where he previously chaired the Appellate Rules Committee). He previously served as a member of the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on Character and Fitness.
From January 2010 to December 2020, Judge Byrne practiced law at the national law firm of Jackson Lewis P.C. He was a member of the firm's General Employment Litigation Practice Group and the Wage and Hour Practice Group. From 2007 to 2010 he practiced at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. At both firms, Judge Byrne represented clients ranging from small businesses to international corporations in state and federal trial and appellate litigation, including multiple class and collective actions. He also represented clients in arbitration and before numerous administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.
Judge Byrne earned his law degree, cum laude, from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. During law school he was symposium editor of the Ohio State Law Journal and the winner of the Donald S. Teller Memorial Award for student writing contributing most significantly to the Ohio State Law Journal. During law school he clerked for the Acting General Counsel of the United States Department of the Treasury. Judge Byrne earned his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Xavier University, where he majored in International Affairs (Business) and Political Science.
Prior to entering law school Judge Byrne served in President George W. Bush's Administration as a member of the White House staff in the Office of Presidential Personnel, the office responsible for selecting candidates to recommend to the President for appointment or nomination to high-level government positions, and for coordinating with the Offices of White House Counsel, Press Secretary, and Executive Clerk regarding candidate background clearances, press announcements, and the status of appointments/nominations.
Judge Byrne has been a member of the Federalist Society since law school and he served for five years as president of the Federalist Society's Cincinnati Lawyers Chapter. He is a member of a number of other community and civic organizations, including the Ohio State Bar Association and the bar associations of Butler, Clermont, and Warren Counties. Judge Byrne previously was a member of the Advisory Board of Pregnancy Center East and a board member and president of the St. Thomas More Lawyers Guild of Greater Cincinnati.
Judge Byrne is an active parishioner at his church, where he is a lector, a former member and president of the Education Commission, and a former member of the Finance and Administration Commission.
Judge Byrne resides in Deerfield Township, Warren County, Ohio with his wife Julie and their three children.
Partner, Ashbrook Byrne Kresge Flowers LLC
Ben Flowers, a partner at Ashbrook Byrne Kresge Flowers LLC, is an accomplished litigator with experience briefing, arguing, and winning high-stakes cases in courts throughout the country.
Before joining the law firm, Ben served as Ohio's 10th Solicitor General. In that role he regularly represented the State of Ohio before the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the Supreme Court of Ohio. Most prominently, in National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, Ben led a multi-state challenge to OSHA's vaccine mandate, ultimately prevailing before the Supreme Court.
Ben is a graduate of The Ohio State University and the University of Chicago Law School. Following law school, Ben clerked for Judge Sandra Ikuta of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of this United States. Ben lives in Upper Arlington, Ohio with his wife Denise and their three very active children.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Eric Murphy has been a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit since March 2019. He previously served as the ninth State Solicitor of Ohio. In that role, Eric briefed and argued appellate cases on behalf of Ohio and its state agencies and officers in the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the Ohio Supreme Court. Before his appointment as State Solicitor, Eric practiced appellate litigation at Jones Day. After graduation from law school, he served as a law clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He received his law degree from the University of Chicago and his undergraduate degree from Miami University.
Partner, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP
Philip litigates complex matters in state and federal courts. He has briefed appeals in multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals, including the Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, as well as state appellate courts in Ohio, Kentucky, and Georgia. Philip has also represented amici at both the cert petition and merits stages in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Prior to joining Taft, Philip served as a law clerk for Judge Raymond M. Kethledge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Judge Amul R. Thapar of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Judge Lavenski R. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Philip serves on the board of directors for the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky lawyers chapters of the Federalist Society. He was a 2018 James Wilson Fellow with the James Wilson Institute, a 2013 John Marshall Fellow with the Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, and a 2011 Blackstone Fellow with the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Philip received his undergraduate degree, with Highest Honors, from Ouachita Baptist University. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as the submissions review editor for the Journal of Law and Politics.
Pre-Symposium Panel: Young Legal Scholars
Michael W. McConnell, Akhil Reed Amar, Josh Blackman, Jonathan Green, Julia D. Mahoney, Bernadette Meyler, Michael T. Morley, Bertrall Ross, Ilan Wurman
Before the National Student Symposium begins, the Federalist Society's Faculty Division will host a panel of young...
Welcome & Keynote Address by Governor Glenn Youngkin
Risa L. Goluboff, Jessie Mann, Glenn Youngkin
Featuring: Welcome: Jessica Mann, Symposium Chair, University of Virginia School of Law Opening Remarks: Dean Risa...
Welcome & Keynote Address by Governor Glenn Youngkin
Risa L. Goluboff, Jessie Mann, Glenn Youngkin
Featuring: Welcome: Jessica Mann, Symposium Chair, University of Virginia School of Law Opening Remarks: Dean Risa...
Panel Three: Tech / Consumer Protection & Data Privacy
Columbus, OHCourthouse Steps Decision Webinar: Ramirez v. Collier
TeleforumPanel Two: Is the Administrative State a Threat to Individual Liberty?
Columbus, OHLuncheon & Keynote Address
Columbus, OHCourthouse Steps Oral Argument: Egbert v. Boule
TeleforumPanel One: The Role of a Justice in the Ohio Supreme Court System
Columbus, OHBreakfast Panel: Advice for Young Lawyers
Columbus, OH