Litigation Fellow, Institute for Justice
Tahmineh Dehbozorgi is a Litigation Fellow at the Institute for Justice. Prior to joining IJ, Tahmineh served as a summer associate at AT&T Global Public Policy, where she focused on cybersecurity and consumer privacy regulatory matters. She also gained valuable legal experience as a law clerk at the Federal Communications Commission, where she worked on communications law and regulatory processes. She also served as a law clerk for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, where she concentrated on administrative law and impact litigation.
Tahmineh earned her J.D. from The George Washington University Law School, with a concentration in National Security and Cybersecurity Law. While at GW Law, she served as a Research Assistant to Professor Robert J. Cottrol and contributed to the book “To Trust the People with Arms: The Supreme Court and the Second Amendment.” Tahmineh also earned the silver medal at the 30th Annual National Telecommunications and Technology Moot Court Competition in 2023. In 2024, she received the President’s Volunteer Service Award from President Joseph R. Biden for her exemplary pro bono work. Tahmineh received her Bachelor of Arts in political science with a concentration in international relations magna cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2020, she was awarded UCLA Chancellor’s Service Award.
Tahmineh spent her childhood in Iran. On 4th of July 2015, she left everything behind and came to the United States to seek freedom. Her upbringing ignites an unyielding passion to defend civil liberties and separation of powers.
In addition to her legal career, Tahmineh is a multilingual author with a background in public relations and media. Her writings have appeared in prominent outlets such as Fox News, National Review, RealClear Defense, and the Orange County Register, etc. Outside of her professional endeavors, Tahmineh is a classical musician and has been a member of The George Washington University Chamber Ensemble and UCLA Chorale.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
Judge, Ohio Eleventh District Court of Appeals
Judge Eugene A. Lucci was elected in 2022 to serve a full six-year term on the Eleventh District Court of Appeals commencing February 9, 2023. Prior to this election, Judge Lucci was elected to four consecutive full terms on the Lake County Common Pleas Court, General Division, commencing his judicial career in January 2001. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Lucci was engaged in the private practice of law from 1980 to 2000 and was a founding member and senior partner of the Mentor, Ohio law firm of McNamara, Lucci, Hanrahan & Loxterman. Judge Lucci is a retired police officer, having served as a police patrol officer for the City of Painesville and University Circle Police Departments, and later with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office as a detective. Judge Lucci earned his bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University in January 1975, his law degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in March 1980, and his Master of Judicial Studies degree from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2012. He holds a Certificate in Judicial Development, General Jurisdiction Trial Skills, from the National Judicial College in 2004, and is an Inaugural Fellow of the Advanced Science & Technology Adjudication Resource Program, Washington DC, in October 2006. Judge Lucci has been admitted to practice law in Ohio in 1980 and Florida in 1982 and is a certified instructor for the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy.
Associate Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University
Robert Luther III was appointed Associate Professor of Law in 2025 after serving as Distinguished Professor of Law from 2024-2025 and Adjunct Professor of Law from 2019-2024. He teaches and writes on the federal courts, legal and judicial ethics, political law, Congress, and professional sports. He has served at high levels in all three branches of the federal government and recently founded Constitutional Solutions PLLC—a law firm that navigates judicial candidates, judges, elected officials, professional athletes, and executives through high-stakes hearings, investigations, and reputational attacks.
Immediately before joining the Scalia Law faculty, Professor Luther spent over five years in the Washington, D.C. office of Jones Day, where his practice focused on strategic counseling, crisis management, and litigation. Prior to joining Jones Day, he served as Associate Counsel to the President of the United States in the White House Counsel’s Office. In the White House, he co-managed the judicial selection process and supervised the preparation of over 150 federal judicial nominees for their successful U.S. Senate confirmation hearings. The New York Times Magazine referred to his work on judicial selection during this period as “unique in White House history.” Before joining the White House, Professor Luther served as Counsel to then–U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where he served as a core member of the team that prepared the Senator for confirmation as United States Attorney General. Professor Luther was also a law clerk to Judge Daniel A. Manion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Earlier in his career, Professor Luther practiced civil and appellate litigation at a boutique firm in Williamsburg, Va. and taught at William & Mary Law School.
Professor Luther frequently speaks on the legal profession, political law, and federal judicial selection. His public work has been covered by or appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Fox News, The Hill, Politico, the Washington Examiner, National Law Journal, Law360, The Washington Reporter, and elsewhere, while his scholarship is published in the law journals of nearly twenty universities including three journals of Harvard University. He holds active law licenses in Virginia, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and half of the U.S. Courts of Appeals.
In 2025, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin appointed Professor Luther to the Board of Visitors to Mount Vernon. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and serves on the Advisory Board of the Wilson Center for Leadership at Hampden-Sydney College. Since 2019, he has helped over 200 of his students secure clerkships with federal judges.
Ohio Supreme Court Rules Police Can Extend Traffic Stops to Verify Driver’s License
Tahmineh Dehbozorgi
The Ohio Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Dunlap arose from a routine traffic stop...
Panel 2: Judicial Selection & Courage
Columbus, OH