Associate Professor, George Mason University School of Policy, G, and International Affairs
Colin Dueck is an Associate Professor in George Mason University’s School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs. He studied politics at Princeton University, and international relations at Oxford under a Rhodes scholarship. He has published three books on American foreign and national security policies, The Obama Doctrine: American Grand Strategy Today (Oxford 2015), Hard Line: The Republican Party and U.S. Foreign Policy since World War II (Princeton 2010), andReluctant Crusaders: Power, Culture, and Change in American Grand Strategy (Princeton 2006.) He has provided congressional testimony and published articles on these same subjects in journals such as International Security, Orbis, Security Studies, Review of International Studies, Political Science Quarterly, and World Policy Journal, as well as online at RealClearPolitics, National Review, Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, and the New York Times. His current research focus is on the relationship between party politics, presidential leadership, American conservatism, and U.S. foreign policy strategies. He is the faculty adviser for the Alexander Hamilton Society at George Mason University, and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Research Fellow in Defense and Homeland Security Studies, Cato Institute
Benjamin H. Friedman is a research fellow in defense and homeland security studies. He writes about U.S. defense politics, focusing on strategy, budgeting, and war. He has co-edited two books and has published in International Security, Political Science Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the LA Times, the Atlantic, the Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, the Hill, Politico, the Christian Science Monitor, and various other journals. Ben is a graduate of Dartmouth College, a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Adjunct Lecturer at George Washington’s Elliott School of International Affairs.
Founder, Latitude, LLC
Brian Hook is the founder of Latitude, LLC, an international strategic consulting firm based in Washington, DC.
Mr. Hook worked on the Romney campaign as senior advisor on foreign policy. He chaired the foreign policy and national security task forces of the Romney Readiness Project. From 2010-2011, he was the foreign policy director of Governor Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign.
Mr. Hook served in a number of positions during the Bush Administration, including Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations; Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Special Assistant to the President for Policy, Office of the Chief of Staff; and Counsel, Office of Legal Policy, at the Justice Department.
From 1999-2003, he practiced corporate law at Hogan & Hartson in Washington, D.C.
Before practicing law, he served as a policy advisor to Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and to U.S. Congressman James Leach.
David Abshire Chair, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress
Mike Rogers is a former member of Congress representing Michigan's Eighth Congressional District, and previously served as an officer in the U.S. Army and FBI special agent.
While in Congress Mr. Rogers chaired the powerful House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) where he authorized and oversaw a budget of $70 billion that funded the nation's 17 intelligence agencies.
He currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Board at the MITRE Corporation, and as a Director at leading companies including CyberSponse, IAP, and 4IQ. He is currently investing in and helping build companies that are developing solutions for healthcare, energy efficiency and communications challenges.
Mr. Rogers is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University and a member of the Board of Trustees and the David Abshire Chair at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, where he directs the Center’s national security programs. Mr. Rogers is a regular public speaker on global affairs, cybersecurity, and leadership.
He also serves as a regular national security commentator on CNN and hosted the channel’s documentary-style original series Declassified, which offered viewers insights into America’s spy stories. Mr. Rogers is a 1985 graduate of Adrian College. He is married to Kristi Rogers and has two children.
Partner, Supreme Court Attorney, Cabinet Briard LLP
François-Henri Briard is a Knight of the Legion of Honor, an Officer of the National Order of Merit and a Knight of the Palmes Académiques.
He was a member of the Governing Board of the Bar of the French Supreme Courts (2003-2005).
François-Henri Briard was a trustee of Sarah Lawrence College in New York for eight years. He is President of the Institut Vergennes, a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society and an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati and of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is also an expert with the Federalist Society, a U.S. think tank that focuses on constitutional and judicial issues.
He is a member of the Institute of Consulting Tax Attorneys (IACF) and an associate member of the Academy of Moral Sciences, Letters and Arts of Versailles and Ile de France.
He is a member of the French Navy civilian reserve with the rank of frigate captain and has been awarded a medal by the voluntary military services. On behalf of the Firm, he received the Military Reserve Prize (2011).
Associate Professor, George Mason University School of Policy, G, and International Affairs
Colin Dueck is an Associate Professor in George Mason University’s School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs. He studied politics at Princeton University, and international relations at Oxford under a Rhodes scholarship. He has published three books on American foreign and national security policies, The Obama Doctrine: American Grand Strategy Today (Oxford 2015), Hard Line: The Republican Party and U.S. Foreign Policy since World War II (Princeton 2010), andReluctant Crusaders: Power, Culture, and Change in American Grand Strategy (Princeton 2006.) He has provided congressional testimony and published articles on these same subjects in journals such as International Security, Orbis, Security Studies, Review of International Studies, Political Science Quarterly, and World Policy Journal, as well as online at RealClearPolitics, National Review, Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, and the New York Times. His current research focus is on the relationship between party politics, presidential leadership, American conservatism, and U.S. foreign policy strategies. He is the faculty adviser for the Alexander Hamilton Society at George Mason University, and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Research Fellow in Defense and Homeland Security Studies, Cato Institute
Benjamin H. Friedman is a research fellow in defense and homeland security studies. He writes about U.S. defense politics, focusing on strategy, budgeting, and war. He has co-edited two books and has published in International Security, Political Science Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the LA Times, the Atlantic, the Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, the Hill, Politico, the Christian Science Monitor, and various other journals. Ben is a graduate of Dartmouth College, a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Adjunct Lecturer at George Washington’s Elliott School of International Affairs.
Founder, Latitude, LLC
Brian Hook is the founder of Latitude, LLC, an international strategic consulting firm based in Washington, DC.
Mr. Hook worked on the Romney campaign as senior advisor on foreign policy. He chaired the foreign policy and national security task forces of the Romney Readiness Project. From 2010-2011, he was the foreign policy director of Governor Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign.
Mr. Hook served in a number of positions during the Bush Administration, including Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations; Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Special Assistant to the President for Policy, Office of the Chief of Staff; and Counsel, Office of Legal Policy, at the Justice Department.
From 1999-2003, he practiced corporate law at Hogan & Hartson in Washington, D.C.
Before practicing law, he served as a policy advisor to Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and to U.S. Congressman James Leach.
David Abshire Chair, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress
Mike Rogers is a former member of Congress representing Michigan's Eighth Congressional District, and previously served as an officer in the U.S. Army and FBI special agent.
While in Congress Mr. Rogers chaired the powerful House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) where he authorized and oversaw a budget of $70 billion that funded the nation's 17 intelligence agencies.
He currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Board at the MITRE Corporation, and as a Director at leading companies including CyberSponse, IAP, and 4IQ. He is currently investing in and helping build companies that are developing solutions for healthcare, energy efficiency and communications challenges.
Mr. Rogers is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University and a member of the Board of Trustees and the David Abshire Chair at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, where he directs the Center’s national security programs. Mr. Rogers is a regular public speaker on global affairs, cybersecurity, and leadership.
He also serves as a regular national security commentator on CNN and hosted the channel’s documentary-style original series Declassified, which offered viewers insights into America’s spy stories. Mr. Rogers is a 1985 graduate of Adrian College. He is married to Kristi Rogers and has two children.
Partner, Supreme Court Attorney, Cabinet Briard LLP
François-Henri Briard is a Knight of the Legion of Honor, an Officer of the National Order of Merit and a Knight of the Palmes Académiques.
He was a member of the Governing Board of the Bar of the French Supreme Courts (2003-2005).
François-Henri Briard was a trustee of Sarah Lawrence College in New York for eight years. He is President of the Institut Vergennes, a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society and an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati and of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is also an expert with the Federalist Society, a U.S. think tank that focuses on constitutional and judicial issues.
He is a member of the Institute of Consulting Tax Attorneys (IACF) and an associate member of the Academy of Moral Sciences, Letters and Arts of Versailles and Ile de France.
He is a member of the French Navy civilian reserve with the rank of frigate captain and has been awarded a medal by the voluntary military services. On behalf of the Firm, he received the Military Reserve Prize (2011).
Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law (Retired)
Gail Heriot is a recently retired law professor from the University of San Diego. She also served as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2007 to 2025. She is also the chairman of the board of the American Civil Rights Project and the chair emerita of the Civil Rights practice group at the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy.
Professor Heriot is a prolific writer in the area of civil rights. She is the author of many law review articles. She is also the editor (along with Maimon Schwarzschild) of the 2021 anthology, A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education. Her upcoming book is entitled, Why We Walk on Eggshell: How Our Civil Rights Laws Helped Bring About the Woke Era—And the Trump Era, Too.
Her writings for a general audience have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the National Review and many other newspapers and magazines.
In 1996, she co-chaired the successful “Yes on Proposition 209” campaign, which amended the California Constitution to prohibit state-sponsored discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. In 2020, she co-chaired the “No on Proposition 16” campaign, which successfully prevented Proposition 209’s repeal.
Partner, Loevy & Loevy
Arthur Loevy graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1963, and has been a member of the Illinois bar continuously for more than forty years. He began his legal career practicing labor law until 1970 when he became an elected officer of a trade union, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (“ACTWU”). Arthur proceeded to serve in various elected capacities for trade unions, including International Executive Vice President of ACTWU, International Secretary-Treasurer of ACTWU, and, most recently International Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of Needle-Trades Industrial and Textile Employees (U.N.I.T.E.).
Arthur Loevy has also served as a Director and Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Amalgamated Bank of New York (1990-98), the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Trustee of various Taft-Hartley insurance and trust funds for almost twenty years, the President of the Amalgamated Housing Foundation (1974-98), and the President of the Sidney Hillman Health Center in Chicago (1980-98).
Since January 1, 1997, Arthur Loevy has resumed the practice of law on a full-time basis. In 1998, he joined the law firm started by his son, Jon Loevy, and has practiced here ever since.
Adjunct Scholar and Former Director, Project On Criminal Justice, Cato Institute
Tim Lynch is an attorney specializing in criminal law, constitutional law, and civil liberties. He is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and the former director of Cato’s Project on Criminal Justice. His research interests include all aspects of constitutional criminal procedure, overcriminalization, the drug war, and police and prosecutorial misconduct. In 2000, he served on the National Committee to Prevent Wrongful Executions. Lynch also prepares amicus briefs before appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court in cases involving constitutional rights. He is the editor of In the Name of Justice: Leading Experts Reexamine the Classic Article “The Aims of the Criminal Law” and After Prohibition: An Adult Approach to Drug Policies in the 21st Century.
Lynch has published a variety of articles in both the law journals and in opinion pieces for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and other newspapers. He has appeared on The PBS NewsHour, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, and C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. Lynch is a member of the Virginia, District of Columbia, and Supreme Court bars. He earned both a BS and a JD from Marquette University.
Mr. Lynch can be reached via his personal website.
Research Fellow in Empirical Policy Analysis, Center for Data A, The Heritage Foundation
David B. Muhlhausen is a leading expert on the need for evaluating the effectiveness of federal social programs in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis. A Research Fellow in Empirical Policy Analysis at the think tank, Muhlhausen has testified frequently before Congress on the efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs, including testimonies before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget and the House Committee on Ways and Means.
In 2013, Praeger published his book, Do Federal Social Programs Work? The book presents an extensive review of scientifically rigorous national studies that almost unanimously find that the federal government fails to solve social problems.
Muhlhausen rose to national prominence in 2001 with publication of his analysis showing the highly touted Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program to be a waste of taxpayer dollars. His research illustrated that COPS neither had put 100,000 new police officers on the street nor reduced violent crime.
His work prompted Vice President Joseph Biden, at the time a U.S. senator from Delaware and chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, to call a hearing specifically to investigate Muhlhausen’s findings. “I want to have a hearing on what has been, from The Heritage Foundation and other places, criticism that the COPS program does not work,” Biden said in opening the hearing.
Muhlhausen joined Heritage in 1999 after serving on the staff for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he specialized in crime and juvenile justice policies. Prior to that, he was a manager at a juvenile correctional facility in Baltimore.
He holds a doctorate in public policy from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and a bachelor’s degree in political science and justice studies from Frostburg State University.
In addition to his work at Heritage, Muhlhausen is an adjunct professor at George Mason University, teaching program evaluation and statistical methods to graduate students.
A native of Colorado, Muhlhausen grew up in Maryland. He currently resides in Falls Church, Va.
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.
Former Philadelphia Police Officer
Michael P. Tremoglie is a former Philadelphia police officer, corporate executive, and now a journalist and writer. He was an editor and an investigative journalist for the Philadelphia Bulletin. He has also written for the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Insight magazine, and the Washington Times.
He has appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows such as Bill Bennett’s Morning in America and the Larry Elder show. His work has been featured on Rush Limbaugh and other radio programs.
Many of his articles were reprinted in law reviews and referenced in congressional testimony. He is the author of a critically acclaimed novel, A Sense of Duty, derived from his experiences on the police force.
Active in the community, he started, in 2008, a wrestling club to help Philadelphia’s minority and inner city youth be competitive with suburban athletes. He also helped coach a high school wrestling team.
That same year he joined the Philadelphia chapter of the Federalist Society. Two years later his cousin, a judge in Sicily, also joined. Together, in 2011, they co-founded the Italian affiliate of the Federalist Society, Academia Res Publica.
They have done much comparative study of the two criminal justice systems.
Mike holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and a Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
Founder and President, Center for Neighborhood Enterprise
Robert (Bob) Woodson is Founder and President of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and one of America’s most influential leaders on issues of poverty and upward mobility. He chose the word “enterprise” in naming the organization because he believes strongly that market-based principles should also operate in the social economy.
Woodson was instrumental in paving the way for resident management and ownership of public housing, brought together task forces of grassroots groups to advise the 104th Congress, the Pennsylvania Legislature, and the Wisconsin Assembly on welfare reform, and helped create Violence-Free Zones that operate in many of the nation’s most troubled schools and communities.
More recently, he has taken Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan on a “listening and learning” tour of some of America’s most impoverished neighborhoods in an effort to move beyond the traditional conservative and liberal understanding of how to address the needs of the poor.
Woodson is frequently featured as a social commentator in print and on-air media, including The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The O’Reilly Factor, the Garrison Show and other national and local broadcasts. He is the only person ever to receive both the liberal and conservative world’s most prestigious awards – the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Prize, as well as the Presidential Citizens Medal.
He has written several books, including The Triumphs of Joseph: How Today’s Community Healers are Reviving Our Streets and Neighborhood.
Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law (Retired)
Gail Heriot is a recently retired law professor from the University of San Diego. She also served as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2007 to 2025. She is also the chairman of the board of the American Civil Rights Project and the chair emerita of the Civil Rights practice group at the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy.
Professor Heriot is a prolific writer in the area of civil rights. She is the author of many law review articles. She is also the editor (along with Maimon Schwarzschild) of the 2021 anthology, A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education. Her upcoming book is entitled, Why We Walk on Eggshell: How Our Civil Rights Laws Helped Bring About the Woke Era—And the Trump Era, Too.
Her writings for a general audience have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the National Review and many other newspapers and magazines.
In 1996, she co-chaired the successful “Yes on Proposition 209” campaign, which amended the California Constitution to prohibit state-sponsored discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. In 2020, she co-chaired the “No on Proposition 16” campaign, which successfully prevented Proposition 209’s repeal.
Partner, Loevy & Loevy
Arthur Loevy graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1963, and has been a member of the Illinois bar continuously for more than forty years. He began his legal career practicing labor law until 1970 when he became an elected officer of a trade union, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (“ACTWU”). Arthur proceeded to serve in various elected capacities for trade unions, including International Executive Vice President of ACTWU, International Secretary-Treasurer of ACTWU, and, most recently International Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of Needle-Trades Industrial and Textile Employees (U.N.I.T.E.).
Arthur Loevy has also served as a Director and Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Amalgamated Bank of New York (1990-98), the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Trustee of various Taft-Hartley insurance and trust funds for almost twenty years, the President of the Amalgamated Housing Foundation (1974-98), and the President of the Sidney Hillman Health Center in Chicago (1980-98).
Since January 1, 1997, Arthur Loevy has resumed the practice of law on a full-time basis. In 1998, he joined the law firm started by his son, Jon Loevy, and has practiced here ever since.
Adjunct Scholar and Former Director, Project On Criminal Justice, Cato Institute
Tim Lynch is an attorney specializing in criminal law, constitutional law, and civil liberties. He is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and the former director of Cato’s Project on Criminal Justice. His research interests include all aspects of constitutional criminal procedure, overcriminalization, the drug war, and police and prosecutorial misconduct. In 2000, he served on the National Committee to Prevent Wrongful Executions. Lynch also prepares amicus briefs before appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court in cases involving constitutional rights. He is the editor of In the Name of Justice: Leading Experts Reexamine the Classic Article “The Aims of the Criminal Law” and After Prohibition: An Adult Approach to Drug Policies in the 21st Century.
Lynch has published a variety of articles in both the law journals and in opinion pieces for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and other newspapers. He has appeared on The PBS NewsHour, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, and C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. Lynch is a member of the Virginia, District of Columbia, and Supreme Court bars. He earned both a BS and a JD from Marquette University.
Mr. Lynch can be reached via his personal website.
Research Fellow in Empirical Policy Analysis, Center for Data A, The Heritage Foundation
David B. Muhlhausen is a leading expert on the need for evaluating the effectiveness of federal social programs in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis. A Research Fellow in Empirical Policy Analysis at the think tank, Muhlhausen has testified frequently before Congress on the efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs, including testimonies before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget and the House Committee on Ways and Means.
In 2013, Praeger published his book, Do Federal Social Programs Work? The book presents an extensive review of scientifically rigorous national studies that almost unanimously find that the federal government fails to solve social problems.
Muhlhausen rose to national prominence in 2001 with publication of his analysis showing the highly touted Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program to be a waste of taxpayer dollars. His research illustrated that COPS neither had put 100,000 new police officers on the street nor reduced violent crime.
His work prompted Vice President Joseph Biden, at the time a U.S. senator from Delaware and chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, to call a hearing specifically to investigate Muhlhausen’s findings. “I want to have a hearing on what has been, from The Heritage Foundation and other places, criticism that the COPS program does not work,” Biden said in opening the hearing.
Muhlhausen joined Heritage in 1999 after serving on the staff for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he specialized in crime and juvenile justice policies. Prior to that, he was a manager at a juvenile correctional facility in Baltimore.
He holds a doctorate in public policy from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and a bachelor’s degree in political science and justice studies from Frostburg State University.
In addition to his work at Heritage, Muhlhausen is an adjunct professor at George Mason University, teaching program evaluation and statistical methods to graduate students.
A native of Colorado, Muhlhausen grew up in Maryland. He currently resides in Falls Church, Va.
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.
Former Philadelphia Police Officer
Michael P. Tremoglie is a former Philadelphia police officer, corporate executive, and now a journalist and writer. He was an editor and an investigative journalist for the Philadelphia Bulletin. He has also written for the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Insight magazine, and the Washington Times.
He has appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows such as Bill Bennett’s Morning in America and the Larry Elder show. His work has been featured on Rush Limbaugh and other radio programs.
Many of his articles were reprinted in law reviews and referenced in congressional testimony. He is the author of a critically acclaimed novel, A Sense of Duty, derived from his experiences on the police force.
Active in the community, he started, in 2008, a wrestling club to help Philadelphia’s minority and inner city youth be competitive with suburban athletes. He also helped coach a high school wrestling team.
That same year he joined the Philadelphia chapter of the Federalist Society. Two years later his cousin, a judge in Sicily, also joined. Together, in 2011, they co-founded the Italian affiliate of the Federalist Society, Academia Res Publica.
They have done much comparative study of the two criminal justice systems.
Mike holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and a Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
Founder and President, Center for Neighborhood Enterprise
Robert (Bob) Woodson is Founder and President of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and one of America’s most influential leaders on issues of poverty and upward mobility. He chose the word “enterprise” in naming the organization because he believes strongly that market-based principles should also operate in the social economy.
Woodson was instrumental in paving the way for resident management and ownership of public housing, brought together task forces of grassroots groups to advise the 104th Congress, the Pennsylvania Legislature, and the Wisconsin Assembly on welfare reform, and helped create Violence-Free Zones that operate in many of the nation’s most troubled schools and communities.
More recently, he has taken Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan on a “listening and learning” tour of some of America’s most impoverished neighborhoods in an effort to move beyond the traditional conservative and liberal understanding of how to address the needs of the poor.
Woodson is frequently featured as a social commentator in print and on-air media, including The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The O’Reilly Factor, the Garrison Show and other national and local broadcasts. He is the only person ever to receive both the liberal and conservative world’s most prestigious awards – the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Prize, as well as the Presidential Citizens Medal.
He has written several books, including The Triumphs of Joseph: How Today’s Community Healers are Reviving Our Streets and Neighborhood.
Deputy Secretary of Transportation, US Department of Transportation
Steven G. Bradbury was sworn in as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation on March 13, 2025, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on March 11, 2025. In this role, he oversees the Department’s operating administrations and spearheads initiatives to ensure a safe, efficient, and modern transportation system that strengthens economic productivity and global competitiveness. Deputy Secretary Bradbury also assists Secretary Duffy in managing the Department’s activities, including its workforce of over 58,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $109 billion.
Bradbury previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of Transportation from 2017 to 2021, as the Acting Deputy Secretary from 2019, and as Acting Secretary of Transportation in 2021. As General Counsel, he was the chief legal officer, advising on all legal matters and ensuring the integrity and compliance of the Department’s policies and programs.
Before rejoining DOT, Bradbury was a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation from December 2022 to March 2025. He has extensive experience in the public and private sector, having served as Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Dechert LLP. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge James L. Buckley.
Bradbury holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in English from Stanford University.
Executive Vice President of Global Governance, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Walmart Inc.
Rachel Brand is Walmart’s executive vice president of global governance, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary. She oversees the company’s global legal, compliance, ethics, corporate governance, digital citizenship, aviation, investigative, and corporate security functions, including Walmart’s Emergency Operations Center.
Immediately before joining Walmart, Rachel served as the United States Associate Attorney General and holds the distinction of being the first woman to serve in this role. She had previously served in the U.S. Department of Justice as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy during President George W. Bush’s administration. Her other government service includes an appointment by President Obama to serve as a Member of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, service as an Associate Counsel to the President at the White House, and judicial clerkships with Justice Charles Fried of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and Justice Anthony Kennedy at the Supreme Court of the United States. In the private sector, Rachel was a lawyer in private practice at two law firms in Washington, D.C. and served as the Vice President and Chief Counsel for Regulatory Litigation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center.
Rachel serves on the board of directors for the Walmart Foundation and is the executive sponsor for Walmart’s Tribal Voices Associate Resource Group. Outside of Walmart, she serves on the board of directors for the International Justice Mission and is a member of The American Law Institute.
Rachel earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota-Morris and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Dean and Levin Mabie & Levin Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law
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.
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Julian Sanchez is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and studies issues at the busy intersection of technology, privacy, and civil liberties, with a particular focus on national security and intelligence surveillance. Before joining Cato, Sanchez served as the Washington editor for the technology news site Ars Technica, where he covered surveillance, intellectual property, and telecom policy. He has also worked as a writer for The Economist’s blog Democracy in America and as an editor for Reason magazine, where he remains a contributing editor.
Sanchez has written on privacy and technology for a wide array of national publications, ranging from the National Review to The Nation, and is a founding editor of the policy blog Just Security. He studied philosophy and political science at New York University.
Professor of Law and Assistant Director, Criminal Justice Center, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Professor Stinneford teaches and writes about legal ethics, criminal law, criminal procedure, and constitutional law. His work has been cited by the United States Supreme Court, several state supreme courts and federal courts of appeal, and numerous scholars. It has published in numerous scholarly journals including the Georgetown Law Journal, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the William & Mary Law Review. The Stanford-Yale Junior faculty forum selected one of his articles as the best paper in the category of Constitutional History, and the AALS Criminal Justice Section named another article as the best paper in its Junior Scholars Paper Competition. In the fall of 2015, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Georgetown Law Center, Center for the Constitution.
Before joining the Florida faculty in 2009, Stinneford clerked for the Hon. James Moran of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, served as an Assistant United States Attorney, and practiced law with Winston & Strawn in Chicago. Stinneford teaches first-year courses in Criminal Law and Constitutional Law, and upper-level courses in Professional Responsibility, Criminal Procedure, Federal Criminal Law, Law & Literature, and White Collar Crime.
Executive Vice President and General Counsel, National Football League
Ted Ullyot serves as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for the National Football League and is the founder of Highway 50 Ventures, LLC, an investment and advisory firm. A lawyer by background, Ullyot was General Counsel of Facebook from 2008 to 2013. He served in the administration of President George W. Bush, including in the White House as an Associate Counsel and as Deputy Staff Secretary, and in the Justice Department as Chief of Staff to Attorney General Gonzales.
Ullyot began his career as a law clerk, first for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He was a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
At other points in his career, Ullyot served as General Counsel of ESL Investments, Inc.; as General Counsel of AOL Time Warner Europe; as a board member at AutoZone Inc.; and as a partner in the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
He is a member of the board of visitors of the Federalist Society; a member of the University of Chicago Law School Council; and a board member of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society.
Ullyot graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, after doing his undergraduate work at Harvard. He and his family live in Northern California.
Devon Westhill is the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Westhill on October 7, 2025.
Westhill returns to the USDA where he previously headed the civil rights office as Deputy Assistant Secretary in President Trump’s first term. His previous government appointments also include service at the U.S. Department of Labor, liaison to the Administrative Conference of the U.S., and liaison to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Prior to returning to government service, Westhill was President and General Counsel of a nonprofit civil rights organization.
Westhill has testified on civil rights matters before Congress, federal agencies, and as an expert witness in federal court. He has spoken hundreds of times at college campuses, conferences, and on radio and TV programs, and he is frequently quoted in print publications, and his writing has appeared in numerous national outlets. A U.S. Navy veteran, Westhill earned his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his JD from the University of Florida.
Deputy Secretary of Transportation, US Department of Transportation
Steven G. Bradbury was sworn in as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation on March 13, 2025, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on March 11, 2025. In this role, he oversees the Department’s operating administrations and spearheads initiatives to ensure a safe, efficient, and modern transportation system that strengthens economic productivity and global competitiveness. Deputy Secretary Bradbury also assists Secretary Duffy in managing the Department’s activities, including its workforce of over 58,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $109 billion.
Bradbury previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of Transportation from 2017 to 2021, as the Acting Deputy Secretary from 2019, and as Acting Secretary of Transportation in 2021. As General Counsel, he was the chief legal officer, advising on all legal matters and ensuring the integrity and compliance of the Department’s policies and programs.
Before rejoining DOT, Bradbury was a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation from December 2022 to March 2025. He has extensive experience in the public and private sector, having served as Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Dechert LLP. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge James L. Buckley.
Bradbury holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in English from Stanford University.
Executive Vice President of Global Governance, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Walmart Inc.
Rachel Brand is Walmart’s executive vice president of global governance, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary. She oversees the company’s global legal, compliance, ethics, corporate governance, digital citizenship, aviation, investigative, and corporate security functions, including Walmart’s Emergency Operations Center.
Immediately before joining Walmart, Rachel served as the United States Associate Attorney General and holds the distinction of being the first woman to serve in this role. She had previously served in the U.S. Department of Justice as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy during President George W. Bush’s administration. Her other government service includes an appointment by President Obama to serve as a Member of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, service as an Associate Counsel to the President at the White House, and judicial clerkships with Justice Charles Fried of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and Justice Anthony Kennedy at the Supreme Court of the United States. In the private sector, Rachel was a lawyer in private practice at two law firms in Washington, D.C. and served as the Vice President and Chief Counsel for Regulatory Litigation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center.
Rachel serves on the board of directors for the Walmart Foundation and is the executive sponsor for Walmart’s Tribal Voices Associate Resource Group. Outside of Walmart, she serves on the board of directors for the International Justice Mission and is a member of The American Law Institute.
Rachel earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota-Morris and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Dean and Levin Mabie & Levin Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law
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.
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Julian Sanchez is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and studies issues at the busy intersection of technology, privacy, and civil liberties, with a particular focus on national security and intelligence surveillance. Before joining Cato, Sanchez served as the Washington editor for the technology news site Ars Technica, where he covered surveillance, intellectual property, and telecom policy. He has also worked as a writer for The Economist’s blog Democracy in America and as an editor for Reason magazine, where he remains a contributing editor.
Sanchez has written on privacy and technology for a wide array of national publications, ranging from the National Review to The Nation, and is a founding editor of the policy blog Just Security. He studied philosophy and political science at New York University.
Professor of Law and Assistant Director, Criminal Justice Center, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Professor Stinneford teaches and writes about legal ethics, criminal law, criminal procedure, and constitutional law. His work has been cited by the United States Supreme Court, several state supreme courts and federal courts of appeal, and numerous scholars. It has published in numerous scholarly journals including the Georgetown Law Journal, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the William & Mary Law Review. The Stanford-Yale Junior faculty forum selected one of his articles as the best paper in the category of Constitutional History, and the AALS Criminal Justice Section named another article as the best paper in its Junior Scholars Paper Competition. In the fall of 2015, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Georgetown Law Center, Center for the Constitution.
Before joining the Florida faculty in 2009, Stinneford clerked for the Hon. James Moran of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, served as an Assistant United States Attorney, and practiced law with Winston & Strawn in Chicago. Stinneford teaches first-year courses in Criminal Law and Constitutional Law, and upper-level courses in Professional Responsibility, Criminal Procedure, Federal Criminal Law, Law & Literature, and White Collar Crime.
Executive Vice President and General Counsel, National Football League
Ted Ullyot serves as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for the National Football League and is the founder of Highway 50 Ventures, LLC, an investment and advisory firm. A lawyer by background, Ullyot was General Counsel of Facebook from 2008 to 2013. He served in the administration of President George W. Bush, including in the White House as an Associate Counsel and as Deputy Staff Secretary, and in the Justice Department as Chief of Staff to Attorney General Gonzales.
Ullyot began his career as a law clerk, first for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He was a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
At other points in his career, Ullyot served as General Counsel of ESL Investments, Inc.; as General Counsel of AOL Time Warner Europe; as a board member at AutoZone Inc.; and as a partner in the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
He is a member of the board of visitors of the Federalist Society; a member of the University of Chicago Law School Council; and a board member of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society.
Ullyot graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, after doing his undergraduate work at Harvard. He and his family live in Northern California.
Devon Westhill is the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Westhill on October 7, 2025.
Westhill returns to the USDA where he previously headed the civil rights office as Deputy Assistant Secretary in President Trump’s first term. His previous government appointments also include service at the U.S. Department of Labor, liaison to the Administrative Conference of the U.S., and liaison to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Prior to returning to government service, Westhill was President and General Counsel of a nonprofit civil rights organization.
Westhill has testified on civil rights matters before Congress, federal agencies, and as an expert witness in federal court. He has spoken hundreds of times at college campuses, conferences, and on radio and TV programs, and he is frequently quoted in print publications, and his writing has appeared in numerous national outlets. A U.S. Navy veteran, Westhill earned his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his JD from the University of Florida.
Partner, Supreme Court Attorney, Cabinet Briard LLP
François-Henri Briard is a Knight of the Legion of Honor, an Officer of the National Order of Merit and a Knight of the Palmes Académiques.
He was a member of the Governing Board of the Bar of the French Supreme Courts (2003-2005).
François-Henri Briard was a trustee of Sarah Lawrence College in New York for eight years. He is President of the Institut Vergennes, a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society and an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati and of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is also an expert with the Federalist Society, a U.S. think tank that focuses on constitutional and judicial issues.
He is a member of the Institute of Consulting Tax Attorneys (IACF) and an associate member of the Academy of Moral Sciences, Letters and Arts of Versailles and Ile de France.
He is a member of the French Navy civilian reserve with the rank of frigate captain and has been awarded a medal by the voluntary military services. On behalf of the Firm, he received the Military Reserve Prize (2011).
Associate Professor, George Mason University School of Policy, G, and International Affairs
Colin Dueck is an Associate Professor in George Mason University’s School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs. He studied politics at Princeton University, and international relations at Oxford under a Rhodes scholarship. He has published three books on American foreign and national security policies, The Obama Doctrine: American Grand Strategy Today (Oxford 2015), Hard Line: The Republican Party and U.S. Foreign Policy since World War II (Princeton 2010), andReluctant Crusaders: Power, Culture, and Change in American Grand Strategy (Princeton 2006.) He has provided congressional testimony and published articles on these same subjects in journals such as International Security, Orbis, Security Studies, Review of International Studies, Political Science Quarterly, and World Policy Journal, as well as online at RealClearPolitics, National Review, Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, and the New York Times. His current research focus is on the relationship between party politics, presidential leadership, American conservatism, and U.S. foreign policy strategies. He is the faculty adviser for the Alexander Hamilton Society at George Mason University, and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Research Fellow in Defense and Homeland Security Studies, Cato Institute
Benjamin H. Friedman is a research fellow in defense and homeland security studies. He writes about U.S. defense politics, focusing on strategy, budgeting, and war. He has co-edited two books and has published in International Security, Political Science Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the LA Times, the Atlantic, the Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, the Hill, Politico, the Christian Science Monitor, and various other journals. Ben is a graduate of Dartmouth College, a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Adjunct Lecturer at George Washington’s Elliott School of International Affairs.
Founder, Latitude, LLC
Brian Hook is the founder of Latitude, LLC, an international strategic consulting firm based in Washington, DC.
Mr. Hook worked on the Romney campaign as senior advisor on foreign policy. He chaired the foreign policy and national security task forces of the Romney Readiness Project. From 2010-2011, he was the foreign policy director of Governor Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign.
Mr. Hook served in a number of positions during the Bush Administration, including Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations; Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Special Assistant to the President for Policy, Office of the Chief of Staff; and Counsel, Office of Legal Policy, at the Justice Department.
From 1999-2003, he practiced corporate law at Hogan & Hartson in Washington, D.C.
Before practicing law, he served as a policy advisor to Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and to U.S. Congressman James Leach.
David Abshire Chair, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress
Mike Rogers is a former member of Congress representing Michigan's Eighth Congressional District, and previously served as an officer in the U.S. Army and FBI special agent.
While in Congress Mr. Rogers chaired the powerful House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) where he authorized and oversaw a budget of $70 billion that funded the nation's 17 intelligence agencies.
He currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Board at the MITRE Corporation, and as a Director at leading companies including CyberSponse, IAP, and 4IQ. He is currently investing in and helping build companies that are developing solutions for healthcare, energy efficiency and communications challenges.
Mr. Rogers is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University and a member of the Board of Trustees and the David Abshire Chair at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, where he directs the Center’s national security programs. Mr. Rogers is a regular public speaker on global affairs, cybersecurity, and leadership.
He also serves as a regular national security commentator on CNN and hosted the channel’s documentary-style original series Declassified, which offered viewers insights into America’s spy stories. Mr. Rogers is a 1985 graduate of Adrian College. He is married to Kristi Rogers and has two children.
Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law (Retired)
Gail Heriot is a recently retired law professor from the University of San Diego. She also served as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2007 to 2025. She is also the chairman of the board of the American Civil Rights Project and the chair emerita of the Civil Rights practice group at the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy.
Professor Heriot is a prolific writer in the area of civil rights. She is the author of many law review articles. She is also the editor (along with Maimon Schwarzschild) of the 2021 anthology, A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education. Her upcoming book is entitled, Why We Walk on Eggshell: How Our Civil Rights Laws Helped Bring About the Woke Era—And the Trump Era, Too.
Her writings for a general audience have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the National Review and many other newspapers and magazines.
In 1996, she co-chaired the successful “Yes on Proposition 209” campaign, which amended the California Constitution to prohibit state-sponsored discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. In 2020, she co-chaired the “No on Proposition 16” campaign, which successfully prevented Proposition 209’s repeal.
Partner, Loevy & Loevy
Arthur Loevy graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1963, and has been a member of the Illinois bar continuously for more than forty years. He began his legal career practicing labor law until 1970 when he became an elected officer of a trade union, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (“ACTWU”). Arthur proceeded to serve in various elected capacities for trade unions, including International Executive Vice President of ACTWU, International Secretary-Treasurer of ACTWU, and, most recently International Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of Needle-Trades Industrial and Textile Employees (U.N.I.T.E.).
Arthur Loevy has also served as a Director and Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Amalgamated Bank of New York (1990-98), the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Trustee of various Taft-Hartley insurance and trust funds for almost twenty years, the President of the Amalgamated Housing Foundation (1974-98), and the President of the Sidney Hillman Health Center in Chicago (1980-98).
Since January 1, 1997, Arthur Loevy has resumed the practice of law on a full-time basis. In 1998, he joined the law firm started by his son, Jon Loevy, and has practiced here ever since.
Adjunct Scholar and Former Director, Project On Criminal Justice, Cato Institute
Tim Lynch is an attorney specializing in criminal law, constitutional law, and civil liberties. He is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and the former director of Cato’s Project on Criminal Justice. His research interests include all aspects of constitutional criminal procedure, overcriminalization, the drug war, and police and prosecutorial misconduct. In 2000, he served on the National Committee to Prevent Wrongful Executions. Lynch also prepares amicus briefs before appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court in cases involving constitutional rights. He is the editor of In the Name of Justice: Leading Experts Reexamine the Classic Article “The Aims of the Criminal Law” and After Prohibition: An Adult Approach to Drug Policies in the 21st Century.
Lynch has published a variety of articles in both the law journals and in opinion pieces for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and other newspapers. He has appeared on The PBS NewsHour, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, and C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. Lynch is a member of the Virginia, District of Columbia, and Supreme Court bars. He earned both a BS and a JD from Marquette University.
Mr. Lynch can be reached via his personal website.
Research Fellow in Empirical Policy Analysis, Center for Data A, The Heritage Foundation
David B. Muhlhausen is a leading expert on the need for evaluating the effectiveness of federal social programs in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis. A Research Fellow in Empirical Policy Analysis at the think tank, Muhlhausen has testified frequently before Congress on the efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs, including testimonies before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget and the House Committee on Ways and Means.
In 2013, Praeger published his book, Do Federal Social Programs Work? The book presents an extensive review of scientifically rigorous national studies that almost unanimously find that the federal government fails to solve social problems.
Muhlhausen rose to national prominence in 2001 with publication of his analysis showing the highly touted Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program to be a waste of taxpayer dollars. His research illustrated that COPS neither had put 100,000 new police officers on the street nor reduced violent crime.
His work prompted Vice President Joseph Biden, at the time a U.S. senator from Delaware and chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, to call a hearing specifically to investigate Muhlhausen’s findings. “I want to have a hearing on what has been, from The Heritage Foundation and other places, criticism that the COPS program does not work,” Biden said in opening the hearing.
Muhlhausen joined Heritage in 1999 after serving on the staff for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he specialized in crime and juvenile justice policies. Prior to that, he was a manager at a juvenile correctional facility in Baltimore.
He holds a doctorate in public policy from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and a bachelor’s degree in political science and justice studies from Frostburg State University.
In addition to his work at Heritage, Muhlhausen is an adjunct professor at George Mason University, teaching program evaluation and statistical methods to graduate students.
A native of Colorado, Muhlhausen grew up in Maryland. He currently resides in Falls Church, Va.
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.
Former Philadelphia Police Officer
Michael P. Tremoglie is a former Philadelphia police officer, corporate executive, and now a journalist and writer. He was an editor and an investigative journalist for the Philadelphia Bulletin. He has also written for the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Insight magazine, and the Washington Times.
He has appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows such as Bill Bennett’s Morning in America and the Larry Elder show. His work has been featured on Rush Limbaugh and other radio programs.
Many of his articles were reprinted in law reviews and referenced in congressional testimony. He is the author of a critically acclaimed novel, A Sense of Duty, derived from his experiences on the police force.
Active in the community, he started, in 2008, a wrestling club to help Philadelphia’s minority and inner city youth be competitive with suburban athletes. He also helped coach a high school wrestling team.
That same year he joined the Philadelphia chapter of the Federalist Society. Two years later his cousin, a judge in Sicily, also joined. Together, in 2011, they co-founded the Italian affiliate of the Federalist Society, Academia Res Publica.
They have done much comparative study of the two criminal justice systems.
Mike holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and a Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
Founder and President, Center for Neighborhood Enterprise
Robert (Bob) Woodson is Founder and President of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and one of America’s most influential leaders on issues of poverty and upward mobility. He chose the word “enterprise” in naming the organization because he believes strongly that market-based principles should also operate in the social economy.
Woodson was instrumental in paving the way for resident management and ownership of public housing, brought together task forces of grassroots groups to advise the 104th Congress, the Pennsylvania Legislature, and the Wisconsin Assembly on welfare reform, and helped create Violence-Free Zones that operate in many of the nation’s most troubled schools and communities.
More recently, he has taken Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan on a “listening and learning” tour of some of America’s most impoverished neighborhoods in an effort to move beyond the traditional conservative and liberal understanding of how to address the needs of the poor.
Woodson is frequently featured as a social commentator in print and on-air media, including The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The O’Reilly Factor, the Garrison Show and other national and local broadcasts. He is the only person ever to receive both the liberal and conservative world’s most prestigious awards – the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Prize, as well as the Presidential Citizens Medal.
He has written several books, including The Triumphs of Joseph: How Today’s Community Healers are Reviving Our Streets and Neighborhood.
Justice, Supreme Court of Arizona
Clint Bolick was appointed by Governor Doug Ducey in January 2016 to serve on the Arizona Supreme Court and was retained by the voters in 2018 and 2024.
Prior to joining the Court, Justice Bolick litigated constitutional cases in state and federal courts from coast to coast, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Among other positions, he served as Vice President for Litigation at the Goldwater Institute and as Co-founder and Vice President for Litigation at the Institute for Justice. He has litigated in support of school choice, freedom of enterprise, private property rights, freedom of speech, and federalism, and against racial classifications and government subsidies.
Justice Bolick received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of California at Davis, where he has been recognized as a distinguished alumnus, and his Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Drew University. He serves as a research fellow with the Hoover Institution. Among other honors, he was named one of the 90 Greatest DC Lawyers in the Last 30 Years by Legal Times in 2008, received a Bradley Prize in 2006, and was recognized as one of the nation’s three lawyers of the year by American Lawyer in 2002 for his successful defense of school vouchers in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris.
Justice Bolick is a prolific author of a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Among his most recent books are Unshackled: Freeing America’s K-12 Education System: Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, co-authored with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush; and David’s Hammer: The Case for an Activist Judiciary. Bolick serves as an adjunct professor of constitutional law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law and has served as a lecturer at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
International: When Should America Act to Maintain International Order?
Colin Dueck, Benjamin H. Friedman, Brian H. Hook, Mike J. Rogers, François-Henri Briard
Most would agree that the world is unsettled, with hotspots in the Middle East, North...
International: When Should America Act to Maintain International Order?
Colin Dueck, Benjamin H. Friedman, Brian H. Hook, Mike J. Rogers, François-Henri Briard
Most would agree that the world is unsettled, with hotspots in the Middle East, North...
Civil Rights: Ferguson, Baltimore, and Criminal Justice Reform
Gail L. Heriot, Arthur Loevy, Tim Lynch, David B. Muhlhausen, David R. Stras, Michael P. Tremoglie, Robert L. Woodson
Criminal justice and policing reform are much in the news lately, sparked by events that...
Civil Rights: Ferguson, Baltimore, and Criminal Justice Reform
Gail L. Heriot, Arthur Loevy, Tim Lynch, David B. Muhlhausen, David R. Stras, Michael P. Tremoglie, Robert L. Woodson
Criminal justice and policing reform are much in the news lately, sparked by events that...
International: When Should America Act to Maintain International Order?
2015 National Lawyers Convention
Washington, DCCivil Rights: Ferguson, Baltimore, and Criminal Justice Reform
2015 National Lawyers Convention
Washington, DCDrug Prohibition and Legalization
Montgomery, AlabamaRoundtable Discussion: Balancing Privacy and Security
Steven Gill Bradbury, Rachel L. Brand, Robert H. Jerry, William H. Pryor, Julian Sanchez, John F. Stinneford, Theodore W. Ullyot, Devon Westhill
This roundtable will address a wide range of issues and potential solutions to the challenges...
Roundtable Discussion: Balancing Privacy and Security
Steven Gill Bradbury, Rachel L. Brand, Robert H. Jerry, William H. Pryor, Julian Sanchez, John F. Stinneford, Theodore W. Ullyot, Devon Westhill
This roundtable will address a wide range of issues and potential solutions to the challenges...
The Battle Over School Choice: National and Local Perspectives
Charlotte, North Carolina