Associate Attorney, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Matthew Rozen is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He practices in the firm’s Litigation Department and Appellate and Constitutional Law practice.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Rozen served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Mr. Rozen graduated with highest honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as an Articles Editor on the University of Chicago Law Review. Mr. Rozen holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Irvine, and received his undergraduate degree in Literature from Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude.
Mr. Rozen is admitted to practice in Virginia and the District of Columbia. He is fluent in Spanish and proficient in French.
Professor of Law, Belmont University College of Law
Prior to joining Belmont University College of Law, Amy Moore taught at Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law as an Assistant Professor. She taught classes in Administrative Law, Criminal Law, Education Law, Immigration Law, and International Law. She was also active in the moot court program, including coaching the National Moot Court Competition Team and the National Appellate Advocacy Competition teams.
Before teaching law school, Professor Moore worked as a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago, Illinois. While at Kirkland, she practiced in securities fraud and credit card privacy cases. She is a member of both the Missouri and Illinois bar associations. She is also a member of the American Bar Association.
Professor Moore received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Harding University and received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School. While at the University of Chicago, Professor Moore worked as a research assistant for Professor Lisa Bernstein and Judge Richard Posner. During her last year of law school, she was active in the appellate advocacy clinic and represented a client before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
For Belmont’s charter year, Professor Moore will teach Torts and Civil Procedure. Her research interests include the study of how process affects rights in varied areas.
Professor of Law, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Margaret Ryznar is an Associate Professor of Law at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. She teaches and researches in the areas of family law, tax, trusts & estates, property, and juvenile law. Her scholarship focuses on the rights of family members under federal and state law, with particular emphasis on how family members hold and transfer property among themselves. Professor Ryznar edits the Family Law Prof Blog and has published over twenty law journal articles. Her work has been featured in the media and cited in law journals and judicial materials.
Prior to joining the faculty in 2012, Professor Ryznar served as a law clerk to the Honorable Myron H. Bright of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and practiced law with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP in Washington, DC.
Professor Ryznar is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School, where she served as a Note Editor of the Notre Dame Law Review, competed in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court, and received the Bainbridge Fellowship for the Study of International and Comparative Law. She holds a master’s degree in European Studies from Jagiellonian University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago with majors in Economics; English Language & Literature; Political Science; and Law, Letters, & Society.
Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
Erica Smith is a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice. She joined IJ in August 2011 and litigates cutting-edge constitutional cases protecting economic liberty, school choice, and free speech in federal and state courts.
Erica’s economic liberty work has a special focus on “food freedom.” Erica won Wisconsin home bakers the constitutional right to legally sell their goods in Kivirist v. Wisconsin Department of Agriculture. As a result, hundreds of home bakers across the state can now sell their cookies, cakes, and muffins without fear of fines or jail time. Erica also successfully defended the rights of home bakers and canners to fight against Minnesota’s arbitrary restrictions on selling their goods in Astramecki v. Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Erica is currently suing New Jersey—the last state to have a ban on selling homemade food. Erica’s legislative activities have also helped change the homemade food laws of several states.
Erica’s educational choice work gives parents the opportunity to guide the education of their children. She was the lead attorney representing families in Asociación de Maestros v. Departamento de Educación, where she persuaded the Puerto Rico Supreme Court to reject a teachers union’s challenge to the Commonwealth’s new voucher program. Erica was also part of the winning teams that protected both Georgia and New Hampshire’s tax-credit scholarship programs at the state supreme courts in Gaddy v. Georgia Department of Revenue and Duncan v. State of New Hampshire. She is currently fighting to protect Montana’s school choice program at the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, Erica testifies as to the constitutionality of other educational choice programs across the country.
Erica’s free speech work includes her successful defense of a family’s right to use signs to advertise its gym in Fears v. City of Sacramento. She was part of the team that successfully defended Central Radio Company’s right to protest the illegal taking of its land in Central Radio Co. v. City of Norfolk. Most recently, Erica won the right of a family-owned video game store to advertise using a 9-foot inflatable Mario in Fisher v. Town of Orange Park.
Erica has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, CBS This Morning, and Fox & Friends, and her writing has been published in the Washington Times, New York Post, Times-Free Press, The Virginian-Pilot, National Law Journal, and Federalist Society Review. She has also been quoted in media outlets across the nation, including the New York Times and Washington Post.
Before joining IJ, Erica served as a law clerk for the Honorable Terrence Boyle of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Erica received her law degree cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2010. Erica received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Stony Brook University’s Honors College in 2007, where she studied literature and journalism.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Helen Alvaré is a Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, where she teaches Family Law, Law and Religion, and Property Law. She publishes on matters concerning marriage, parenting, non-marital households, and the First Amendment religion clauses. She is faculty advisor to the law school’s Civil Rights Law Journal, and the Latino/a Law Student Association, a Member of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life (Vatican City), a board member of Catholic Relief Services, a member of the Executive Committee of the AALS’ Section on Law and Religion, and an ABC news consultant. She cooperates with the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations as a speaker and a delegate to various United Nations conferences concerning women and the family.
In addition to her books, and her publications in law reviews and other academic journals, Professor Alvaré publishes regularly in news outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and CNN.com. She also speaks at academic and professional conferences in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Australia.
Prior to joining the faculty of Scalia Law, Professor Alvaré taught at the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America; represented the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops before legislative bodies, academic audiences and the media; and was a litigation attorney for the Philadelphia law firm of Stradley, Ronon, Stevens & Young.
Professor Alvaré received her law degree from Cornell University School of Law and her master’s degree in Systematic Theology from the Catholic University of America.
Senior Research Scholar in Law, Yale Law School
Linda Greenhouse is Senior Research Scholar in Law at Yale Law School. She covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times between 1978 and 2008 and writes a biweekly op-ed column on law as a contributing columnist. Ms. Greenhouse received several major journalism awards during her 40-year career at the Times, including the Pulitzer Prize (1998) and the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from Harvard University’s Kennedy School (2004). In 2002, the American Political Science Association gave her its Carey McWilliams Award for “a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics.” Her books include a biography of Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Becoming Justice Blackmun; Before Roe v. Wade: Voices That Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court's Ruling (with Reva B. Siegel); The U.S. Supreme Court, A Very Short Introduction, published by Oxford University Press in 2012; and The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right, with Michael J. Graetz, published in 2016. Her latest book is Just a Journalist: Reflections on the Press, Life, and the Spaces Between, published by Harvard University Press in 2017. In her extracurricular life, Ms. Greenhouse is president of the American Philosophical Society, the country's oldest learned society, which in 2005 awarded her its Henry Allen Moe Prize for writing in jurisprudence and the humanities. She also serves on the council of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the national Senate of Phi Beta Kappa, and is one of two non-lawyer honorary members elected to the American Law Institute, which in 2002 awarded her its Henry J. Friendly Medal. She has been awarded thirteen honorary degrees. She is a 1968 graduate of Radcliffe College (Harvard) and earned a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School (1978), which she attended on a Ford Foundation fellowship. She is married to Eugene R. Fidell, Florence Rogatz Lecturer in Law at Yale. Their daughter, Hannah, is a filmmaker in Los Angeles.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit
Judge Randolph was confirmed by the Senate and appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President George H. W. Bush in July 1990.
Judge Randolph received his B.S. degree in 1966 from Drexel University, majoring in economics and basic engineering. At Drexel, he was president of the debate society, vice president of the Student Senate, and a member of the varsity wrestling squad. In 1969, he received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, summa cum laude. Judge Randolph ranked first in his law school class all three years and was managing editor of the Law Review.
After graduation, Judge Randolph served as a law clerk to Judge Henry J. Friendly of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York.
Admitted to the California Bar in 1970 (and to the District of Columbia bar in 1973), Judge Randolph worked as Assistant to the Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C., 1970-1973.
After two years in private practice, Judge Randolph was named Deputy Solicitor General of the United States, a position he held from 1975-1977.
In 1979, Judge Randolph was appointed Special Counsel to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (the Ethics Committee) of the United States House of Representatives, remaining in this position until 1980.
In the 1980s, Judge Randolph held a number of positions while in private practice, including Special Assistant Attorney General for the states of New Mexico (1985 90), Utah (1986-1990) and Montana (1983-1990). He also served as a Member of the Advisory Panel of the Federal Courts Study Committee.
From 1971-1990, Judge Randolph argued 23 times in the United States Supreme Court, winning 20 of his cases.
As an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center from 1974-1978 he taught courses in civil procedure and injunctions. In 1992 he taught a course in constitutional law. He is a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law at George Mason School of Law and for the past ten years has been teaching First Amendment law. He also serves on the Judicial Advisory Board of the George Mason University Law and Economics Center.
From 1993 through 1995 Judge Randolph was a member of the Committee on Codes of Conduct of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and from 1995 to 1998 served as the Committee's chairman. He also served as the judicial liaison to the American Bar Association’s Administrative Law Section.
Judge Randolph is a member of the Board of Visitors at Drexel University Law School and was named to the “Drexel One Hundred” as a leading alumnus. In 2002 he was presented the James Wilson Award by the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In November 2005 he delivered the Fifth Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture at the Annual Lawyers Convention of the Federalist Society. He has published numerous articles, the most recent of which is in the June 2006 issue of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.
Judge Randolph is married to the Honorable Eileen J. O’Connor, formerly Assistant Attorney General, Tax Division, U.S. Department of Justice. His son John Trevor Randolph is an investment banker in New York. His daughter Cynthia Lee Randolph is an artist living in San Francisco.
Professor and Director, Prolife Center, University of St. Thomas School of Law
Teresa Collett, J.D., is professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, where she serves as director of the school's Prolife Center. Collett received her doctorate at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. As a well-known advocate for the protection of human life and the family, Collett specializes in the subjects of marriage, religion and bioethics in her research.
Collett has published numerous legal articles and is the co-author of a law casebook on professional responsibility and co-editor of a collection of essays exploring “catholic” and “Catholic” perspectives on American law. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and has testified before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as before legislative committees in several states.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Collett to a five-year term on the Pontifical Council for the Family. Her appointment was renewed by His Holiness Pope Francis until 2016 when the responsibilities of the Council were assumed by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life. In 2013, she served as a delegate to the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) for the Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations.
She represented Congressman Ron Paul and various medical groups in the defense of the U.S. federal ban of partial-birth abortion, and the governors of Minnesota and North Dakota defending the N.H. requirement of state parental involvement prior to performance of an abortion on a minor before the U.S. Supreme Court. Collett is often asked to represent the interests of government officials before federal appellate courts. She has served as special attorney general for the states of Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as assisting other state attorneys general in defending laws protecting human life and marriage. Prior to joining St. Thomas in 2003, Collett taught at the South Texas College of Law, where she established the nation's first annual symposium on legal ethics.
Anne Shea Ransdell and William Garland "Buck" Ransdell, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law
Carissa Byrne Hessick joined the Carolina Law faculty in 2016. She serves as the Anne Shea Ransdell and William Garland “Buck” Ransdell, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law and as the director of the Prosecutors and Politics Project. Her teaching and research interests include criminal law, the structure of the criminal justice system, criminal sentencing, and child pornography crimes. Hessick is the author of multiple law review articles, essays, and op eds on plea bargaining, the powers and selection of prosecutors, Sixth Amendment sentencing rights, and criminal statutes. Her work has appeared in the California Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the L.A. Times, the UCLA Law Review, and the Virginia Law Review, among others. She founded the Prosecutors and Politics Project in 2018. And she currently serves as the Reporter for the ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Sentencing Standards Task Force.
Hessick attended Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and winner of the Potter Stewart Prize for the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals. After graduating from law school, she clerked for Judge Barbara S. Jones on the Southern District of New York and for Judge A. Raymond Randolph on the D.C. Circuit. She also worked as a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City. Before joining the faculty at Carolina Law, Hessick taught on the faculties at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. She also spent two years as a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School.
Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law
Andy Hessick joined the Carolina Law faculty in 2016 and serves Judge John J. Parker Distinguished Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Strategy. His teaching and research interests include federal courts, administrative law, remedies, and criminal sentencing. His work has appeared in, among other places, the California Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the William and Mary Law Review. His work has been cited by the Supreme Courts of Connecticut, Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, and Utah; various federal district and circuit courts; and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hessick received his J.D. from Yale Law School, at which he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, he clerked for Judge Reena Raggi on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge A. Raymond Randolph on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He then served as a Bristow Fellow in the U.S. Solicitor General’s office and practiced litigation at Kellogg Huber Hansen Todd Evans & Figel PLLC in Washington, D.C. He previously taught at the University of Utah and Arizona State University and was a visiting assistant professor at Boston University.
Founder, Law Office of Eileen J. O'Connor PLLC
After nearly 30 years as a national tax specialist with the IRS and major accounting firms, Eileen J. O’Connor, now an attorney in private practice, was Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division for six years during the administration of President George W. Bush and a member of then-President-elect Trump’s Treasury Department Transition Team. She focuses on federal administrative and tax law.
Professor of Law, University of Wyoming College of Law
George Mocsary is an expert in corporate and small-business law, and the law of firearms.
Currently, he is Professor of Law, Founder & Director of Firearms Research Center, and Director of the Business Planning Practicum and at the University of Wyoming College of Law.
Professor Mocsary teaches and writes about Agency & Partnership, Contracts, Corporations, Securities Regulation, the Second Amendment, and Firearms Law, including the intersection of Firearms Law and private law. He is a co-author of Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy (3rd ed. 2021), the first casebook on this topic.
Prior to his appointment at Wyoming, he served as an Associate Professor of Law at the Southern Illinois University School of Law and spent two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He practiced corporate and bankruptcy law at Cravath, Swaine and Moore in New York, and clerked for the Honorable Harris L. Hartz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Professor Mocsary holds a J.D. from Fordham Law School and an M.B.A. from the University of Rochester Simon School of Business. At Fordham, he graduated first in his class, and served as Notes and Articles Editor of the Fordham Law Review. He has published in the George Washington Law Review, George Mason Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Duke Law Journal Online, and other journals. His work has been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States, several U.S. Courts of Appeals, the Supreme Court of Illinois, the Delaware Court of Chancery, and other courts.
Governor, Florida
Ron DeSantis is the 46th Governor of the State of Florida. Since taking office in January 2019, he has worked hard to expand education opportunities, improve Florida’s water resources and Everglades, champion vocational training, bolster public safety, foster innovation in health care, assist with hurricane recovery, promote infrastructure development and support veterans – all while lowering taxes and being fiscally responsible.
A native Floridian, Governor DeSantis worked his way through Yale University, where he captained the university baseball team and graduated magna cum laude. He also gradated with honors from Harvard Law School. While at Harvard, he earned a commission in the U.S. Navy as a JAG Officer. During his active duty service, then- Lieutenant DeSantis deployed to Iraq as an advisor to a U.S. Navy SEAL Commander in support of the SEAL mission in Iraq. His military decorations include the Iraq Campaign Medal of the Bronze Star Medal (meritorious service).
Prior to serving as Governor, DeSantis served as the U.S. Congressman for Florida’s 6th District. As Chairman of the National Security Subcommittee, DeSantis spearheaded efforts to reform the UA, combat terrorism, identify government waste and relocate the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. As a Congressman, DeSantis championed term limits, fiscal responsibility with a strong national defense.
Governor DeSantis is married to First Lady Casey DeSantis, a former Emmy Award winning television host. They are the proud parents of two children, Madison and Mason. They are the youngest family living in the Florida Governor’s Mansion in nearly fifty years.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Katsas was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in December 2017. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor on the Harvard Law Review. Between 1989 and 1992, he served as a law clerk to Judge Edward Becker on the Third Circuit, to then-Judge Clarence Thomas on the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court. Between 1992 and 2001, he was an associate and then partner in the Washington office of Jones Day, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. Between 2001 and 2009, he served in many senior positions in the Department of Justice, including as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and as Acting Associate Attorney General. In 2009, he returned to Jones Day. From January to December 2017, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President.
Before joining the bench, Judge Katsas argued more than 75 appeals, including three cases in the Supreme Court, 13 cases in the D.C. Circuit, and cases in every other federal court of appeals. By appointment of the Chief Justice, he served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules from 2013 to 2017. In 2016, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
United States District Judge, United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
In November 2020, the Senate confirmed Kathryn Kimball Mizelle as a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida. At age 33, she became the youngest Article III judge in the country. Prior to her confirmation, Judge Mizelle was in private practice at Jones Day, where she focused on complex civil and criminal litigation and appeals. Judge Mizelle previously served at the United States Department of Justice in the Office of the Associate Attorney General, in the Southern Criminal Enforcement Section of the Tax Division, and in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Judge Mizelle has also taught as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
Judge Mizelle earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Covenant College, and her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. After graduation, Judge Mizelle served as a law clerk at every level of the federal judiciary: at the Supreme Court for Justice Clarence Thomas, at the D.C. Circuit for Judge Gregory G. Katsas, at the Eleventh Circuit for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr., and at the Middle District of Florida for Judge James S. Moody Jr.
Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP
Jesse, the former third-ranking official at the U.S. Department of Justice, helps clients with their most difficult litigation and regulatory issues─whether that means defending against an enforcement action, pursuing high-stakes litigation and appeals, navigating regulatory thickets at federal and state agencies, or crafting a comprehensive strategy to manage a crisis. He approaches these problems with the knowledge gained both from his broad private-practice experience and from having served at the highest levels of federal and state government.
Jesse has experience across a range of substantive and regulatory areas. He has sued the federal government and has also been one of its top law-enforcement officials; he has represented states and has also navigated their regulatory agencies on behalf of clients; and he has represented companies in business disputes, both as defendants and plaintiffs.
Before joining the firm, Jesse was the Acting Associate Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice. In that role, he oversaw the civil and criminal work of the Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, and Tax Divisions. During Jesse’s tenure, the Associate’s office closely managed the Department’s most significant litigation, including matters involving large financial institutions, healthcare companies, automakers, energy companies, and state and local governments. In addition, Jesse served as Chair of DOJ’s Regulatory Reform Task Force and Vice Chair of DOJ’s Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud. Jesse regularly provided legal and strategic advice to the highest-level decision makers in the federal government, including the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, general counsels across the spectrum of federal agencies, and White House officials.
Jesse served for three years as the secretary of Florida’s labor, economic-development, and land-use agency, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. Before that, he served as Governor (now Senator) Rick Scott’s general counsel.
Jesse maintains offices in both Washington D.C. and Florida. From Washington, he focuses on federal litigation and crisis management. In Florida, in addition to federal litigation, Jesse employs his knowledge of state government and regulation to help clients in courts across the state, from trial through the Florida Supreme Court.
Jesse currently serves on the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, the body that provides the governor with nominees for appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Jesse is also a fellow at the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he writes and speaks about administrative law.
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States
Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, was born in the Pinpoint community near Savannah, Georgia on June 23, 1948. He attended Conception Seminary from 1967-1968 and received an A.B., cum laude, from Holy Cross College in 1971 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974. He was admitted to law practice in Missouri in 1974, and served as an Assistant Attorney General of Missouri, 1974-1977; an attorney with the Monsanto Company, 1977-1979; and Legislative Assistant to Senator John Danforth, 1979-1981. From 1981–1982 he served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, and as Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1982-1990. From 1990–1991, he served as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. President Bush nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and he took his seat October 23, 1991. He married Virginia Lamp on May 30, 1987 and has one child, Jamal Adeen by a previous marriage.
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States
Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, was born in the Pinpoint community near Savannah, Georgia on June 23, 1948. He attended Conception Seminary from 1967-1968 and received an A.B., cum laude, from Holy Cross College in 1971 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974. He was admitted to law practice in Missouri in 1974, and served as an Assistant Attorney General of Missouri, 1974-1977; an attorney with the Monsanto Company, 1977-1979; and Legislative Assistant to Senator John Danforth, 1979-1981. From 1981–1982 he served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, and as Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1982-1990. From 1990–1991, he served as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. President Bush nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and he took his seat October 23, 1991. He married Virginia Lamp on May 30, 1987 and has one child, Jamal Adeen by a previous marriage.
Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
Erica Smith is a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice. She joined IJ in August 2011 and litigates cutting-edge constitutional cases protecting economic liberty, school choice, and free speech in federal and state courts.
Erica’s economic liberty work has a special focus on “food freedom.” Erica won Wisconsin home bakers the constitutional right to legally sell their goods in Kivirist v. Wisconsin Department of Agriculture. As a result, hundreds of home bakers across the state can now sell their cookies, cakes, and muffins without fear of fines or jail time. Erica also successfully defended the rights of home bakers and canners to fight against Minnesota’s arbitrary restrictions on selling their goods in Astramecki v. Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Erica is currently suing New Jersey—the last state to have a ban on selling homemade food. Erica’s legislative activities have also helped change the homemade food laws of several states.
Erica’s educational choice work gives parents the opportunity to guide the education of their children. She was the lead attorney representing families in Asociación de Maestros v. Departamento de Educación, where she persuaded the Puerto Rico Supreme Court to reject a teachers union’s challenge to the Commonwealth’s new voucher program. Erica was also part of the winning teams that protected both Georgia and New Hampshire’s tax-credit scholarship programs at the state supreme courts in Gaddy v. Georgia Department of Revenue and Duncan v. State of New Hampshire. She is currently fighting to protect Montana’s school choice program at the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, Erica testifies as to the constitutionality of other educational choice programs across the country.
Erica’s free speech work includes her successful defense of a family’s right to use signs to advertise its gym in Fears v. City of Sacramento. She was part of the team that successfully defended Central Radio Company’s right to protest the illegal taking of its land in Central Radio Co. v. City of Norfolk. Most recently, Erica won the right of a family-owned video game store to advertise using a 9-foot inflatable Mario in Fisher v. Town of Orange Park.
Erica has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, CBS This Morning, and Fox & Friends, and her writing has been published in the Washington Times, New York Post, Times-Free Press, The Virginian-Pilot, National Law Journal, and Federalist Society Review. She has also been quoted in media outlets across the nation, including the New York Times and Washington Post.
Before joining IJ, Erica served as a law clerk for the Honorable Terrence Boyle of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Erica received her law degree cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2010. Erica received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Stony Brook University’s Honors College in 2007, where she studied literature and journalism.
Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee v. Sulyma - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Matthew S. Rozen
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2020 Annual Florida Chapters Conference
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Amy Moore
On Nov. 4, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in Barton v. Barr, a...
Monasky v. Taglieri - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Margaret Ryznar
On Dec. 11, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in Monasky v. Taglieri, a...
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument Teleforum: Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue
Erica Smith
This teleforum addresses the January 22 Supreme Court argument in Espinoza v. Montana Department of...
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument Teleforum: Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue
TeleforumRoe v. Wade: The Power of a Law Review [Short Film]
Helen Alvaré, Linda Greenhouse, A. Raymond Randolph, Teresa Stanton Collett
How did a law review article impact one of the most famous cases in Supreme...