Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court
Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice, was born in Trenton, New Jersey, April 1, 1950. He married Martha-Ann Bomgardner in 1985, and has two children - Philip and Laura. He served as a law clerk for Leonard I. Garth of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1976–1977. He was Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of New Jersey, 1977–1981, Assistant to the Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice, 1981–1985, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, 1985–1987, and U.S. Attorney, District of New Jersey, 1987–1990. He was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1990. President George W. Bush nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat January 31, 2006.
Executive Director, Texas Indigent Defense Commission
James D. Bethke serves as the Executive Director of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission formerly called the Task Force on Indigent Defense. The Commission is charged with implementing a statewide system of standards, financing and other resources for criminal defendants unable to hire attorneys. He is also an ex-officio member Governor Perry’s Criminal Justice Advisory Council and a member of the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit. Nationally, he serves on the Indigent Defense Advisory Group for the ABA Standing Committee for Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants and is a member of the National Research & Data Analysis Committee for the National Legal Aid & Defenders Association. He is a past-chair of the Juvenile Law Exam Commission for the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and is a Texas Bar Foundation Life Fellow. He is a U.S. Army veteran from the 101st Airborne Division, is a graduate of the University of Texas at Tyler and the Texas Tech University law school.
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.
Robert B. McKay Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
Stephen Schulhofer is one of the nation’s most distinguished scholars of criminal justice. He has written more than 50 scholarly articles and seven books, including the leading casebook in the field, and highly regarded, widely cited work on a range of criminal justice and national security topics. His most recent book More Essential Than Ever: The Fourth Amendment in the Twenty-First Century (Oxford University Press, 2012) is a comprehensive review and analysis of Fourth Amendment history, the Supreme Court’s constitutional methodology, current Fourth Amendment doctrine, and a wide range of contemporary problems concerning searches and seizures, electronic surveillance, and the intersection between national security needs and the right to privacy. Schulhofer’s scholarship has been distinguished by his simultaneous engagement with doctrinal analysis, criminal justice policy, and his own original empirical work. He has written on counterterrorism, police interrogation, rape law, administrative searches, drug enforcement, indigent defense, sentencing reform, plea bargaining, battered spouse syndrome, and many other criminal justice matters. His current projects include analyses of national security secrecy, the right to privacy in electronic communications, and an empirical study of the impact of counterterrorism policing on immigrant communities in New York and London. In addition, he currently serves as the reporter for the American Law Institute’s project to revise the sexual offense provisions of the Model Penal Code. Previously, Schulhofer was the Julius Kreeger Professor of Law and director of the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice at the University of Chicago Law School, and was the Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He completed his BA at Princeton University and his JD at Harvard Law School, both summa cum laude. He then clerked for two years for US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and practiced law for three years before beginning his academic career
President, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Religious Liberty, Catholic University; Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School
Mark joined the Becket team in 2011 and splits his time as Associate Professor at The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and as Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Mark teaches constitutional law, religious liberty, torts, and evidence. He has been voted Teacher of the Year three years in a row by the Law School’s Student Bar Association.
Mark has broad experience litigating First Amendment religious exercise and free speech cases. He has represented the winning parties in a variety of Supreme Court First Amendment cases including Hobby Lobby, Little Sisters, Wheaton College, and Holt. In January 2014, Mark argued before the Supreme Court in McCullen v. Coakley, a First Amendment challenge to a Massachusetts speech restriction outside of abortion clinics. The Justices ruled in favor of his clients 9-0. Mark also led a successful eight-year litigation battle against Governor Blagojevich’s effort to force religious pharmacists to distribute the morning-after and week-after pills.
Mark’s academic writing focuses on the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and has appeared in a variety of prestigious journals, including the Harvard Law Review.
Mark is a widely sought after speaker on constitutional issues, particularly concerning abortion and the First Amendment. Professor Rienzi has been invited to discuss these issues at Harvard Law School, Columbia University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Boston College Law School, Notre Dame Law School, the National Press Club, and the Capitol. He has been quoted on constitutional law issues on NPR, in the Washington Times, The New York Daily News, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Mark has also been featured on the Kelly File, Fox News Sunday, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Geraldo at Large, CNN Tonight, CNN Live, Andrea Mitchell Reports, and Wall Street Journal Live.
Prior to joining Becket, Mark served as counsel for the litigation department and the intellectual property litigation practice group of WilmerHale LLP. His practice focused on complex civil and appellate litigation with a particular emphasis on intellectual property and First Amendment issues. Prior to joining WilmerHale, he served as law clerk to the Hon. Stephen F. Williams, senior circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Prior to that, Mark was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Princeton University, both with honors.
General Counsel, Prospera Group
Dranias serves as NeWay Capital LLC’s General Counsel, handling all corporate legal matters. Prior to this, he was Senior Litigation Counsel with the Government Accountability & Special Litigation Unit of the Arizona Attorney General. He also serves as Policy Advisor and Research Fellow with the Heartland Institute, as an expert and Speaker’s Bureau member with the Federalist Society, a Law and Civil Liberties Speaker for Students for Liberty, a Council of Scholars member with Compact for America Educational Foundation, as well as an Adjunct Instructor teaching Business Ethics and Law at Grand Canyon University.
Previously, Dranias served as President & Executive Director of Compact for America Educational Foundation where he led national efforts to organize the states to propose and ratify a federal Balanced Budget Amendment. Prior to that, Dranias was General Counsel, Policy Development Director and Constitutional Policy Director at the Goldwater Institute. Dranias led the Institute’s successful challenge to Arizona’s system of government campaign financing to the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he was an attorney with the Institute for Justice for three years and an attorney in private practice in Chicago for eight years, where he served as Young Lawyers Section co-editor of the Chicago Bar Association Record and earned the Oliver Wendell Holmes Award for his service.
Executive Director, Texas Indigent Defense Commission
James D. Bethke serves as the Executive Director of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission formerly called the Task Force on Indigent Defense. The Commission is charged with implementing a statewide system of standards, financing and other resources for criminal defendants unable to hire attorneys. He is also an ex-officio member Governor Perry’s Criminal Justice Advisory Council and a member of the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit. Nationally, he serves on the Indigent Defense Advisory Group for the ABA Standing Committee for Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants and is a member of the National Research & Data Analysis Committee for the National Legal Aid & Defenders Association. He is a past-chair of the Juvenile Law Exam Commission for the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and is a Texas Bar Foundation Life Fellow. He is a U.S. Army veteran from the 101st Airborne Division, is a graduate of the University of Texas at Tyler and the Texas Tech University law school.
Robert B. McKay Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
Stephen Schulhofer is one of the nation’s most distinguished scholars of criminal justice. He has written more than 50 scholarly articles and seven books, including the leading casebook in the field, and highly regarded, widely cited work on a range of criminal justice and national security topics. His most recent book More Essential Than Ever: The Fourth Amendment in the Twenty-First Century (Oxford University Press, 2012) is a comprehensive review and analysis of Fourth Amendment history, the Supreme Court’s constitutional methodology, current Fourth Amendment doctrine, and a wide range of contemporary problems concerning searches and seizures, electronic surveillance, and the intersection between national security needs and the right to privacy. Schulhofer’s scholarship has been distinguished by his simultaneous engagement with doctrinal analysis, criminal justice policy, and his own original empirical work. He has written on counterterrorism, police interrogation, rape law, administrative searches, drug enforcement, indigent defense, sentencing reform, plea bargaining, battered spouse syndrome, and many other criminal justice matters. His current projects include analyses of national security secrecy, the right to privacy in electronic communications, and an empirical study of the impact of counterterrorism policing on immigrant communities in New York and London. In addition, he currently serves as the reporter for the American Law Institute’s project to revise the sexual offense provisions of the Model Penal Code. Previously, Schulhofer was the Julius Kreeger Professor of Law and director of the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice at the University of Chicago Law School, and was the Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He completed his BA at Princeton University and his JD at Harvard Law School, both summa cum laude. He then clerked for two years for US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and practiced law for three years before beginning his academic career
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.
President, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Religious Liberty, Catholic University; Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School
Mark joined the Becket team in 2011 and splits his time as Associate Professor at The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and as Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Mark teaches constitutional law, religious liberty, torts, and evidence. He has been voted Teacher of the Year three years in a row by the Law School’s Student Bar Association.
Mark has broad experience litigating First Amendment religious exercise and free speech cases. He has represented the winning parties in a variety of Supreme Court First Amendment cases including Hobby Lobby, Little Sisters, Wheaton College, and Holt. In January 2014, Mark argued before the Supreme Court in McCullen v. Coakley, a First Amendment challenge to a Massachusetts speech restriction outside of abortion clinics. The Justices ruled in favor of his clients 9-0. Mark also led a successful eight-year litigation battle against Governor Blagojevich’s effort to force religious pharmacists to distribute the morning-after and week-after pills.
Mark’s academic writing focuses on the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and has appeared in a variety of prestigious journals, including the Harvard Law Review.
Mark is a widely sought after speaker on constitutional issues, particularly concerning abortion and the First Amendment. Professor Rienzi has been invited to discuss these issues at Harvard Law School, Columbia University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Boston College Law School, Notre Dame Law School, the National Press Club, and the Capitol. He has been quoted on constitutional law issues on NPR, in the Washington Times, The New York Daily News, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Mark has also been featured on the Kelly File, Fox News Sunday, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Geraldo at Large, CNN Tonight, CNN Live, Andrea Mitchell Reports, and Wall Street Journal Live.
Prior to joining Becket, Mark served as counsel for the litigation department and the intellectual property litigation practice group of WilmerHale LLP. His practice focused on complex civil and appellate litigation with a particular emphasis on intellectual property and First Amendment issues. Prior to joining WilmerHale, he served as law clerk to the Hon. Stephen F. Williams, senior circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Prior to that, Mark was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Princeton University, both with honors.
Executive Director, Ohio Dental Association
David J. Owsiany is the executive director of the Ohio Dental Association and a past president of the Columbus Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society.
He has served as CEO of a statewide health care association, president of the Buckeye Institute, chief of policy for the Ohio Department of Insurance, judicial law clerk for the Illinois Appellate Court, and staffer on the United State Senate Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Owsiany has written dozens of articles on legal and public policy issues for various publications, including the University of Toledo Law Review, the Federalist Society's State Court Docket Watch, Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Crain’s Cleveland Business, and Akron Beacon Journal.
Owsiany received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and B.A. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Assistant Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law
Alexander "Sasha" Volokh is an assistant professor of law, joining the Emory Law faculty in Fall 2009.
Professor Volokh earned his B.S. from UCLA and his J.D. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. He clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit and for Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Samuel Alito. Before coming to Emory, he was a visiting associate professor at Georgetown University Law Center and a visiting assistant professor at University of Houston Law Center.
His interests include law and economics, administrative law and the regulatory process, environmental law and policy, and legal history. His current research topics include the private management of government services, medieval law, judicial decisionmaking and statutory interpretation.
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
Attorney, Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, PA
Erik Zimmerman is a commercial and appellate litigator. He previously clerked for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Honorable J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Aided by his experience in the judicial system, Erik represents clients at all levels of the federal and state courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, federal and state appellate and trial courts, and federal administrative agencies.
Erik has experience in a broad range of subject areas, including contract disputes, employment and labor law, ERISA, and health care and health insurance law. He also represents clients in cases involving constitutional law, communications law, fraud, the False Claims Act, product liability, punitive damages and federal preemption of state law.
Erik's representative matters include helping to secure dismissal of a multibillion dollar breach of contract action in federal district court. He also successfully represented a client in appealing a judgment of nearly $100 million to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in another contract dispute.
Erik also maintains an active pro bono practice. He has represented clients in federal and state appeals involving issues of criminal law, the Fourth Amendment and landlord-tenant law. Erik is admitted only in the District of Columbia.
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.
Reception
17th Annual Faculty Conference
Washington, DCPublic Defenders and Client Choice - Podcast
James D. Bethke, Stephen Schulhofer, Tim Lynch
In 1963, the Supreme Court ruled that indigent persons accused of crimes must be provided...
The Little Sisters of the Poor and the HHS Mandate - Podcast
Mark L. Rienzi
On December 8, 2014, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in three cases...
North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission
David J. Owsiany, Alexander Volokh
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society is pleased to present two different perspectives on the North...
Integrity Staffing Solutions v. Busk - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Karen Harned
On December 8, 2014, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Integrity Staffing Solutions v....
Public Defenders and Client Choice
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group Teleforum
TeleforumGelboim v. Bank of America Corporation - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Erik R. Zimmerman
On December 9, 2014, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Gelboim v. Bank of...
The Little Sisters of the Poor and the HHS Mandate
TeleforumYoung v. United Parcel Service - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Teresa Stanton Collett
On December 3, 2014, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Young v. United Parcel...
Article V and the Compact for a Balanced Budget
Triangle Lawyers Chapter and the John Locke Foundation
Raleigh, NC