President, Center for American Rights
Daniel Suhr serves as president of the Center for American Rights, where he spends every day on the front lines of the fight to preserve our rights and liberties. The Center's mission is to advance free speech, free enterprise, and parental freedom in education through strategic, precedent-setting litigation.
Daniel formerly worked as policy director for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, as chief of staff for Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, and as a law clerk for Judge Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He holds a B.A. and J.D. from Marquette University, and master’s degrees from Georgetown and the University of Missouri.
Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Josh Blackman is a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court. Josh’s work was quoted during two presidential impeachment trials. He has testified before Congress and advises federal and state lawmakers. Josh regularly appears on TV, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the BBC. Josh is also a frequent guest on NPR and other syndicated radio programs. He has published commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and leading national publications.
Since 2012, Josh has served as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Josh is an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Josh has written more than seven dozen law review articles that have been cited more than a thousand times. Josh was selected as the Jurist of the Year by the Texas Journal of Law & Public Policy, received the inaugural Meese III Originalism Award, and was awarded the Inaugural Joseph Story Award. Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy. Josh is the President of the Harlan Institute, and founded FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracyand posts@JoshMBlackman.
Associate Counsel to the President, White House Counsel's Office
Samuel Adkisson serves as Associate Counsel to the President in the White House Counsel’s Office.
Mr. Adkisson previously practiced law at Cooper & Kirk PLLC, where he focused on high-stakes civil-rights, political, and constitutional disputes. His matters included class actions challenging the FAA’s race-based air traffic controller hiring practices and the University of Oklahoma’s financial aid policies; appellate work on behalf of X Corp.; and the successful defense of Florida’s actions during a 2024 abortion referendum. Before joining Cooper & Kirk, he worked on the landmark case challenging Harvard’s affirmative action policies and helped launch a successful challenge to the State Bar of Texas’s membership policies.
Mr. Adkisson clerked for Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr., Judge Amul R. Thapar of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and Judge Gregory G. Katsas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. During Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, he worked for Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Charles E. Grassley.
Mr. Adkisson received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was President of the Yale Law School Federalist Society and an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University. Prior to joining the Trump Administration in January 2025, he lived on Signal Mountain, TN, with his wife and three children.
U.S. Attorney, Middle District of Tennessee, U.S. Department of Justice
Braden Boucek was sworn in on December 24, 2025, as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. Prior to becoming United States Attorney, Mr. Boucek served as the senior vice president of litigation at the Southeastern Legal Foundation having previously served as the vice president of legal affairs at the Beacon Center. Mr. Boucek has extensive experience as a prosecutor, starting his career at the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office before serving for two years as an Assistant District Attorney General in Williamson County. He was a federal prosecutor for ten years, first serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Tennessee from 2005 to 2011. From 2011 to 2015, Mr. Boucek was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee, the district he now leads as the United States Attorney.
Justice, Supreme Court of Tennessee
Justice Sarah Campbell was confirmed to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2022. She previously served as an Associate Solicitor General in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office and as an associate at the law firm of Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, DC. Justice Campbell earned her law degree from Duke University School of Law, a Master of Public Policy degree from Duke University, and her undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee, where she received the Torchbearer Award. She served as a law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the United States Supreme Court and Judge William H. Pryor Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Member, Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, PLC
Bill Harbison works primarily in the areas of corporate law and trusts and estates.
He also handles litigation in those same practice categories.
Mr. Harbison graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and received his bachelor’s degree with highest honors in English from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Partner, Consovoy McCarthy PLLC
Mr. Norris helps clients win important questions of federal law in trial and appellate courts across the country. He has represented prominent nonprofits, many States, the Republican Party, and the former President of the United States. He has argued in eight of the twelve federal circuits and twice at the U.S. Supreme Court, including the landmark case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
Mr. Norris is barred in Tennessee and Virginia, and is an elected member of the American Law Institute. Mr. Norris lives with his family in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Deputy Counsel, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty
Luke joined WILL from the Wisconsin Department of Justice where he served for nearly four years as a Deputy Solicitor General and Assistant Attorney General.
Berg has argued nine cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and four before the Seventh Circuit, including one en banc argument. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison (B.S.) and New York University (J.D.) and served as a law clerk for Judge Diane Sykes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Prior to joining the Wisconsin DOJ in 2015, Berg worked as an attorney for the Office of the Comptroller of Currency in Washington D.C.
Berg resides in Madison with his wife and three boys.
President, General Counsel, and Founder, Child and Parental Rights Campaign, Inc
Vernadette Broyles is the President, General Counsel, and founder of Child and Parental Rights Campaign, Inc. She is an experienced family law litigator and Guardian Ad Litem representing the best interests of children in court, and has been an advocate for student privacy, parental rights, and Title IX protections in public schools. She brings to this role her knowledge and experience in the legislative process and background in science and research. Vernadette graduated with Honors from Yale University with a bachelor of science degree in Biology, and received her law degree from Harvard Law School.
Vernadette has practiced as a commercial litigator and served as a state Prosecutor with the Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney’s Office. Prior to law school, she worked in neuro-pharmaceutical research. Vernadette was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue to the State Board of the Georgia Department of Human Services for five years, where she co-chaired the Department of Family and Children Services Committee and gained many insights into state child protective services. She has served on Advisory Boards to the U.S. Department of Justice Violence Against Women program and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention program and as a Public Interest Director with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. Vernadette has also been featured as a columnist with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She and her husband have two children.
Senior Counsel, Home School Legal Defense Association
William Estrada serves as Senior Counsel for Home School Legal Defense Association. Mr. Estrada served as a legal assistant with HSLDA starting in 2004 while attending Oak Brook School of Law. After he passed the California bar, Mr. Estrada rose to be HSLDA’s director of federal relations. He left in 2018 to work at the US Department of Health and Human Services, where he became a career employee in the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within the Office for Civil Rights. He is a member of the California Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, and the US Supreme Court bar.
Mr. Estrada previously served the Parental Rights Foundation as their first full-time president from November 2021 to May 2023.
Mr. Estrada and his wife, Rachel, live in Northern Virginia with their two sons, Dominic and Merrick. Mr. Estrada is a man of faith and family. He is a self-proclaimed outdoorsman, foodie, gardener, and a beekeeper.
Partner, Shutts & Bowen LLP
Ben Gibson is an attorney in the Tallahassee office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, where he is Vice-Chair of the Appellate practice group. His statewide practice focuses on government, political, and corporate clients representing them in government affairs, appellate, litigation, and administrative matters.
Most recently, Ben was named general counsel to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Transition Team, advising the new administration on legal issues and the appointment of three Florida Supreme Court justices. Before joining Shutts, Ben served as the Deputy General Counsel and an Assistant General Counsel to Florida Governor Rick Scott for nearly five years, where he helped advise the Governor on the appointment of more than 120 judges to Florida’s county, circuit, DCA, and Supreme Courts. His extensive responsibilities included providing legal counsel to the Executive Office of the Governor and overseeing high profile legal issues at executive branch agencies.
Gibson’s government law practice includes serving as counsel to state entities, advising on public records, the Sunshine Law, and ethics issues as well as representing clients before state and federal courts and administrative agencies.
His state and federal election law practice focuses on advising candidates, party organizations, and political committees and representing clients in compliance and enforcement matters. As general counsel to the Republican Party of Florida he led all of the party’s legal efforts during the 2018 election cycle including through three statewide recounts.
With a deep understanding of Florida government and politics, Ben has also worked as an attorney with the Florida House of Representatives helping to author the largest rewrite of Florida’s growth management laws in 25 years. Prior to joining Shutts, Ben founded his own law firm focusing on government and election law.
Associate, Consovoy McCarthy PLLC
Mr. Vaseliou assists clients with a variety of litigation and appellate matters that encompass constitutional law, administrative law, and election law.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Vaseliou was a law clerk to Judge Andrew S. Oldham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and to Judge Richard G. Taranto of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Mr. Vaseliou earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was selected for the Order of the Coif. Mr. Vaseliou earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering summa cum laude from the University of Florida. Mr. Vaseliou is a member of the Texas bar.*
*Supervised by principals of the firm who are members of the Virginia bar.
Dean, Delaware Law School
Dean Todd Clark is Dean of Delaware Law School. He joins Delaware Law School after serving as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs & Professor of Law at St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law. Before St. Thomas, Dean Clark was Professor of Law at North Carolina Central University School of Law where he taught Business Associations, Contracts, Corporate Justice, Employment Discrimination, and Hip Hop, Law & Justice. At NCCU, he also served on the ABA Compliance team and was the Director of the Justice in the Practice of Law Certificate Program and the Director of New Initiatives. Before that, Dean Clark was a Lecturer in Law at West Virginia University College of Law, where he taught Legal Writing and Appellate Advocacy.
Dean Clark earned his B.A. in Political Science from Wittenberg University, his M.B.A. from West Virginia University College of Business and Economics, and his J.D. from University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Following his graduation from law school, he practiced law at the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson.
His scholarship includes a book, CORPORATE JUSTICE (Carolina Academic Press), as well as numerous law review articles and other scholarship on social justice, corporate discretion, and sexual harassment. He is currently working on a casebook on Sports Law.
Dean, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
André Douglas Pond Cummings is the incoming Dean of Widener University Commonwealth Law School. Dean cummings currently serves as associate dean for faculty development and the Charles C. Baum distinguished professor of law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s William H. Bowen School of Law. During his time at the Bowen School of Law, cummings served for five years on the university Diversity Counsel and three years on the chancellor’s race and ethnicity advisory committee. Prior to joining the Bowen School of Law, cummings taught at the West Virginia University College of Law and clerked for Associate Chief Justice Christine M. Durham of the Utah Supreme Court and Chief Judge Joseph W. Hatchett of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Dean cummings is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Howard University School of Law.
Director of Housing Policy and the American Identity Project, Progressive Policy Institute
Richard D. Kahlenberg is the Director of Housing Policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, and the Director of the American Identity Project, where he is working on to strengthen American identity through public education. The author or editor of seventeen books, he has expertise in education, civil rights, and equal opportunity. Kahlenberg has been called “the intellectual father of the economic integration movement” in K–12 schooling and “arguably the nation’s chief proponent of class-based affirmative action in higher education admissions.” He is also an authority on teachers’ unions, charter schools, community colleges, housing segregation, and labor organizing.
Kahlenberg’s articles have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and elsewhere. He has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, C-SPAN, MSNBC, and NPR.
Previously, Kahlenberg was a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. a fellow at the Center for National Policy, a visiting associate professor of constitutional law at George Washington University, and a legislative assistant to Senator Charles S. Robb (D-VA). He also serves on the advisory board of the Pell Institute, and the Albert Shanker Institute, and as a professorial lecturer at George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. In addition, he is the winner of the William A. Kaplin Award for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy Scholarship. Reflecting on Kahlenberg’s work on higher education, William G. Bowen and Michael S. McPherson wrote that he “deserves more credit than anyone else for arguing vigorously and relentlessly for stronger efforts to address disparities by socioeconomic status.” He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School and was a rotary scholar at the University of Nairobi School of Journalism.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
Judge Menashi was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on November 14, 2019. Previously, he served as special assistant and associate counsel to the President in the White House and as acting general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education. He was assistant professor of law at Scalia Law School, George Mason University, where he taught administrative law and civil procedure, and a research fellow at New York University School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center. He was also a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York, where he practiced appellate and commercial litigation, and served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge Douglas Ginsburg on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He graduated from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to Order of the Coif and served as senior articles editor of the Stanford Law Review, and from Dartmouth College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Partner, Consovoy McCarthy PLLC
Mr. Norris helps clients win important questions of federal law in trial and appellate courts across the country. He has represented prominent nonprofits, many States, the Republican Party, and the former President of the United States. He has argued in eight of the twelve federal circuits and twice at the U.S. Supreme Court, including the landmark case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
Mr. Norris is barred in Tennessee and Virginia, and is an elected member of the American Law Institute. Mr. Norris lives with his family in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Legal Fellow, Center for the Separation of Powers, Pacific Legal Foundation
Alison Somin joined Pacific Legal Foundation in May 2020 as a legal fellow in the Center for the Separation of Powers and part of the equality before the law practice group.
Before joining the Pacific Legal Foundation team, Alison was a special assistant and counsel for over a decade to Gail Heriot, a member of the bipartisan United States Commission on Civil Rights. She also has deep roots in the liberty movement. Alison was a Koch Associate at the National Federation for Independent Business Legal Foundation and, during law school, completed summer clerkships at the Institute for Justice and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. She holds a J.D. from Emory University School of Law and an A.B. in history from Dartmouth College.
Her work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Daily Journal, Texas Journal of Law and Politics, and The Federalist Society’s Engage magazine and blog.
She lives in northern Virginia with her husband Ilya; two children; and golden retriever Willow. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, baking and cooking, children’s art projects, and training and exercising Willow.
Deputy Counsel, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty
Luke joined WILL from the Wisconsin Department of Justice where he served for nearly four years as a Deputy Solicitor General and Assistant Attorney General.
Berg has argued nine cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and four before the Seventh Circuit, including one en banc argument. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison (B.S.) and New York University (J.D.) and served as a law clerk for Judge Diane Sykes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Prior to joining the Wisconsin DOJ in 2015, Berg worked as an attorney for the Office of the Comptroller of Currency in Washington D.C.
Berg resides in Madison with his wife and three boys.
President, General Counsel, and Founder, Child and Parental Rights Campaign, Inc
Vernadette Broyles is the President, General Counsel, and founder of Child and Parental Rights Campaign, Inc. She is an experienced family law litigator and Guardian Ad Litem representing the best interests of children in court, and has been an advocate for student privacy, parental rights, and Title IX protections in public schools. She brings to this role her knowledge and experience in the legislative process and background in science and research. Vernadette graduated with Honors from Yale University with a bachelor of science degree in Biology, and received her law degree from Harvard Law School.
Vernadette has practiced as a commercial litigator and served as a state Prosecutor with the Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney’s Office. Prior to law school, she worked in neuro-pharmaceutical research. Vernadette was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue to the State Board of the Georgia Department of Human Services for five years, where she co-chaired the Department of Family and Children Services Committee and gained many insights into state child protective services. She has served on Advisory Boards to the U.S. Department of Justice Violence Against Women program and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention program and as a Public Interest Director with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. Vernadette has also been featured as a columnist with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She and her husband have two children.
Senior Counsel, Home School Legal Defense Association
William Estrada serves as Senior Counsel for Home School Legal Defense Association. Mr. Estrada served as a legal assistant with HSLDA starting in 2004 while attending Oak Brook School of Law. After he passed the California bar, Mr. Estrada rose to be HSLDA’s director of federal relations. He left in 2018 to work at the US Department of Health and Human Services, where he became a career employee in the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within the Office for Civil Rights. He is a member of the California Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, and the US Supreme Court bar.
Mr. Estrada previously served the Parental Rights Foundation as their first full-time president from November 2021 to May 2023.
Mr. Estrada and his wife, Rachel, live in Northern Virginia with their two sons, Dominic and Merrick. Mr. Estrada is a man of faith and family. He is a self-proclaimed outdoorsman, foodie, gardener, and a beekeeper.
Partner, Shutts & Bowen LLP
Ben Gibson is an attorney in the Tallahassee office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, where he is Vice-Chair of the Appellate practice group. His statewide practice focuses on government, political, and corporate clients representing them in government affairs, appellate, litigation, and administrative matters.
Most recently, Ben was named general counsel to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Transition Team, advising the new administration on legal issues and the appointment of three Florida Supreme Court justices. Before joining Shutts, Ben served as the Deputy General Counsel and an Assistant General Counsel to Florida Governor Rick Scott for nearly five years, where he helped advise the Governor on the appointment of more than 120 judges to Florida’s county, circuit, DCA, and Supreme Courts. His extensive responsibilities included providing legal counsel to the Executive Office of the Governor and overseeing high profile legal issues at executive branch agencies.
Gibson’s government law practice includes serving as counsel to state entities, advising on public records, the Sunshine Law, and ethics issues as well as representing clients before state and federal courts and administrative agencies.
His state and federal election law practice focuses on advising candidates, party organizations, and political committees and representing clients in compliance and enforcement matters. As general counsel to the Republican Party of Florida he led all of the party’s legal efforts during the 2018 election cycle including through three statewide recounts.
With a deep understanding of Florida government and politics, Ben has also worked as an attorney with the Florida House of Representatives helping to author the largest rewrite of Florida’s growth management laws in 25 years. Prior to joining Shutts, Ben founded his own law firm focusing on government and election law.
Associate, Consovoy McCarthy PLLC
Mr. Vaseliou assists clients with a variety of litigation and appellate matters that encompass constitutional law, administrative law, and election law.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Vaseliou was a law clerk to Judge Andrew S. Oldham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and to Judge Richard G. Taranto of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Mr. Vaseliou earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was selected for the Order of the Coif. Mr. Vaseliou earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering summa cum laude from the University of Florida. Mr. Vaseliou is a member of the Texas bar.*
*Supervised by principals of the firm who are members of the Virginia bar.
FCC Enforcement Bureau Reform
The Supreme Court’s decision in SEC v. Jarkesy will have significant impacts on agency authority in the...
Supreme Court Round-Up/Preview
Northern Illinois Student Chapter
DeKalb, ILTopics
“Tough Luck, Get a New Statute”
The Supreme Court’s decision in SEC v. Jarkesy essentially means that administrative agencies cannot directly...
Supreme Court Round Up
Houston Student Chapter
Houston, TXTopics
Federal Court Recognizes Limits to Federal Power Over At-Home Distilling
What are the limits of the federal government’s powers? That critical question has been debated...
Panel III: Strategic Litigation for Civil Rights
2024 Tennessee Chapters Conference
Nashville, TNTopics
Is the Corporate Transparency Act Unconstitutional?: Government Appeals a District Court Ruling That Said “Yes,” With More Challenges In Progress
On March 1, 2024, Judge Liles Burke in the Northern District of Alabama held in...
Plenary Session 3: A Discussion on the Right: Parental Rights in Education
Washington , DCPlenary Session 3: A Discussion on the Right: Parental Rights in Education
Luke Berg, Vernadette Ramírez Broyles, William Anthony Estrada, Ben J. Gibson, Thomas S. Vaseliou
Next year marks a century since the Supreme Court concluded in Pierce v. Society of...
Plenary Session 2: Race and Education After Students for Fair Admissions
Washington, DC