Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Edith Jones graduated from Alamo Heights High School, where she was a National Merit Scholar. In 1971, she received her B.A. in Economics from Cornell University, graduating with honors. In 1974, she was awarded her J.D. at the University of Texas Law School, where she was a law review editor and received the Order of the Coif.
Judge Jones was the first female partner at Andrews, Kurth, Campbell & Jones (now Hunton Andrews Kurth) where she practiced various types of litigation and bankruptcy cases. Judge Jones went on the federal bench on June 1, 1985.
Judge Jones served as a former member of the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, and as a member of the Judicial Conference Commission on Bankruptcy Rules. Judge Jones served on the White House Fellows Commission. Judge Jones served on the board of the Sam Houston Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. She has been a member of the Garland Walker Inn of Court in Houston for more than 20 years and its President for at least ten years. Judge Jones is also on the Board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation.
Stone Hilton, Founding Partner
A founding partner of Stone Hilton, Judd Stone is well respected both in Texas and across the nation as an insightful and tenacious appellate litigator. A lifelong Texan, Judd has argued dozens of appeals in both federal and state court, including arguing eight cases before the United States Supreme Court.
Judd began his legal career clerking for United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Edith H. Jones. With a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law where he graduated first in his class, Judd's academic and professional credentials place him among the most distinguished lawyers in the profession. At the helm of countless major legal battles and emergency appeals for the State of Texas, Judd's deep understanding of the law and persuasive advocacy have been instrumental in shaping legal precedents. His tenure as the Solicitor General of Texas is a testament to his expertise and the trust placed in him by high-ranking state officials. Judd's strategic prowess extends beyond the courtroom; his advisory roles have made him a respected figure among policymakers.
His contributions to Stone Hilton and the legal community are characterized by his meticulous approach to cases, his acumen as a counselor, and his unwavering commitment to justice. As a partner at Stone Hilton, Judd continues to apply his formidable talents to advocate for his clients with the utmost dedication and to uphold the pillars of integrity and excellence that the firm stands for.
Texas House of Representatives
State Representative Steve Allison represents House District 121, succeeding former Speaker of the House Joe Straus. District 121 covers parts of north central and northeast San Antonio, as well as the cities of Alamo Heights, Terrell Hills, and Olmos Park.
Representative Allison serves on the Public Education and Public Health committees and is also a member of the House Republican Caucus Policy Committee.
Steve brings significant background, community service, and leadership experience to his role in the House. He has a history of active involvement and accomplishments in numerous civic organizations and professional, business, health care, and other community interests and activities.
Representative Allison has been particularly active and involved in his children’s schools and in education issues, including as a member of Alamo Heights ISD’s Early Childhood Task Force, Vice Chairman of the District’s Legislative Committee, sponsor of Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Board member of the District’s support group, Chair of the District’s Task Force on Character Education, Wellness and Digital Citizenship, and twelve years on the District’s Board of Trustees, including three terms as President. He has been actively involved with school finance and “Robin Hood” recapture issues, including being instrumental in keeping Alamo Heights ISD’s recapture funds in the Bexar County community for funding of the legislative mandated juvenile justice academy program. Also while President, he chaired a community task force which lead to the creation of the Robbins Academy, a non-disciplinary alternative program for at-risk students. During his tenure on the Board of Trustees, he was appointed to the Texas Association of School Board’s Special Committee on Revenue and Funding and later served three years as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Association. The year before his election to the House, Steve completed eight years as a member of the Board of Trustees of VIA Metropolitan Transit Authority, including the last two years as Vice Chairman of the Board.
Professionally, Steve is a highly regarded attorney, concentrating in business litigation and health care, and is a trained and experienced mediator and arbitrator. He has been repeatedly recognized in Best Lawyers in America (“Commercial Litigation” and “Bet the Company Litigation”) and Texas Super Lawyers (“Business Litigation”).
Representative Allison is a graduate of Texas Christian University and the University of Houston Law Center.
Steve and his wife, Peggy, met their freshman year at TCU and have been married for 49 years. They have two sons, Brian and Todd; five grandchildren, Taylor, Scott, Corbin, Emma, and Maggie; and a golden retriever, Duffy, who is a valued campaigner and goes everywhere with them. Peggy and Steve are longstanding members of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, where both have taught children’s Sunday school and Steve has served on the Vestry.
Solicitor General, Mississippi Attorney General's Office
Scott G. Stewart is the Solicitor General of Mississippi. He has litigated and presented oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court, in all regional federal courts of appeals, and in trial-level courts across the country. Stewart previously served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice and worked in private practice as a litigator. He served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Stewart graduated from Princeton University and Stanford Law School.
Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Randy Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He has argued before the United States Supreme Court, tried murder cases to juries as a prosecutor in Chicago, and appeared as a prosecutor in the feature film Inalienable. He is the author of numerous books, including Restoring the Lost Constitution, The Structure of Liberty, Our Republican Constitution, and The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. He has published two memoirs, A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist, and Felony Review: Tales of True Crime and Corruption in Chicago. He is currently working on a new book, Freedom and Flourishing: Libertarianism for the Real World.
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.
Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law
Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford), as well as the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. He recently retired from teaching at UCLA, after 30 years there, and is now focusing on research.
Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (8th ed. 2023), and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 100 academic law journal articles, mostly on First Amendment law. He is a member of The American Law Institute; the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Free Speech Law; and the creator and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog founded in 2002 (hosted at the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017 and now at Reason Magazine).
John H. Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer & Information Science; Founding Director, Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Christopher S. Yoo is the John H. Chestnut Professor of Law and a Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and in the Computer & Information Science Department of School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is also the Founding Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition. He is the author of over one hundred scholarly works and has taught at over a dozen universities around the world. Professor Yoo received his A.B. from Harvard, his M.B.A. from UCLA, and his J.D. from Northwestern University. Before entering the academy, Professor Yoo clerked for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and practiced law with the predecessor firm to Hogan Lovells under the supervision of now-Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. Before joining the University of Pennsylvania, he taught for eight years at the Vanderbilt Law School. He is frequently called to testify before the U.S. Congress, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Federal Communications Commission, foreign governments, and international organizations.
Stephen Cranney has a dual PhD in sociology and demography from the University of Pennsylvania and is a freelance data scientist in the Washington, DC, area.
District Judge, State of Texas
Cory Liu is a state district judge in Austin, Texas. He previously served as assistant general counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Mr. Liu clerked for Judge Andrew Oldham on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Judge Danny Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy and is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago.
Distinguished University Professor, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
University Professor Nelson Lund is the author of Rousseau’s Rejuvenation of Political Philosophy: A New Introduction. He has also written widely in the field of constitutional law, including articles on constitutional interpretation, federalism, separation of powers, the Second Amendment, the Commerce Clause, the Speech or Debate Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Uniformity Clause. In addition, he has published articles in the fields of employment discrimination and civil rights, the legal regulation of medical ethics, and the application of economic analysis to legal institutions and legal ethics.
Professor Lund graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, after which he received an MA in philosophy from the Catholic University of America and a PhD in political science from Harvard University. He left the faculty of the University of Chicago to attend its law school, where he served as executive editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and chapter chairman of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. After law school, he held positions at the United States Department of Justice in the Office of the Solicitor General and the Office of Legal Counsel. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Patrick E. Higginbotham of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and to the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor of the United States Supreme Court. Following his clerkship with Justice O'Connor, Professor Lund served in the White House as associate counsel to the president from 1989 to 1992.
Since joining the faculty at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School, Professor Lund has taught Constitutional Law, Legislation, Federal Election Law, Employment Discrimination, State and Local Government, and seminars on the Second Amendment and on a variety of topics in Jurisprudence.
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A Discussion on the Upcoming Legislative Session
San Antonio Lawyers Chapter
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In Texas Department of State Health Services v. Crown Distributing LLC, the Texas Supreme Court...
Bruen’s Preliminary Preservation of the Second Amendment
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A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right...
The Federalist Paper, Fall 2022
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Topics
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Texas Young Lawyers Chapter & University of Texas Student Chapter
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