Professor Emeritus, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University
In memoriam
Dr. John Baker is Professor Emeritus of Law, and previously the Dale E. Bennett Professor of Law, at Louisiana State University Law School. He is currently Visiting Professor at Peking University School of Transnational Law (via Zoom) and has been Visiting Professor at The Center for the Constitution, Georgetown Law School (2013-2020). He has also been a Visiting Fellow at Oriel College, the University of Oxford (2012-2014) and taught at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford in 2014. Dr. Baker has also been an adjunct Fellow at the Heritage Foundation (Spring, 2008) and a Distinguished Scholar at the Catholic University of America Law School (2011-12). He has taught at Tulane Law School, George Mason Law School, Pepperdine Law School, New York Law School, Hong Kong University, and the University of Dallas, School of Management and also taught and/or lectured in 17 foreign countries. Notable among his foreign visits are the
following: Visiting Professor at the University of Lyon III (France) (1999-2011); Visiting Professor at the Universidad de los Andes, Chile (2012), as a Fulbright Specialist (2006); and a Fulbright Scholar at various universities in the Philippines. Dr. Baker received his J.D., with honors, from the University of Michigan Law School and his B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Dallas. He also earned a Ph.D. in Political Thought from the University of London. Baker has taught over a dozen different subjects, mostly courses in public law. His main areas of interest are Constitutional Law (particularly federalism and separation of powers), Criminal Law, Anti-Terrorism Law, International Law, Health Care Law, Mediation, and Comparative Law.
In addition to law review articles and book chapters, Dr. Baker’s academic publications include Hall's Criminal Law: Cases and Materials (with Benson, Force and George; 5th ed. Michie, 1993); An Introduction to the Law of the United States (ed. with Levasseur; University Press of America, 1992). He has also published on Forbes.com, FoxNews.com, in The Washington Times, and a number of times in The Wall Street Journal. He argues in federal court, including two oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court. For many years, he co-taught courses for the Federalist Society on separation of powers with the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In September 2016, he co-taught a Supreme Court seminar in China with Justice Samuel Alito. Following law school, he served as a law clerk in federal district court and as an assistant district attorney in New Orleans before joining LSU in 1975. While a professor, he has been as a consultant to USAID, USIA (since rolled into the State Department), the Justice Department, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Separation of Powers, and the Office of Planning in the White House. He served on an ABA Task Force which issued the report, The Federalization of Crime (1998) and later as a consultant to the “Bi-Partisan Task Force on the Over- federalization of Crime” (2012-2014) created by the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime. Dr. Baker was a co-founder of the first iteration (1995) of Stratfor Inc., a global intelligence agency. He co-authored its first book: The Intelligence Edge (with Friedman, Friedman and Chapman; Crown Books/Random House 1997). In 2022, he began a short, weekly video podcast available on YouTube and Rumble, The Baker Brief.
President, The Free State Foundation
Randolph J. May is Founder and President of The Free State Foundation. The Free State Foundation is an independent, non-profit free market-oriented think tank founded in 2006.
From October 1999-May 2006, May was a Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington, DC-based think tank. Prior to joining PFF, he practiced communications, administrative, and regulatory law as a partner at major national law firms. From 1978 to 1981, May served as Assistant General Counsel and Associate General Counsel at the Federal Communication Commission.
May has held numerous leadership positions in bar associations. He is a past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Mr. May also has served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and currently is a Senior Fellow at ACUS.
Mr. May has published more than two hundred articles and essays on communications, administrative and constitutional law topics. He is author of A Call for a Radical New Communications Policy: Proposals for Free Market Reform, and co-author of #CommActUpdate: A Communications Law Fit for the Digital Age and The Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property. Mr. May is editor of two books, Communications Law and Policy in the Digital Age: The Next Five Years and New Directions in Communications Policy. In addition, he is the co-editor of two other books, Net Neutrality or Net Neutering: Should Broadband Internet Services Be Regulated? and Communications Deregulation and FCC Reform. In the past, Mr. May has written regular columns on legal and regulatory affairs for Legal Times and the National Law Journal, leading national legal periodicals.
He received his A.B. from Duke University and his J.D. from Duke Law School, where he serves as a member of the Board of Visitors.
Director of Policy Studies & Senior Fellow, The Free State Foundation
Seth L. Cooper is Director of Policy Studies & Senior Fellow at The Free State Foundation. His work on federal communications and technology policy at the Free State Foundation began in 2009.
With Randolph May, Mr. Cooper is the co-author of Modernizing Copyright Law for the Digital Age: Constitutional Foundations for Reform (2020) and Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property: A Natural Rights Perspective (2015), both published by Carolina Academic Press. Along with Mr. May, Mr. Cooper also co-authored A Reader on Net Neutrality and Restoring Internet Freedom (2018) and #CommActUpdate: A Communications Law Fit for the Digital Age (2017), both published by Free State Foundation Press. He previously contributed to two chapters in Communications Law and Policy in the Digital Age (2012), published by Carolina Academic Press. Mr. Cooper's work has also appeared in such publications as CommLaw Conspectus, the San Jose Mercury News, Forbes.com, the Des Moines Register, the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Examiner, and the Washington Times.
Mr. Cooper previously served as Director to the Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Mr. Cooper served as judicial clerk to the Honorable James Johnson at the Washington State Supreme Court. His co-writings about the Washington Supreme Court have appeared in the Gonzaga Law Review and in Federalist Society publications. He has worked in law and policy staff positions at the Washington State Senate and at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture. Mr. Cooper is a 2009 Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute. He also has worked in private practice in the State of Washington, handling civil legal matters involving personal injuries, small business, contracts, and wills, trusts, and estates.
Mr. Cooper earned his B.A. degree in Political Science from Pacific Lutheran University and received his J.D. from Seattle University School of Law.
Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives, Arkansas's Third District
Congressman Stephen A. Womack, 61, is a native of Russellville, Arkansas. After attending K-10 in Moberly, Missouri, Womack’s family returned to Arkansas in 1973, and he graduated from Russellville High School in 1975. Womack earned a Bachelor’s degree from Arkansas Tech University in 1979 and, after graduation, was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Arkansas Army National Guard.
On November 3, 1998, he was elected Mayor of Rogers and served in that capacity for twelve years. During his tenure, the City of Rogers experienced exponential economic growth, adding $1 billion in new development with major improvements to the city’s infrastructure, retail services, and quality of life amenities.
In the Army National Guard, Congressman Womack served in a variety of command and staff assignments, including command of 2nd Battalion, 153rd Infantry, 39th Separate Infantry Brigade. Following the tragic events of 9-11, Steve's battalion was mobilized for duty with the Multi-National Force and Observers (MFO), Sinai, Egypt in 2002. It marked the first time in the history of the 39th Brigade that a battalion was deployed overseas. It was also the first time in the MFO history the US Battalion mission was conducted by a pure National Guard unit. Congressman Womack's task force received praise from the highest levels of civil and military leadership around the world and is credited with convincing Army leadership of the capabilities and readiness of the Army Guard.
Representative Womack retired with over thirty years of service from the Arkansas Army National Guard October 31, 2009, at the rank of Colonel. His decorations include the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, and the Global War on Terror Expeditionary and Service Medals, and the Arkansas Distinguished Service Medal. Steve was inducted into the Arkansas Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame in 2011, and in 2015, he was awarded the Harry S. Truman Award – the highest recognition conferred upon an individual by the National Guard Association of the United States – for his contributions of exceptional and far-reaching magnitude to the defense and security of the United States. In 2017, he received the Department of the Army Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service – the highest award that may be bestowed upon a civilian by the Secretary of the Army.
In the House, Congressman Womack serves as Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee. He also serves on the House Appropriations Committee and is a member of the Whip Team and various caucuses.
Associate, Wiley Rein LLP
Joel S. Nolette is an associate at Wiley Rein LLP, where he advocates on behalf of corporate and individual clients in a broad spectrum of complex litigation matters. In 2017, Joel graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as the Editor in Chief of Volume 15 of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. From 2019 to 2021, Joel clerked for the Honorable Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; and from 2021 to 2022, he clerked for the Honorable Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Before attending law school, Joel graduated summa cum laude from Gordon College in Wenham, MA, with his Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies and worked as a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service.
James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law and Albert Clark Tate, Jr., Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Professor Saikrishna Prakash’s scholarship focuses on separation of powers, particularly executive powers. He teaches Constitutional Law, Foreign Relations Law and Presidential Powers at the Law School.
Prakash’s most recent book, “The Living Presidency: An Originalist Argument Against Its Ever-Expanding Powers,” was published by Harvard Belknap Press in 2020. He also authored “Imperial from the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive” (Yale University Press, 2015). The former book focuses on the modern presidency while the latter considers the presidency of the Founders.
Prakash has authored over 75 law review articles. Among them are “Of Synchronicity and Supreme Law” in the Harvard Law Review, “The Indefensible Duty to Defend” in the Columbia Law Review, and “50 States, 50 Attorneys General and 50 Approaches to the Duty to Defend” and “The Executive Power Over Foreign Affairs” in the Yale Law Journal.
Prakash has published op-eds in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. At the request of Democrats and Republicans, he has testified before Congress on matters of presidential removal, the Mueller Report and how Congress might better check the presidency. He is currently a Miller Center Senior Fellow. In 2015, he received the Roger Traynor award for faculty scholarship. In the same year, he received an honorable mention from the American Society of Legal Writers for his book “Imperial from the Beginning.” He has given named lectures at William & Mary Law School, Princeton University and Toledo Law School, and keynote addresses at several conferences.
Prakash majored in economics and political science at Stanford University. At Yale Law School, he served as senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and received the John M. Olin Fellowship in Law, Economics and Public Policy. He subsequently clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court. After practicing in New York for two years, he served as a visiting professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and as an associate professor at Boston University School of Law. He then spent several years at the University of San Diego School of Law as the Herzog Research Professor of Law. Prakash has been a visiting professor at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. He also has served as a James Madison Fellow at Princeton University and Visiting Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution of War & Peace at Stanford University.
Professor Emeritus, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University
In memoriam
Dr. John Baker is Professor Emeritus of Law, and previously the Dale E. Bennett Professor of Law, at Louisiana State University Law School. He is currently Visiting Professor at Peking University School of Transnational Law (via Zoom) and has been Visiting Professor at The Center for the Constitution, Georgetown Law School (2013-2020). He has also been a Visiting Fellow at Oriel College, the University of Oxford (2012-2014) and taught at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford in 2014. Dr. Baker has also been an adjunct Fellow at the Heritage Foundation (Spring, 2008) and a Distinguished Scholar at the Catholic University of America Law School (2011-12). He has taught at Tulane Law School, George Mason Law School, Pepperdine Law School, New York Law School, Hong Kong University, and the University of Dallas, School of Management and also taught and/or lectured in 17 foreign countries. Notable among his foreign visits are the
following: Visiting Professor at the University of Lyon III (France) (1999-2011); Visiting Professor at the Universidad de los Andes, Chile (2012), as a Fulbright Specialist (2006); and a Fulbright Scholar at various universities in the Philippines. Dr. Baker received his J.D., with honors, from the University of Michigan Law School and his B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Dallas. He also earned a Ph.D. in Political Thought from the University of London. Baker has taught over a dozen different subjects, mostly courses in public law. His main areas of interest are Constitutional Law (particularly federalism and separation of powers), Criminal Law, Anti-Terrorism Law, International Law, Health Care Law, Mediation, and Comparative Law.
In addition to law review articles and book chapters, Dr. Baker’s academic publications include Hall's Criminal Law: Cases and Materials (with Benson, Force and George; 5th ed. Michie, 1993); An Introduction to the Law of the United States (ed. with Levasseur; University Press of America, 1992). He has also published on Forbes.com, FoxNews.com, in The Washington Times, and a number of times in The Wall Street Journal. He argues in federal court, including two oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court. For many years, he co-taught courses for the Federalist Society on separation of powers with the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In September 2016, he co-taught a Supreme Court seminar in China with Justice Samuel Alito. Following law school, he served as a law clerk in federal district court and as an assistant district attorney in New Orleans before joining LSU in 1975. While a professor, he has been as a consultant to USAID, USIA (since rolled into the State Department), the Justice Department, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Separation of Powers, and the Office of Planning in the White House. He served on an ABA Task Force which issued the report, The Federalization of Crime (1998) and later as a consultant to the “Bi-Partisan Task Force on the Over- federalization of Crime” (2012-2014) created by the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime. Dr. Baker was a co-founder of the first iteration (1995) of Stratfor Inc., a global intelligence agency. He co-authored its first book: The Intelligence Edge (with Friedman, Friedman and Chapman; Crown Books/Random House 1997). In 2022, he began a short, weekly video podcast available on YouTube and Rumble, The Baker Brief.
Of Counsel, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Amanda H. Neely is of counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and is a member of the Public Policy, Congressional Investigations, White Collar, and National Security practice groups.
Ms. Neely has extensive experience working on Capitol Hill. She leverages that expertise to advise clients regarding their interactions with Congress and the executive branch. Over the course of ten years, Ms. Neely held several senior staff positions in Congress. She served as Director of Governmental Affairs for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and General Counsel to Senator Rob Portman. Under Senator Portman’s chairmanship, she also served as Deputy Chief Counsel for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In those roles, she managed Senator Portman’s regulatory reform agenda and led oversight of federal government agencies and investigations into private entities. She previously served in several other Capitol Hill offices including as Oversight Counsel for the House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means.
Congressional Investigations: At Gibson Dunn, Ms. Neely has represented clients undergoing investigations by numerous congressional committees, including the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; Senate Finance Committee; Senate Judiciary Committee; Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; House Committee on Oversight and Accountability; House Judiciary Committee; and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In the course of those representations, Ms. Neely assists clients in all stages of investigations, including responding to letter requests and subpoenas to preparing witnesses for interviews, depositions, and congressional hearings. She also has assisted clients appearing before independent commissions such as the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and the Commission on Wartime Contracting.
Public Policy: Ms. Neely also works with clients to advance their legislative interests on Capitol Hill by gathering intelligence, formulating strategic plans, and executing lobbying campaigns. In those matters, she has represented a wide range of clients from the fields of technology, healthcare, finance, and energy.
Regulatory Counseling: Ms. Neely regularly advises clients regarding their interests before regulatory agencies. Her expertise in the CHIPS and Science Act allows her to help clients comply with the Department of Commerce’s regulations and assist them in commenting on agency rules and applying for funding. She also works with clients to engage in the rulemaking process at agencies ranging from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ms. Neely also has participated in a variety of litigation matters before state and federal trial and appellate courts, including several class action defense and False Claims Act cases.
Ms. Neely clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle, then-Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She earned her law degree cum laude from Duke University School of Law, where she served as the Articles Editor for both the Alaska Law Review and the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy. She was a member of the Duke Law Moot Court Board and served on the executive board of the Duke Law Federalist Society.
Ms. Neely graduated cum laude from Princeton University, where she majored in English and earned a certificate in Medieval Studies. She served for two years on United States Senator Elizabeth Dole’s staff as a legislative correspondent, focusing on banking, housing, budget, and tax issues. Ms. Neely is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and before the United States Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
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