Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Peggy Little, Senior Counsel at New Civil Liberties Alliance, a new public interest law firm challenging the administrative state founded in 2017 by Professor Philip Hamburger, has over three decades of experience as a trial and appellate litigator in complex, high-stakes regulatory, mass-tort, class-action, products liability, securities, commercial and civil rights litigation representing individuals and high-profile litigants including Fortune 50 companies, financial institutions, public companies, and universities in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court.
Peggy is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Potter Stewart Prize. She was a law clerk to the Hon. Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Prior to starting her own trial and appellate law firm in 1997, where she was appellate consulting counsel to the New Haven firefighters in Ricci v.DeStefano, a landmark 2009 United States Supreme Court decision, Peggy was a partner at Tyler, Cooper & Alcorn in New Haven, Connecticut. From 2004 to early 2018, Peggy directed, part-time, the Federalist Society Pro Bono Center.
Peggy has participated in many national conferences and symposia addressing issues of current importance in constitutional law – specifically state and federal constitutional questions regarding the separation of powers and the first amendment – and regularly speaks, blogs and publishes on the topic of the unconstitutional exercise of governmental power. In May of 2017, she presented her paper, Pirates at the Parchment Gates, to a conference of state and federal judges at the Law and Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School. Her work has been published by law reviews, legal publications, the Federalist Society, the Wall Street Journal, Law and Liberty and the Manhattan Institute.
Recent publications include: How the SEC silences its critics, The SEC should listen to Sen. Cotton, Lucia v. SEC, Opening Salvos in the Opioid Litigation Wars, Straight Dope on the Opioid Crisis
Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law Emeritus and Professor of History Emeritus, Vanderbilt University
James Ely is a renowned legal historian and property rights expert whose career accomplishments were recognized with both the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize and the Owner's Counsel of American Crystal Eagle Award in 2006. He is the author of several books that have received widespread critical acclaim from legal scholars and historians, including The Guardian of Every Other Right: A Constitutional History of Property Rights, The Fuller Court: Justices, Rulings and Legacy in which he examines the work of the Supreme Court between 1888 and 1910, Railroads and American Law in which he systematically explores the way that the rise of the railroad shaped American legal culture, and The Contract Clause: A Constitutional History. He also is the author of numerous articles dealing with the rights of property owners. He served as an editor of both the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court, and the second edition of the Oxford Guide to Supreme Court Decisions. Professor Ely received the Tennessee History Book Award in 2002 for A History of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Between 1987 and 1999, he served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Legal History. Since Professor Ely joined Vanderbilt faculty in 1972, he has been frequently recognized by students as one of the law school's outstanding teachers.
John T. Kipp Chair Emeritus in Corporate and Business Law, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Calvin H. Johnson is an American tax lawyer, author, and academic. He holds the John T. Kipp Chair Emeritus at the University of Texas School of Law.
Johnson's scholarship is in the fields of tax law and Constitutional history. His academic tax work has focused on defending the fairness, and efficiency of the tax base. In constitutional history, he relies on the original sources, usually to defend the plenary reach of the Federal government. He is the author of Righteous Anger at the Wicked States: The Meaning of the Founders' Constitution.
Johnson earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia College in 1966, and received a Purple Heart for combat in an infantry reconnaissance unit in Vietnam in 1968. He earned a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1971 and practiced with Paul, Weiss, Goldberg, Rifkind, and Garrison in the tax department in New York City from 1971 to 1973. Following this he served in the U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Legislative Council, from 1973 to 1975.
Johnson began his academic career in 1975 as an assistant professor, then associate professor at Rutgers Law School, Newark. He joined the University of Texas School of Law in 1981 as a professor. He now serves as a John T. Kipp Chair in Business and Corporate Law Emeritus at the University of Texas.
Johnson was a Fellow of the Tax Policy Center (joint program of Urban Institute and Brookings Institution) in 2011, a visiting professor at the Office of Chief Counsel, IRS, in 2007, a Member of the Academic Advisers on the Overall Health of the Tax System for the Joint Committee on Taxation in 2001, a Dean's Distinguished Visitor at Vanderbilt Law School in 2000, a Member of the IRS Commissioner's Advisory Group in 1989 and a Guest Scholar at The Brookings Institution in 1980.
Vice President, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society
Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law Emeritus and Professor of History Emeritus, Vanderbilt University
James Ely is a renowned legal historian and property rights expert whose career accomplishments were recognized with both the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize and the Owner's Counsel of American Crystal Eagle Award in 2006. He is the author of several books that have received widespread critical acclaim from legal scholars and historians, including The Guardian of Every Other Right: A Constitutional History of Property Rights, The Fuller Court: Justices, Rulings and Legacy in which he examines the work of the Supreme Court between 1888 and 1910, Railroads and American Law in which he systematically explores the way that the rise of the railroad shaped American legal culture, and The Contract Clause: A Constitutional History. He also is the author of numerous articles dealing with the rights of property owners. He served as an editor of both the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court, and the second edition of the Oxford Guide to Supreme Court Decisions. Professor Ely received the Tennessee History Book Award in 2002 for A History of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Between 1987 and 1999, he served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Legal History. Since Professor Ely joined Vanderbilt faculty in 1972, he has been frequently recognized by students as one of the law school's outstanding teachers.
John T. Kipp Chair Emeritus in Corporate and Business Law, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Calvin H. Johnson is an American tax lawyer, author, and academic. He holds the John T. Kipp Chair Emeritus at the University of Texas School of Law.
Johnson's scholarship is in the fields of tax law and Constitutional history. His academic tax work has focused on defending the fairness, and efficiency of the tax base. In constitutional history, he relies on the original sources, usually to defend the plenary reach of the Federal government. He is the author of Righteous Anger at the Wicked States: The Meaning of the Founders' Constitution.
Johnson earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia College in 1966, and received a Purple Heart for combat in an infantry reconnaissance unit in Vietnam in 1968. He earned a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1971 and practiced with Paul, Weiss, Goldberg, Rifkind, and Garrison in the tax department in New York City from 1971 to 1973. Following this he served in the U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Legislative Council, from 1973 to 1975.
Johnson began his academic career in 1975 as an assistant professor, then associate professor at Rutgers Law School, Newark. He joined the University of Texas School of Law in 1981 as a professor. He now serves as a John T. Kipp Chair in Business and Corporate Law Emeritus at the University of Texas.
Johnson was a Fellow of the Tax Policy Center (joint program of Urban Institute and Brookings Institution) in 2011, a visiting professor at the Office of Chief Counsel, IRS, in 2007, a Member of the Academic Advisers on the Overall Health of the Tax System for the Joint Committee on Taxation in 2001, a Dean's Distinguished Visitor at Vanderbilt Law School in 2000, a Member of the IRS Commissioner's Advisory Group in 1989 and a Guest Scholar at The Brookings Institution in 1980.
Vice President, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society
Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law Emeritus and Professor of History Emeritus, Vanderbilt University
James Ely is a renowned legal historian and property rights expert whose career accomplishments were recognized with both the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize and the Owner's Counsel of American Crystal Eagle Award in 2006. He is the author of several books that have received widespread critical acclaim from legal scholars and historians, including The Guardian of Every Other Right: A Constitutional History of Property Rights, The Fuller Court: Justices, Rulings and Legacy in which he examines the work of the Supreme Court between 1888 and 1910, Railroads and American Law in which he systematically explores the way that the rise of the railroad shaped American legal culture, and The Contract Clause: A Constitutional History. He also is the author of numerous articles dealing with the rights of property owners. He served as an editor of both the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court, and the second edition of the Oxford Guide to Supreme Court Decisions. Professor Ely received the Tennessee History Book Award in 2002 for A History of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Between 1987 and 1999, he served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Legal History. Since Professor Ely joined Vanderbilt faculty in 1972, he has been frequently recognized by students as one of the law school's outstanding teachers.
John T. Kipp Chair Emeritus in Corporate and Business Law, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Calvin H. Johnson is an American tax lawyer, author, and academic. He holds the John T. Kipp Chair Emeritus at the University of Texas School of Law.
Johnson's scholarship is in the fields of tax law and Constitutional history. His academic tax work has focused on defending the fairness, and efficiency of the tax base. In constitutional history, he relies on the original sources, usually to defend the plenary reach of the Federal government. He is the author of Righteous Anger at the Wicked States: The Meaning of the Founders' Constitution.
Johnson earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia College in 1966, and received a Purple Heart for combat in an infantry reconnaissance unit in Vietnam in 1968. He earned a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1971 and practiced with Paul, Weiss, Goldberg, Rifkind, and Garrison in the tax department in New York City from 1971 to 1973. Following this he served in the U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Legislative Council, from 1973 to 1975.
Johnson began his academic career in 1975 as an assistant professor, then associate professor at Rutgers Law School, Newark. He joined the University of Texas School of Law in 1981 as a professor. He now serves as a John T. Kipp Chair in Business and Corporate Law Emeritus at the University of Texas.
Johnson was a Fellow of the Tax Policy Center (joint program of Urban Institute and Brookings Institution) in 2011, a visiting professor at the Office of Chief Counsel, IRS, in 2007, a Member of the Academic Advisers on the Overall Health of the Tax System for the Joint Committee on Taxation in 2001, a Dean's Distinguished Visitor at Vanderbilt Law School in 2000, a Member of the IRS Commissioner's Advisory Group in 1989 and a Guest Scholar at The Brookings Institution in 1980.
Vice President, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society
Managing Director & Head of Global Policy and Public Investment, DigitalBridge Investment Management
Jonathan S. Adelstein is a Managing Director and Head of Global Policy and Public Investment at DigitalBridge Investment Management. In this role, Mr. Adelstein works with all DigitalBridge portfolio companies on public policy and strategic regulatory matters and reviews policy impacts on potential investments.
Prior to joining DigitalBridge, Mr. Adelstein was President and CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA), where he represented over 200 businesses that build, own, and operate wireless infrastructure, including infrastructure owners, developers, carriers, and professional service firms.
Prior to WIA, Mr. Adelstein was nominated to positions by both President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush and confirmed unanimously for each by the U.S. Senate. Under President Obama, Mr. Adelstein headed the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service as Administrator. There, he led the investment of nearly $7 billion under the Recovery Act in rural broadband and water infrastructure and oversaw a $60 billion loan portfolio in rural electric, telecommunications, and water infrastructure. Under President Obama, Mr. Adelstein was appointed to the White House National Science and Technology Council, which coordinates science and technology policy across the Federal government, and the White House Business Council, leading Council meetings with business leaders across America.
Mr. Adelstein was nominated by President Bush and served as Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2002 to 2009. At the FCC, he worked to achieve bipartisan progress on issues including spectrum auctions, broadband expansion, widening access to the Internet and media diversity.
Before the FCC, Mr. Adelstein served at the U.S. Senate, in a number of legislative staff positions, culminating as a senior policy advisor to the Senate Majority Leader.
Mr. Adelstein received an M.A. in History and a B.A., with Distinction, in Political Science from Stanford University. He instructed undergraduates in history as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University and a Teaching Assistant at Stanford University. He is a graduate of Phillips Academy, Andover.
Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
Brendan Carr is the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He previously served as the senior Republican Commissioner and as the FCC’s General Counsel. Nominated by both President Trump and President Biden, Carr has been confirmed unanimously by the Senate three times.
Described by Axios as “the FCC’s 5G crusader,” Carr has led the FCC’s work to modernize its infrastructure rules and accelerate the buildout of high-speed networks. His reforms cut billions of dollars in red tape, enabled the private sector to construct high-speed networks in communities across the country, and extended America’s global leadership in 5G.
Chairman Carr is also focused on expanding America’s skilled workforce—the tower climbers and construction crews needed to build next-gen networks. His jobs initiative promotes community colleges and apprenticeships as a pipeline for good-paying 5G jobs. He is recognizing America’s talented tower crews through a series of “5G Ready” Hard Hat presentations.
Chairman Carr leads a groundbreaking telehealth initiative at the FCC. The Connected Care Pilot Program supports the delivery of high-quality care to low-income Americans and veterans.
Chairman Carr’s time outside of Washington helps inform his approach to the job. He regularly hits the road to hear directly from community members and learn how changes in federal policies could help improve their lives.
Chairman Carr brings nearly 20 years of private and public sector experience in communications and tech policy to his position. Before joining the FCC as a staffer back in 2012, he worked as an attorney at Wiley Rein LLP in the firm’s appellate, litigation, and telecom practices. Previously, Chairman Carr clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for Judge Dennis Shedd. After attending Georgetown University for his undergrad, Chairman Carr earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where he served as an editor of the Catholic University Law Review.
Principal, MLC Strategies
Mignon Clyburn spent nearly nine years at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) affirming her commitment to closing persistent digital and opportunity divides that challenge rural, Native and low wealth communities.
She pushed for the modernization of the FCC’s Lifeline Program, which assists low income consumers in defraying the cost of voice and broadband service; championed diversity in media ownership; initiated Inmate Telephone Calling Services reforms; brokered a technical solution that eliminated long-standing bottlenecks that prevented small, rural telecommunications carriers from expanding their network services nationwide; emphasized diversity and inclusion in the STEM fields; and fought to preserve a free and open internet (Net Neutrality).
Her government service began with an election to the South Carolina Public Service Commission (SCPSC) in 1998. Prior to serving 11 years on the SCPSC, Clyburn's interest in the fields of media and (tele)communications gained traction during a 14 year journey as the publisher and general manager of The Coastal Times, a family-founded, Charleston-based weekly newspaper focusing on issues affecting the African American community.
The desire to close persistent economic divides continued with the award of a Leadership in Government Fellowship from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) in the summer of 2018. That support allowed Clyburn to continue making the business case for the elimination of the predatory telephone calling rates that burden families and legal counsel that make calls to and from American detention, jail and prison facilities.
Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Michael H. Park was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in May 2019. He earned his A.B. magna cum laude from Princeton University and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Upon graduation from law school in 2001, Judge Park served as a law clerk to then-Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the Third Circuit, for whom he also clerked on the Supreme Court during the 2008 Term. Judge Park was an associate in the New York office of the Wilmer Hale law firm from 2002 to 2006, and he served as an Attorney-Adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel from 2006 to 2008. Judge Park worked in the New York office of the Dechert law firm, first as counsel (2009-2011) and then as a partner (2012-2015). In 2015, Judge Park joined the law firm Consovoy McCarthy Park as a name partner, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. During that time, he also served as an adjunct professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission
Nathan Simington was nominated to serve as a Commissioner of the FCC by President Donald J. Trump. He was confirmed by the United States Senate in 2020.
Commissioner Simington brings both private and public-sector experience to the Commission. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA.) In this role, he worked on many aspects of telecommunications policy, including spectrum allocation and planning, broadband access, and the US Government’s role in the Internet. Prior to joining the Commission, he was senior counsel to Brightstar Corp., an international mobile device services company. In this capacity, he led and negotiated telecommunications equipment and services transactions with leading providers in over twenty countries. Prior to joining Brightstar, he worked as an attorney in private practice.
Commissioner Simington is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. He also holds degrees from the University of Rochester and Lawrence University.
Commissioner Simington grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada. He became a United States citizen and now lives in McLean, Virginia with his wife and three children.
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