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.
Executive Director, State and Local Legal Center
Lisa Soronen is the Executive Director of the SLLC. Prior to joining the SLLC, Lisa worked for the National School Boards Association, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, and clerked for the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. She earned her J.D. at the University of Wisconsin Law School and is a graduate of Central Michigan University.
Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
Professor Samuel L. Bray joined the Notre Dame Law School faculty in 2018. Before coming to Notre Dame, he was an assistant professor of law at UCLA from 2011 to 2016, and a professor of law from 2016 to 2018. In addition, he was a Harrington Faculty Fellow at the University of Texas-Austin for the 2016-2017 academic year.
Bray is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, and he clerked for then-Judge Michael W. McConnell on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. After clerking, he practiced law at Mayer Brown LLP, was an associate-in-law at Columbia Law School, and was executive director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School.
Law Clerk, United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Matthew is a law clerk for the Honorable Royce C. Lamberth on the
United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Following his
clerkship, he will begin work as a litigation associate in the New York
office of Sullivan & Cromwell, focusing primarily on white collar crime
and internal investigations. He graduated from the University of
Texas School of Law in 2017.
Chair, Issues & Appeals, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
The former Solicitor General of West Virginia, Mr. Lin has been on the front lines of many precedent-setting cases in appellate courts across the country, including in a US Supreme Court victory that George Will called “the court’s most severe rebuke of a president” since the Truman administration. Having argued more than 60 appeals, he brings to clients a well-honed ability to identify the most persuasive issues for appeal and a practiced understanding of how best to frame complex legal questions in appellate courts.
With experience in the private sector and multiple branches of government, Mr. Lin’s practice has spanned a wide range of issues, including major questions of constitutional and administrative law at the federal and state levels. On behalf of more than two dozen states, he won a stay from the US Supreme Court of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. Described by the New York Times as an “unprecedented” order, the stay was the first time the Supreme Court had ever put a regulation on hold before review by a federal appeals court. In that same case, Elbert argued before the en banc DC Circuit in an historic proceeding that one commenter quoted in E&E News compared to “the NBA All-Star Game.” At the state level, Elbert led the effort that persuaded the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to overturn an injunction of the state’s right-to-work law.
In 2013, Mr. Lin was appointed the Solicitor General of West Virginia. During his four-and-a-half year tenure, he served as a member of the Attorney General’s senior management team, oversaw all civil and criminal appeals, and argued nearly two dozen cases in federal and state appellate courts. He authored more than twenty-five briefs in the US Supreme Court and more than forty-five formal Opinions of the Attorney General.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Lin served as a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the US Department of Justice’s Civil Division, where he received a Special Service Award. He has also been a law clerk at all three levels of the federal judiciary: for Justice Clarence Thomas on the US Supreme Court; for Judge William H. Pryor Jr. on the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; and for Senior Judge Robert E. Keeton on the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Mr. Lin speaks regularly on a wide variety of topics, including constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, state and federal relations, the US Supreme Court, and appellate practice. He has testified before Congress, and has spoken at the national conventions of the American Bar Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Federalist Society, Americans for Prosperity, and the American Legislative Exchange Council. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and a fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
Mr. Lin is admitted to practice in the following federal courts: the Supreme Court of the United States; the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, D.C., and Federal Circuits; the District of Massachusetts; the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia; and the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia.
Law Clerk, United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Matthew is a law clerk for the Honorable Royce C. Lamberth on the
United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Following his
clerkship, he will begin work as a litigation associate in the New York
office of Sullivan & Cromwell, focusing primarily on white collar crime
and internal investigations. He graduated from the University of
Texas School of Law in 2017.
Can the President Block You on Twitter? [POLICYbrief]
Josh Blackman
Can the President of the United States block you on Twitter? On May 23 of...
SCOTUS Speaks on the Fourth Amendment: U.S. v. Carpenter
St. Louis Lawyers Chapter
St. Louis, MOLozman v. City of Riviera Beach, FL - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Lisa Soronen
On June 18, 2018, the Supreme Court decided Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, FL,...
Topics
Despite Three Dismissals, Baltimore Files Climate Change Public Nuisance Lawsuit
On July 20, just one day after a federal judge dismissed a similar case brought...
National Injunctions: Judicial Authority in the Federal Courts [POLICYbrief]
Samuel L. Bray
Federal courts are issuing more national injunctions than ever before. Unlike regular injunctions, these injunctions...
Masterpiece Cakeshop, LTD V. Colorado Civil Rights Commission
St. Louis Lawyers Chapter
St. Louis, MOCourthouse Steps Decisions: Lozman v. Riviera Beach/Chavez-Meza v. U.S.
Matthew Wilkins
On Tuesday, June 19th, 2018, the Supreme Court handed down two decisions in Lozman v....
Topics
Putting “Fair” Back in “Fair Use”
To encourage creative activity, the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to provide authors and artists the...
Courthouse Steps Decisions: Lozman v. Riviera Beach/Chavez-Meza v. U.S.
TeleforumMurphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Elbert Lin
On May 14, 2018, the Supreme Court decided Murphy v. NCAA, a case involving a...