General Counsel, Building Industry Association of Washington
Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law (Retired)
Gail Heriot is a recently retired law professor from the University of San Diego. She also served as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2007 to 2025. She is also the chairman of the board of the American Civil Rights Project and the chair emerita of the Civil Rights practice group at the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy.
Professor Heriot is a prolific writer in the area of civil rights. She is the author of many law review articles. She is also the editor (along with Maimon Schwarzschild) of the 2021 anthology, A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education. Her upcoming book is entitled, Why We Walk on Eggshell: How Our Civil Rights Laws Helped Bring About the Woke Era—And the Trump Era, Too.
Her writings for a general audience have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the National Review and many other newspapers and magazines.
In 1996, she co-chaired the successful “Yes on Proposition 209” campaign, which amended the California Constitution to prohibit state-sponsored discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. In 2020, she co-chaired the “No on Proposition 16” campaign, which successfully prevented Proposition 209’s repeal.
Legal Director & Chief Legislative Counsel, Human Rights Campaign
Lara Schwartz joined the Human Rights Campaign as senior counsel in 2002. Schwartz advocates against discriminatory constitutional amendments such as the "Federal Marriage Amendment." She promotes legislation on tax, benefits and other issues that affect the everyday lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their families, as well as legislation to prevent bias motivated violence. Schwartz works on matters affecting the judiciary, including judicial nominations and opposition to measures that threaten judicial independence. Before joining HRC, Schwartz was associated with the law firm of Gilbert, Heintz & Randolph LLP, where she focused on legislative redistricting, voting rights, insurance litigation and fair housing. Before that, she was with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom, where her practice included defending Securities and Exchange Commission investigations and representing companies in rulemaking proceedings. Before going into private practice, Schwartz served as a law clerk to the Hon. Ronald Lee Gilman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. A graduate of Harvard Law School and Brown University, she is admitted to the bars of Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Executive Director, Ohio Dental Association
David J. Owsiany is the executive director of the Ohio Dental Association and a past president of the Columbus Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society.
He has served as CEO of a statewide health care association, president of the Buckeye Institute, chief of policy for the Ohio Department of Insurance, judicial law clerk for the Illinois Appellate Court, and staffer on the United State Senate Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Owsiany has written dozens of articles on legal and public policy issues for various publications, including the University of Toledo Law Review, the Federalist Society's State Court Docket Watch, Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Crain’s Cleveland Business, and Akron Beacon Journal.
Owsiany received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and B.A. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Attorney and Legal Commentator
John Shu is an attorney and legal commentator. His focus areas include constitutional law, securities & corporate law, antitrust law, administrative law, politics, and international affairs. Mr. Shu has lectured and published on a wide variety of issues.
Mr. Shu served President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush. He also served Judge Stanley Sporkin, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who was Director of Enforcement at the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission and General Counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency, and Judge Paul Roney, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, who was Presiding Judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review.
Mr. Shu is a member of the National Committee on U.S. - China Relations, the Pacific Council on International Policy, and the Foreign Policy Association.
Dr. John Eastman is the former Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service and former Dean at Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law, where he had been a member of the faculty since 1999, specializing in Constitutional Law, Legal History, and Property. He is a founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute that he founded in 1999. He has a Ph.D. in Government from the Claremont Graduate School and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and a B.A. in Politics and Economics from the University of Dallas. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage.
Prior to joining the Chapman law faculty, Dr. Eastman served as a law clerk to the Honorable Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, and to the Honorable J. Michael Luttig, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced law with the national law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. Dr. Eastman has also represented numerous clients in important constitutional law matters and has argued before the Supreme Court. On behalf of the Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, he has participated as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and State Supreme Courts in more than one hundred cases of constitutional significance, including Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (the school vouchers case), Kelo v. New London, Ct. (eminent domain), and Van Orden v. Perry (the 10 Commandments case). He has also appeared as an expert legal commentator on numerous television and radio programs, including C-SPAN, Fox News, PBS, NewsHour, and The O'Reilly Factor.
Partner, King & Spalding LLP
A partner in the FDA and Life Sciences practice at King & Spalding LLP, Marisa Maleck focuses on litigation, regulatory matters and public policy, with a focus on consumer products. As a former senior counsel at a bio-tech company and in private practice, Marisa has substantial experience with and is skilled in providing creative solutions in the face of uncertainty.
Marisa represents clients in a variety of matters with a focus on FDA-regulated products like food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, wellness products, cosmetics, tobacco and cannabis. As a former senior counsel at an FDA-regulated biotech company and as a former partner in King & Spalding’s Litigation and Global Disputes practice group, she handled hundreds of suits in a multi-district litigation, multiple agency inquiries, an FTC lawsuit and 10+ state Attorney Generals actions. With a special focus on consumer fraud, social-media marketing and personal injury/wrongful death lawsuits, Marisa has successfully drafted and/or argued appellate briefs and critical motions in numerous cases—including class actions and complex litigation—before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal and state courts of appeals, and federal and state trial courts. She has also advocated tirelessly for her clients through engagement with agencies and policy-makers. She also advises her clients about legal risk (and how to avoid it) in investigations, enforcement actions, private litigation and private-equity investments.
Marisa also advocates for her clients’ interests in the court of public opinion. She is often solicited for her balanced legal analysis by members of the media. Marisa has appeared on (tv/radio) MSNBC, MSN, CNBC and NPR, and in (print) Newsweek, the National Law Journal, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and Politico.
In addition, Marisa has an active pro-bono practice representing indigent defendants through federal appellate appointments as part of the Criminal Justice Act program and as a screener for the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.
Executive Director, Ohio Dental Association
David J. Owsiany is the executive director of the Ohio Dental Association and a past president of the Columbus Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society.
He has served as CEO of a statewide health care association, president of the Buckeye Institute, chief of policy for the Ohio Department of Insurance, judicial law clerk for the Illinois Appellate Court, and staffer on the United State Senate Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Owsiany has written dozens of articles on legal and public policy issues for various publications, including the University of Toledo Law Review, the Federalist Society's State Court Docket Watch, Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Crain’s Cleveland Business, and Akron Beacon Journal.
Owsiany received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and B.A. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Mr. Morgan Wood Streetman is the founder and principal of Streetman Law in Tampa, Florida. Mr. Streetman is licensed to practice law in Florida and Mississippi, where he was born. He is also licensed to practice before all federal courts in the Northern and Middle Districts of Florida, the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Mr. Streetman has a wealth of experience in business transactions and disputes. He advises small and closely-held businesses on all of their legal needs, which range from contracts with customers and vendors, to employee relations and human resources issues, to shareholder or member disputes, just to name a few.
Part of Mr. Streetman’s business practice is his focus on representing construction-related businesses and individuals. He has handled every aspect of construction law, including drafting contracts, helping individuals obtain proper licensing, construction liens, construction defect claims, and payment and performance bond claims against surety bonding companies.
Mr. Streetman represents individuals who have been injured by another’s negligence, which includes everything from car and trucking accidents, to dog bites, to a landlord’s allowing a criminal assailant to enter an apartment building common area and viciously attack a tenant by failing to secure common areas with locks and keys.
Mr. Streetman received his law degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Florida in Gainesville. While at the University of Florida, Mr. Streetman was honored with election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. The Society invites less than 1 percent of graduating seniors to become members.
United States Representative, United States House of Representatives
Congressman Jamie Raskin proudly represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. The district includes Montgomery, Carroll, and Frederick Counties. Congressman Raskin was sworn into his second Term at the start of the 116th Congress on January 3, 2019.
Congressman Raskin is a returning Member of the House Judiciary Committee, the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and the Committee on House Administration. This Congress, he joined the House Committee on Rules and now Chairs the Rules Subcommittee on Expedited Procedures. Raskin is Vice Chair of the House Administration Committee, Chair of the Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and Vice Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. Raskin is the Caucus Leadership Representative for the 116th Congress, a role in which he represents Junior Members of the Caucus (those who have served five or less Terms) at the leadership table. He was also appointed to serve as a Senior Whip for the 116th Congress.
Prior to his time in Congress, Raskin was a three-term State Senator in Maryland, where he also served as the Senate Majority Whip. He earned a reputation for building coalitions in Annapolis to deliver a series of landmark legislative accomplishments. He was also a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law for more than 25 years. He authored several books, including the Washington Post best-seller Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People and the highly-acclaimed We the Students: Supreme Court Cases For and About America’s Students, which has sold more than 50,000 copies.
Congressman Raskin is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He and his wife, Sarah Bloom Raskin, live in Takoma Park with their dogs, Potter and Toby. They have three grown children: Tabitha, Tommy, and Hannah.
Author, The Indispensable Electoral College: How the Founders’ Plan Saves Our Country from Mob Rule and Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College
Tara Ross is nationally recognized for her expertise on the Electoral College. She is the author of Why We Need the Electoral College (2019), The Indispensable Electoral College: How the Founders’ Plan Saves Our Country from Mob Rule (2017), We Elect A President: The Story of our Electoral College (2016), and Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College (2d ed. 2012). She is also the author of She Fought Too: Stories of Revolutionary War Heroines (2019), and a co-author of Under God: George Washington and the Question of Church and State (2008) (with Joseph C. Smith, Jr.). Her Prager University video, Do You Understand the Electoral College?, is Prager’s most-viewed video ever, with more than 60 million views.
Tara often appears as a guest on a variety of talk shows nationwide, and she regularly addresses civic, university, and legal audiences. She’s contributed to several law reviews and newspapers, including the National Law Journal, USA Today, the Washington Examiner, The Hill, The Washington Times, and FoxNews.com. She’s appeared before institutions such as the Cooper Union, Brown University, the Dole Institute of Politics, and Mount Vernon. She’s appeared on Fox News, CSPAN, NPR, and a variety of other national and local shows.
Tara is a retired lawyer and a former Editor-in-Chief of the Texas Review of Law & Politics. She obtained her B.A. from Rice University and her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law. She resides in Dallas with her husband and children.
United States House of Representatives, 1991-2009
David McIntosh is a leader for the principles of limited constitutional government and individual freedom. He is president of the Club for Growth, the leading advocate for economic liberty.
Former Congressman David McIntosh represented Indiana's 2nd Congressional District in the United States Congress from 1995-2001. As a Freshman, David chaired the Subcommittee on Regulatory Relief. He passed the Congressional Review Act and held extensive oversight and field hearings to build a record of public support for regulatory relief initiatives in energy, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, healthcare, transportation and technology sectors. Another issue that he championed was the elimination of the marriage penalty in the Federal Tax Code.
David served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese III, and as special assistant to President Reagan for Domestic Affairs. During the first Bush administration, he served as executive director of the President's Council on Competitiveness and assistant to the Vice President. The Competitiveness Council coordinated the cost/benefit review of major regulations and promoted legal reform measures.
David is a co-founder of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy and serves on the Board of Directors. He remains active with several free market and conservative think tanks and grassroots organizations. David has also had stints at the Hudson Institute and as a Professor of Economics at Ball State School of Business.
Prior to the Club for Growth, David was a partner at Mayer Brown, LLP in Washington, DC.
David graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1983, and Yale University, BA, cum laude, in 1980. He and his wife, Ruthie, are the proud parents of Ellie age 17 and Davey age 13.
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