Romney Campaign Press Release - Governor Mitt Romney Announces The Advisory Committee On The Constitution And The Courts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Kevin Madden (857) 288-6390

Boston, MA – Today, Governor Mitt Romney announced the members of his Advisory Committee on the Constitution and the Courts. A collection of distinguished legal professionals, scholars and business leaders, the Advisory Committee will counsel Governor Romney on judicial matters, the separation of powers and federalism issues.

"Today, too many of our country's most important issues are being decided by unelected judges. We need men and women who will adhere to the Constitution and the rule of law. Our nation simply cannot afford judges who legislate from the bench, and who are willing to depart from the Constitution to advance a narrow agenda. When we have judges of the intellectual capabilities of Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas who have a demonstrated commitment to following the law and the Constitution, we can preserve our democracy where the American people are guiding our nation," said Governor Romney. "I am proud to have the support of these distinguished men and women whose many years of experience will be invaluable to our campaign. It is an honor to have their counsel as we address the most important constitutional issues confronting our nation."

With today's announcement, Professor Mary Ann Glendon and Professor Douglas W. Kmiec, Co-Chairs of the Advisory Committee, issued a joint statement saying, "Governor Romney knows first-hand the importance of nominating judges who will adhere to the rule of law and the Constitution. From our association with him, we know that a President Romney will nominate only men and women who have a genuine appreciation for the Constitution's text, structure and history. Over the course of this campaign, we look forward to working with this group to provide Governor Romney with excellent counsel on the constitutional questions confronting our Judiciary today."

Co-Chairs Of The Advisory Committee On The Constitution And The Courts:

- Mary Ann Glendon – Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Former Member, U.S. President's Council on Bioethics

- Douglas W. Kmiec – Caruso Family Chair & Professor of Constitutional Law, Pepperdine University; Former Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush

Members Of The Advisory Committee On The Constitution And The Courts:

- Bradford A. Berenson – Partner, Sidley Austin LLP; Former Associate White House Counsel to President George W. Bush; Law Clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Chairman, The Federalist Society, Executive Committee of the Criminal Law and Procedure Practice Group

- Elliot S. Berke – General Counsel, Barbour Griffith & Rogers and Of Counsel, McGahn & Associates; Former Counsel to the Speaker of the House; Former General Counsel to the House Majority Leader

- Michelle Boardman – Assistant Professor, George Mason School of Law; Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George W. Bush

- James Bopp, Jr. – Partner, Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom; General Counsel for the James Madison Center for Free Speech; Special Adviser on Life Issues to Governor Mitt Romney

- Jamie Brown – Principal, Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti; Former Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, The White House, and Acting Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George W. Bush

- Allen Ferrell – Greenfield Professor of Securities Law, Harvard Law School; Law Clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

- D. Cameron Findlay – Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Aon Corporation; Former Deputy Secretary of Labor for President George W. Bush; Deputy Assistant to President George H. W. Bush, Law Clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States

- Timothy Flanigan – Former General Counsel, Corporate and International Law, Tyco International; Former Deputy White House Counsel to President George W. Bush; Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George H.W. Bush; Law Clerk to the Honorable Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States

- Tom Gede – Principal, Bingham Consulting Group; Former Executive Director, Conference of Western Attorneys General; Deputy Attorney General, California Attorney General's Office

- Allyson Ho – Baker Botts; Former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and Counselor to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft; Law Clerk to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States

- James Huffman – Erskine Wood Sr. Professor of Law (and former Dean), Lewis & Clark Law School; Former Chairman, The Federalist Society, Executive Committee of the Environment and Property Rights Practice Group

- Jay Jorgensen – Partner, Sidley Austin LLP; Law Clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of the Untied States and then-Judge Samuel Alito of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

- Christopher Landau – Partner and Head of the Appellate Litigation Practice Group, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Appellate Litigation Practice Group, Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Law Clerk to Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States

- David G. Leitch – General Counsel, Ford Motor Company; Former Deputy White House Counsel to President George W. Bush; Law Clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of the United States

- Wendy Long – Chief Counsel, Judicial Confirmation Network; Law Clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States

- Gary L. McDowell – Tyler Haynes Professor of Leadership Studies, Political Science, and Law in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond; Former Chief Speech Writer to Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III

- Mark D. Nielsen – Vice President, Legal, Raytheon Corporation; Former Chief of Staff and Chief Legal Counsel to Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney

- Howard C. Nielson, Jr. – Of Counsel, Cooper & Kirk; Former Counsel to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft; Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George W. Bush; Law Clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and former Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

- Stephen Presser – Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History, Northwestern University School of Law

- Kristi Remington – Principal, Blank Rome Government Relations LLC; Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George W. Bush

- Gene Schaerr – Partner and Chair of the Nationwide Appellate Litigation Group, Winston & Strawn LLP; Former Associate White House Counsel to President George H. W. Bush; Law Clerk to Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States, and to former Judge Kenneth W. Starr of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Chairman, Constitutional Sources Project

- Jay Sekulow – Constitutional Law and Supreme Court Advocate

- Bradley A. Smith – Professor of Law, Capital University Law; Of Counsel, Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease; Former Chairman, Federal Election Commission

- Matthew Spalding – Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies, The Heritage Foundation

- Jay B. Stephens – Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Raytheon Company; Former Deputy White House Counsel to President Ronald Reagan; Associate Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George W. Bush; United States Attorney for The District Of Columbia for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush

- Richard K. Willard – Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP; Former Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, for President Ronald Reagan; Law Clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun of the Supreme Court of the United States and then-Judge Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

*Organization names are listed for identification purposes only and should not be construed as endorsements by such organizations.

Full Biographies of the Members of the Advisory Committee on The Constitution and the Courts:

Co-Chairs:

Mary Ann Glendon – Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Former Member, U.S. President's Council on Bioethics

Mary Ann Glendon is the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Glendon teaches and writes on constitutional law, comparative law, and legal theory. She served as a member of the U.S. President's Council on Bioethics from 2001 to 2005. She has represented the Holy See at United Nations meetings concerning poverty, development, and women's issues and currently serves as President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in Rome. She is a past-President of the International Association of Legal Science, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the International Academy of Comparative Law. In 1998 the National Law Journal named her one of the '50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America.' She received her JD from the University of Chicago.

Douglas W. Kmiec – Caruso Family Chair & Professor of Constitutional Law, Pepperdine University; Former Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush

Douglas W. Kmiec holds the Endowed Chair in Constitutional Law at Pepperdine University Law School. One of the country's best known scholars, Kmiec served for several years as Dean and St. Thomas More Professor of Law at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and for nearly two decades as a member of the law faculty and Director of the Center on Law & Government at the University of Notre Dame. Kmiec served Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice. The author of multiple volumes on the Constitution as well as other treatises, he was a founding scholar at the National Constitution Center, a White House Fellowship recipient, as well as a 40th anniversary Distinguished Fulbright Fellow (in Asia). He writes a syndicated column for the Catholic News Service.

Additional Members:

Bradford A. Berenson– Partner, Sidley Austin LLP; Former Associate White House Counsel to President George W. Bush; Law Clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Chairman, The Federalist Society, Executive Committee of the Criminal Law and Procedure Practice Group

Brad Berenson served as Associate White House Counsel from 2001 until 2003. During his tenure, Berenson played a significant role in advancing the President's policy initiatives in areas ranging from domestic issues to homeland security to the War on Terror. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where he served as Supreme Court Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Following Harvard, Berenson clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States. Berenson is currently a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Sidley Austin LLP. Berenson also serves as Chairman of the Federalist Society's Criminal Law and Procedure practice group and is an Adjunct Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Elliot S. Berke – General Counsel, Barbour Griffith & Rogers and Of Counsel, McGahn & Associates; Former Counsel to the Speaker of the House; Former General Counsel to the House Majority Leader

Elliot S. Berke is the General Counsel of Barbour, Griffith & Rogers. Prior to that, Berke was the Counsel in the Office of the Speaker of the House and the General Counsel in the Office of the House Majority Leader. He has also served as Special Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Senior Counsel in the Office of the Independent Counsel during the Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Investigation. He holds a B.A. from Wake Forest University and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law.

Michelle Boardman – Assistant Professor, George Mason School of Law; Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George W. Bush

Michelle Boardman is an Assistant Professor at the George Mason School of Law where she teaches contracts and insurance law. Previously, Boardman served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice for President George W. Bush. Boardman served as law clerk to Judge Frank Easterbrook of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She holds a B.A. from Brown University and a JD from the University of Chicago.

James Bopp, Jr. – Partner, Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom; Special Adviser on Life Issues to Governor Mitt Romney

James Bopp, Jr. is a Partner in Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom. He is also Special Advisor on Life Issues to Governor Romney. He has served as the General Counsel to the National Right to Life Committee since 1978 and is also Special Counsel to Focus on the Family and General Counsel to the James Madison Center for Free Speech. His practice focuses on not-for-profit corporate and tax law, campaign finance and election law, the biomedical issues of abortion, foregoing and withdrawing life-sustaining medical treatment and assisted suicide, and United States Supreme Court practice, winning four of the five campaign finance cases he has argued. He is currently a Commissioner of the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws and is former Co-Chairman of the Election Law Subcommittee, of the Free Speech & Election Law Practice Group of the Federalist Society.

Jamie Brown – Principal, Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti; Former Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, The White House, and Acting Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George W. Bush

Jamie Brown is a Principal at Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti. Prior to that, she was the Federal Relations Counsel for Google, Inc. in Washington D.C. She served in the White House as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for Legislative Affairs, where one of her main duties was shepherding the confirmations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito. Brown also served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs in the U.S. Department of Justice.

Allen Ferrell – Greenfield Professor of Securities Law, Harvard Law School; Law Clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

Allen Ferrell is the Harvey Greenfield Professor of Securities Law at Harvard Law School. His research focuses on corporate governance, finance, and financial and securities regulation. He is a member of the National Association of Securities Dealers's Economic Advisory Board and a research associate at the European Corporate Governance Institute. He clerked for Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States. He earned his B.A. and M.A. from Brown University, his JD from Harvard Law School, and his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Timothy Flanigan – Former General Counsel, Corporate and International Law, Tyco International; Former Deputy White House Counsel to President George W. Bush; Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George H.W. Bush; Senior Law Clerk to the Honorable Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States

Tim Flanigan served until recently as the General Counsel for Corporate and International Law at Tyco International. Prior to joining Tyco in 2002, Flanigan served as Deputy White House Counsel and Deputy Assistant to President George W. Bush. During the administration of George H.W. Bush, he served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. Flanigan clerked for Chief Justice Warren Burger during the 1985 Supreme Court Term.

Tom Gede – Principal, Bingham Consulting Group; Former Executive Director, Conference of Western Attorneys General; Deputy Attorney General, California Attorney General's Office

Tom Gede is a principal in Bingham Consulting Group and of counsel to the law firm Bingham McCutchen LLP. A former Executive Director of the Conference of Western Attorneys General, Gede coordinated with the attorneys general of eighteen states and territories on crucial policy questions, including matters relating to homeland security. A former California deputy attorney general and special assistant attorney general, Gede was a trusted policy advisor and counsel to two California state attorneys general, and was deeply engaged in a range of policy issues, including antitrust and environmental law. Gede is actively involved in the Federalist Society, having served as the Chair of the Criminal Law and Procedure practice group and the author of several articles appearing in the Society's publications.

Allyson Ho – Baker Botts; Former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and Counselor to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft; Law Clerk to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States

Allyson Ho served as counselor to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft before becoming a special assistant to President George W. Bush in 2005. During her tenure at the U.S. Department of Justice, Ho was noted for her work on immigration enforcement issues and recognized by the Attorney General for outstanding service. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Duke University, Ho earned a Ph.D. from Rice University and received her JD with high honors from University of Chicago Law School, where she was a member of the distinguished Order of the Coif. Following her completion of law school, Ho clerked for Judge Jacques L. Wiener, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ho also serves on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society's Litigation Practice Group. She currently practices at Baker Botts LLP in Dallas.

James Huffman – Erskine Wood Sr. Professor of Law (and former Dean), Lewis & Clark Law School; Former Chairman, The Federalist Society, Executive Committee of the Environment and Property Rights Practice Group

James Huffman is the Erskine Wood Sr. Professor Law at Lewis & Clark Law School, where his research focuses on constitutional law and history and environmental and natural resources law. He served as the Dean of the Law School for thirteen years before stepping down last year. He has been a fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies and a Distinguished Bradley Scholar at the Heritage Foundation. He is a member and former Chair of the Executive Committee of the Environment and Property Rights Practice Group of the Federalist Society. He earned his M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and earned his JD at the University of Chicago Law School.

Jay Jorgensen – Partner, Sidley Austin LLP; Law Clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of the Untied States and to then-Judge Samuel Alito of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Jay Jorgensen is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP. Prior to joining Sidley, Mr. Jorgensen served as a law clerk to William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and then-Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr., at the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He received his JD summa cum laude from Brigham Young University.

Christopher Landau – Partner and Head of the Appellate Litigation Practice Group, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Appellate Litigation Practice Group, Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Law Clerk to Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States

Christopher Landau is the head of Kirkland & Ellis's Appellate Litigation Practice. Landau first clerked for then-Judge Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1990, and then clerked on the Supreme Court of the United States twice, for Justice Antonin Scalia in 1990-1991 and for Justice Thomas in 1991-1992. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Articles Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Landau also graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College. He was an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.

David Leitch – General Counsel, Ford Motor Company; Former Deputy White House Counsel to President George W. Bush; Law Clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of the United States

David Leitch is the General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Ford Motor Company. Previously, Leitch served as Deputy White House Counsel to President George W. Bush and Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel. A graduate of Duke University, Leitch attended the University of Virginia Law School where he graduated first in his class. Leitch clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, III f the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit before joining the Washington D.C. law firm of Hogan & Hartson LLP.

Wendy Long – Chief Counsel, Judicial Confirmation Network; Law Clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States

Wendy Long is Chief Counsel to The Judicial Confirmation Network. Until March 2005, Long was a litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Long served as law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Ralph Winter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She previously served as a press secretary for former U.S. Senators Bill Armstrong (R-CO) and Gordon Humphrey (R-NH). A graduate of Northwestern University School of Law, she was Articles Editor of the Northwestern University Law Review.

Gary L. McDowell – Tyler Haynes Professor of Leadership Studies, Political Science, and Law in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond; Former Chief Speech Writer to Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III

Gary L. McDowell is a Professor of Constitutional Law at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. McDowell directed the Institute of United States Studies in London for 11 years and taught American Studies at the University of London. McDowell was Attorney General Ed Meese's Chief Speech Writer from 1985-1987. He attended the University of South Florida, earned an A.M. at the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Government and Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School and has held posts at Harvard University, Tulane University, and Dickinson College.

Mark D. Nielsen – Vice President, Legal, Raytheon Corporation; Former Chief of Staff and Chief Legal Counsel to Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney

Mark D. Nielsen is Vice President, Legal, at Raytheon Corporation. From 2004 to January of 2007, Nielsen served as Chief Legal Counsel, and then Chief of Staff, to Gov. Mitt Romney. Previously, Nielsen served as a member of the Connecticut State Senate. An honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Nielsen clerked for former Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice Neil Lynch.

Howard C. Nielson, Jr. – Of Counsel, Cooper & Kirk; Former Counsel to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft; Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George W. Bush; Law Clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and former Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

Mr. Nielson is Of Counsel at the Washington law firm Cooper & Kirk and teaches as an adjunct professor at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School in the areas of federal courts, constitutional and international law. From 2003-2005, Nielson served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, where his work encompassed a broad range of issues relating to national security and other areas of constitutional, statutory, and international law. Before that, Nielson served for two years as Counsel to Attorney General John Ashcroft, advising on a variety of legal matters including high profile litigation relating to national security and other departmental priorities. Nielson has also served as a law clerk to Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. He graduated with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was Articles Editor for the University of Chicago Law Review and a John M. Olin Student Fellow in Law and Economics.

Stephen Presser – Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History, Northwestern University School of Law

Stephen Presser is the Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History at Northwestern University. A distinguished scholar noted for his expertise on a host of subjects ranging from American legal history to corporate law, Presser is the author of numerous articles engaging crucial contemporary legal issues from abortion to federalism to the constitutional issues raised by the War on Terror. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Presser served as a clerk for Judge Malcolm R. Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit before joining the Washington D.C. law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. In addition to being an active member of the Federalist Society, Presser serves as an advisor to numerous organizations, including the Texas Review of Law and Politics and the Center for Individual Rights.

Kristi Remington – Principal, Blank Rome Government Relations LLC; Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George W. Bush

Kristi Remington is a principal at Blank Rome Government Relations LLC in Washington, D.C. A former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, Remington collaborated with the White House and Congress on the development of key policy initiatives. At the Department, Remington managed the selection and confirmation process for President Bush's judicial nominees and was instrumental in coordinating the nominations and confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Remington previously served as a Senior Counsel for the House Government Reform Committee.

Gene C. Schaerr – Partner and Chair of the Nationwide Appellate Litigation Group, Winston & Strawn LLP; Former Associate White House Counsel to President George H. W. Bush; Law Clerk to Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States, and to former Judge Kenneth W. Starr of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Chairman, Constitutional Sources Project.

Gene C. Schaerr is the chair of the nationwide appellate and Supreme Court practice at the national law firm of Winston & Strawn LLP, and is resident in the firm's Washington D.C. office. He was previously the co-chair of the Religious Institutions Practice Group at the law firm of Sidley Austin and testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of the constitutionality of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Schaerr has handled hundreds of appeals at all levels, including the Supreme Court, all of the federal circuit courts, and many state courts. He earned two masters degrees and a JD from Yale University. A former clerk to Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States, and former Judge Kenneth W. Starr of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Schaerr also served as Associate Counsel to President George H.W. Bush. Schaerr is known for his expertise in a broad range of legal subject areas, ranging from patent law to First Amendment issues.

Jay Sekulow – Constitutional Law and Supreme Court Advocate

Jay Sekulow is an attorney specializing in Constitutional law issues and appears frequently before the Supreme Court of the United States. Sekulow has been at the forefront of major court victories for religious liberty and free speech, successfully arguing landmark cases upholding the right of students in public schools to form religious groups and individuals' freedom to participate in political campaigns. Twice designated by the National Law Journal as one of America's '100 Most Influential Lawyers' and included in TIME Magazine's list of the '25 Most Influential Evangelicals' in the country, Sekulow is a frequent media commentator on legal and constitutional issues and hosts a daily radio talk show attracting an estimated 1.5 million listeners. A frequent guest at Federalist Society panels and events, Sekulow holds a law degree from the Walter F. George School of Law and a Ph.D. from Regent University.

Bradley A. Smith– Professor of Law, Capital University Law; Of Counsel, Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease; Former Chairman, Federal Election Commission

Bradley Smith is a former Commissioner, Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Federal Elections Commission. A leading expert in election and campaign finance law and a respected advocate for the constitutional right to freely participate in political campaigns, Smith is the author of the widely acclaimed book Unfree Speech: The Folly of Campaign Finance Reform as well as numerous academic articles. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Smith previously served as United States Vice Consul in Ecuador. Smith is also Of Counsel to the law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease.

Matthew Spalding – Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies, The Heritage Foundation

Matt Spalding is the Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Spalding has written extensively on political history and the constitution. Most recently, he co-edited the best-selling book, The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, with Former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese and David F. Forte. Before joining the Heritage Foundation, Spalding was a Senior Policy Analyst at the Claremont Institute and continues to serve as an Adjunct Fellow there. A Henry Salvatori Dissertation Fellow with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, he has taught American government courses at George Mason University, the Catholic University of America, Claremont McKenna College and Hillsdale College. Spalding earned his Ph.D. in government at Claremont Graduate School.

Jay B. Stephens – Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Raytheon Company; Former Deputy White House Counsel to President Ronald Reagan; Associate Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, for President George W. Bush

Jay B. Stephens is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Raytheon Corporation. Prior to joining Raytheon, Stephens served as Associate Attorney General of the United States. He also served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1988 to 1993 and as Deputy White House Counsel to President Ronald Reagan from 1986 to 1988. He currently serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Former United States Attorneys and the New England Legal Foundation. He is a Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude graduate of Harvard College and received his J.D., Cum Laude from Harvard Law School. Between college and law school, Stephens attended Oxford University on a Knox Fellowship.

Richard K. Willard – Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP; Former Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, for President Ronald Reagan; Law Clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun of the Supreme Court of the United States and then-Judge Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Richard K. Willard is a Partner in the Washington D.C. office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP. During the Reagan Administration, he served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division. While at the Department of Justice, he chaired President Reagan's Tort Policy Working Group. He has worked as an Adjunct Professor at Boston University Law School and at the Georgetown University Law Center. After law school he clerked for then-Judge Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Harry Blackmun of the Supreme Court of the United States. He earned his JD from Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude. While at Harvard he served as the Notes Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He is a member of the Federalist Society and the National Legal Center for the Public Interest.