Schaerr, Gene
Mr. Gene Schaerr began law practice in 1987 following clerkships on the US Supreme
Court (for Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice Antonin Scalia) and on the US Court
of Appeals for the DC Circuit (for then-Judge Kenneth Starr). He graduated in 1985
from the Yale Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation
and Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal. From 1991 to 1993, he served in the White
House as Associate Counsel to the President, where he had responsibility for a wide
range of constitutional and administrative law issues, including those involving economic
regulation, higher education, separation of powers, federalism, and religious freedom.
Mr. Schaerr was a coordinator of Sidley Austin’s appellate practice from 1993 until
2005; from 2005 until 2014, he was the chair of the nationwide appellate practice
at Winston & Strawn. In January 2014, Mr. Schaerr formed his own boutique litigation
firm so that he could serve his clients without the conflicts and inefficiencies inherent
in big-firm law practice.
Substantively, Mr. Schaerr’s experience includes not only virtually every area of
federal constitutional law, but also administrative, antitrust, arbitration, class
certification, contract, defamation, higher education, immigration, insurance coverage,
labor and employment, patent and trademark, privacy, product liability and warranty,
statutory interpretation, and tax law. He has represented clients in virtually every
sector, including automotive, communications, energy, financial services, healthcare,
higher education, insurance, maritime, pharmaceuticals, technology, and state and
local government. He also teaches courses in Supreme Court litigation, religious-freedom
litigation, and advanced litigation skills as an adjunct professor of law at Brigham
Young University.
Scheiber, Harry N.
Harry N. Scheiber is the Stefan Riesenfeld Professor of Law and History in the Boalt
Hall School of Law. Scheiber has written extensively in American legal history, especially
on the history of law and public policy, on federalism, and on constitutional development.
He has also led research projects and written on aspects of environmental law, especially
Law of the Sea and ocean resources policy. Other research has been in the fields of
modern judicial reform, Japanese-U.S. relations and ocean policy, and Japanese fisheries
law and development. He has served as a consultant to the Pew Oceans Commission and
the National Research Council on marine environmental issues and fisheries law; to
the federal government's Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations; and to
the State of California on the history curriculum in the schools. His most recent
books are Freedom of Contract and the State (1998), The Law of the Sea (2000), Inter-Allied
Conflicts and Ocean Law [The Japanese Occupation Era] (2002), and Bringing New Law
to Ocean Waters (2004). With Jane L. Scheiber, he is co-author of forthcoming study
of martial law and the U.S. Army's rule in Hawaii during World War II. He has also
written recently on the California Supreme Court, on modern federal-state relations
and constitutional law, and on civil liberties and civil rights in American history.
He is a graduate of Columbia and holds the doctorate in history from Cornell University;
he did postdoctoral work in law while a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in
the Behavioral Sciences; and in 1998 he was awarded the honorary Jur.D. from Uppsala
University, Sweden. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and
was twice a Guggenheim Fellow. Scheiber taught at Dartmouth from 1960 through 1971,
and then became a professor of American history at UC San Diego. He joined the Boalt
faculty in 1980. In 2000-01, Scheiber has served as associate dean of the School of
Law (Boalt Hall), chair of the Jurisporuidence and Social Policy Program, and director
of the Center for the Study of Law and Society. He has also served as Chair of the
Berkeley Faculty's Academic Senate. Scheiber has held Guggenheim, Rockefeller, American
Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Social Science
Research Council fellowships. He was a Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer in Australia,
and he has been president of the Agricultural History Society, the Council for Research
in Economic History, the ACLU of New Hampshire, and the American Society for Legal
History. He was elected in 1999 as an honorary fellow of the American Society for
Legal History.
Scott, David W.
David W. Scott is a professor at Utah Valley University in the Department of Communications,
where he teaches media law and free expression classes. Scott received his Ph.D. in
Communication Law from the University of Georgia. Prior to joining UVU, he taught
at the University of South Carolina and Southern New Hampshire University. Scott has
written and co-written a number of papers, one of which is notable for its receival
of the Top Paper Award at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Colloquium in 1999. His research focuses on the First Amendment and freedom of speech
as well as mediated communication and religion as a cultural practice.
Shankman, Andrew
Andrew Shankman received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and is Professor of History
and Director of Graduate Studies at Rutgers University-Camden, Senior Research Associate
at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and editor of the Journal of the Early Republic. He is the author of Crucible of American Democracy: The Struggle to Fuse Egalitarianism and Capitalism
in Jeffersonian Pennsylvania, and Original Intents: Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and the American Founding and the editor of The World of the Revolutionary American Republic: Land, Labor, and the Struggle for
A Continent and Anglicizing America: Empire, Revolution, Republic. He has published sixteen essays on revolutionary era and early national U.S. history
and his article “A New Thing on Earth: Alexander Hamilton, Pro-Manufacturing Republicans,
and the Democratization of American Political Economy” received the Program in Early
American Economy and Society (PEASE) best article prize and the Ralph D. Gray Prize
from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic for best article published
in the Journal of the Early Republic.
Shea, Patrick
Patrick Shea is currently a research professor of biology at the University of Utah
and a private attorney based in Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition to his many years
of practicing law and teaching, Pat is a distinguished public servant. He served as
Director of the Bureau of Land Management in the Clinton Administration and has also
worked with the Senate Intelligence Committee and Foreign Relations Committee and
the President’s Commission on Aviation Safety, Security, and Air Traffic Control.
A Utah native, Pat has a deep personal interest in the rural west. He has taught classes
on agronomy, environmental justice and the biology of urban streams. Prior to launching
his private practice, Pat was a partner at VanCott Bagley, Cornwall and McCarthy and
served as General Counsel for KUTV. Pat holds degrees from Stanford University, the
University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School.
Severino, Carrie
Carrie Severino is chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network.
In that capacity she has testified before Congress on assorted constitutional issues
and briefed Senators on judicial nominations. Mrs. Severino has been extensively quoted
in the media and regularly appeared on television, including MSNBC, FOX, CNN, C-SPAN
and ABC’s This Week. She has written and spoken on a wide range of judicial issues,
particularly the constitutional limits on government, the federal nomination process,
and state judicial selection. Mrs. Severino regularly files briefs in high-profile
Supreme Court cases. In the 2015 term she filed amicus curiae briefs in Evenwel v.
Abbott, Fisher v. Texas, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, Little Sisters
of the Poor v. Burwell, and United States v. Texas. Until March 2010, Mrs. Severino
was an Olin/Searle Fellow and a Dean's Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University Law
Center. She was previously a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
She is a graduate of Harvard Law School, cum laude, of Duke University, and holds
a Master’s degree in Linguistics from Michigan State University.
Sheehan, Colleen
Dr. Sheehan's experience as a Pennsylvania state representative gives her views on
government and politics exceptional relevance. She is an authority on President James
Madison and Republicanism. Dr. Sheehan would be a particularly good source for stories
on the inner workings of government and the history and current status of the Republican
Party. An avid reader of the works of author Jane Austen, Dr. Sheehan has also written
extensively about the enduring novelist.
Shipps, Jan
Jan Shipps is the Professor Emerita of History and Religious Studies and Senior Research
Associate for the POLIS Center (1995-present) at Indiana University—Purdue University
Indianapolis. She received her B.S. from Utah State University in 1961, her M.A. and
Ph.D. at the University of Colorado in 1962 and 1965, respectively. Dr. Shipps’ academic
Interests include history of American religion, religions in the making, religion
in urban America, and Mormonism. She has received the Liberal Arts Outstanding Faculty
Award (1985) and the Grace Arrington Mormon Studies Award (1986), and has served as
the Glenn W. Irwin Research Scholar (1989-90) and Franklin College Brannigan Scholar
(1994). Her numerous publications include: Sojourner in the Promised Land (forthcoming),
(editor) Journals of William E. McLellin (1994), Mormonism: The Story of A New Religious
Tradition (1985), and numerous other articles on Mormonism.
Smith, Hannah
Hannah Smith is the Senior Counsel at The Becket Fund. She has been with The Becket
Fund since 2007, after two clerkships at the US Supreme Court for Justices Clarence
Thomas and Samuel A. Alito, Jr. Since joining The Becket Fund, Hannah has been a member
of the legal team that secured victories in crucial US Supreme Court religious liberty
cases including: Holt v. Hobbs, 574 US ___ (Jan. 20, 2015); Burwell v. Hobby Lobby 134 S. Ct. 2751 (June 30, 2014); and Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 132 S. Ct. 694 (2012). Hannah served as a full-time volunteer missionary for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France and Switzerland. She currently
serves as a member of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society International Board and as a
member of the Deseret News Editorial Advisory Board. She writes a regular column on
religious liberty issues in the Deseret News.
Hannah received her BA from Princeton University, concentrating in the Woodrow Wilson
School of Public and International Affairs. She graduated from Brigham Young University
Law School and was elected to the Order of the Coif. She served as Executive Editor
of the BYU Law Review, as a research assistant for the BYU International Center for
Law and Religion Studies, and as president of the BYU Federalist Society. BYU awarded
her its Alumni Achievement Award in 2013.
Smith, Rodney K.
Rodney K. Smith received his B.A. from Western Colorado State College, his J.D. with
honors from Brigham Young University, and his LL.M and Doctorate (SJD) from the University
of Pennsylvania. Professor Smith also holds honorary doctorates from Capital University
and Southern Virginia University. He currently serves as a Professor of Practice and
Director of the Sports Law and Business Program at Arizona State University. Professor
Smith also served as dean of the schools of law at Capital University, the University
of Montana, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and as President at Southern
Virginia University. Professor Smith also held the Herff Chair of excellence in law
at the University of Memphis and has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Professor Smith is the author of numerous books and more than twenty-five scholarly
articles. He is recognized for his scholarship in the freedom of religion and sports
law areas. He also writes for the opinion sections many newspapers, including USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, Washington Times, Houston Chronicle, Commercial Appeal (Memphis), Union Tribune (San Diego), Arizona Republic, and the Deseret News (Salt Lake City). He also appears as a commentator on radio and television programs.
Smith, Troy E.
Troy E. Smith is professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University-Hawai’i.
Concurrently, he is also a fellow at the Center for the Study of Federalism and the
editor of Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia. He first became interested in federalism when his east coast graduate friends argued
for reintroducing wolves in the Rocky Mountains but opposed their reintroduction in
the Adirondacks. His interest spiked when, as an intern with the U.S. Senate, he watched
quarrels between his senators and the governor. Channeling his insights, he wrote
a paper on how members of Congress respond to lobbying by state officials that won
the “Best Paper in Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations” at the 1998 A.P.S.A.
Annual Meeting. Since then his academic work has appeared in Publius: The Journal of Federalism; The Review of Politics; Congress & the Presidency; Thinking Skills & Creativity; and others. Dr. Smith loves learning and tackling challenges whether that be teaching
students about federalism, writing, and reasoning, climbing cliff faces, playing classical
guitar, or enticing Hawai’i’s fish to end up on his spear. Dr. Smith received a Ph.D.
from the State University of New York at Albany, and an M.A. from George Washington
University.
Somin, Ilya
Ilya Somin is Professor of Law at George Mason University. His research focuses on
constitutional law, property law, and the study of popular political participation
and its implications for constitutional democracy. He is the author of Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (Stanford University Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2016), and The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain (University of Chicago Press, 2015, rev. paperback ed., 2016), coauthor of A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and co-editor of Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Somin’s work has appeared in numerous scholarly
journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Critical Review, and others. Somin has also published articles in a variety of popular press outlets,
including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, CNN, USA Today, US News and World Report, South China Morning Post, Legal Times, National Law Journal and Reason. Somin writes regularly for the popular Volokh Conspiracy law and politics blog, now affiliated with Reason magazine.
Sorenson, Lance
Lance Sorenson is the Olin-Darling Fellow in Constitutional Law at Stanford Law School
where he teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional history, tribal sovereignty
and public lands. He has published multiple law review articles in constitutional
law and is the author of a forthcoming book entitled The Transformation of American Federalism, which discusses the ways westward expansion modified the United States system of
divided government. He is particularly interested in the Constitution’s structural
protections for individual and institutional liberty. He holds a law degree from Pepperdine
University and a Ph.D. in Constitutional History from UNLV.
Staab, James
Dr. James Staab is a professor of Political Science at the University of Central Missouri.
He received his B.A. from Roanoke College, his J.D. from the University of Richmond,
and his Ph. D. from the University of Virginia. His primary field of interest is public
law, broadly defined, including American constitutional law, civil rights and liberties,
judicial politics, and jurisprudence. He has authored or co-authored articles or book
chapters onvarious Supreme Court justices, including Levi Woodbury, Benjamin Cardozo,
and Antonin Scalia. In 2006, he published a book on Justice Scalia titled The Political
Thought of Justice Antonin Scalia: A Hamiltonian on the Supreme Court (Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield). He is currently working on a book examining originalism
as an interpretative philosophy of the Constitution. He received the Governor’s Award
for Excellence in Education in 2012 and the Byler Award in 2014.
Sutton, Jeffrey S.
Jeffrey S. Sutton has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
since 2003. Before that, he was the State Solicitor of Ohio and a partner at Jones
Day in Columbus. He has argued 12 cases in the United States Supreme Court and numerous
cases in the state supreme courts and federal courts of appeal.
Judge Sutton served as a law clerk to Justices Lewis F. Powell Jr. (Ret.) and Antonin
Scalia, as well as Judge Thomas Meskill of the United States Court of Appeals for
the Second Circuit. He received his B.A. from Williams College and his J.D. from The
Ohio State University College of Law.
Sutton served as Chair of the Federal Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice
and Procedure from 2012 to 2016. He was appointed to that committee by Chief Justice
Roberts. He has also served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules. He was appointed
to that committee by Chief Justice Rehnquist in 2005, and Chief Justice Roberts appointed
him to be Chair of that committee in 2009.
Since 1993, Sutton has been an adjunct professor at The Ohio State University College
of Law, where he teaches seminars on State Constitutional Law, the United States Supreme
Court, and Appellate Advocacy. He also teaches a class on State Constitutional Law
at Harvard Law School. Among other publications, he is the author of 51 Imperfect Solutions: States and the Making of American Constitutional Law, and the co-author of a casebook, State Constitutional Law: The Modern Experience, as well as The Law of Judicial Precedent.
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