The Honorable Alexander Acosta, United States Secretary of Labor

Alexander Acosta was sworn in as the 27th United States Secretary of Labor on April 28, 2017. Secretary Acosta is the son of Cuban refugees, a native of Miami, and first-generation college graduate. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University. 
 
Following law school, he worked as a law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He then worked at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis and went on to teach at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law.
 
Secretary Acosta has served in three presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed positions. In 2002, he was appointed to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board, where he participated in or authored more than 125 opinions. In 2003, he was appointed Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and from 2005 to 2009 he served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
 
Most recently, Secretary Acosta served as the dean of the FIU College of Law. Secretary Acosta has twice been named one of the nation’s 50 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business magazine. He was also named to the list of 100 most influential individuals in business ethics in 2008. In 2013, the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce presented him with the Chairman’s Higher Education Award in recognition of his “outstanding achievements, leadership and determination throughout a lifetime of caring and giving back to the community.”
 

Andy Bath, Thomas More Society

Andrew Bath is Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Father Flanagan’s Boys Home, more famously known as Boys Town. He earned his Juris Doctor Degree from Marquette University Law School.  While in private practice, Andy focused on civil litigation and corporate law.
 
Andy is a member of the Board of Directors of the Father Flanagan League Society of Devotion, a non-profit corporation formed to champion the Cause of Father Edward Flanagan for sainthood. Andy is past Chairman of the Board of the Wisconsin Right To Life Political Action Committee and is also past Chairman of the Board of the New Cassel Foundation, Omaha, NE.

Lindsey Burke, The Heritage Foundation

Lindsey Burke is the Director of the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation. She oversees the Heritage Foundation’s research and policy on issues pertaining to preschool, K-12, and higher education reform. In 2013, Burke was also named the Will Skillman Fellow in Education Policy.
 
Burke’s commentary, research, and op-eds have appeared in various newspapers and magazines and she has appeared on numerous radio and television shows and spoken on education reform issues across the country and internationally. In 2015, Burke won Heritage’s prestigious W. Glenn and Rita Ricardo Campbell Award in recognition of her work fighting against national standards and tests and for expanded education choice options.
 
Burke holds a bachelor's degree in politics from Hollins University in Roanoke, Va., and a master of teaching degree in foreign language education from the University of Virginia. She is currently pursuing a PhD in education policy and research methods at George Mason University, where she examines the intersection of education choice and institutional theory.

Will Consovoy, Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC

Mr. Consovoy assists clients at his firm, Consovoy McCarthy Park, on a broad range of litigation and appellate issues, primarily before the Supreme Court of the United States and federal appellate and district courts, as well as before federal agencies. Mr. Consovoy represents clients in cases involving constitutional issues, interpretation and enforcement of federal statutes, administrative law, civil rights disputes, and a variety of other civil litigation issues.
 
Mr. Consovoy is a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Judge Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the 17th Judicial Circuit of Virginia. Mr. Consovoy is a member of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court and was named by Law360 as a “rising star” in appellate law for 2013. Since 2011, Mr. Consovoy has been the co-director of the Supreme Court Clinic at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he also is the co-director of the Administrative Law Clinic. Mr. Consovoy earned his B.A. from Monmouth University, and his J.D. magna cum laude from George Mason University School of Law. Mr. Consovoy is a member of the Virginia and District of Columbia bars.

Nicole Garnett, University of Notre Dame Law School

Nicole Stelle Garnett’s teaching and research focus on property, land use, urban development, local government law, and education policy. She is the author of numerous articles on these subjects and of two books: Ordering the City: Land Use, Policing and the Restoration of Urban America and Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools' Importance in Urban America. At Notre Dame, Professor Garnett also is a Fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and the Senior Policy Advisor for the Alliance for Catholic Education, a program engaged in a wide array of efforts to strengthen and sustain K-12 Catholic schools. From 2008-2010, she served as Provost Fellow at Notre Dame, and, during the Spring 2007 semester, as a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. 
 
Professor Garnett received her B.A. from Stanford and her J.D. from Yale Law School. She served as a law clerk for the Honorable Morris S. Arnold of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and for Associate Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court. Before joining the law school in 1999, she worked for two years as a staff attorney at the Institute for Justice, a non-profit public-interest law firm in Washington, D.C.

The Honorable Brett Kavanaugh,
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Judge Kavanaugh was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on May 30, 2006, after his nomination by President George W. Bush and his confirmation by the Senate. Before his appointment to the Court, Judge Kavanaugh served for more than five years in the White House for President George W. Bush. From July 2003 until May 2006, he was Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary to the President. From 2001 to 2003, he was Associate Counsel and then Senior Associate Counsel to the President.
 
Judge Kavanaugh was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C., from 1997 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2001. From 1994 to 1997 and for a period in 1998, Judge Kavanaugh was Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr. In 1992-93,he was an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States. In the October Term 1993, Judge Kavanaugh served as a law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Kavanaugh previously clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in 1991-92) and for Judge Walter Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in 1990-91). Judge Kavanaugh graduated from Yale Law School in 1990, where he was a Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal, and from Yale College in 1987. 

Tim Keller, Institute for Justice

Tim Keller serves as the Institute for Justice Arizona office’s managing attorney. He joined the Institute as a staff attorney in August 2001 and litigates school choice, economic liberty, and other constitutional cases in state and federal court.
 
Tim received his law degree from Arizona State University where he was a member of the National Moot Court team. Before that, he earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Arizona State University, graduating magna cum laude. Prior to starting law school, Tim worked as a research assistant at the Goldwater Institute, a state-based free market public policy organization.
 
Upon graduation from law school, Tim clerked for the then-Presiding Judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court, Robert D. Myers. After leaving the Superior Court, Tim accepted a clerkship with the Honorable Ann A. Scott Timmer on the Arizona Court of Appeals. 

Michael W. McConnell, Stanford Law School

Michael W. McConnell is the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. From 2002 to the summer of 2009, he served as a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. McConnell has held chaired professorships at the University of Chicago and the University of Utah, and visiting professorships at Harvard and NYU. He has published widely in the fields of constitutional law and theory, especially church and state, equal protection, and the founding.
 
In the past decade, his work has been cited in opinions of the Supreme Court second most often of any legal scholar. He is co-editor of three books: Religion and the Law, Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought, and The Constitution of the United States. McConnell has argued fifteen cases in the Supreme Court. He served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. and is Counsel to the appellate practice of Kirkland & Ellis. He holds a BA from Michigan State University (1976) and a JD Order of the Coif University of Chicago Law School (1979).

John Neiman, Maynard Cooper & Gale

John’s practice focuses on constitutional and regulatory litigation. He is a member of Maynard Cooper's Litigation Section and serves as Chair of the firm’s Appellate Practice group. Upon his graduation from Harvard Law School, John served as a law clerk to The Honorable Paul V. Niemeyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit and a second law clerk term to The Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court. Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business distinguishes John as a Band 1 leading attorney in the area of Appellate Litigation, and Best Lawyers® named him the region's 2017 "Lawyer of the Year" for his Appellate Practice.
 
John currently is litigating water-rights cases in the District of Columbia, and the Eleventh Circuit recently appointed him to brief and argue in defense of a district court’s judgment declining to certify a class action under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Recent victories include an employment-related appeal in the Eleventh Circuit, an insurance-related appeal in the Eighth Circuit, and motions to dismiss in voting-rights and defamation cases in the trial courts.

Mark Rienzi, The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law

Mark L. Rienzi is an associate professor at The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Professor Rienzi teaches constitutional law, religious liberty, torts, and evidence. He has been voted Teacher of the Year three times by the student bar association.
 
Professor Rienzi's scholarship on the First and Fourteenth Amendments has appeared in a variety of prestigious journals. He is also a speaker on constitutional issues, particularly concerning abortion and the First Amendment. He has been invited to speak on these issues across the country. Articles he has written have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Times, USA Today, Roll Call, National Review Online, and the Chicago Sun Times. He has appeared on various television and radio programs, including CNN, NBC, ABC, FOXNews, and NPR.
 
At the Becket Fund, Professor Rienzi has successfully represented a variety of parties at the Supreme Court including in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Sebelius; Burwell v. Hobby Lobby; Wheaton College v. Burwell; McCullen v. Coakley; and Holt v. Hobbs. Prior to joining CUA, Professor Rienzi served as counsel in the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Group at Wilmer Hale LLP. Prior to joining Wilmer Hale, he served as law clerk to the Hon. Stephen F. Williams, senior circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Professor Rienzi was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Princeton University, both with honors.

Gene Schaerr, Schaerr | Duncan LLP

Gene Schaerr specializes in handling—and usually winning—civil appeals, writ proceedings and similar matters, both in appellate courts and in the law-focused proceedings at the trial-court or agency level that often determine success or failure on appeal. He has argued and won dozens of cases in a variety of forums—including the U.S. Supreme Court (where he has argued six cases), every federal circuit, and numerous federal district courts and state appellate courts. His win rate in the dozens of federal appeals he has argued in the past six years is over 75 percent.
 
He was a coordinator of Sidley Austin's appellate practice from 1993 until 2005, and from 2005 until 2014 was the chair of the nationwide appellate practice at Winston & Strawn. In January 2014, Mr. Schaerr formed his own boutique litigation firm, Schaerr Duncan LLP, so that he could serve his clients without the conflicts and inefficiencies inherent in big-firm law practice. He also teaches courses in Supreme Court litigation, religious freedom litigation and advanced litigation skills as an adjunct professor of law at the Brigham Young University law school.
 
Mr. Schaerr began law practice in 1987 following clerkships on the U.S. Supreme Court (for Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice Antonin Scalia) and on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. 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. He serves as Chairman of the Constitutional Sources Project, a digital resource providing free public access to historical materials relevant to the U.S. Constitution.

The Honorable Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III,
Attorney General of the United States

Jeff Sessions was sworn in as the 84th Attorney General of the United States on February 9, 2017 by Michael R. Pence. President Donald J. Trump announced his intention to nominate Mr. Sessions on November 18, 2016.
 
Prior to becoming Attorney General, Mr. Sessions served as a United States Senator for Alabama since 1996. Mr. Sessions was born in Selma, Alabama on December 24, 1946, and grew up in Hybart, the son of a country store owner. In 1964, he became an Eagle Scout and thereafter received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. After attending school in nearby Camden, Sessions attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969. He received a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Alabama in 1973. Sessions served in the United States Army Reserve from 1973 to 1986, ultimately attaining the rank of Captain.
 
Sessions’ interest in the law led to a distinguished legal career, first as a practicing attorney in Russellville, Alabama, and then in Mobile. Following a two-year stint as Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama (1975-1977), Sessions was nominated by President Reagan in 1981 and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, a position he held for 12 years. Sessions was elected Alabama Attorney General in 1995, serving as the State’s chief legal officer until 1996, when he entered the United States Senate.