Horace Cooper is a writer and legal commentator. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC and Fox as well as in a variety of print publications. He is also a Research Fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, a Senior Fellow with the Heartland Institute and the Director of Law and Regulation at the Institute for Liberty. From June 2005 – June 2007 he was a visiting assistant professor of law at George Mason University School of Law. While at GMUSL his research focus was on U.S. intellectual property rights policy, the role of the United States Supreme Court in the American constitutional system, political forecasting, the legislative process and federal labor law.

Mr. Cooper has served in senior capacities in the George W. Bush Administration including stints as chief of staff at the Voice of America and the Dept of Labor’s Employment Standards Administration. Horace Cooper previously served as Counsel to the Honorable Richard K. Armey, (Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives from 1994 – 2002). Mr. Cooper’s interests include current issues involving law and American society, political forecasting, and the changing makeup of the United States Supreme Court.

Jeffrey Reed, founder, music director and conductor of Orchestra Kentucky, also served as music director of the Murfreesboro (TN) Symphony from 2007-2010. He made his European conducting debut in 2003 with the St. Petersburg (Russia) State Symphony and the St. Petersburg Orchestra of Popular Classical Music. In 2006 and 2010, he guest conducted the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in the grand finales of the City of Charleston’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival. In 2007, Reed had the honor of being the first American to conduct the Busan Sinfonietta of Busan, South Korea. He is a 2008 recipient of the Jefferson Award for outstanding public service.

Born in Goshen, Indiana, Reed holds a Masters degree in conducting from the University of Iowa and a Bachelors degree in music education from the University of Louisville. He has also completed graduate work in philosophy and religion and holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Louisville. He practiced law for nearly ten years before becoming a full-time orchestra conductor. He also served as an instructor at Western Kentucky University, where he taught Criminal Constitutional Law.

Mr. Roff has more than two decade’s experience navigating Washington’s highways and byways, both in and out of government and is currently a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report, where he writes for the magazine’s “Thomas Jefferson Street” blog and a senior fellow at the non-partisan Institute for Liberty.

At one time the political director of Newt Gingrich’s GOPAC, Mr. Roff planned and directed political education programs training candidates for public office and political activists. Leaving politics for a career in journalism, Mr. Roff spent five years as the senior political writer for United Press International. While at UPI he worked on some of the biggest political stories of the 20th century — including the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the election of George W. Bush in one of the narrowest political contests in U.S. history.

A frequent commentator on politics and public issues, Mr. Roff has appeared on a variety of radio and television programs including “CBS News Overnight,” “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher,” “The Dennis Miller Show,” “Hannity & Colmes,” “The O’Reilly Factor,” “C-SPAN’s Washington Journal,” and even once appeared as himself on the hit ABC comedy “Spin City.”

Mr. Roff has been quoted in major publications including USA Today, The New York Times, the online version of The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and National Review.

A 1988 graduate of The George Washington University, Mr. Roff has lived in Northern Virginia for much of the last 25 years along with his children and his beagle Shaggie.

Steven H. Aden serves as senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund in its Washington, D.C., office, where he heads litigation efforts to defend the sanctity of human life. Joining ADF in 2008, Aden is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Hawaii (inactive). He is also a member of the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous federal circuit and district courts. He has practiced law since 1990 and earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

William B. Allen, Emeritus Professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Political Science and Emeritus Dean, James Madison College, at Michigan State University. 2008-09: Visiting Senior Scholar in the Matthew J. Ryan Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the Public Good at Villanova University. He also served previously on the National Council for the Humanities and as Chairman and Member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He was recently the Ann & Herbert W. Vaughan Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program on American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.

He has published extensively. Some of his books include Re-Thinking Uncle Tom: The Political Philosophy of H.B. Stowe, George Washington: America’s First Progressive, and The Personal and the Political: Three Fables by Montesquieu. He previously published many other books, journal articles, reviews and encyclopedia entries, including articles in American Journal of Jurisprudence; American Political Science Review; Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law; College Teaching; Educational Researcher; Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy; Proceedings: Statistics, Science and Public Policy; Publius: The Journal of Federalism; The Good Society: A PEGS Journal; Rutgers Law Review; and San Diego Law Review.

Dr. John Baker is Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Catholic University of America Law School. He is Professor Emeritus of Law, and previously the Dale E. Bennett Professor of Law, at Louisiana State University Law School. He has also taught for Georgetown University Law School, Tulane Law School, George Mason Law School, Pepperdine Law School, New York Law School, Hong Kong University, and the University of Dallas. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Lyon III (France) since 1999 and has lectured at universities and research institutes in Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Croatia, Slovenia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, where he was a Fulbright Fellow (2006). Professor Baker received his J.D., with honors, from the University of Michigan Law School and his B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Dallas. He also earned a Ph.D. in Political Thought from the University of London.

In addition to law review articles and book chapters, Dr. Baker’s academic publications include: Hall’s Criminal Law: Cases and Materials and An Introduction to the Law of the United States. He has also published a number of times in The Wall St. Journal. Dr. Baker was a co-founder of Stratfor Inc. He co-authored its first book: The Intelligence Edge.

While a professor, he has been as a consultant to USAID, USIA (now part of the State Department), the Justice Department, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Separation of Powers, and the Office of Planning in the White House.

Daren Bakst, Esq., is Director of Legal and Regulatory Studies for the John Locke Foundation. In this position, he analyzes and writes about a wide range of issues, including constitutional law, property rights, and regulatory reform.

His op-eds and quotes have appeared in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, USA Today, National Review Online, AOL News, American Enterprise Online, American Thinker, Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Charlotte Observer. Bakst serves on the Federalist Society’s Administrative Law and Regulation Executive Committee and he is an adjunct professor at Barton College, teaching business law.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Bakst was Policy Counsel for the National Legal Center for the Public Interest in Washington, DC., which recently merged into the American Enterprise Institute.

In 1998, Bakst founded the Council on Law in Higher Education (CLHE), an independent nonprofit organization that analyzes timely legal challenges facing colleges and universities. He still serves as president of CLHE.

A licensed attorney, Bakst earned his J.D. from the University of Miami and his LL.M. in Law and Government from American University, Washington College of Law. Both his B.A. and M.B.A. are from The George Washington University.

James Best is the author of The Shopkeeper,Leadville, Tempest at Dawn, The Shut Mouth Society, and The Digital Organization. James has ghost-written two books, two regular magazine columns, and numerous journal articles. As a conference speaker, he has made presentations throughout North America and Europe.

James has been the COO of Vista Software, The Scottsdale Center for Business Technology, and Grand Circle Corporation. He was chairman of the Curriculum Advisory Committee for College of the Canyons, and a member of the Curriculum Advisory Committee for California State University, Northridge

James now writes full time and lives with his wife, Diane, in Paradise Valley, Arizona.

David J. Bobb is founding director of the Hillsdale College Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship, in Washington, D.C. He also serves as a lecturer in political science at Hillsdale, where he teaches courses in American politics to students participating in the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program.

From 2001-2010 Bobb also served as founding director of the Charles R. and Kathleen K. Hoogland Center for Teacher Excellence, a national civic education program of Hillsdale College. Having earned a Ph.D. in the department of political science at Boston College, Bobb is the recipient of Earhart and Bradley Foundation fellowships, a Weaver Fellowship from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and a Publius Fellowship from the Claremont Institute. Formerly he was a research associate at the Boston-based Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. He has authored reviews and articles in the Washington Times, Boston Herald, Claremont Review of Books, American Spectator, Perspectives on Political Science, and Modern Age. He is completing a book for publication later this year, Humility: How America Can Recover a Lost Virtue in an Age of Arrogance.

Ms. Janice R. Brenman is a former prosecutor who was in private practice in Los Angeles from 2001 to 2012 representing nearly 8,000 individuals in over 42 states. She has commented in major legal publications on the subject of legal reform and celebrity influence on the legal system. She has also appeared in medical malpractice, products liability, and complex civil litigation, and is well versed in all forms of discovery. From 1999 to 2000, Ms. Brenman was a City Prosecutor and Community Preservationist. She clerked for the Honorable Rupert J. Groh, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Ms. Brenman also worked researching, writing, and editing under a Nobel Prize winning laureate, trained for her first degree black belt with the World Organization, and is fluent in French, Italian, and Spanish, and English.

William Duncan is the director of the Marriage Law Foundation, a legal organization whose mission is providing legal resources in defense of marriage as the union of a husband and wife. He previously served as acting director of the Marriage Law Project at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law and a visiting professor at

Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School where he was executive director of the Marriage and Family Law Research Grant. He teaches family law to undergraduates at BYU as an adjunct professor.

Allison Hayward writes widely on election law topics and has been published in a variety of law journals and magazines, including the Harvard Journal of Legislation, Case Western Reserve Law Review, National Review, the Weekly Standard, Reason, the Journal of Law and Politics, Political Science Quarterly, The Green Bag, and the Election Law Journal. She held the position of Assistant Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law from 2006 to 2010. Hayward has taught constitutional law, election law, ethics, and civil procedure. She was an associate at Wiley, Rein & Fielding in Washington, D.C. and Of Counsel at Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk in Sacramento, California. Hayward was also Counsel to Commissioner Bradley A. Smith of the Federal Election Commission. Before attending law school, she served as staff in the California legislature and managed a state assembly campaign

She graduated from Stanford University with degrees in political science and economics, and received her law degree from the University of California, Davis. She clerked for Judge Danny J. Boggs of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Hayward is Chairman of the Federalist Society’s Free Speech and Election Law Practice Group. She also serves on the Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics. She is an active member of the California and Washington, D.C. bars.

Troy Kickler is Founding Director of the North Carolina History Project and Editor of northcarolinahistory.org. He holds an M.S. in Social Studies Education from North Carolina A&T State University and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Tennessee.

Kickler is currently editor of Nathaniel Macon: Collected Letters and Speeches. He is also writing Black Children and Northern Missionaries, Southern Conservatives, Freedmen’s Bureau Agents, and Freedmen in Reconstruction Tennessee, 1865-1869. He has contributed to the anthology Children and Youth during the Civil War Era (New York University Press, January 2012; James Marten, ed.).

He has presented numerous papers at various conferences and forums, including the American Political Science Association and the Bradley Institute for the Study of Christian Culture.

In addition to contributing to constitutingamerica.org, he has served as editorial assistant for the Journal of East Tennessee History and has written articles and reviews for such publications as American Diplomacy, Carolina Journal,Journal of Mississippi History, Tennessee Baptist History, Tennessee Historical Quarterly, and The Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians. He has also contributed to Exploring American History: From Colonial Times to 1877; Encyclopedia of American Environmental History; and The Old West: Yesterday and Today.

Kickler also teaches at North Carolina State University.

Professor Joerg Knipprath teaches constitutional law, legal history, jurisprudence, and various business law courses at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles.

Professor Knipprath’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Germany when he was 10. After high school, he attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, graduating magna cum laude with a major in government. After attending Harvard Law School for one year, he transferred to Stanford University. There, he obtained his law degree and completed the class work and written examinations towards a Ph.D. in political science.

After receiving his law degree, Professor Knipprath worked at Latham & Watkins, a large law firm in Los Angeles, doing business litigation and transactional work. After teaching three years in the undergraduate business law department at California State University, Northridge, he began working full-time at Southwestern Law School in 1986. Since it was established 10 years ago, he has twice received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the school’s students.

Professor Knipprath has published in law reviews and numerous newspapers and periodicals. He is the faculty adviser to the Federalist Society and the Christian Legal Society at Southwestern.

He is married to Michelle Knipprath and is the proud father of seven children.

Marc S. Lampkin has served in leadership positions on the Hill and in state government, in presidential campaigns, and in the private sector. Currently he works for Quinn, Gillespie and Associates. He has been quoted and appeared in numerous media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, National Journal, The Hill, Roll Call, the AP, and Huffington Post.

During his tenure at Quinn Gillespie, he has been involved in several high profile and successful public advocacy campaigns. Most recently, Lampkin led the Strong American Schools 9SAS) issue advocacy campaign (2006-2009), a joint project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundations. Lampkin organized and ran the Americans for Better Education (ABE) coalition (2001-2002), supporting President George W. Bush’s education reform plan.

Lampkin has held several senior positions in the United States Congress. He served as Policy Director for the late U.S. Senator Paul D. Coverdell (R-GA)(1999) and General Counsel for the House Republican Conference under then-Chairman John A. Boehner (R-OH)(1995-1998

In his own time, Lampkin has helped raise millions of dollars for nonprofits that support education options for parents and disadvantaged children. He serves on the Board of Directors of Horton’s Kids Inc. and the Boehner-Lieberman Dinner to benefit the Consortium of Catholic Academies in Washington, DC.

Lampkin is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Political Science and Boston College Law School. Lampkin is married to Emily Kertz Lampkin and is the father of three young boys, Marc, Andrew, and James.

Andrew Langer is the President of the Institute for Liberty, an advocacy organization dedicated to fighting the petty tyrannies of government and protecting America’s right to be free. Mr. Langer came to IFL from the National Federation of Independent Business, where he headed that organization’s regulatory practice for six years.

He has testified before Congress nearly twenty times, and is routinely asked by foreign governments to consult on making improvements to their small business sectors.

For the last two years, Mr. Langer has been a leader in the Tea Party Movement. He has spoken at tea party events across the nation, and his organization was a national sponsor of the first 912DC March on Washington, Mr. Langer was a speaker at that event.

The son of an environmental scientist and an epidemiologist, Langer attended the College of William and Mary in Virginia, where he received a BA in International Relations. He also holds a Masters in Public Administration from Troy State University. Mr. Langer’s writings have appeared in both national and international publications. He frequently appears on talk radio programs throughout the country, and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera. He is currently authoring a book entitled, “The War on Small Business”.

Will Morrisey holds the William and Patricia LaMothe Chair in the United States Constitution at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan, where he has taught since 2000.

Born and raised in Rumson, New Jersey, he received his A. B. from Kenyon College, graduating summa cum laude in 1973 with a double major in political science and English. He received his M. A. in Liberal Studies in 1998 from the New School for Social Research and his Ph. D. in 2002, also from the New School, where he received the Hannah Arendt Memorial Award in Politics for his dissertation on the political thought of the American presidents of the founding and Civil War periods.

He served as legislative aide to New Jersey State Senator Thomas Gagliano; Assistant for Communications, Office of the Executive Director, NJ Transit Corporation; and as Executive Director of the Monmouth County (NJ) Historical Commission.

Dr. Morrisey is the author of eight books on statesmanship and political philosophy, including studies of Charles de Gaulle, André Malraux, moral relativism, culture and commercial republicanism, pacifism, and regime change. His most recent book, The Dilemma of Progressivism: How Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson Reshaped the American Regime of Self-Government, is the companion volume to his previous book, Self-Government, The American Theme: Presidents of the Founding and Civil War (Lexington Books, 2004). He is currently working on a study of the geopolitical strategies of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle.

His articles and book reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Times, The American Political Science Review, Social Science and Modern Society, and Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, of which he has served as an editor for thirty years.

Joseph Postell is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. He is the co-editor, with Bradley C.S. Watson, of Rediscovering Political Economy. His current research focuses primarily on the constitutional issues and the growth of the administrative state. His articles have appeared in a variety of academic and popular outlets, including the Claremont Review of Books and the Washington Times.

Charles K. Rowley is a Duncan Black Professor of Economics at George Mason University and General Director of The Locke Institute.

He has written nine books with his most recent book Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste just published by The Locke Institute in December 2010. He has also edited 32 books and published some 200 papers in such scholarly journals as The Journal of Political Economy, The Economic Journal, The Journal of Law and Economics, The Journal of Legal Studies, The Journal of Public Economics, Public Choice, Economica, The International Review of Law and Economics, The Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, The Washington University Law Quarterly and The Independent Review, as well as in edited books.

He was born in Southampton England, taught at the Universities of Nottingham, Canterbury, York and Newcastle Upon Tyne, and held summer fellowships at the Center for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University, prior to migrating to the United States to join Jim Buchanan and Gordon Tullock at the Center for Study of Public Choice in December 1983. He co-edited Public Choice between May 1990 and July 2007. He was a Founding Editor of The International Review of Law and Economics from 1980-1987.

Kyle Scott, PhD, teaches American politics at the University of Houston. He has authored three books. In addition to his books he has authored numerous scholarly articles, served as a guest blogger and spoken to audiences of all levels. Kyle taught and coached at high schools in Texas before receiving his Ph.D. in 2005 from the University of Houston. Kyle has taught American Politics, Political Theory, and Public Law at Miami University, University of North Florida, and the University of Houston. In all of his work Kyle seeks to understand how a society can order itself in order to produce justice, liberty, and virtuous citizenry. His current projects pursue these ideals in the political arena as well as in private and public sector management in an effort to reduce conflict that can result from ethnic and cultural differences.

Kyle is also involved in the North Carolina History Project, American Political Science Association, Midwest Political Science Association, Southern Political Science Association, Reviewer for the “Political Research Quarterly” and “Polis.”

Julia D. Shaw studies and writes about American political thought as research associate and program manager for The Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies. Her subjects include the American founding, progressivism and modern conservatism.

Shaw also oversees the content of Heritage’s First Principles educational programming, from the Congressional Fellows and James Madison Fellows programs on Capitol Hill to the internal lecture series of the Center for American Studies.

She is editor of New Common Sense, the weekly e-newsletter of the First Principles initiative, and a contributor to The Foundry, Heritage’s rapid-fire policy blog.

A Texas native, Shaw received a bachelor’s degree in politics from the University of Dallas, where she graduated second in her class and summa cum laude. She won the Willmoore Kendall Award in Political Philosophy, given to the top student in the Politics Department. Shaw also was a Hatton Sumners Fellow through the University of Dallas, a Publius Fellow at the Claremont Institute and a Fellow at the American Enterprise Summer Institute.

She and her husband currently reside in Washington, D.C.

Colleen A. Sheehan is Professor of Political Science at Villanova University, Director of the Ryan Center for Free Institutions and the Public Good, and has served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. She is author of James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government(Cambridge University Press, 2009), co-editor of Friends of the Constitution: Writings of the Other Federalists 1787-1788, and author of numerous articles on the American Founding and eighteenth century political and moral thought which have appeared in journals such the William and Mary Quarterly, American Political Science Review, Review of Politics, and Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal. She is currently completing a book on Madison’s Voyage to the World of the Classics.

Matthew Spalding serves as Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He also serves as project leader of Heritage’s First Principles initiative. The overall objective of First Principles is to reorient the nation’s politics and public policy to the enduring principles of the American founding.

In his latest book, We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future Spalding details America’s core principles, shows how they have come under assault by modern progressive-liberalism and lays out a strategy to recover them.

Spalding is executive editor of The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, a line-by-line analysis of each clause of the U.S. Constitution. His previous books as author or editor include A Sacred Union of Citizens: Washington’s Farewell Address and the American Character; Patriot Sage: George Washington and the American Political Tradition; and The Founders’ Almanac: A Practical Guide to the Notable Events, Greatest Leaders & Most Eloquent Words of the American Founding.

Spalding is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College. He earned a doctorate in government from Claremont Graduate School and has taught American government at George Mason University, the Catholic University of America and Claremont McKenna College. He is an adjunct fellow of the Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship at Hillsdale College.

Spalding’s work on The Heritage Guide to the Constitution earned him Heritage’s prestigious W. Glenn and Rita Ricardo Campbell Award in 2006. Spalding and his wife, Elizabeth, have two children. They live in Arlington, VA.

Lawrence J. Spiwak is President of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies, a non-profit organization that studies broad public-policy issues related to governance, social and economic conditions, with a particular emphasis on the law and economics of telecommunications and high-tech industries.

Mr. Spiwak is a prolific author whose scholarly work is frequently cited by policymakers, major news media and academic journals around the world. Mr. Spiwak is also currently listed among the top 2% of authors downloaded on the Social Science Research Network.

Mr. Spiwak received his B.A. from the George Washington University in 1986 (Special Honors, Middle Eastern Studies) and his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 1989, where he was the international law editor of the Cardozo Moot Court Board and served on the National Moot Court Team. While in college, Mr. Spiwak was selected to participate in the White House’s Presidential Stay in School Program, where he was responsible for delivering classified material among senior Reagan Administration Officials.

A third generation Washingtonian, he, his wife and their daughter live in North Bethesda, MD.

Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Paul Teller graduated in 1993 from Duke University in Durham, NC, where he got his B.A. in political science. Paul has worked for The Washington Times–National Weekly Edition, the National Center for Public Policy Research, the College Republican National Committee, the Bush/Quayle ‘92 campaign, and the American Enterprise Institute. After completing his undergraduate work, he went right into American University’s Ph.D. program as a Dean’s Scholar in political science, which he completed in 1999.

Shortly afterwards, he became a professional staff member for the Committee on House Administration under Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA) in the U.S. House of Representatives. In early 2001, Paul joined the staff of the House Republican Study Committee (RSC), where he has done legislative research, analysis, and strategy, as well as coalitions and communications work across a broad range of issues. Now as the RSC’s Executive Director (serving under his sixth RSC chairman) and the Conservative Movement’s point-man on the House side, he sets and implements strategy for the RSC’s policy, communications, and coalitions efforts. The Washington Post recently described Paul as “one of the most influential conservative aides in Congress.”

Paul also helped found, and continues to advise, the House Conservatives Fund. Additionally, Paul was the Senior Policy Advisor in 2004 for Bill Spadea for Congress (New Jersey-12) and was the President of the Duke Club of Washington from 2008-2010 (and still serves on the Club’s board of directors).

Paul and his wife, Maxine, are the proud parents of a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy.