Constitutional Conventions

Prof. Marc DeGirolami is the Cary Fields Professor of Law at St. John’s University School of Law, where he is also the co-director of the Center for Law and Religion. His research interests include law and religion, freedom of speech, constitutional law, jurisprudence, tort law, and criminal law. His book, The Tragedy of Religious Freedom, was published by Harvard University Press in 2013. Prof. DeGirolami joins Rob and Teddy to talk about the Establishment Clause and the role of religion in American public life.

Prof. John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution.He also served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the Department of Justice during the Bush Administration, where he worked on issues related to national security and the war on terrorism. He was also General Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee.Prof. Yoo joins Jon and Rob to talk about the contours of the American presidency and the nature of the executive power.

Prof. Vincent Phillip Muñoz is the Tocqueville Associate Professor of Political Science and Concurrent Associate Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. He is the Founding Director of ND’s Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government. His most recent book, Religious Liberty and the American Founding: Natural Rights and the Original Meanings of the First Amendment Religion Clauses, was published in 2022. His writing has been cited by Justice Alito in Fulton (2021) and Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas in Espinoza (2020).Prof. Muñoz joins the show to talk about his new book, its arguments and methodology, and the various strains informing the Founding Fathers' philosophy of religious liberty.

Prof. David Blight is Sterling Professor of American History at Yale University. Prof. Blight is one of the world's leading experts on the American Civil War and Frederick Douglass. He won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Bancroft Prize in 2019 for his most recent book, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. His 2001 book Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory won the Bancroft Prize.Prof. Blight joins Jon and Rob to talk about how historical research can inform the legal profession and his career as a leading light in the American academy.

Roger Pilon holds the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. Before joining Cato in 1988, Pilon held senior posts in the Reagan administration and was a national fellow at the Hoover Institution. Between 1989 and 2019, Dr. Pilon served as director of Cato’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, which he founded.Dr. Pilon joins Jon and Rob to talk about unenumerated rights, natural rights, and the Founders' conceptions of Lockean theory in constitutional self-government.

Andrew Kloster is General Counsel at Personnel Policy Operations. He was previously the Associate Director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel and Deputy General Counsel of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).Andrew joins the show to talk about civil service reform, public servants and the administrative state.

Sherif Girgis is an Associate Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School, where his research sits at the intersection of law and philosophy. His first book, What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, was co-authored with Robert P. George and Ryan T. Anderson and was cited by Justice Alito in his dissent in US v. Windsor. He also served as a law clerk to Justice Alito, earned a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford, and graduated from Princeton, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.Sherif joins Jon and Rob to talk about the legal reasoning employed in Dobbs and its implications for future litigation.

Kirby West is an attorney at the Institute for Justice. Earlier this year, she worked on the IJ team that successfully litigated Carson v. Makin at the Supreme Court of the United States.In the Season 2 opener, Kirby joins Jon and new host Robert Capodilupo to talk about Carson v. Makin, educational choice, and free exercise litigation.

Elbridge Colby is the co-founder and a principal of The Marathon Initiative, a policy initiative designed to prepare the United States for an era of great power competition. His new book, The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict, lays out a plan for preventing China from establishing hegemony over East Asia. It was selected by the Wall Street Journal as one of the Top 10 Books of 2021.In this season finale, he joins Zack and Jon to talk about his new book and the future of conservative foreign policy.

Prof. Joshua Kleinfeld is a Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. His research focuses on the distinctive social function and sense of justice at work in the criminal system. He also studies the theory and practice of democratic self-governance as both a matter of political theory and of public law.Prof. Kleinfeld joins Zack and guest host Katie Mahoney to talk about everything from scholarly rigor and epistemology to the state of legal education and the nature of law.

Dr. Joseph Simmons is the Vice President of Academic Affairs for the Yale Federalist Society and a 3L at Yale Law School. Joseph joins Jon and Zack to talk about his recent note in the Yale Law Journal, “Reconstructing the Bankruptcy Power: An Originalist Approach."Joseph, Jon, and Zack talk about the Bankruptcy Clause, originalist methodology, and the process of getting published by the Yale Law Journal.

Judge Justin Walker serves on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Before his elevation in 2020, he served as a judge on the US District Court for the District of Western Kentucky. Prior to being appointed to the bench Judge Walker, among other things, served as a speechwriter for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and taught law at the University of Louisville.Judge Walker joins Jon and Zack to talk about everything from his experiences as Secretary Rumsfeld's speechwriter and the importance of learning to disagree to the career of Winston Churchill and development economics.

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many are pursuing legal challenges in international courts against Putin’s regime. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton joins Jon and Zack to discuss why these efforts are misguided and what recent developments in the war mean for American grand strategy.Along the way, they talk about everything from international law at the UN and US leadership on the world stage to the state of legal education in America today.Ambassador John Bolton served as the 27th United States National Security Advisor and as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations. He received his JD from Yale Law School in 1974.

On this pilot episode, co-hosts Jonathan Feld and Zack Austin discuss what it means to be a conservative law student at Yale Law School, their involvement with the Federalist Society, and what they hope to achieve with this new show.Every week, Constitutional Conventions looks forward to bringing you the best commentary from foremost thinkers, judges, and leaders on debates and controversies in American public life.