Steven G. Calabresi - Steven G. Calabresi co-founded The Federalist Society and serves as the Chairman of the Society’s Board of Directors. He served in the Reagan and first Bush Administrations from 1985 to 1990 and advised Attorney General Edwin Meese III, Ronald Reagan’s Domestic Policy Chief, T. Kenneth Cribb, and he wrote speeches for former Vice President Dan Quayle. Since joining the Northwestern faculty in 1990, Calabresi has published more than 30 articles and comments in law reviews. He is the George C. Dix Professor of Constitutional Law for 1998-2000 and for 2004-2007.
Neal Katyal - Neal Katyal, a Professor at Georgetown University Law School, recently won Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in the United States Supreme Court, a case that challenged the policy of military trials at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba.
Katyal previously served as National Security Adviser in the U.S. Justice Department and was commissioned by President Clinton to write a report on the need for more legal pro bono work. He also served as Vice President Al Gore's co-counsel in the Supreme Court election dispute of 2000, and represented the Deans of most major private law schools in the landmark University of Michigan affirmative-action case Grutter v. Bollinger (2003).
Katyal clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer as well as Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals. He attended Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. His Articles have appeared in virtually every major law review and newspaper in America.
Katyal was named Lawyer of the Year in 2006 by Lawyers USA, Runner-Up for Lawyer of the Year 2006 by National Law Journal, one of the top 50 litigators nationwide 45 years old or younger by American Lawyer (2007), and one of 10 Non-Resident Indian Achievers Worldwide by Hindustan Times.
He has also been awarded the Town of Salem, Massachusetts Prize (2007); the ACLU Foundation’s Roger Baldwin Award (2007), and the 2004 National Law Journal pro bono award for his work.
Michael S. Paulsen - Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen teaches and writes in the areas of civil procedure, criminal procedure, legal ethics, constitutional law, and law and religion. He currently teaches courses on civil procedure, professional responsibility, separation of powers, and law and religion. From 1998-99 he held the Julius E. Davis Chair in Law. In 1999, he was appointed to the Briggs and Morgan Professorship in Law.
Professor Paulsen received his B.A. degree with distinction from Northwestern University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received an M.A. degree in Religion from Yale Divinity School and a J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1985. While in law school, Professor Paulsen was an editor of the Yale Law Journal, won the Harlan Fiske Stone Prize for appellate advocacy, and was a director of the Yale Federalist Society. After graduation from law school, Professor Paulsen joined the United States Department of Justice in the Criminal Division Honors Program. In 1986 he became staff counsel for the Center for Law & Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C. He then returned to the United States Department of Justice as an attorney- advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel. Professor Paulsen joined the University of Minnesota Law School faculty in 1991.
David B. Rivkin Jr. - David B. Rivkin, Jr., is a member of the firm Baker Hostetler, litigation, international and environmental groups. He has in-depth experience with various constitutional issues that are frequently implicated by federal regulatory statutes, including commerce clause-, appointments clause- and due process-related issues, as well as First and Tenth amendment-related matters.
Mr. Rivkin also has practiced in the area of public international law and has extensive experience in international arbitration and policy advocacy on a wide range of international and domestic issues, including treaty implementation, multilateral and unilateral sanctions, corporate law, environmental and energy matters (with an emphasis on policy, regulatory and enforcement issues).
Nadine Strossen - Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law at New York Law School, has written, lectured, and practiced extensively in the areas of constitutional law, civil liberties, and international human rights. Since 1991, she has served as president of the American Civil Liberties Union, the first woman to head the nation's largest and oldest civil liberties organization.
American Exceptionalism, the War on Terror and the Rule of Law in the Islamic World with discussants Neal K. Katyal, Michael S. Paulsen, David B. Rivkin, Nadine Strossen
Since at least the time of the American Revolution, America has been a revolutionary force for democracy and liberty in world affairs. Some have called us a dangerous and revolutionary nation. American ideas about democracy and liberty have played a role over the last 200 years in the French Revolution, the Latin American wars of independence from Spain and Portugal, reform efforts in Britain, the revolutions of 1848, Woodrow Wilson's war to make the world safe for democracy, the Second World War struggle against the Nazis and fascists, and the cold war struggle against communist totalitarianism. Is it fair to say that Americans have spread our system of government to Western and Eastern Europe, to Latin America, to Japan, and to much of the rest of the world? If so, what role, if any, should America play in spreading democracy and liberty to the Islamic World? Do we have a special responsibility in Iraq or elsewhere to spread our ideas about freedom, self-government, and the rule of law? What are the limits on America's foreign policy responsibilities? Should we be an exemplar of liberty and democracy only, or should we actively seek to spread our way of life around the world? Can or should a country that believes in liberty and democracy ever engage in imperialism? - The Federalist Society