Event: Annual Supreme Court Round-up with Kannon Shanmugam
Date: Thursday, July 27, 2017
Time: Noon-1:00pm
Location: Belo Mansion, 2101 Ross Ave., Dallas, Texas 75201 (map)

Mr. Shanmugam is a partner in the D.C. office of Williams & Connolly, LLP, and has argued 20 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as before most federal courts of appeals.

Prior to joining Williams & Connolly, LLP, Mr. Shanmugam was an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Department of Justice, and a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court and Judge Michael Luttig on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

He is a 1993 graduate of Harvard University (A.B., summa cum laude), a 1995 graduate of University of Oxford, M. Litt., where he was a Marshall Scholar, and earned his J.D. in 1998 from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude) where he was Executive Editor for the Harvard Law Review.

CLE credit will be available.

Event: Address by Judge Jennifer Elrod
Date: Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Time: Noon-1:00pm
Location: Belo Mansion, 2101 Ross Ave., Dallas, Texas 75201 (map)

On June 20, Judge Jennifer Elrod will address our chapter. Additional details are forthcoming.

Event: The Nomination of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and the Future of the Supreme Court
Date: Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Time: Noon-1:00pm
Location: Haynes and Boone, LLP, 2323 Victory Avenue, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas (map)

(Note the location change. Lunch will be served.  The cost of lunch is $15 payable at the door.  Please RSVP to Elaine.Hadaway@haynesboone.com.)

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 was deeply involved with the confirmation of Justice Gorsuch, and was quoted extensively in the media throughout the process.

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.

CLE Credit Will Be Available.

Event: Why the Immigration System is the Worst Part of the U.S. Government (and How to Fix It) with Ilya Shapiro
Date: Thursday, April 13, 2017
Time: Noon-1:00pm
Location: Belo Mansion, 2101 Ross Ave., Dallas, Texas 75201 (map)

Please join us as Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review, speaks on reforming the immigration system. Before joining Cato, Mr. Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Mutli-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb.

CLE Credit Will Be Available

Event: The Case of Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling by Geroge W. Hicks, Jr.
Date: Monday, December 12, 2016
Time: Noon-1:00pm
Location: Belo Mansion, 2101 Ross Ave., Dallas, Texas 75201 (map)

In 2014, Marine Corps Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling was convicted at a military court-martial for failing to obey an order to remove a Bible verse displayed in her personal workspace at her military installation. Sterling’s conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which addressed for the first time the nature and scope of RFRA’s applicability within the military. Should the Supreme Court grant certiorari, Sterling will be the first military religious freedom case it has considered in over three decades.

George W. Hicks, Jr., is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland and Ellis, LLP. Along with First Liberty Institute, he serves as Sterling’s co-counsel. Hick’s practice focuses primarily on Supreme Court and appellate matters before federal and state courts of appeals, involving a wide range of subjects including administrative law, bankruptcy, CERCLA, commercial law, due process, elections law, employment law, equal protection, ERISA, federal criminal law, the First Amendment, intellectual property, jurisdiction preemption, presidential power, and securities law.

Before joining Kirkland, Hicks was a partner at Bancroft PLLC. He served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Justice Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Hicks attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Event: Texas v. United States: What Happens Now?
Date: Monday, December 12, 2016
Time: Noon-1:00pm
Location: Belo Mansion, 2101 Ross Ave., Dallas, Texas 75201 (map)

Prerak Shah, Senior Counsel to the Attorney General of Texas, will address the future of Texas’s litigation over President Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program.

Shah is a graduate of The University of Chicago Law School.  After law school, he clerked for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and then practiced appellate and constitutional law at Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher LLP.  Before being appointed Senior Counsel, Mr. Shah worked in the Texas Solicitor General’s office.

Event: The Future of Religious Liberty with Dr. Ryan Anderson and Matt Kacsmaryk
Date: Thursday, November 10, 2016
Time: Noon-1:00pm
Location: Belo Mansion, 2101 Ross Ave., Dallas, Texas 75201 (map)

Dr. Ryan Anderson and Matt Kacsmaryk will talk about the future of religious liberty in the United States.

Dr. Ryan Anderson is the William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow with The Heritage Foundation and is an expert on Religious Liberty, Protecting the Institution of Marriage, Protecting Life, Family and Marriage.

Matthew Kacsmaryk is the Deputy General Counsel of First Liberty Institute. He oversees First Liberty Institute’s education initiatives and policy advisory team. He has served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas from 2008 through 2013.