Center for Equal Opportunity
2006 – present: President and General Counsel (1997 – 2005: Vice President and General Counsel). Writing, research, editing, and speaking (including legislative drafting, amicus briefs, and administrative complaints, as well as congressional testimony, radio, and television) on legal issues raised by the civil rights laws; monthly columnist for the Legal Times and contributing editor at National Review Online. The Center for Equal Opportunity is a conservative 501(c)(3) think tank that concentrates on civil rights, immigration, and bilingual education issues.
National Legal Center for the Public Interest
1993 – 1997: Vice President, General Counsel, and Assistant Treasurer. Writer and editor of conservative legal publications on issues of interest to business, including monthly newsletter, annual law review, white papers, and monographs. Assisted in organizing conferences, fund-raising, and administration of this 501(c)(3) educational organization.
U.S. Department of Justice
1991 – 1993: Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division.
Second-ranking official in Division; supervised Environmental Enforcement Section (150 lawyers) and Environmental Crimes Section (30 lawyers). In addition, reviewed all Appellate Section filings; had special responsibility for Takings Clause cases; testified before Congress on two occasions; argued case before Tenth Circuit; and was acting head of Division for five weeks. Served on Department’s judicial selection committee.
1987 – 1991: Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division. Second-ranking official in Division; supervised appellate, education, and housing sections; legislative work on many civil rights issues; arguments before Fifth (en banc), Sixth, and Eighth Circuits.
1985 – 1987: Assistant to the Solicitor General. Three Supreme Court arguments; drafted numerous Supreme Court briefs.
1985: Special Litigation Counsel, Appellate Section, Civil Division. Argument before Third Circuit; drafted several appellate filings.
1984 – 1985: Associate Deputy Attorney General. Deputy Attorney General’s chief of staff.
1984: Acting Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy. Head of the Justice Department’s principal policy component.
1982 – 1983: Special Assistant to the Attorney General.
1982: Attorney-Advisor, Office of Legal Policy.
Clerkship
1981 – 1982: Clerk to Judge Malcolm R. Wilkey, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit.
Other Employment
1980: On staff of Editorial and Research Division, Republican National Committee. Writing and research on a variety of election issues, especially energy, environmental, and agricultural matters.
1979: Assistant in Instruction to Professor Ralph K. Winter, Jr., in constitutional law, Yale Law School.
1979 (summer): Graduate Fellow for the Office of General Counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency. Research on constitutional issues involving a proposed new CIA charter.
1979 (summer): Summer associate at Collier, Shannon, Rill, Edwards & Scott (Washington, D.C.). International trade, energy, and antitrust work.
1978 (summer): Summer associate at Foreman, Dyess, Prewett, Rosenberg & Henderson (Houston, Texas). General research and writing, largely on oil and gas matters.
1977 (summer): Summer associate at Milling, Benson, Woodward, Hillyer, Pierson & Miller (New Orleans, Louisiana). General research and writing.
Education
J.D. 1981, Yale Law School.
Editor-in-Chief of Yale Studies in World Public Order (international law journal).
Assistant in Instruction to Professor Ralph K. Winter, Jr., in constitutional law.
Member of Yale team in 1981 Jessup International Moot Court competition
(second place, Region).
Member of the American Society of International Law, the Yale Association of International Law, and the American Economic Association.
B.A. 1977, Rice University.
Magna cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa; National Merit Scholarship; Arthur Cohn Scholarship;
Dean’s List each semester.
Majored in history, political science, and managerial studies.
Honors program in history and political science.
Rice Libertarian Association (founding member and first Secretary-Treasurer),
1975-1977.
Publications and Awards
Federalist Society “Young Lawyer” Award; publications include several monographs and contributions to monographs and books, and to many periodicals, including American Enterprise, Baltimore Sun, Christian Science Monitor, Chronicle of Higher Education, Duke Law Journal, Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, Human Events, Journal of College and University Law, Journal of Health Care Law and Public Policy, Louisiana Law Review, National Review, New York Post, Nexus, Policy Review, The Public Interest, Public Interest Law Review, Seton Hall Legislative Journal, South Carolina Law Review, Texas Review of Law and Politics, USA Today, Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, and Weekly Standard.