RNLA Webinar:
Is the Roberts Court the Best Ever for Free Speech?
Friday, July 17th | 2:00 p.m. ET
featuring
Ilya Shapiro
Director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute
and
Brad Smith
Founder and Chairman of the Institute for Free Speech
-REGISTER ON ZOOM HERE-
Please join the RNLA this Friday for a webinar discussing the Supreme Court’s trend towards robust protection of First Amendment rights during the tenure of Chief Justice Roberts.
About the Speakers
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute. Shapiro is the author of several books and has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report. Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Brad Smith is one of the nation’s foremost experts on campaign finance law. He is the Founder and Chairman of the Institute for Free Speech and is is the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Professor of Law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio. He previously served as a Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission. Smith was elected as Vice Chairman of the Commission in 2003 and Chairman of the Commission in 2004. Once called “the most sought after witness in Congress” on campaign finance issues, Smith has authored over 40 articles on campaign finance reform, appearing in academic publications such as the Yale Law Journal and Georgetown Law Journal, and popular publications such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Review. He has appeared on numerous other national and local television and radio programs. As an FEC Commissioner, Smith won plaudits for his integrity and refusal to put partisan interests ahead of his duties, as well as his steadfast support for free speech. For his honesty and integrity, the Wall Street Journal dubbed him, “the only honorable man in this bordello.” Smith now serves as the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law at Capital University Law School. He has won numerous awards for his scholarship and teaching, and is a past member of the Advisory Committee to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Election Law. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Election Law Journal, and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Smith also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Studies, is a senior fellow at the Goldwater Institute and is a member of the Board of Scholars of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Smith is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Kalamazoo College and holds an honorary doctorate from Augustana College.
This is a Zoom video webinar. Registration is required.
There will also be an option to dial in on your phone and listen to the audio.
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This webinar is closed to the press.
By dialing in to this call, you agree not to audio record the speakers at any time and not to share any portion of their remarks on social media or by any other mechanism. This event is not a fundraiser. RNLA provides opportunities for its members to meet and hear from conservative leaders.
The RNLA seeks to promote open, fair and honest elections at all levels of American society in a non-discriminatory manner and to provide access to the polls to all qualified and eligible voters.