FedSoc Forums

Chapters 11 and 19 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provide for international tribunals with authority to adjudicate disputes on a wide range of subjects, including anti-dumping and countervailing duties, expropriation, and discriminatory treatment of NAFTA investors.
Supporters of such international tribunals state that these Chapters provide for efficient and impartial dispute resolution. However, others have raised concerns regarding the lack of judicial review by U.S Courts, as well as issues connected with certain basic notions of national sovereignty. In this TeleForum, we will discuss the merits and problems of non-national tribunals and their central role in the current discussions related to the re-negotiation of NAFTA, including their constitutionality and their role in our judicial and political systems.
Featuring:
Prof. Alvaro Santos, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
John M. Herrmann II, Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP
Moderator: Daniel B. Pickard, Partner, Wiley Rein LLP

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

On April 20, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) initiated a proceeding to assess the regulatory barriers the wireless industry faces as it deploys the infrastructure necessary to provide broadband services to its customers. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) examines how state and local regulatory processes impact the efficiency, timeliness and cost of infrastructure deployment. Notably, the NPRM seeks comment on whether sitting applications that are not acted on by state or local governments within a reasonable period of time should be “deemed granted” by Commission rules. The FCC also seeks input on the costs and benefits inherent in the statutorily mandated historic preservation and environmental review processes and asks what changes could be made to minimize costs and delays. In a separate Notice of Inquiry (“NOI” ) the FCC seeks comment on two provisions of the Communications Act, Sections 253 and 332, that acknowledge the importance of state and local regulation but also protect against regulations that impose barriers to entry or are otherwise unreasonable. A robust record has been developed in response to the NPRM and NOI and this Teleforum will examine the key arguments raised in the proceeding and offer perspectives from leading policy experts. Former FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adlestein, now President & CEO, of The Wireless Infrastructure Association, Robert McDowell also a former FCC Commissioner and current partner at Cooley LLP, and Brad Ramsey, General Counsel of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), will offer their insights on the FCC proceeding and the state and local regulatory regimes that may be impacted by the proposed changes to the FCC rules. Gardner Foster, Senior Counsel of the Sprint Corporation, will moderate the discussion.

Featuring:
Jonathan Adelstein, President & CEO, The Wireless Infrastructure Association
Hon. Robert M. McDowell, Partner, Cooley LLP
James Bradford Ramsay, General Counsel, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners
Moderator: Gardner H. Foster, Senior Counsel, Government Affairs, Sprint

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

New York Law School Professor David Schoenbrod, author of DC Confidential: Inside the Five Tricks of Washington, believes that Congress created a “regulatory mess” by commanding agencies to impose duties needed to protect the public. He contends that in doing so, legislators got credit for protecting voters but shifted to the agencies blame for the burdens of protection. Professor Schoenbrod also alleges that these same legislators later lobbied not to impose these unpopular burdens while simultaneously blaming the agencies for failing to deliver the statutorily-required protection.

In recent years some members of Congress have sought on several occasions to address these problems with various bills including the “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny” or REINS Act. Professor Schoenbrod rejects the idea that the problem originated in the agencies and offers his own alternative solutions.

Hon. Susan Dudley, Director of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, will join us to moderate this interesting discussion with Professor Schoenbrod.

Featuring:
Professor David Schoenbrod, Trustee Professor of Law, New York Law School
Moderator: Hon. Susan Dudley, Director, Regulatory Studies Center and Distinguished Professor of Practice, The George Washington University

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

President Trump is pivoting off of the prior administration's "strategic patience" approach to North Korea in favor of a confrontational posture in the face of North Korea's nuclear development and missile test provocations. In this Teleforum, expert Asia commentators will consider the range of options for addressing the North Korea challenge including enhanced sanctions leverage against both North Korea and China, urging Korean democratic unification, nuclear arms counterbalancing in the region, treaty commitments to South Korea, and how laws of preventative or pre-emptive laws of war would apply.
Featuring:
Mr. Daniel Blumenthal, Director of Asian Studies and Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Prof. Stephan Haggard, Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies, GPS
Prof. Julian Ku, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Faculty Director of International Programs, and Maurice A. Deane Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law, Hofsta School of Law
Moderator: Bruce Klingner, Senior Research Fellow for Northeast Asia, The Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC will be argued in the Supreme Court on November 27. While the case originated from a patent infringement suit over hydraulic fracking technique, it has made it to the Supreme Court for Oil States’ challenge of the practice of inter partes review by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Inter partes review is a process in which a patent conflict is brought before the PTAB so that one party can argue for the invalidation of the other party’s patent. Oil States argues that patents are property and this procedure violates the constitutional property rights of patent owners to a jury and an Article III trial.

Featuring:
Prof. Richard A. Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law; Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law
John Thorne, Partner, Kellogg, Hansen Todd, Figel & Frederick, P.L.L.C.

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

Pretrial justice policies have recently emerged as a high profile issue and have a broad impact, as some 12 million Americans are jailed every year. These policies seek to balance the constitutional presumption of innocence and the negative effects of separating many people from their families, employment, and pro-social activities with the need to protect public safety and ensure defendants appear in court. Litigation is pending in courts around the country concerning bail policies and states such as New Jersey and New Mexico have recently enacted major reforms within the last year. Other jurisdictions like Seattle and Florida are intervening even earlier in the process by reducing jail intakes through policies such as police diversion and civil citations. These reforms carry significant implications for the legal community in areas such as indigent defense. Join us for a discussion of the legal and policy trends in this area and insights into the future of pretrial justice policies.
Featuring:
Marc A. Levin, Vice President, Criminal Justice Policy, Texas Public Policy Foundation
John-Michael Seibler, Legal Fellow, Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, Institute for Constitutional Government, The Heritage Foundation
Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

The Trump administration has taken a number of significant steps to provide the regulatory relief that candidate Trump repeatedly promised to provide to get the economy growing again. Working with Congress, the President used the Congressional Review Act to veto an unprecedented number of regulations issued in the last days of the Obama administration. Early in his term, President Trump issued Executive Order 13771 that established a one-in-two-out regulation reduction requirement and compliance cost caps for agency rulemaking. The EPA has begun the process to repeal the Clean Power Plan, and has declared an end to the “war on coal.”

As a result of Trump administration initiatives, the number of new federal regulations currently under development has fallen significantly from the numbers seen in recent years. Nevertheless, it is fair to ask whether these relief measures will create any lasting limit on the long-term expansion of the administrative state. Do rollbacks constitute reform? If not, what would real and lasting regulatory reform look like? What kind of reforms are needed to restore the constitutional rule of law essential for the preservation of liberty and the promotion of prosperity? This Teleforum brings together a noted business leader and legal scholar to share their perspectives on this critically important subject.

Featuring:
John A. Allison, Executive in Residence, Wake Forest School of Business
Prof. Philip Hamburger, Maurice and Hilda Friedman, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

The concept of national security has broadened considerably since the early decades of the National Security Council, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. Economic and financial issues have been elevated to crucial elements of our nation’s security, alongside the traditional diplomatic and military issues. In recognition of this development, the recent Russia‎/Iran sanctions bill made the Secretary of the Treasury a member of the National Security Council. What perspectives will the Treasury Secretary bring to interagency deliberations at the White House? What is Treasury's broader interagency role, not just in Washington but also in U.S. embassies and military commands abroad?
Featuring:
Ambassador Robert M. Kimmitt, Senior International Counsel, WilmerHale

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

Last month the Trump Administration announced that it will end the Affordable Care Act's government cost-sharing payments to insurers. These payments are worth billions of dollars per year. During the Obama Administration, a federal district court determined, in a lawsuit brought by the House of Representatives, that these payments are unlawful because Congress has not appropriated the funds to pay for them. That decision, however, was stayed pending appeal. According to a recent White House statement, these payments must cease because "there is no appropriation for cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies under Obamacare." As a policy matter, the results of the Trump Administration's decision may be far-reaching. An important legal question, however, is whether the Trump Administration is correct that these payments are unlawful.

In this Teleforum, Andrew McCarthy will argue that the Trump Administration is right about the law -- Congress has not appropriated the funds, and the Executive Branch cannot spend money Congress has appropriated. On that view, the Obama Administration violated the law by making the payments and it is wrong to blame the Trump Administration for correcting course, no matter one's policy views. Prof. Daniel Hemel, by contrast, will argue that the Trump Administration has overstated its case and that, in fact, there are serious arguments in favor of continuing the cost-sharing payments. If so, the Trump Administration's decision itself may not withstand judicial review. Please join us for this timely and important discussion.

Featuring:
Prof. Daniel Hemel, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Andrew C. McCarthy, Senior Fellow, National Review Institute
Moderator: Prof. Aaron L. Nielson, Associate Professor Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

This definitive collection of beloved Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's finest speeches covers topics as varied as the law, faith, virtue, pastimes, and his heroes and friends. Featuring a foreword by longtime friend Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and an intimate introduction by his youngest son, this volume includes dozens of speeches, some deeply personal, that have never before been published. Christopher J. Scalia and the Justice's former law clerk Edward Whelan selected the speeches.
Americans have long been inspired by Justice Scalia’s ideas, delighted by his wit, and instructed by his intelligence. He was a sought-after speaker at commencements, convocations, and events across the country. Scalia Speaks gives readers the opportunity to encounter the legendary man more fully, helping them better understand the jurisprudence that made him one of the most important justices in the Court's history and introducing them to his broader insights on faith and life.
Featuring:
Christopher J. Scalia, Co-Editor, Scalia Speaks and son of the late Justice Scalia
Edward Whelan, Co-Editor, Scalia Speaks and President, Ethics and Public Policy Center


Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.