Financial institutions have faced growing scrutiny for debanking customers, with no explanation. While debanking is sometimes legally necessary when banks suspect unlawful conduct, recent reports have prompted high-profile questions about the practice, including from the President himself.
The lack of transparency does not help. How do financial institutions determine which accounts or services will be closed? Are these decisions driven by regulatory sensitivities, perceived reputational risk, or other considerations? Should legal limits exist on financial institutions' discretion to debank? What are the rights of corporations to choose what customers to serve and what, if any, limits might apply in an industry as heavily-regulated and protected as banks? What can be done to protect citizens' rights to participate in public discourse without fear of financial exclusion?
Featuring:

Nicholas Anthony, Policy Analyst, Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, Cato Institute
Hon. Rohit Chopra, Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Will Hild, Executive Director, Consumers’ Research
Prof. Todd J. Zywicki, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

Moderator: Megan McArdle, Columnist, Washington Post

Prof. Richard Epstein joins Prof. Todd Zywicki to discuss his academic journey, where he learned early on, particularly through the lens of Roman law, that legal issues cannot be understood by mere definitions, but by understanding deeper substantive theory. Prof. Epstein emphasizes valuable lessons he learned along the way, such as the importance of figuring out where one’s particular strengths lie and how to “do” law by oneself. How does one transition from a dutiful student to a sui generis thinker? Join us for an engaging discussion on Prof. Epstein’s evolution of academic thought and the adaptation of Roman law and early English common law to the world around us.

Featuring:

Prof. Richard A. Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law
Prof. Todd J. Zywicki, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

At this Freedom of Thought Project event, panelists will discuss the current political landscape in the US and how rhetoric from political leaders impacts our judiciary, society, and our freedoms.

Featuring:

James Burnham, President, Vallecito Capital
Jay Edelson, Founder & CEO, Edelson PC
Prof. Nicole Stelle Garnett, John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School

And later featuring:

T. Elliot Gaiser, Solicitor General, Ohio
Eric Wessan, Solicitor General, Iowa

At this Freedom of Thought Project event, panelists will discuss the current political landscape in the US and how rhetoric from political leaders impacts our judiciary, society, and our freedoms.

Featuring:

T. Elliot Gaiser, Solicitor General, Ohio
Eric Wessan, Solicitor General, Iowa
Moderator: Megan McArdle, Columnist, Washington Post

In Part 2, Professor Julia Mahoney joins Professor Joshua Kleinfeld to discuss freedom of thought in diverse professional worlds, from universities to law to corporations to medicine. Why have professional sectors become more ideological? Has concentration in the for-profit sector contributed to this development, and what are some possible solutions? What obligations do shareholders have to their employees? Join us for a conversation on market competition, government regulation, and more.
Featuring:

Prof. Julia Mahoney, John S. Battle Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Prof. Joshua Kleinfeld, Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

In Part I, Professor Julia Mahoney joins Professor Joshua Kleinfeld to delve into the complexities of governmental regulation and market power. What makes markets possible? How do institutions enable people to cooperate in a productive way? In what ways can they prohibit people from doing so? Tune in for a conversation on private power, free markets, crony capitalism, and more.
Featuring:

Prof. Julia Mahoney, John S. Battle Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Prof. Joshua Kleinfeld, Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

Featuring:

Hon. Andrew Ferguson, Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission
Moderator: Hon. Paul B. Matey, U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit

What responsibility do states have in protecting the rights of their citizens? How should we think about rights like the freedom of speech — do rights operate primarily as a limit on government power, or do they protect the natural rights of the citizen? Which framework is more consistent with original understanding? What limits applied to freedoms of speech — to what extent were they regulable by government and for what ends? How were rights defended and enforced?

Featuring:

Prof. Randy Barnett, Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Hon. Rohit Chopra, Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Prof. Joshua Kleinfeld, Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Prof. Maimon Schwarzschild, Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
Jonathan Urick, Associate Chief Counsel, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center
Moderator: Hon. Kyle Duncan, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

How did corporate rights evolve to include expressive constitutional rights akin to those of a natural person? How should we think about constitutional protections for corporate speech promoting commercial interests? Should the degree of alignment between ownership and control affect the constitutional interests of the corporation? Does SEC regulation on shareholder voting interfere with shareholders’ constitutional rights? If substantive rights like freedom of speech operate primarily as limits on government, does it matter whose rights are being protected?

Featuring:

John Ehrett, Chief Counsel, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley
Prof. Robert Miller, F. Arnold Daum Chair in Corporate Finance and Law, University of Iowa College of Law
Matt Stoller, Director of Research, American Economic Liberties Project
Eric Wessan, Solicitor General, Iowa Office of the Attorney General
Moderator: Hon. Gregory G. Katsas, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit

How did citizens understand corporate power at the Founding? What were the rights, privileges, and limits on corporations, and how did the rights of corporations compare to those of individual citizens? Should the fact that significant elements of the corporation–including their creation and ability to operate across state lines–were privileges granted by the state affect our thinking on corporate rights? And how does contemporary thinking about corporate rights align with founding-era understandings?

Featuring:

Prof. Julia Mahoney, John S. Battle Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Hon. Doha Mekki, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice
Ryan Newman, General Counsel, Executive Office of the Governor, State of Florida
Lael Weinberger, Fellow, Constitutional Law Center, Stanford Law School
Moderator: Hon. Julius "Jay" Richardson, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit

We know how to think about government coercion. We have ready and familiar frameworks for evaluating how government power should be exercised against the private individual. But courts and policymakers increasingly are called to mediate between private actors with competing claims to liberty, and the analysis is perhaps more complex and uncertain. How should we evaluate such competing claims and what are the self-governance interests of citizens themselves? Do we have a good framework for resolving conflicting interests of corporations and natural citizens, and what role or responsibility does the state have in resolving those disputes?

Featuring:

Jonathan Berry, Managing Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
James Burnham, President, Vallecito Capital, LLC
Erin Hawley, Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Casey Mattox, Vice President, Legal Strategy, Stand Together
Prof. Todd Zywicki, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Moderator: Hon. Trevor N. McFadden, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia

In this episode of Open Minds, Andrew Ferguson discusses his career, from judicial clerkships to the Hill to state government, and how the mentors and friends he made along the way helped shape his career and intellectual development.
Andrew Ferguson and James Burnham then turn to the questions of the moment. What role can state solicitors general play in curtailing government overreach? What is antitrust law? How did a bipartisan consensus on antitrust doctrine develop? How well does it align with original understanding of older antitrust statutes? And where might antitrust thinking be headed next?
Featuring:

Andrew N. Ferguson, Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission
James M. Burnham, President, Vallecito Capital, LLC

In Part 2 of Open Minds with Ryan Newman, we discuss government and private coercion and how state plenary authority plays into questions of freedom. How does concentrated economic and government power affect the democratic power of private citizens? How does a corporation's size and scale change its ability to exercise political influence? And how can conservative and libertarian discussions shift from focusing on process and procedure to inspiring substantive change?
Featuring:

Ryan Newman, General Counsel, Executive Office of the Governor, State of Florida
Alida Kass, Vice President & Director, Strategic Initiatives and Freedom of Thought Project, The Federalist Society

Part 1 of Open Minds with Ryan Newman covers how his upbringing in the American southwest and his less conventional career, including military service, as well as judicial clerkships, and service in both state and federal government, shaped his life and thought. What does it mean to fight for what you believe in? What grounds our rights, and are there limits to those rights? How do political leaders balance our competing interests in national crises?

Featuring:

Ryan Newman, General Counsel, Executive Office of the Governor, State of Florida
Alida Kass, Vice President & Director, Strategic Initiatives and Freedom of Thought Project, The Federalist Society

What can state actors do to protect or interfere with online public discourse? The recent argument in National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo suggests that there is some outer limit of government coercion on private actors to interfere with disfavored ideas. But questions from the bench in Murthy v. Missouri, argued the same morning, have some wondering if those limits might allow for significant “informal” pressure by government actors on platform operators to restrict user speech.
Together, the cases highlight the significance of the NetChoice cases heard last month. Can laws like those adopted in Texas and Florida create counter-pressure against coercion from the federal government? What responsibility do states have in protecting their own citizens’ participation in online public discourse?
Featuring:

Alan Gura, Vice President for Litigation, Institute for Free Speech
Prof. Julia D. Mahoney, John S. Battle Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Matt Stoller, Director of Research, American Economic Liberties Project
Moderator: Prof. Todd J. Zywicki, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

Co-founder of Mozilla and creator of JavaScript, Brendan Eich had made remarkable contributions to the technology sector. He also had contributed $1,000 to the (successful) Proposition 8 campaign against same-sex marriage. On April 3, 2014, Mozilla forced him out of the company he had founded, with apologies for not having acted sooner.
Watching it all unfold, Prof. Todd Zywicki was concerned, warning that this would not stop with financial contributions for ballot initiatives – that it was not a stable equilibrium. At least at the time, Inez Stepman was less troubled, confident that such disagreements could be resolved through market forces. Who was right? Join us for a conversation with Prof. Zywicki and Inez Stepman, as they reflect on the campaign against Brendan Eich, consider lessons learned, and discuss the implications for freedom of thought today.
Featuring:

Prof. Todd J. Zywicki, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Inez Stepman, Senior Policy Analyst, Independent Women’s Forum

In the second part of this interview, James Burnham and Jonathan Mitchell discuss areas where conventional wisdom can be challenged and how he has sought to shift the Overton window in legal discourse. Should legal doctrine eclipse constitutional and statutory text? Join us for a sweeping discussion on equality doctrine, judicial review limitations, private civil enforcement, and more.

In the first part of this interview, James Burnham and Jonathan Mitchell discuss his unusual career progression in alternating legal practice and academia, how his experience with consequentialism informs his formalism and textualism, and what's next for the conservative legal movement.

A panel of experts from a variety of political perspectives will discuss the range of briefing and arguments in Moody v. NetChoice, LLC and NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton.
Featuring:

Ryan L. Bangert, Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives & Special Counsel to the President, Alliance Defending Freedom
Prof. Julia D. Mahoney, John S. Battle Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Prof. Ganesh Sitaraman, New York Alumni Chancellor's Chair in Law, Vanderbilt University Law School
Prof. Zephyr Teachout, Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
Moderator: James M. Burnham, President, Vallecito Capital, LLC

In June of last year, the Supreme Court held that consideration of applicants’ race in admissions decisions of Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated both the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
But what are the implications outside of university admissions? How might this decision affect the interpretation and enforcement of federal laws against discrimination in employment, contracting, and other business practices?
Please join us for the first in a series of webinars, as we consider the larger implications of Students for Fair Admissions for employees and businesses.
On February 12th, our panelists will consider the continuing relevance of voluntary affirmative action plans under Weber and Johnson, the risks of adopting "diversity" commitments or pressuring outside contractors on diversity metrics, and newer defenses like asserted First Amendment interests in the consideration of race.
Featuring:

Jason C. Schwartz, Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Jay Edelson, Founder & CEO, Edelson PC
Stacy Hawkins, Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School
Jonathan Berry, Managing Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Moderator: Hon. Gregory G. Katsas, Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit