Fall 2024 Symposium

Day 1 (Sept. 12)

6:00 p.m.

Welcome

Dean Richard Moberly, University of Nebraska College of Law

Introduction of Keynote Speaker

David Earl, Symposium Editor, Nebraska Law Review

6:10 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Keynote Address

Professor Miriam Seifter

Day 2 (Sept. 13)

8:30 - 9:00 a.m.

Check-in + Parking

9:00 a.m.

Welcome

Dean Richard Moberly, University of Nebraska College of Law

Introduction of Panels

David Earl, Symposium Editor, Nebraska Law Review

9:10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Setting The Table: What Are The Traditional Stabilizing Institutions In A Democracy?

• Wayne Bena
• Professor Jenny Breen
• Professor Haiyun Damon-Feng
• Professor Kyle Langvardt
• Professor Daniel Walters

• Moderator: Erin Grace, Director of Strategic Communications and External Relations, National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE)

10:30 - 10:45 a.m.

Break

10:45 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

The Problem: How Institutions Have Lost Trust On The Political Right And Left, And Why That Is Destabilizing For Democracy

• Professor Jacob Eisler
• Professor Anthony Gaughan
• Professor Brandon Johnson
• Professor Jeannette Jones
• Professor Anthony Michael Kreis

• Moderator: Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

12:15 - 1:30 p.m.

Lunch Break

1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Looking Forward: Solutions For Rebuilding Trust In Stabilizing Institutions, And The Consequences Of Failing To Do So

• Professor Eric Berger
• Professor Wilfred Codrington
• Sen. Danielle Conrad
• Professor Michael Dimino
• Dr. Gina Ligon

• Moderators: Daniel Gutman, First Amendment Clinic Director, University of Nebraska College of Law and Sydney Hayes, First Amendment Clinic Assistant Director, University of Nebraska College of Law

3:00 p.m.

Closing Remarks

Professor Brandon Johnson, University of Nebraska College of Law

Jackson Billings, Editor in Chief, Nebraska Law Review

Keynote Speaker

Professor Miriam Seifter

University of Wisconsin Law School

Miriam Seifter is a Professor of Law, Co-Director of the State Democracy Research Initiative, and Rowe Faculty Fellow in Regulatory Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Her research addresses questions of state and federal public law, with a focus on challenges affecting democracy at the state level. She also teaches courses in Administrative Law, Property Law, and State and Local Government Law.

Professor Seifter's recent publications appear in the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, and the NYU Law Review, among others. In 2017 and 2022, UW Law students honored Professor Seifter with the Classroom Teacher of the Year Award, and in 2018, she received one of twelve Distinguished Teaching Awards from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For her article Gubernatorial Administration, Seifter was named the 2017 winner of the American Constitution Society's Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition on Regulatory and Administrative Law. Her article Understanding State Agency Independence won the ABA's 2020 Award for Scholarship in Administrative Law. In 2024, Seifter received the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Scholar Award from the American Constitution Society.

You can read more about Professor Seifter here.

Panel Participants

Wayne Bena

Nebraska Secretary of State's Office

Wayne Bena was named Nebraska Deputy Secretary of State for Elections in September of 2017. Prior to accepting this role, he served as Election Commissioner of Sarpy County for eight years, giving him a unique view of elections from both the county and state perspective. Wayne was successful in convincing all three of the states Elections vendors to sign on with Homeland Security for security assessments prior to the 2018 General Election. Additionally, Wayne collaborated with Omaha-based Election Systems & Software and the Center for Internet Security to achieve the installation of a Network Intrusion Monitoring device called an Albert Sensor to protect the State’s voter registration system. This project won a National Award for Election Innovation from the National Association of State Election Directors in 2019 and has since been copied in seven other states.

The Election Division also won a CLEARIE Award from the Election Assistance Commission in 2022 for its work to make polling sites ADA accessible. Wayne and his team successfully steered the way for the state to hold both statewide elections in 2020 safely and on time during a global pandemic. Wayne also wrote legislation allowing Nebraska to accommodate the Census being late in order for redistricting to occur prior to the 2022 elections.

Wayne holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and law degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Professor Eric Berger

University of Nebraska College of Law

Professor Eric Berger's scholarship focuses on constitutional law. Much of his work explores judicial decision making in constitutional cases, with special attention to deference, fact finding, rhetorical strategies, and other under-theorized factors that help shape judicial opinions in constitutional cases. His article Individual Rights, Judicial Deference, and Administrative Law Norms in Constitutional Decision Making, 91 B.U. L. REV. 2029 (2011), was named the 2011 winner of the American Constitution Society's Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition on Regulatory and Administrative Law. Professor Berger has also written extensively about lethal injection litigation.

Professor Berger has testified in the Nebraska legislature about a variety of constitutional issues, including free speech, lethal injection, and the process for amending the U.S. Constitution. He is also the faculty advisor to the Law College's chapter of the American Constitution Society and to the Community Legal Education Project, which sends law students into Lincoln schools and community centers to teach about the Constitution.

Read more about Professor Berger here.

Professor Jenny Breen

Syracuse University College of Law

Professor Jenny Breen teaches Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, and Labor Law. Her interdisciplinary scholarship is centrally concerned with democratic governance in the United States and pays particular attention to the roles of gender and labor politics. Her current research examines the Supreme Court’s relationship to democratic erosion in the United States. She has also written in the areas of immigration and criminal law. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in journals including Utah Law Review, New Labor Forum, Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, the University of Hawai’i Law Review, American Criminal Law Review, and the Journal of Policy History.

Prior to arriving at the College of Law, Professor Breen practiced immigration law and then worked as a judicial law clerk to the Hon. Rosemary S. Pooler on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She also taught Politics at Ithaca College, including courses on U.S. Politics and the Politics of Work.

Read more about Professor Breen here.

Professor Wilfred Codrington III

Cardozo School of Law

Professor Wilfred Codrington is an expert in constitutional law, election law, race and the law and civil rights and civil liberties. He also serves as the co-director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy. He is the co-author of The People's Constitution: 200 Years, 27 Amendments, and the Promise of a More Perfect Union.

Codrington received his A.B. from Brown University, his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his M.P.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. He most recently was a member of the faculty of Brooklyn Law School, where he was a dean’s research scholar focusing on constitutional reform, election law and voting rights. Before that, he was a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and was also a fieldwork supervisor for the Brennan Center Advocacy Clinic at NYU.

Read more about Professor Codrington here.

Sen. Danielle Conrad

Nebraska Unicameral

Senator Danielle Conrad is a civil rights attorney who was elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 2006 and 2010. During her first two terms of service, she served as a member of the Appropriations Committee. Senator Conrad has a reputation for being a hard worker and someone who reaches across party lines. She has been selected by her peers to serve in numerous leadership roles including the Redistricting Committee, Committee on Committees, Legislative Performance Audit Committee, and Chair of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Task Force.

Senator Conrad was re-elected in 2022 and was the first woman to beat term limits in Nebraska. She has the second most seniority in the Legislature and is presently a member of the Education Committee, Government Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, and Retirement Systems Committee. Senator Conrad is best known for her work in support of civil rights and economic justice. Senator Conrad earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Nebraska College of Law. She has an extensive professional background as a public interest attorney, nonprofit executive, political consultant, and ballot initiative expert. Senator Conrad resides in the beautiful East Campus neighborhood in North Lincoln with her husband and two young children. 

Read more about Sen. Conrad here.

Professor Haiyun Damon-Feng

Cardozo School of Law

Professor Haiyun Damon-Feng teaches Immigration Law and Constitutional Law. Her research lies at the intersection of administrative law and immigration law and policy, and focuses on issues relating to executive power, federalism, procedure, and race. Her latest article appeared in the Duke Law Journal. Prior to joining the faculty at Cardozo, Haiyun was an Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering at NYU Law. Haiyun earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and her B.S. and B.A. from Purdue University.

Read more about Professor Damon-Feng here.

Professor Michael Dimino

Widener University Commonwealth Law School

Professor Michael Dimino teaches courses related to constitutional law, election law, federal courts, statutory interpretation, and criminal law. Professor Dimino graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1998 with degrees in political science and history. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he was Articles Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and from which he graduated cum laude in 2001.

Professor Dimino served as Chief Clerk to Associate Judge Albert M. Rosenblatt of the New York State Court of Appeals, and then clerked for Senior Circuit Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Judge Paul L. Friedman of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Read more about Professor Dimino here.

Professor Jacob Eisler

Florida State University College of Law

Professor Jacob Eisler researches in the areas of constitutional law, election law, criminal law (focused on anti-corruption law), legal theory, and law and technology. He applies moral and political theory to questions of judicial reasoning and institutional design, with a focus on the relationship between the Supreme Court’s doctrine, democratic self-rule, and the conditions necessary for political liberty. He is the author of "The Law of Freedom: The Supreme Court and Democracy" (Cambridge University Press, 2023), and his scholarship is published or forthcoming leading law reviews and peer reviewed journals, including the Emory Law Journal, the UC Davis Law Review, the Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, and the Election Law Journal. He is regularly interviewed or quoted in leading media outlets nationally and internationally on matters related to the law and politics.

Read more about Professor Eisler here.

Professor Anthony Gaughan

Drake University Law School

Professor Anthony Gaughan teaches Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Election Law, and Legal & Constitutional History. Prior to joining Drake Law, he was a litigator with a large Wisconsin law firm. Professor Gaughan is also an Iraq veteran and former U.S. Navy officer.

He is author of the book, The Last Battle of the Civil War: United States versus Lee, 1861-1883 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011) (peer reviewed), a legal history of the Supreme Court's famous Arlington National Cemetery case. He has published articles with a wide range of journals, including the Journal of Supreme Court History; the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy; the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy; the American Journal of Legal History; the British Journal of American Legal Studies; the Ohio State Law Journal; the Fordham Law Review; and the American University Law Review.

Read more about Professor Gaughan here.

Professor Brandon Johnson

University of Nebraska College of Law

Professor Brandon Johnson’s research sits at the intersection of administrative law, the separation of powers, and the law of democracy. His writing focuses on the ways democratic institutions, including Congress, the Presidency, and the Administrative State interact, and the ways in which the courts attempt to shape those interactions. Professor Johnson’s articles and essays have appeared in nationally recognized publications including Wake Forest Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, Boston University Law Review, and the Harvard Law Review Blog. Professor Johnson teaches courses on Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, and Election Law.

Read more about Professor Johnson here.

Professor Jeannette Eileen Jones

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Professor Jeannette Jones is a historian of the United States, with expertise in American cultural and intellectual history, African American History and Studies, and Pre-colonial Africa.

Dr. Jones's research foci include Gilded Age and Progressive Era America, U.S. and the World, transimperial history, and the transnational history of race and racialization. Her research reflects her desire to contribute to the larger critical conversations taking place in these fields, specifically around the role of race in shaping American cultural and intellectual discourse and production. More precisely, her research examines the ways in which “race” as a popular and scientific category operated as a potent signifier of difference—cultural, biological, social, and political—and power in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

However, recognizing the rising global significance of race as an organizing principle, as well as the transnational migration of ideas about race during the so-called "long nineteenth century" (1789-1919), Professor Jones's research extends across the Atlantic to engage with histories of Europe and Africa. Accordingly, her publications and works in progress explore the discursive relationship between American, European, and “subaltern” perspectives on imperialism, citizenship, and social belonging, as crucial aspects of the history of ideas about race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.

Professor Anthony Michael Kreis

Georgia State University College of Law

Professor Anthony Michael Kreis joined Georgia State University College of Law faculty in 2020, and holds a courtesy appointment with the department of Political Science. At the College of Law, he teaches constitutional law and employment discrimination. Professor Kreis’s academic interests span the areas of constitutional law, civil rights, legislation, the law of democracy, and American political development.

His research uses qualitative empirical methods and doctrinal analysis to assess how social change and the law interact and affect each other. A great deal of Professor Kreis’s research focuses on the relationship between American political history and the development of law over time.

Active in law reform efforts, Professor Kreis has participated in civil rights litigation and civil rights legislative initiatives. He co-authored amicus briefs in major civil rights cases before the United States Supreme Court, including Bostock v. Clayton County and Comcast v. National Association of African American-Owned Media. In addition to appearances in state legislatures across the country, he has testified numerous times before the Georgia General Assembly about marriage, civil rights, employment discrimination, LGBTQ rights, and religious liberty. In 2017, Professor Kreis authored the Illinois state law banning gay and transgender panic defenses in murder trials, the second law of its kind in the United States, which has served as a model for other jurisdictions.

Read more about Professor Kreis here.

Professor Kyle Langvardt

University of Nebraska College of Law

Professor Kyle Langvardt is a First Amendment scholar who focuses on the Internet’s implications for free expression both as a matter of constitutional doctrine and as a practical reality. His written work addresses new and confounding policy issues including tech addiction, the collapse of traditional gatekeepers in online media and 3D-printable weapons. 

Professor Langvardt was awarded the Schmid Professorship for Excellence in Research for the 2024-25 academic year. Professor Langvardt’s most recent papers appear in venues including the Journal of Free Speech Law, the Yale Journal of Law and Technology, the Yale Law Journal Forum, Georgetown Law Journal, and the Fordham Law Review. Professor Langvardt is also a co-editor of Media and Society After Technological Disruption, a multiauthor volume published in 2024 by Cambridge University Press.

Read more about Professor Langvardt here.

Dr. Gina Ligon

National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE)

Dr. Gina Ligon is the founder and director of NCITE—the largest counterterrorism and targeted violence research consortium in the U.S. She is an internationally known industrial-organizational psychologist with proven terrorism expertise in both the academic and policy spheres.

Dr. Ligon has served on Office of the Director of National Intelligence panels for the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. She regularly briefs to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, National Media Exploitation Center, and other federal agencies on international and domestic terrorism. She serves on the advisory board of CREST, the U.K.-based Centre for Research and Evidence on Security threats, and ARC, the accelerationist research consortium.

Dr. Ligon has published more than 80 peer-reviewed publications related to violent extremist organizations, leadership, and collaboration, and has had federal funding for her research since 2008. She also serves on the editorial board of four academic journals related to terrorism studies, leadership, and innovation.

Read more about Dr. Ligon here.

Professor Daniel Walters

Texas A&M University School of Law

Professor Daniel E. Walters writes about administrative and regulatory law, with a particular focus on the implications of democratic theory for the administrative state, on public participation in administrative processes, on deference doctrines, on empirical studies of administrative behavior, and on the court-agency relationship. His articles have appeared in many of the top journals in law and public administration, including the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, and the Georgetown Law Review.

Read more about Professor Walters here.