Adam White
President
Adam White is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on American constitutionalism, the Supreme Court, and the administrative state. Concurrently, he codirects the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Mr. White previously practiced constitutional and administrative law, particularly in the regulation of energy and the environment, finance, and telecommunications. He was a research fellow for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and an adjunct fellow for the Manhattan Institute. He started his legal career as a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle at the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
The author of a wide range of essays, book reviews, law review articles, and book chapters, Mr. White has appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, National Affairs, Commentary, The Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Notre Dame Law Review. He is a regular contributor to the Yale Journal on Regulation’s “Notice and Comment” blog, and for many years he was one of The Weekly Standard’s primary writers on constitutional law and the Supreme Court.
Mr. White has testified before a variety of US House and US Senate committees, including the Senate Judiciary Committee; the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law (currently known as the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law); the Senate Commerce Committee; and the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
In 2017 he was appointed to serve on the Administrative Conference of the United States. He also serves on the boards of two nonprofit organizations: Speech First and the Land Conservation Assistance Network.
He has a JD from Harvard Law School and a bachelor of business administration from the College of Business at the University of Iowa.
Peter J. Wallison
Treasurer
Peter J. Wallison is a senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies constitutional law and the growth of the administrative state (that is, the increasing power of unelected officials of executive branch agencies). His most recent book, “Judicial Fortitude: The Last Chance to Rein in the Administrative State” (Encounter Books, 2018), explores this problem. Along with AEI Visiting Scholar John Yoo, he heads the AEI project on the nondelegation doctrine, which holds that the Supreme Court should invalidate laws that delegate unconstitutional levels of authority to the agencies of the administrative state. This project will culminate in a 2021 book in which some of the best legal minds in America consider whether and under what conditions the Supreme Court should invoke the nondelegation doctrine
His earlier work at AEI focused on government housing policy, the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the government mortgage complex. He was also a member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and wrote a dissent from the majority report.
Mr. Wallison served as a White House counsel under President Ronald Reagan. As the US Treasury Department general counsel in the same administration, he played a significant role in developing the Reagan administration’s proposals for the deregulation of the financial services industry. Mr. Wallison was also counsel to Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller in the Gerald Ford administration.
Mr. Wallison is the author of many other books, including “Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the World’s Worst Financial Crisis” (Encounter Books, 2015) and “Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency” (Westview Press, 2004). In addition, he is the coauthor or editor of “Competitive Equity: A Better Way to Organize Mutual Funds” (AEI Press, 2007); “Privatizing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks: Why and How” (AEI Press, 2004); “The GAAP Gap: Corporate Disclosure in the Internet Age” (AEI Press, 2000); and “Optional Federal Chartering and Regulation of Insurance Companies” (AEI Press, 2000).
He has been widely published in the popular press, including in American Banker, The Hill, National Review, RealClearPolitics, and The Wall Street Journal. His broadcast appearances include CNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, and Fox Business.
Mr. Wallison has a law degree from Harvard Law School and a BA from Harvard College.
John Yoo
Secretary
John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
His tenth book, Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2020. Professor Yoo’s other books include Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War, Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare, and Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush.
Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals on subjects including national security, constitutional law, international law, and the Supreme Court. He also regularly contributes to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review, among others.
Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government. He was an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on national security and terrorism issues after the 9/11 attacks. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He has been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman. He has been a visiting professor at Seoul National University in South Korea, the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, Keio University in Japan, Trento University in Italy, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam.
Professor Yoo supervises the Public Law and Policy Program, the Korea Law Center, and the California Constitution Center. He also serves on the boards of the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Federalist Society’s Separation of Powers and Federalism Division, the Universidad Cientifica del Sur Law School, and the Asia-Pacific Law Institute at Seoul National University. He is a winner of the Federalist Society’s Paul Bator award.
Professor Yoo graduated from Yale Law School and summa cum laude from Harvard College.
Leadership
Karen R. Harned
Executive Director
Ms. Harned has over 33 years of legal, regulatory, legislative, and communications experience defending the freedoms afforded to all Americans by the...