Join us on Constitution Day

The Defense of Freedom Institute and The Federalist Society will co-host the fourth annual Education Law and Policy Conference on September 17, 2025. This year’s Education Law & Policy Conference will center on the theme “Federal Executive Power and Education.”

• CLE credit
• A VIP armchair conversation with U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Washington Examiner News Editor Marisa Schultz, panel discussions, a luncheon speech, and a debate
• A closing cocktail reception

Registration for this event has closed.

Can’t attend in person? This event will be livestreamed.

Plenary Session
10:15 am ET

Reimagining Law School Accreditation: Possibility or Pitfall? 

The Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar (“ABA”) serves as the nation’s only accreditor for programs leading to a Juris Doctor degree. In many states, graduation from an ABA-accredited J.D. program is a prerequisite for taking the bar exam. For freestanding law schools, the ABA (as the nation’s only Department of Education-recognized accreditation agency for legal education) also serves as the institutional accreditor for the schools—without which they would lack eligibility for federal student loans and grants. In April, President Trump ordered the Attorney General to investigate alleged unlawful discrimination carried out by law schools in accordance with the ABA’s “diversity, equity, and inclusion” standards and directed the Secretary of Education to consider whether to terminate recognition of the agency. 

This panel will discuss these allegations and, if so, what role the ABA’s accreditation criteria may have played. Is it time for a new accreditation agency for legal education? What are the organizational, operational, financial, and regulatory challenges to standing up a new law school accreditation agency as an alternative to the ABA? What are the benefits, if any, of accreditation? Is accreditation even desirable in this context?

Debate
1:30 pm ET

Resolved: Americans Should Support the Administration’s Immigration Enforcement Actions at Schools, Colleges, and Universities.

The Trump Administration’s efforts to deport Mahmoud Khalil for his role in the anti-Israel encampments at Columbia University have touched off an intense debate over the extent of the President’s authority to enforce U.S. immigration laws against students and faculty members at institutions of higher education. Meanwhile, the Administration’s removal of immigration enforcement restrictions in K–12 schools has led some school districts to pledge to resist federal enforcement actions and offer their campuses as “safe spaces” for students who are not legally in the country. 

In this conversation, the Honorable Kenneth T. Cuccinelli of the Center for Renewing America and Mr. Brian Hauss of the American Civil Liberties Union will debate the President’s power to deport individuals enrolled in or employed by America’s schools, colleges, and universities. They will also offer competing perspectives on whether the stated goals of these policies, which include enforcing laws against illegal immigration and preventing U.S. academic visas from being used to advance racist rhetoric, outweigh any threats they pose to free speech, academic freedom, or the benefit that accrues from receiving a K–12 education.

Plenary Session
3:15 pm ET

Federal Efforts to Combat Antisemitism:
Restoring Campus Civil Rights or Infringing on Academic Freedom?

Since January 20, 2025, federal agencies have brought to bear an unprecedented array of policy tools in a concerted effort to force universities to recognize, act on, and pay for what the Trump Administration has argued is a failure to follow federal civil rights laws and their own institutional policies in protecting Jewish students from violence, harassment, and intimidation. Some have celebrated this as a necessary defense against the rising antisemitism and unrest on campuses; however, others, even some who agree with the Administration’s goals broadly, have criticized the methods and tactics used in recent federal enforcement efforts. This panel will provide different perspectives on institutional responses to incidents of campus antisemitic discrimination and harassment and recent Administration actions. Are these enforcement efforts targeting campus antisemitism a welcome restoration of civil rights in higher education or blunt instruments that threaten academic freedom and independence from federal control?

Sec. Linda McMahon

U.S. Secretary of Education

Marisa Schultz

News Editor, Washington Examiner

Hon. Paul Clement

Former Solicitor General of the United States

Hon. Ken Cuccinelli

Senior Fellow for Homeland Security and Immigration, Center for Renewing America; Former Acting Deputy Secretary, Department of Homeland Security; Former Attorney General of Virginia

Hon. Diane Auer Jones

Former Under Secretary of Education and Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Hon. Ken Marcus

Chairman and Founder, Brandeis Center and Former Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education

Hon. Carlos Muniz

Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Florida

Tyler Coward

Lead Counsel-Government Affairs, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

John Czarnetzky

Dean and CEO, Ave Maria School of Law

Bob Eitel

President and Co-Founder, Defense of Freedom Institute and Former Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Education

Brian Hauss

Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project

Gail Heriot

Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law

Stig Leschly

Founder, Postsecondary Commission

Casey Mattox

Vice President for Legal and Judicial Strategy, Americans for Prosperity Foundation

Sarah Parshall Perry

Vice President and Legal Fellow, Defending Education

Ilya Somin

Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School. George Mason University; B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute

David Zweig

Investigative journalist and author of An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions