Russ Feingold is the President of the American Constitution Society. He served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011 and a Wisconsin State Senator from 1983 to 1993. From 2013 to 2015, he served as the United States Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
During his 18 years in the United States Senate, Russ was ranked 6th in the Senate for bipartisan voting. He is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award and cosponsored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold Act), the only major piece of campaign finance reform legislation passed into law in decades. Russ was the only Senator to vote against the initial enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act during the first vote on the legislation and was well-known for his opposition to the Iraq War and as the Senate's leading opponent of the death penalty. He served on the Judiciary, Foreign Relations, Budget, and Intelligence Committees. Russ was Chairman or Ranking Member of the Constitution Subcommittee.
For the better part of the last 10 years and in addition to his congressional and diplomatic career, Russ has taught extensively at various American law schools including Stanford Law School (where he is currently teaching), Yale Law School, Marquette University Law School, and Harvard Law School. In this capacity, he has played a significant mentoring role to law students, preparing him for his role as President of the American Constitution Society. He has also taught foreign policy to graduate and undergraduate students at Stanford University, University of Wisconsin, Yale University, Lawrence University, and American University.
Russ is the Honorary Ambassador for the Campaign for Nature which is a global effort calling on policymakers to commit to address the growing biodiversity crisis. The Campaign seeks a science-driven, ambitious new deal for nature at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming, China, in 2020.
He is the author of While America Sleeps: A Wake-Up Call for the Post-9/11 Era and contributes regularly to various publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. He appears frequently on MSNBC and CNN. Russ holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Oxford (as a Rhodes Scholar), and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, all degrees awarded with honors.
Naomi is one of two ACS Student Board Members, currently a rising 3L at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and ACS Next Generation Leader.
Naomi is a 2019 student attorney at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, working with clients to fight evictions, maintain stable housing, and combat the city's gentrification. She will be interning with Colorado Supreme Court Justice Melissa Hart in the fall of 2019.
Prior to law school, Naomi developed a passion for advocating against systemic and institutional abuse of power while working as her older sister's legal guardian. She earned a B.A.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Criminology from the University of Minnesota - Duluth.
After law school graduation, she looks forward to pursuing a career opposing the criminalization of mental illness, mass incarceration, and police excessive force. Her interests include long road trips, cheering on her Minnesota sports teams, and cooking Thanksgiving dinner.
Aziz Z. Huq is the Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law and Mark Claster Mamolen Teaching Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School. Aziz’s scholarship concerns the interaction of constitutional design with individual rights and liberties.
As a faculty member at the University of Chicago, he has garnered the AALS Junior Scholars Paper Competition Award in Criminal Law and has been selected for the Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum. Before joining the Law School, Aziz worked as Associate Counsel and then Director of the Liberty and National Security Project of the Brennan Center for Justice, litigating cases in both the U.S. Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. He was also a Senior Consultant Analyst for the International Crisis Group, researching constitutional design and implementation in Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. He clerked for Judge Robert D. Sack of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court.
Aziz has also been very engaged with ACS through participating in events in DC and Chicago.
He graduated summa cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated from Columbia Law School, where he was awarded the John Ordonaux Prize.
Garrett Epps is a Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, where he teaches courses in constitutional law, First Amendment law, and fiction and non-fiction writing for law students. Additionally, he is the Supreme Court Correspondent and a contributing editor at The Atlantic.
Epps has been an active contributor to ACS, since shortly after its founding. He was featured as a speaker at its National Convention and is a regular contributor to the organization’s other policy events, seminars, and discussions.
Previously, Epps was the Orlando J. and Marian H. Hollins Professor of Law at the University of Oregon. He co-founded the Richmond Mercury, served as a columnist for the Independent Weekly, and worked as an editor and reporter at the Richmond Afro-American, Washington Post, The Free Lance-Star, and The Virginia Churchman.
Epps clerked for the Honorable John D. Butzner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He earned his B.A. from Harvard College, where he was Editor of The Harvard Crimson, and his M.A. in creative writing from Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia. Additionally, Epps holds a J.D. and a LL.M. in Comparative and International Law from Duke University School of Law.
Holly Fechner is a partner at Covington & Burling LLP, co-chair of the firm’s Technology Industry group, and Visiting Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she teaches a course on labor and employment policy. Fechner has been an active member of ACS for more than a decade.
Fechner served as Policy Director for the late Senator Edward Kennedy and as Chief Labor and Pensions Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, where she led the Senator's efforts to raise the federal minimum wage and drafted the first paid sick leave legislation. Fechner also worked as Legislative Counsel for the AFL-CIO and as an attorney for the National Partnership for Women & Families. In 2010, former Governor Martin O’Malley appointed Fechner to the Maryland Higher Education Labor Relations Board, an independent administrative agency that enforces the state’s collective bargaining law for higher education employees.
Fechner clerked for the Honorable John Feikens of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. She earned her B.A. from Oberlin College and J.D. from the University of Michigan.
