The Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies presents:

Jeremy Tedesco

"Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Foundations of a Free Society"

With Commentary by Professor Geoffrey R. Stone

Taco Bar provided.

Jeremy Tedesco serves as senior counsel and vice president of U.S. Advocacy and Administration for Alliance Defending Freedom, where he helps oversee the implementation of strategic initiatives and advocacy campaigns. He was co-counsel in Reed v. Town of Gilbert at the U.S. Supreme Court, where he successfully defended the free speech rights of a small church against government discrimination. In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, he argued that the government cannot coerce a Christian cake artist to design a wedding cake that communicates a message with which he fundamentally disagrees. Tedesco has also led pre-enforcement challenges to laws that would likewise compel creative professionals to promote messages contradicting their core beliefs. These include Telescope Media Group v. Lindsey, Amy Lynn Photography v. City of Madison, and Brush & Nib Studio v. City of Phoenix. Numerous media outlets have interviewed Tedesco or published his comments. They include Fox News, CNN, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Times, PBS, NPR, and National Review, among others. Tedesco earned his Juris Doctor in 2004 from the Regent University School of Law, where he was a recipient of West’s Academic Achievement Award. He is a member of the state bar of Arizona, admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Arizona, as well as multiple federal district and appellate courts.

Geoffrey R. Stone is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. Mr. Stone joined the faculty in 1973, after serving as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. He later served as Dean of the Law School (1987-1994) and Provost of the University of Chicago (1994-2002). Stone is the author of many books on constitutional law, including Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion and Law from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Century (2017) and Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime (2004). Stone was appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, which evaluated the government’s foreign intelligence surveillance programs in the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the America Law Institute, the National Advisory Council of the American Civil Liberties Union, a member of the American Philosophical Society, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Council for Democracy and Technology. Stone has also written amicus briefs for constitutional scholars in a number of Supreme Court cases, including Obergefell v. Hodges, Whole Woman’s Heath v. Hellerstadt, Lawrence v. Texas, United States v. Windsor, United States v. Stevens, and Rasul v. Bush. He was also one of the lawyers who represented President Bill Clinton in the Supreme Court in Clinton v. Jones.