Staff

Doug is founder and President of the Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC), a think tank, law firm and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of our Constitution’s text and history. He previously founded and directed Community Rights Counsel (CRC), CAC’s predecessor organization. Doug has represented clients in state and federal appellate courts around the country and he has co-authored more than a dozen briefs filed before the U.S. Supreme Court. He is co-author of three books and lead author of numerous reports and studies. He launched and helped direct (with Earthjustice) the Judging the Environment Project, a comprehensive effort to highlight the environmental stakes in the future of the U.S. Supreme Court and appointments to the federal bench.

Doug has appeared on television programs including Nightline, 20/20, Fox News Sunday, and World News Tonight, and radio broadcasts on NPR, CBS News, and Air America. His academic writings have appeared in scholarly journals including the Virginia Law Review. His commentary has run in the New Republic, the American Prospect, Slate, and dozens of major papers including the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times. Doug is a blogger on Huffington Post. Doug received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia.

To view a list of Doug's writings, speeches and publications, click here.

Judith E. Schaeffer

Judith is Vice President of Constitutional Accountability Center. Prior to joining CAC, Judith served as the Legal Director of People For the American Way, where she focused on constitutional and civil rights issues, federal and state legislative activity, and judicial nominations. Judith has a particular expertise in First Amendment issues and has litigated numerous cases involving religious liberty and the separation of church and state. Previously, Judith was a partner at Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin and a law clerk for Chief Judge Joseph S. Lord, III of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Judith has served as a member of the District of Columbia Bar’s Task Force on Sexual Orientation and the Legal Workplace, and as a mediator in the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She has also served on the boards of directors of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Women's Legal Defense Fund (now the National Partnership for Women and Families). Judith is a recipient of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Attorney Appreciation Award, the Whitman-Walker Clinic Gene Frey Memorial Award for Community Service, and the Women's Legal Defense Fund Volunteer Attorney Award. Judith has appeared on television and radio programs nationwide and been quoted frequently in the print media. She has blogged for Huffington Post and other sites and her writings have been published in USA Today, Congress Monthly, the National Council of Jewish Women Journal and various other publications. Judith received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, and she was a Winston Churchill Scholar at Cambridge University.

Elizabeth B. Wydra

Elizabeth is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Chief Counsel. Elizabeth frequently participates in Supreme Court litigation and has argued several important cases in the federal courts of appeals. She joined CAC from private practice at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges in San Francisco, where she was an attorney working with former Stanford Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan in the firm’s Supreme Court/appellate practice. Previously, Elizabeth was a supervising attorney and teaching fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center appellate litigation clinic, a law clerk for Judge James R. Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and a lawyer at Shaw Pittman, a law firm in Washington DC. Elizabeth has appeared on television as a legal expert for NBC, ABC, Fox News, and Fox Business Channel, and has appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and nationally-syndicated radio programs. She has been quoted extensively in the print media and is a regular contributor to the American Bar Association’s Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases. Her writings have appeared in Slate and on numerous political and legal blogs, such as Huffington Post, Grist, and ACSblog. She has also published in the Syracuse Law Review and the Yale Journal of International Law. Elizabeth is a graduate of Yale Law School.

David H. Gans

David joined CAC after serving as Program Director of Cardozo Law School's Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, and as an attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, where he worked with Bert Neuborne on appellate briefs in constitutional cases involving the First Amendment and voting rights. Previously, David was an Acting Assistant Professor at NYU School of Law and practiced law at Emery Cuti Brinckerhoff & Abady, PC, where he litigated a wide range of constitutional and civil rights cases. David has also served as an attorney fellow for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy and as a law clerk for the Hon. Rosemary Barkett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. He is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he served as an editor on the Yale Law Review. His academic writings have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Boston University Law Review, the Emory Law Journal, the George Washington Law Review. Before receiving his law degree, David worked as a paralegal for the American Civil Liberties Union, where he helped Kathryn Kolbert prepare the briefs and argument in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In 1993, David and Ms. Kolbert co-authored an article in the Temple Law Review titled "Responding to Planned Parenthood v. Casey: Establishing Neutrality Principles in State Constitutional Law." David received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University.

Doug Pennington

Doug is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Press Secretary. Prior to joining CAC, Doug served as Assistant Director of Communications for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, as well as Media Relations Director for American Rights at Work. Doug’s writing has appeared in several outlets including the Cincinnati Enquirer, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Doug’s work includes having helped manage the gun control movement’s response to the Virginia Tech massacre – the worst mass shooting in American history – as well as the media strategy around the landmark Second Amendment cases District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago. Doug is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a degree in linguistics (high honors).

Neil Weare

Neil, a 2008 graduate of Yale Law School, is already an accomplished advocate, having successfully argued CCJEF v. Rell, a landmark education adequacy case, before the Connecticut Supreme Court while still a law student. Prior to joining CAC, Neil served as a law clerk to Justice Morgan Christen on the Alaska Supreme Court. After graduating from Yale, Neil worked as a Thomas Emerson Fellow at David Rosen & Associates, a small community based law practice in New Haven, Connecticut, where he participated in two jury trials and drafted a merits brief to the Connecticut Supreme Court in a case involving loss of consortium rights for same-sex spouses. Neil grew up in the U.S. territory of Guam, and after college served as the Press Secretary for Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo (GU) following work for the Majority Leader of the Guam Legislature. Neil received his undergraduate degree from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Brooke C. Obie

Brooke is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Online Communications Director. Most recently, she served as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court research team for the progressive media watchdog organization Media Matters for America, where she wrote blog posts and research documents debunking legal and political misinformation in the media. Brooke is an award-winning blogger and a graduate of Hampton University, summa cum laude, and Mercer University School of Law. At Mercer, Brooke served as the Eleventh Circuit Survey Editor of the Mercer Law Review and earned a Certificate in Advanced Legal Writing, Research, and Drafting.

Ryan Woo

Ryan is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Research and Administrative Associate. Ryan graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University in 2011. Prior to joining CAC, he worked as a research assistant for the Cornell University Department of Government and as an intern for the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legislative Affairs.