Great Talk Inc and The Alexander Grass Humanities Institute JHU present What Happens When The Courts Are Ignored: In Accordance To What Laws, To What Courts, And With What Consequences? This panel discussion will take place on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 7pm, and hosted by NCO Club at Pikesville Armory Foundation, 640 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD. Free parking is available at the Pikesville Armory Foundation. Registration is free for both in-person or livestream.
PANEL OF EXPERTS
ANYA BIDWELL, Senior Attorney at the Institute for Justice.
Anya Bidwell (née Cherkasova) leads IJ’s Project on Immunity and Accountability (“PIA”). Through this project, Anya works to promote judicial engagement and ensure that government officials are held to account when they violate individuals’ constitutional rights. Anya also serves as an adviser on the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, Constitutional Torts project.
Anya’s most recent focus has been on First Amendment retaliation. In the span one year, Anya got the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse two bad circuit-court precedents, making it easier for victims of retaliatory arrests to sue their tormentors and restore their good name. Anya personally argued the first case, Gonzalez v. Trevino, before the Court. In the second case, Murphy v. Schmitt, the Court granted the petition, vacated the Eighth Circuit’s denial of the retaliation claim, and remanded the case back to the Eighth Circuit, ordering it to reconsider the critic’s complaint in light of Gonzalez.
Anya appeared before the Supreme Court three additional times. She second-chaired Martin v. United States (a wrong-house raid case), Brownback v. King (an excessive force case), and Tennessee Wine & Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas (a commerce clause case). The most recent of these—Martin—was heard by the Supreme Court in April 2025. The Court issued its opinion in June 2025, ruling for the family and sending the case back to the Eleventh Circuit.
Anya spent her childhood in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. At 16, she left her family behind and came to America on a university scholarship. Her upbringing motivated her to study law and become an advocate for a strong, independent judiciary.
Anya’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, and the Guardian. She is also the host of live recordings of our Short Circuit podcast and a co-producer of our documentary-style podcast Bound by Oath.
Anya Bidwell on Institute for Justice website
ANDRE M. DAVIS, Former United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
The Honorable Andre M. Davis served for thirty years as a judge on four courts: the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, from 2009 through 2017; the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, from 1995 through 2009; the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, from 1990 through 1995; and the state District Court from 1987 through 1990. Upon graduating from law school, Davis served as law clerk to Judge Frank A. Kaufman of the federal district court and then to Judge Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr., of the Fourth Circuit.
Before his appointment as a judge, he served as an appellate attorney for the Civil Rights Division for the U.S. Department of Justice, as an Assistant United States Attorney in Baltimore, and as an Assistant Law Professor.
Davis received a BA in American history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971, and graduated cum laude from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1978. He has received numerous commendations and awards for his leadership of community-based non-profits and attorney organizations. In September 2017, Davis retired from the bench and was appointed by the Mayor Pugh as Baltimore City Solicitor. In that role, he headed the City Law Department, comprised of more than one hundred lawyers and support personnel, and served as one of five members of the City’s Board of Estimates, the municipal spending authority.
Wikipedia page for Andre Davis
US District Court biography
BRUCE FEIN, ESQ, Constitutional lawyer, political analyst, and commentator.
Bruce Fein has been a renowned legal-media fixture in Washington, D.C. for more than 50 years across the political spectrum. He featured on Attorney General William French Smith’s short-list of potential nominees to the United States Supreme Court.
His unique network extends to all three branches of the government, the media, think tanks, universities, and a cluster of NGOs. Mr. Fein appears regularly on national and international television. His articles on law and public policy are ubiquitous. He conducts constitutional tutorials for Members of Congress and staff. He is Vice Chairman of the Committee for the Republic.
He is author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy and American Empire Before The Fall. Mr. Fein served as senior policy advisor to Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. He contributes daily commentary on his substack page: brucefein.substack.com His twitter hashtag is @brucefeinesq.
He has testified as an expert witness before Congress on more than 200 occasions. He served on the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements. He has lived through every major political-legal battle or crisis since 1969 beginning with the defeats of President Richard Nixon’s Supreme Court nominees Clement Haynsworth and G. Harold Carswell.
Mr. Fein graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and served at the highest levels of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government before establishing his own law firm. Among other things, Mr. Fein served as special assistant to the assistant attorney general in the office of legal counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, assistant director of the office of legal policy, associate deputy attorney general, general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission, research director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran, and clerk to federal Judge Frank A. Kaufman.
Mr. Fein has been a newspaper columnist, professor at George Washington University, and Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Fein specializes in constitutional, international law, civil liberties, and administrative law.
He has assisted multiple countries in writing or rewriting constitutions. He offers unique multi- dimensional analyses and solutions for every client. He is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court, multiple federal appeals courts, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and the District of Columbia Bar.
Wikipedia page for Bruce Fein
MODERATOR: MARK JOSEPH STERN, Senior Writer for Slate covering the Supreme Court.
Mark Joseph Stern is a senior writer covering courts and the law for Slate and co-host of the Amicus podcast. He regularly appears on MSNBC and NPR. Based in Washington, DC, he has covered the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appellate and district courts, and state and local courts since 2013.
He holds a JD from the Georgetown University Law Center and is a member of the Maryland Bar. Mark is the author of American Justice 2019: The Roberts Court Arrives.
Wikipedia page for Mark Joseph Stern
Mark Joseph Stern Website
