On the heels of his Wake Forest address on judges this morning, John McCain has rolled out his Justice Advisory Committee. The full list includes plenty of conservative Christian activists and is below. Most noteworthy, however, are the co-chairs. Or, more specifically, one of them. That former solicitor general Theodore Olson is one is no surprise. He’s one of the country’s most prominent conservative legal minds.
But the other co-chair, Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, is a less obvious pick. His selection sends a clear message from McCain to the Christian Right: I care about you and your central issue, judges.
Enlisting Brownback to head up Christian Right outreach is one thing. Picking him to co-chair the judicial advisory committee is quite another. His selection might get McCain more credibility in outside-the-beltway conservative Catholic and evangelical circles than his speech this morning, or all the speeches in the world.
Here’s the full Steering Committee:
• Michael Abramowicz — Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
• Hon. William P. Barr — former Attorney General of the United States
• Gerard V. Bradley — Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
• Rachel Brand — former Assistant Attorney General for Office of Legal Policy
• Steven Calabresi — George C. Dix Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
• Dean Ronald A. Cass — Chairman, Center for the Rule of Law; Dean Emeritus, Boston University School of Law
• Senator Daniel Coats — former United States Senator, Indiana
• Manus M. Cooney — former Chief Counsel and Staff Director, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
• Charles J. Cooper — former Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel
• Arthur B. Culvahouse, Jr. — former White House Counsel to President Ronald Reagan
• Carol E. Dinkins — Partner, Vinson & Elkins
• John F. Duffy — Oswald Symister Colclough Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
• Miguel A. Estrada — former Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States
• Charles Fried — Beneficial Profes sor of Law, Harvard Law School; former Solicitor General of the United States
• Sandra S. Froman — Arizona attorney
• Richard W. Garnett — Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
• Robert P. George — McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University
• Senator Lindsey Graham — United States Senator, South Carolina
• Senator Phil Gramm — former United States Senator, Texas
• Governor Frank Keating — former Governor of Oklahoma
• Orin S. Kerr — Professor, George Washington Universit y Law School
• Senator Jon Kyl — United States Senator, Arizona
• Christopher Landau — Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
• Senator Trent Lott — former United States Senator, Mississippi
• Randy Mastro — former Deputy Mayor of New York City
• John O. McGinnis — Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
• Maureen E. Mahoney — former Deputy Solicitor General of the Unites States
• Thomas W. Merrill — Charles Keller Beekman Professor, Columbia Law School
• Marc L. Mukasey — Partner, Bracewell & Giuliani LLP ; former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York
• Caleb Nelson — Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
• Eileen J. O’Connor — former Assistant Attorney General, Tax Division, U.S. Department of Justice
• Hon. Thomas R. Phillips — former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas
• Edward R. Reines — Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
• Kristi L. Remington — former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy
• Professor Daniel B. Rodriguez — Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law, The University of Texas at Austin Scho ol of Law
• Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz — Associate Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
• Ronald D. Rotunda — University Professor and Professor of Law, George Mason University
• Cathy Cleaver Ruse — Senior Fellow for Legal Studies at the Family Research Council; Governor, Ave Maria School of Law
• Peter B. Rutledge — Associate Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law
• Jon A. Sale — former federal prosecutor for NY and Miami; former law professor, Nova Southeastern and St. Thomas
• John Smietanka — former U.S. attorney
• Stephen F. Smith — Professor of Law, John V. Ray Research Professor, University of Virginia School of Law
• George J. Terwilliger, III — former Deputy Attorney General of the United States
• Senator Fred Thompson — former United States Senator, Tennessee
• Eugene Volokh — Gary T. Swartz Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
• Dan K. Webb — Chairman, Winston & Strawn; former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois

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