The 2023 Annual Constitution Day Program: “Speech, Guns, and Federal Power”

In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has reshaped key aspects of American law, including First Amendment speech protections, firearms regulation under the Second Amendment, and the Executive Branch’s powers to implement laws. The Court appears poised to continue reshaping these fields in the coming term through a set of potentially transformative cases. In observation of Constitution Day, Associate Director Dr. Barbara Ballard will lead a panel of emerging leaders in the legal profession – each of whom are former Dole Institute SAB members – to discuss these changes and how they see the profession evolving in the coming years.

Adam Steinhilber is an attorney from Overland Park, Kansas who recently finished clerking for the Honorable Timothy M. Tymkovich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He previously clerked for the Honorable Mark S. Massa of the Indiana Supreme Court. He earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and chaired the Federalist Society’s 39th annual National Student Symposium. He earned his B.A. in Political Science with honors from the University of Kansas, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and proudly served as the Events Student Assistant at the Dole Institute of Politics. This fall, he will join the Kansas City office of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP as a litigation associate.

Emily Depew is a research attorney with the Kansas Court of Appeals. Emily hails from Neodesha, Kansas. She graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law in 2023. At KU Law, Emily was a three-time moot court national champion and was presented with one of the best speakers awards two years in a row at the moot court national championship competition. She worked as the Dole Institute Student Advisory Board coordinator for two years as an undergraduate at KU. Emily has also worked as a legislative fellow at the Kansas Revisor of Statutes office, a legal intern at the U.S. Department of Transportation, and a legal intern for Kansas Representative Barbara Ballard.

Jesse Burbank hails from Quinter, Kansas, and grew up moving around the world in a military family. He earned his bachelor’s degree with highest distinction in history and political science from the University of Kansas in 2017. He was a member of the Dole Institute Student Advisory Board, and he served as Dole Institute Director Bill Lacy’s research assistant during his senior year. Jesse earned his law degree with honors from Harvard Law School in 2020, where he was an editor of the Harvard International Law Journal. While in law school, he served as a summer legal intern in the United States Supreme Court Office of Legal Counsel. He worked in private practice after law school at the law firm Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago before joining the U.S. Army JAG Corps in late 2022. He is now a Captain in the U.S. Army and serves as a Special Victims’ Counsel at Fort Riley, representing survivors of sexual assault and related offenses throughout the military justice process.

Learn more about the Dole Institute’s Constitution Day programs here!

The Dole Institute’s Constitution Day program is made possible by the support of longtime Friend of the Dole Institute, Mark P. Johnson.