Sinai Forum 2024

Liz Cheney served as the U.S. representative for Wyoming’s at-large congressional district from 2017 to 2023. She chaired the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership, from 2019 to 2021, and served as the Vice Chair of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. She was also a member of the House Armed Services Committee, China Task Force, Natural Resources Committee, and the House Committee on Rules. Cheney served previously at the State Department as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and in positions for USAID and the Department of State working in Poland, Hungary, Russia, and Ukraine. Cheney practiced law with White and Case and at the International Finance Corporation.

She is the author of the newly released memoir, Oath and Honor, which tells her firsthand account of the moment our democracy threatened to unravel and the story of the brave men and women who fought to save it. A specialist in national security and foreign policy, she is the co-author, along with her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, of Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

Cheney received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Colorado College and received her Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School. In 2022, Cheney, along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, received the the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library’s prestigious Profile in Courage Award, with a commendation for her “consistent and courageous voice in defense of democracy.”

Professor Jonathan Turley is a nationally recognized legal scholar who has written extensively in areas ranging from constitutional law to legal theory to tort law. He has written over three dozen academic articles that have appeared in a variety of leading law journals at Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Northwestern, University of Chicago, and other schools. He is the author of The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage (Simon & Schuster 2024).

After a stint at Tulane Law School, Professor Turley joined the George Washington faculty in 1990 and, in 1998, was given the prestigious Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law, the youngest chaired professor in the school’s history. In addition to his extensive publications, Professor Turley has served as counsel in some of the most notable cases in the last two decades including the representation of whistleblowers, military personnel, former cabinet members, judges, members of Congress, and a wide range of other clients. He is also one of the few attorneys to successfully challenge both a federal and a state law.

In 2010, Professor Turley represented Judge G. Thomas Porteous in his impeachment trial. The trial before all 100 U.S. Senators was only the 14th time in history of the country that such a trial of a judge has reached the Senate floor. In November 2014, Turley served as lead counsel to the United States House of Representatives in its successful constitutional challenge to changes ordered by President Obama to the Affordable Care Act. He has also represented four former attorneys general and high-ranking members of all three branches of government. He has also served as lead counsel in some of the most famous espionage and national security cases in the last two decades, including the Area 51 litigation and the Daniel King espionage case. He was also lead counsel in the World Bank protest case leading to the largest settlements in history for the one-day arrests of journalists and observers.

Professor Turley testified over 50 times before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues as well as tort reform legislation, including the Senate confirmation hearings of cabinet members and jurists like Justice Neil Gorsuch. He appeared as an expert witness in both the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. In the Trump impeachment, he was the only witness called by the Republicans. In the hearing, Professor Turley opposed the proposed articles of impeachments on bribery, extortion, campaign finance violations or obstruction of justice as legally flawed. The committee ultimately rejected those articles and adopted the only two articles that Professor Turley said could be legitimately advanced: abuse of power, obstruction of Congress. Chairman Jerrold Nadler ended the hearing by quoting his position on abuse of power. However, Turley opposed impeachment on this record as incomplete and insufficient for submission to the Senate. He encouraged the Committee to wait to vote on impeachment until March or April to secure needed testimony and supportive court orders. Professor Turley’s scholarship was cited by both the House Managers and the White House counsel in their Senate trial, including the showing of videotaped remarks on the interpretation of the constitutional standard.

In 2024, the Washingtonian recognized Professor Turley as one of the 500 most influential persons in its annual review. He is also a nationally recognized legal commentator. Professor Turley was ranked as 38th in the top 100 most cited “public intellectuals” (and second most cited law professor) in the study by Judge Richard Posner. He has been repeatedly ranked in the nation’s top 500 lawyers in annual surveys. In prior years, he was ranked as one of the nation’s top ten lawyers in military law cases. He has been ranking among the top lawyers and legal experts in the world on various international surveys as well one of the 100 most best known law professors in history.

He is currently the legal analyst for Fox News. He has previously worked as a legal analyst for NBC, CBS, BBC, and Fox News. He is also a columnist for USA Today, The Hill, and other national newspapers. Professor Turley’s columns on legal and policy issues appear regularly in national publications with hundreds of articles in such newspapers as the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal. His award-winning blog is routinely ranked as one of the most popular legal blogs. His blog was received various awards and, in 2013, the ABA Journal inducted the Turley Blog (ResIpsa) into its Hall of Fame.

Professor Turley received his B.A. at the University of Chicago and his J.D. at Northwestern. In 2008, he was given an honorary Doctorate of Law from John Marshall Law School for his contributions to civil liberties and the public interest.

Joel Sartore is a photographer, speaker, author, teacher, conservationist, National Geographic Fellow, and a regular contributor to National Geographic Magazine. His hallmarks are a sense of humor and a Midwestern work ethic.

Joel specializes in documenting endangered species and landscapes in order to show a world worth saving. He is the founder of The Photo Ark, a multi-year documentary project to save species and habitat.

In his words, “It is folly to think that we can destroy one species and ecosystem after another and not affect humanity. When we save species, we’re actually saving ourselves.”

Joel has written several books including RARE: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species, Photographing Your Family, Nebraska: Under a Big Red Sky, and Let’s Be Reasonable. His most recent book, The Photo Ark is now available wherever books are sold. In addition to the work he has done for National Geographic, Joel has contributed to Audubon Magazine, Time, Life, Newsweek, Sports
Illustrated and numerous book projects.

Joel and his work are the subjects of several national broadcasts including National Geographic’s Explorer, the NBC Nightly News, NPR’s Weekend Edition, an hour-long PBS documentary, At Close Range, and a regular contributor on the CBS Sunday Morning Show. He is also featured in a three part series on PBS titled: RARE: Creatures of the Photo Ark.

Joel is always happy to return to home base from his travels around the world. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife Kathy and their three children.

Jim Gaffigan is a seven-time Grammy nominated comedian, actor, writer, producer, two-time New York Times best-selling author, three-time Emmy winning, top touring performer, and multi-platinum-selling recording artist. He is known around the world for his unique brand of humor, which largely revolves around his observations on life. Tickets for his Dark Pale Tour, are currently available at JimGaffigan.com.

A top ten comedian according to Forbes’ 2019 comedy list and top ten earning comedian in Pollstar’s 2022 list, Jim released his 9^th stand-up special, Comedy Monster, on Netflix December 2021 which was nominated for a Grammy. He was also recently awarded for being the first comedian to reach one billion streams on Pandora. Gaffigan will release his 10^th comedy special this year.

Gaffigan can currently be seen as the lead in the well-reviewed Sci-Fi dramedy, Linoleum, and will star as Mr. Smee in Disney’s Peter Pan and Wendy, opposite Jude Law and Yara Shahidi on April 28^th. He will also co-star Jerry Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, James Marsden, and Hugh Grant in Netflix’s Unfrosted, and co-stars in the independent film Susie Searches which premiered at TIFF this year. HBO Max recently announced Gaffigan joined the cast of Full Circle, a limited series from Steve Soderbergh and Ed Solomon which follows an investigation into a botched kidnapping connecting multiple characters and cultures in present day NY.

Gaffigan was also recently heard in Disney/Pixar’s highly anticipated animated film, Luca, opposite Jacob Tremblay and Maya Rudolph.

On the silver screen, his many credits include Three Kings, Super Troopers 1 & 2, and Chappaquiddick. 2019 was Gaffigan’s biggest year to date with an astonishing eight films releasing, three which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival including Troop Zero with Viola Davis and Alison Janney, Them That Follow and Light From Light, with many festival goers and press calling Gaffigan the “King of Sundance.”

Gaffigan also had two films recently in which he debuted as the lead. The comedic film Being Frank, and American Dreamer, a dark thriller which was the grand finale of 2019 for Jim and features him as a ride share driver who moonlights as a private driver for a drug dealer.

Gaffigan can also currently be seen opposite Ethan Hawke in IFC Films Tesla, as well as opposite Josh Hartnett in Saban Films’ Most Wanted.

In addition to two seasons of the critically acclaimed semi-autobiographical The Jim Gaffigan Show, which he wrote and produced with his wife Jeannie, and his widely popular stand-up comedy specials, Gaffigan has guest starred on many television comedies and dramas, ranging from Portlandia and Bob’s Burgers to the HBO cult hits Flight of the Concords to dramatic roles in Law & Order.

Gaffigan regularly does humorous commentaries on CBS Sunday Morning for which he has won 3 Emmys. In 2018 Jim served as master of ceremony at The Al Smith Memorial dinner. In 2015, Gaffigan had the great honor of performing for Pope Francis and over 1 million festival attendees at the Festival of Families in Philadelphia.

Briana Scurry is widely recognized as one of the world’s most talented and influential goalkeepers. Scurry’s 173 international appearances as one of the first African American and openly gay professional athletes championed equality and diversified the sport. In 2017, Scurry was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Named starting goalkeeper for the United States Women’s National Team in 1994, Scurry led the team on an illustrious run that included two Olympic gold medals. In the 1999 FIFA World Cup Championship – which represented one of the most seminal events in American athletic history – Briana made the iconic penalty kick save that carried the United States to victory.

Scurry pioneered the first paid professional women’s soccer league as a founding player in 2001. A debilitating concussion led to her retirement in 2010. Since then, Scurry has repurposed her visibility to become one of the nation’s foremost advocates for increased awareness for traumatic brain injuries.

Through her impact on the landscape of women’s soccer and American sports culture, Briana was selected to the United States Women’s National Team’s All-Time Best XI and was selected as the permanent Title IX Exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

In 2022, Scurry released her best-selling memoir, My Greatest Save, and was also the subject of The Only, a CBS feature-length documentary chronicling her life. In 2023, Scurry served as the commencement speaker and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from her alma mater, The University of Massachusetts Amherst.