The Summer 2026 James Wilson Fellowship came to a close on Friday, August 7th. This summer marked JWI’s sixteenth Fellowship, and the sixth Fellowship it has co-sponsored with the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy at First Liberty Institute. We are grateful to the talented Summer 2026 Fellowship class, to our distinguished group of faculty, and to our accomplished guest speakers, all of whom were essential to making the Fellowship the great success that it was. Thanks to their efforts, the 2026 Summer Fellowship was once again an annual lynchpin in our Institute’s restoration of the moral foundations of law to America’s legal culture.

The James Wilson Fellowship is the most sought-after legal educational program in the nation. JWI’s unique program offers young lawyers, clerks, and law students a comprehensive introduction to natural law legal reasoning and its role in contemporary constitutional deliberation. This sort of education is difficult to find anywhere else in the country.

This Summer Fellowship class was incredibly selective with five times the number of applicants to accepted candidates.

Back row, left to right: Gerry Bradley, Jonah Echols, Sarah Summa, Andrew Pardue, Alex Ehler, Nathanael Price, Jared Huber, Colin Hickl, Ethan Mack

Front row, left to right: Meg McDonough, Ryan Lanier, Monica Maiman, Pierce Sandlin, Hadley Arkes, Joseph Aquila, Cameron Grinnell, Sean Conway, Jordan Richardson

The seminars during the week covered “The Logic of Natural Rights,” “The Moral Place of Positive Law,” and “The Mind of James Wilson,” as well as such varied topics as “Judicial Supremacy and Departmentalism” and “Retribution and the Morality of Punishment.”

JWI Senior Fellow Justin Dyer Leads a Seminar

Leading the Fellowship was an experienced and veteran faculty of previous Fellowships. Each faculty member brings expertise in a distinct field — their specialties range from religious liberty law, to early American legal history, to the thought of C.S. Lewis — yet they are bound together by a shared appreciation for the American founding and for the principles of natural justice that underlie civil laws. We were thrilled to welcome Professor Micah Watson to the Fellowship faculty for the first time. Professor Watson teaches political science at Calvin University and serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy.

JWI Co-Directors Hadley Arkes and Gerry Bradley led the majority of the seminar sessions, but we were also grateful for the invaluable contributions of Professor David Forte (Cleveland State), JWI Senior Fellow & Dean Justin Dyer (University of Texas at Austin), Dr. Ryan Anderson (Ethics & Public Policy Center), Professor Daniel Mark (Villanova University), and Professor Watson (Calvin University) to the Fellowship syllabus. 

We also welcomed a number of accomplished lawyers for informal discussions with our Fellows during lunch breaks. It was a great privilege to hear from Paul Schmitt (DOJ Office of Legal Policy and James Wilson Fellow ‘18) and Aaron Haviland (DOJ Office of Legal Counsel and James Wilson Fellow ’21) about their work at the Department of Justice. It was also an honor to host Robert Luther (Associate Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School and former Associate Counsel to the President) and Michael Fragoso (Torridon Law & Former chief counsel to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell) for a conversation about judicial nominations. Our Fellows were also treated to an intimate conversation with Jeff Wall (Gibson Dunn and former Acting Solicitor General of the United States) on arguing cases at the highest levels of practice.

2026 Fellow Cameron Grinnell makes a comment during the seminar

The week also allowed the Fellows to spend several beautiful evenings at different spots in Old Town Alexandria, the setting for the Fellowship. The Fellows concluded one evening with an ice cream social, and others with cocktail receptions. A number of alumni and JWI friends joined the cocktail hour on Tuesday evening. On Thursday, the Fellows gathered for dinner at a local hotel and enjoyed a captivating presentation from Jack Kieffaber (James Wilson Fellow ’23) and our very own Garrett Snedeker. Jack and Garrett shared some of the work they have been doing on the future of AI in the legal profession with the Fellows.

The week concluded with a festive closing dinner, with requisite mirth, merriment, toasts, and an occasional good-natured roast. We could not have asked for a finer farewell. We were sorry to see the Fellows go, though we knew that the dinner was less a celebration of the past week than it was a toast to years of engagement to come.

Fellows gathering on opening night

The 2026 James Wilson Fellows join nearly 250 Fellowship alumni who are defending the moral foundations of our constitutional order as jurists, practitioners, professors, and law clerks.

This Fellowship is only possible because of the generous contributions of the supporters of the James Wilson Institute. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a Fellows Patron, please email staff@jwinst.org.