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First Amendment Institute Faculty
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Katherine (Missy) Minter Cary. J.D., is an assistant attorney general with the position of division chief of the General Counsel Division. Previously she served six years as the chief of the Open Records Division for the Office of the Attorney General. Prior to her service as division chief, she served as public information coordinator for the Office of the Attorney General. She has also worked as an assistant attorney general in the Administrative Law Division of the Office of the Attorney General, an assistant general counsel for the Lottery Commission and a staff attorney for the General Land Office. Her practice is concentrated in the administrative law area with extensive experience in open government issues. Cary has represented state agencies in federal and state litigation, as well as in various investigations and proceedings. She has provided legal advice on personnel practices and policies.
Cary studied at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, and received a B.A. from Texas A & M University in 1987. She earned a J.D. degree at St. Mary’s University in 1990 and became a mediator in 1991. She has been board certified in administrative law since December 1997. She was honored with the James Madison Award in 2003 from the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas for her help in protecting the public’s right to know. She is also a 2001 graduate of the First Amendment Institute of The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. |
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Charles N. Davis, Ph.D., is the executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Prior to Missouri, he was assistant professor of journalism at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Davis, a 10-year newspaper, newsletter and wire service reporter and editor, teaches courses in reporting, media law and is developing courses in computer-assisted reporting and sports journalism for future semesters. A graduate of the journalism programs of the University of Georgia and the University of Florida, Davis conducts research on media law issues and works as a freelance writer for a variety of news organizations. His research has appeared in Communications & the Law, Newspaper Research Journal, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and in several law reviews. |
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Derek H. Davis, J.D., Ph.D., is a graduate of Baylor University and Baylor Law School and holds a Master of Arts in Church-State Studies from Baylor University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is dean of the College of Humanities and dean of the Graduate School at University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Belton, Texas. He is also director of the UMHB Center for Religious Liberty. From 1995 to 2006 he was the director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies, Baylor University, and from 1993 to 2006, editor of Journal of Church and State.
Davis is a fellow, director and officer of the International Academy for Freedom of Religion and Belief and serves on the advisory council of the Interfaith Religious Liberty Foundation. He is on the advisory board of The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and is a member of the Religious Liberty Council of the National Council of Churches U.S.A. In 2000, he was awarded the Human Rights Achievement Award by Freedom magazine, and in 2004, the Honor of Merit by the International Religious Liberty Association for leadership in advancing religious freedom.
He is the author of Original Intent: Chief Justice Rehnquist & the Course of American Church-State Relations (1991 by Prometheus Books), and Religion and the Continental Congress, 1774-1789: Contributions to Original Intent (2000 by Oxford University Press). He has also edited or coedited fourteen additional books, published more than one-hundred-forty articles and numerous magazine, radio, and television interviews. |
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Dr. Ronald B. Flowers, Ph.D., is the John F. Weatherly Professor of Religion Emeritus at Texas Christian University where in 1998 he was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Flowers has authored numerous books including his most recent, To Defend the Constitution: Religion, Conscientious Objection, Naturalization, and the Supreme Court, (2003). Among the many articles he has written are: "A Selected Bibliography on Religion and Public Education," Journal of Church and State; "PCP in Our Schools!: What Politically Correct Prayers Really Mean," Liberty: A Magazine of Religious Freedom; "The Supreme Court's Three Tests of the Establishment Clause," Religion in Life; “The Supreme Court's Interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause," Religion in Life; "What is the Supreme Court Doing to the Establishment Clause?" Lexington Theological Quarterly; and “Separation of Church and State: Should the Wall Come Tumblin’ Down?” Encounter, forthcoming.
Flowers is on the Board of Trustees of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a national educational and advocacy group focusing on the relationship between religion and civil. Flowers also serves on the Editorial Council of the Journal of Church and State and the National Advisory Council, J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies, Baylor University.
Flowers is a member of the American Academy of Religion and Supreme Court Historical Society. In 1994, Flowers was recognized as the winner of the Liberty Bell Award, given by the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Young Lawyers Association "to recognize an outstanding layperson in our area who has made the most selfless contribution to his or her community and thereby strengthened the effectiveness of the American system of justice." |
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Paul Gates, Jr., J.D., Ph.D., professor, Department of Communication at Appalachian State University, teaches communication law, communication ethics, introduction to journalism, introduction to mass communication, print newswriting, and mass media and society. He received his B.A. from Hobart College; his master's from the University of South Carolina, his J.D. from California Western School of Law, and his Ph.D. from the University of Florida. Gates is a member of the Louisiana Bar Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Journalism Historians Association, and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Before teaching at Appalachian, Gates practiced law in New Orleans and worked for newspapers and wire services in Massachusetts, Maine, Louisiana and California. |
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Richard J. Peltz, J.D., is an associate professor of law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s William H. Bowen School of Law. He teaches torts, First Amendment, communications, and freedom of information law and has won the Law School Faculty Excellence Awards for both teaching and public service. He also has taught international mass communications in the UALR Graduate School of Mass Communication and has been honored by a Meritorious Service Award from the school. Peltz has published two law review articles in the First Amendment area, one concerning freedom of the college press and one arguing that the mandatory imposition of Internet filters on public library computers should be unconstitutional. He is presently co-authoring the forthcoming fourth edition of the treatise, The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Peltz has participated in the Arkansas political process as an advocate for First Amendment interests before the state General Assembly. At the Bowen Law School, Peltz has coordinated three academic conferences concerning mass communication, law and society.
Prior to beginning his teaching career in 1998, Peltz practiced law at the firm Venable Baetjer & Howard. He worked on a broad range of commercial cases from small claims for local media outlets to defense of big tobacco in mass tort litigation. At the same time, he worked pro bono on behalf of organizations including the Washington, D.C.-based Student Press Law Center and Baltimore’s Advocates for Children and Youth. Peltz graduated with honors in 1995 from the Law School at Duke University, where he served on the Executive Board of the journal Law & Contemporary Problems. He holds a B.A., magna cum laude with honors, in journalism and Spanish from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. |
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Joel White, J.D., has handled every type of media case, including over a hundred libel cases, several cases to successfully free jailed reporters, and hundreds of cases to quash newsroom subpoenas and to obtain documents under the open government laws. He is a former president of The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and a member of the Media Law Resource Center. He is involved daily in open government projects and has been instrumental in enforcing and improving the state open government laws. He is board certified in civil appellate law and is a 1987 honors graduate of the University of Texas law school, where he served on the Texas Law Review. He is a fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and a Texas Monthly “Super Lawyer.” |
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Rob Wiley, J.D., Ph.D., is a partner in the law firm of Stewart & Wiley LLP located in The Woodlands, Texas. A former partner in the Houston office of Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP, Wiley has emphasized business, media and commercial litigation in his more than 20 years of practice. A University of Texas law and communication graduate (J.D., Ph.D.), he has tried, arbitrated, and mediated hundreds of cases in a variety of business and commercial contexts, focusing much of his practice on energy, telecommunications, media law (defamation, privacy, and open records), and business disputes involving millions of dollars of damages. Wiley has taught media law, communications theory and political communications. He served as assistant to the press secretary in the Texas attorney general's office, was a special assistant in the Arkansas governor's office, and is a past-president of The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. |
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