Merrill Matthews, Ph.D., was for 25 years a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation. He is a public policy analyst specializing in health care, entitlements and energy issues and is the author of numerous public policy studies. He is past president of the Health Economics Roundtable for the National Association for Business Economics, the largest trade association of business economists.

For nine years Dr. Matthews was executive director of the Washington, DC-based Council for Affordable Health Insurance, a health insurance trade association. While he was executive director, National Journal recognized the Council as one of the most effective health policy organizations in Washington.

Dr. Matthews served for 10 years as a medical ethicist for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Institutional Review Board for Human Experimentation. He is the co-author of On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlements Cliff (2019) and has contributed chapters to several books, including Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate, The 21st Century Health Care Leader and, in 2009, Stop Paying the Crooks (on Medicare fraud). And for several years he co-authored a column on dental ethics for the Texas Dental Journal.

He also serves as chairman on the Texas Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

He is a weekly columnist for The Hill and has been published in numerous journals and newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Forbes, USA Today and the Washington Times.

Matthews is a frequent guest host on Point of View radio talk show, which airs nationwide. He was an award-winning political analyst for the USA Radio Network, and for several years had a daily one-minute commentary on Sirius-XM Radio. In 2008 and again in 2014, the BBC invited him to star in a program on welfare reform in Great Britain, specifically Wales.

Dr. Matthews received a BBA in Economics from the University of Texas at Arlington, an M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and has a Ph.D. in Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas. And he is an 8th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Jeff Mateer is the Chief Legal Officer of First Liberty Institute, where he serves as a member of the executive leadership team and oversees and directs First Liberty’s legal operations, including its litigation, media/communications, and external affairs teams. He rejoined First Liberty Institute in October 2020 after serving as First Assistant Attorney General of Texas from March 2016 through October 2020.

Jeff has served in the legal field for over 30 years, and in addition to having received an A-V rating by Martindale-Hubbell, Jeff has been honored as a Texas Rising Star and Texas Super Lawyer. He received his undergraduate education at Dickinson College, where he graduated with honors in 1987, and his legal education at Southern Methodist University, where he graduated with honors in 1990. While in law school, he served as an editor of the law review. He is licensed to practice law by the state of Texas and is admitted to practice before all Texas State and Federal District Courts, the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

Erin Smith serves as Associate Counsel at First Liberty Institute.

Before joining First Liberty, Erin served as Assistant General Counsel for the Oklahoma State Department of Education. She also served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General in the Criminal Appeals Unit.

Erin graduated summa cum laude from the Oklahoma City University School of Law, where she was recognized as the J. William Conger Distinguished Student for the Class of 2022 and received the T. Hurley Jordan Award for Excellence in Criminal Procedure. During law school, she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Oklahoma City University Law Review, president of the OKC Student Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and vice president of the OCU Christian Legal Society. She externed for the Solicitor General of Oklahoma, and published her Note, Almost Only Counts in Horseshoes, Hand Grenades … and Hardison? The 45-year Reign Continues, in the Oklahoma City University Law Review. Erin spent her summers interning at First Liberty Institute and the Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General.

With increasing urgency and horror, we have been covering the terrible upsurge in political violence that threatens to tear our country apart. Yesterday came the most shocking example yet: the assassination of 31-year-old Charlie Kirk, ...

President Donald Trump expressed his “grief and anger” about the killing of Charlie Kirk in a direct-to-camera video from the Resolute Desk of the Oval Office.

Charlie Kirk, a conservative commentator, died on Wednesday after being shot in the neck during a speech in Orem, Utah.

Kelly Shackelford, President and CEO of First Liberty Institute, and longtime friend of Charlie Kirk, issued this statement today on the tragic killing of Charlie.

Shouting broke out on the House floor after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) held a moment of prayer for conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot on Wednesday afternoon.

The Department of Labor is initiating an investigation into how the Bureau of Labor Statistics collects and reports “closely watched economic data,” according to a letter the department’s Assistant Inspector General for Audit, Laura Nicolosi, ...

Setting the stage for a major ruling on presidential power, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to decide whether a 1977 federal law giving the president certain emergency powers allowed President Donald Trump to levy ...

The United States District Court for the Western District of New York ordered the State of New York to pay over $817,000 in attorneys' fees to His Tabernacle Family Church (“His Tabernacle”), a nondenominational church ...

President Trump Recognizes Two First Liberty Clients at Religious Liberty Commission.

The perceived importance of college education among Americans has dropped to a new low, continuing a downward trend seen in the last 15 years, according to a new Gallup survey that was released Thursday morning.

Welcome to our Friday show, hosted by Merrill Matthews. Today's co-hosts are Jeff Mateer & Erin Smith, both with First Liberty. They'll be discussing the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the economy, the value of college, ...