In January, Trump appointed Hines to serve as executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, a newly created presidential advisory group. The council is chaired by entrepreneur and venture capitalist David Sacks, who is known as the White House AI and crypto czar.

“In his new role, Bo will work with David to foster innovation and growth in the digital assets space, while ensuring industry leaders have the resources they need to succeed,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Together, they will create an environment where this industry can flourish, and remain a cornerstone of our Nation’s technological advancement.”

Hines has reportedly said that much of the group’s early work has focused on countering what industry insiders have dubbed “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” an alleged crackdown by legacy banks on digital asset firms. According to the Republican-led House Financial Services Committee, Biden regulators issued vague regulatory letters that threatened banks if they pursued partnerships with digital asset companies. 

In early March, Trump, who has promised to make the United States the “crypto capital” of the world, signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The order transferred digital assets that were “forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings” to the Reserve, which will now seek to maximize their value. 

“We’re focused on making sure the [cryptocurrency] industry has what they need to thrive. This is an industry that’s been the victim of lawfare and unfair regulatory practices … specifically under the Biden regime,” Hines said in an interview with Fox News. “It’s absolutely imperative the United States leads the charge in terms of technological advancement for institutional financial markets, and that’s what we plan on ushering in.”

Hines was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and attended Charlotte Christian School before attending North Carolina State University to play for the NC State Wolfpack. In his first year, Hines was selected for the Freshman All-America team, the Freshman All-ACC — Atlantic Coast Conference — team and the Academic All-ACC team. 

Hines led the NC State team with 45 receptions and 616 receiving yards in his first year. He made nine catches for 85 yards versus Georgia Southern in a 24-23 win, as well as eight grabs, 103 yards and a touchdown versus No. 1 Florida State.

While at North Carolina State University, Hines appeared in the 2014 Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl, which was sponsored by BitPay, a bitcoin payment processor. Around that time, Hines started to invest in crypto.

After his first year, Hines transferred to Yale in 2015, seeking more political opportunities. 

“Transferring was one of the toughest decisions I’ve made in my life,” Hines told the News in 2021. “I knew I wanted to go into public service and I felt the best way to learn more about politics would be to go up to Yale and challenge myself with some of the best and the brightest and surround myself with people in the academic community that I knew would challenge me.”

Hines only played in two games during his time at Yale due to shoulder injuries. In his sophomore year, he played in the first half of the season opener against Colgate, recording six receptions for 68 yards. However, he missed the remainder of the season before briefly returning against Penn, where he had five receptions for 66 yards in the first quarter.

In his junior year, Hines suffered a season-ending shoulder injury before the start of the season, preventing him from playing. As a result, he decided to retire from college football that year.

“It was very unfortunate that I had the injuries that I did, but after two back-to-back season-ending shoulder injuries, I felt like God was telling me to move in another direction in my life,” Hines told the News in 2021.

In addition to his brief tenure on the Yale football team, Hines served as co-president of the Yale Student Athletic College Council, or YSACC, and “worked to raise awareness for issues facing student athletes on campus.” Hines also launched a political commentary podcast, called “Bo Knows,” and held summer internships with both South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds and then-Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb.  

“Bo is a tremendous friend and athlete,” former YSACC president and teammate Jackson Stallings ’17 told the News in 2017. “His work ethic is unparalleled. It’s sad for both Yale and him that he was never able to have a healthy season for us.”

While at Yale, Hines “felt solidarity with most of [the] folks” in the economics department, whom he considered “more conservative.” He also enjoyed “the opportunity to have … debates and free exchange of ideas” on campus, especially with those from other political backgrounds.

After graduating Yale, Hines attended Wake Forest University School of Law. While still a student there, Hines, who studied crypto regulatory issues, mounted a congressional campaign as a Republican candidate in North Carolina’s 5th District. His campaign received an endorsement from President Trump.

In a statement, Trump referred to Hines as “proven winner both on and off the field” and an “unwavering America First patriot.” He called Hines “a fighter for Conservative values” and offered him a “Complete and Total Endorsement.”

Hines won his primary in 2022, beating out a dense field of other Republican candidates. He ultimately lost the election to Democrat Wiley Nickel, but that did not dissuade him from launching a second congressional campaign in 2023.

That time, however, Hines came in fourth place in the primary. He also failed to receive support from Trump, who instead endorsed Addison McDowell, the winner of the election.

After working on his campaigns, Hines reportedly led an “anti-woke” company and worked on a Trump meme token “that surged and plunged in value” in 2024. 

The Yale football program was founded in 1872.

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The Justice Department escalated the standoff last week, seeking to remove Boasberg from the case and arguing in court filings that he lacked the authority to halt the deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law allowing the president to expel foreign nationals from hostile nations.

Meanwhile, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) introduced articles of impeachment against Boasberg earlier this month, accusing him of judicial overreach — an effort President Donald Trump quickly endorsed.

“This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

The push for impeachment drew a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts, who issued a public statement defending judicial independence and warning that impeachment should not be used to retaliate against legal decisions.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts wrote. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

Speaking at Yale on Thursday, former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer concurred, saying that when plaintiffs lose a case, they should appeal the decision, not threaten to impeach the judge.

In addition to challenging Boasberg’s authority, the Justice Department has resisted his demand to disclose exact departure times for two deportation flights that left the United States earlier this month. Trump administration officials claim the flights departed before Boasberg’s injunction took effect, but they have refused to provide precise timestamps, citing national security concerns.

“Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” Boasberg said in an oral directive. “However that’s accomplished … I leave to you. But this is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”

When Boasberg gave this order, two planes had already left South Texas, while the third was still on the ground. The third plane took off minutes later, and all three planes carrying the alleged Venezuelan gang members landed in El Salvador, which had agreed to imprison them.

Lawyers for the Justice Department have argued that Boasberg’s oral ruling — issued at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday, March 22 — carries less legal weight than his written directive, which was formally placed on the docket at 7:25 p.m. By drawing this distinction, they have sought to justify withholding confirmation on whether the deportation flights departed after the judge’s order took effect.

Boasberg, who is now determining whether or not the Justice Department violated his court order, has sharply criticized this rationale, calling it “a heck of a stretch” in court.

On Wednesday, a federal appeals court upheld the block that Boasberg imposed on the Trump administration for using the Alien Enemies Act to deport the Venezuelan migrants.

Then, also on Wednesday, another lawsuit against the Trump administration came before Boasberg. In the new case, government watchdog group American Oversight argued that Trump officials — including Vice President JD Vance LAW ’13, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ’84 and Treasury Chief of Staff Dan Katz ’10 — violated the Federal Records Act after Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg exposed war-plan discussions held on Signal. 

“How disgraceful is it that ‘Judge’ James Boasberg has just been given a fourth ‘Trump Case,’ something which is, statistically, IMPOSSIBLE,” Trump posted on Truth Social in response.

On Thursday, Boasberg ruled that the Trump officials who participated in the Signal group chat must “preserve all of the messages they exchanged on the app in the days leading up to [the] strikes” against the Houthis, a U.S.-designated terrorist group in Yemen.

While at Yale, Boasberg majored in history and was initially a member of Davenport College. After his sophomore year, he transferred to Pierson College to room with his closest friends, a decision he called “the smartest move I ever made at Yale.”

Boasberg played as a forward on the varsity basketball team. Although he posted solid offensive numbers, the team struggled, finishing with a 7–19 record and a 4–10 Ivy League record in his junior year, which placed them last in the Ivy League. Boasberg had a free goal percentage of .643, the highest on the team, though his free throw percentage was .448.

Boasberg told the News in 1984 that playing on the basketball team was “the most frustrating, unsuccessful thing [he had] ever done.”

As an undergraduate, Boasberg did not want to be known as just a basketball player. To that end, he performed in three shows through the Children’s Theater. Notably, he debuted as the seventh dwarf in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” despite being a 6’6” basketball player.

In his senior year, Boasberg joined Skull and Bones, Yale’s oldest secret student society. At the same time, Boasberg hoped to be selected as a Rhodes or Marshall Scholar. He was ultimately deferred at the interview round for both, prompting him to independently apply to the University of Oxford, where he was accepted to study European history.

After his time at Oxford, Boasberg returned to study law at Yale Law School, where he lived together with future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh ’87 LAW ’90 in the same “run-down New Haven house.” They frequently played basketball together and became close friends.

After law school, Boasberg clerked for Judge Dorothy Wright Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, before entering private practice. In 1996, he joined the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, where he worked for five years as a prosecutor.

Then, in 2002, former President George W. Bush ’68, a fellow Skull and Bones member, appointed him to be an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Boasberg was appointed by President Barack Obama to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 2011. Three years later, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed him to be a Judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a position he held until 2021.

In 2020, Boasberg was appointed Chief Judge of the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court. Three years later, Boasberg was made Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

That same year, Boasberg returned to Yale to speak at Pierson College. During the event, Boasberg discussed with Yale Law School professor James Forman Jr. LAW ’92 the unprecedented nature of Jan. 6, and the difficulty for prosecutors to determine the specific criteria to charge someone and the number of individuals to be charged. Boasberg, along with nearly twenty other district judges, received 65 cases involving defendants from the Jan. 6 events to oversee.

Judge Boasberg has previously ruled in several cases pertinent to President Trump. 

In 2016, Boasberg ordered the FBI to release nearly 15,000 emails sent by then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton LAW ’73, but dismissed additional lawsuits ordering the State Department to recover additional emails. He also ruled against a group seeking to obtain Trump’s tax returns, asserting that only Congress or Trump held the authority to release them.

The Justice Department was founded in 1870.

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In a statement, the company stated that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy “after a thorough evaluation of strategic alternatives,” with the intent “to facilitate a sale process to maximize the value of its business.” The company also announced that Wojcicki was resigning from her position as its CEO.

“We believe in the value of our people and our assets and hope that this process allows our mission of helping people access, understand and benefit from the human genome to live on for the benefit of customers and patients,” Mark Jensen, chair and member of the special committee of the 23andMe board of directors, said in a statement.

Wojcicki founded 23andMe in 2006, offering saliva-based genetic tests to consumers. In 2008, the company’s groundbreaking product was named the “Invention of the Year” by Time. The company finally went public in 2021, at one point reaching a market value of $6 billion and selling shares for more than $200 each.

Now, however, 23andMe has become a penny stock.

The company has long struggled due to its one-time-purchase business model, as most people who buy DNA tests do not make additional purchases. Additionally, the company was the victim of a large-scale data breach in 2023 that affected nearly 7 million profiles and specifically targeted users of Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. It subsequently faced a class-action lawsuit for failing to properly notify its customers about the attack.

In September, seven independent directors of the company’s board resigned. Then in November, the company reduced its workforce by 40 percent, firing 200 employees in an effort to save money. 

Wojcicki still thinks the company is worth saving. 

“Nineteen years ago, when I co-founded 23andMe, the direct to consumer industry did not exist and most people had no idea why they would ever want to see their genome,” Wojcicki posted on social media. “So much has changed. There is now a thriving direct to consumer industry and over 15 million people are now 23andMe customers.”

Wojcicki also posted that she resigned from her CEO position to independently bid for the company.

While at Yale, Wojcicki studied biology and worked in the lab of Professor Emeritus of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Sidney Altman. She served as an aide in Jonathan Edwards College and played varsity women’s ice hockey. 

After graduation, Wojcicki worked as a healthcare investment analyst, but found the healthcare system disappointing and unsettling. During this period of frustration, Wojcicki recounted being inspired by a group called ACT-UP, or the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, a group that demanded that patients play a greater role in their own healthcare decisions.

“I started to realize that if you really wanted to understand the human genome and to have a different type of healthcare system, you had to have it driven by the people and for the people,” Wojcicki said. “23andMe came out of this idea that we’re going to empower people by giving them access to their genetic information and we’re going to crowdsource research.”

She also has a long history of giving back to Yale and supporting its alums.

In 2010, Wojcicki spoke at Jonathan Edwards before an audience of 40 students and faculty members about the creation of 23andMe, as well as “her desire to make a difference in health care, [and]… improve understanding of genetic diseases and … the development of personalized medicine.” 

In 2012, Wojcicki and other entrepreneurs, including Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, Sergey Brin and Art Levinson, established the Breakthrough Prize, which honors individuals who have made scientific advances to fundamental physics, life sciences or mathematics. Sterling Professor of Computer Science Daniel Spielman ’92 and Professor Emeritus of Genetics Arthur Horwich both received the award, which includes a $3 million prize.

In 2020, Wojcicki participated in the School of Management’s Gordon Grand Fellowship Lecture series, speaking with former University President Peter Salovey about her experiences at Yale, views on science, and the founding of 23andMe. Wojcicki encouraged the three hundred attendees to be curious, recounting how she “followed her physics professor around to ask questions.” Salovey ended the discussion by referring to Wojcicki as “a treasured Yale alumna.”

In 2022, the Yale College Office of Development partnered with Wojcicki to expand the STARS program, which supports students who come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics. Wojcicki made a “significant investment” in the program, allowing it to double its reach.

23andMe is based in San Francisco.

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So, it came as no surprise when CBS selected Pioppi for Season 48 of Survivor, thrusting him into one of the most grueling reality TV endurance tests on the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji, where he competed against 17 others for the prize of a lifetime: one million dollars.

Pioppi’s Survivor journey started at Suffolk University, where he completed almost every political science course while interning as a legislative aide for Massachusetts Speaker Robert DeLeo. There, he gained an early understanding of social politics and strategy — skills that would later prove invaluable. But seeking more opportunities, Pioppi transferred to Yale in 2017.

“We entered as a very small transfer class,” Pioppi said. “I was one of 26 out of a pool of about 4,800. Everyone was there for a reason, and everyone had a story — kind of like Survivor.”

While continuing to pursue his political science degree at Yale, Pioppi, a member of Grace Hopper College, watched Survivor every Wednesday night with his friends. He had first seen the show as a child, but it was as he grew older, including at Yale, that he began to seriously think about one day competing on the show.

Then his mother, Candace Pioppi, was diagnosed with cancer. While his friends took jobs in government, on Wall Street and at NGOs — and despite having lucrative job offers himself — Pioppi knew he needed to go home. With his mother battling cancer, he returned to Winthrop, Mass., to support her and help his father, Frank Pioppi, run the family’s pizzeria, Luigi’s!, in Beachmont.

The COVID-19 pandemic threatened to upend Luigi’s! as many of Pioppi’s neighbors and friends in the restaurant industry saw their business and jobs disappear. But Luigi’s! stayed afloat, largely due to the relentless effort Pioppi and his father put in to keep it running.

Pioppi spent long nights and weekends making pizza, answering customer calls and stocking up on ingredients — skills he had first learned in high school after his mother’s breast cancer diagnosis pushed him to take on a bigger role in the restaurant.

“We were just one of the fortunate ones who got to stay open, which was great not only for us but also our employees and their families who relied on us for a paycheck, for food, for ways to pay their rent and car payments,” Pioppi said.

Pandemic withstanding, Luigi’s! has always done great things for its local community. On Monday nights, it offers its pizza at a half-off discount, and though the business does not make much profit then, Pioppi and his family love knowing that they’re helping those on strict budgets enjoy a good meal. The business also frequently supports charitable causes.

His work at the pizzeria — which Barstool Sports pizza connoisseur Dave Portonoy has rated a 7.5 out of 10 — and involvement in his community prepared him for his role on Survivor. He never had a gym membership, but lifting 50-pound bags of flour and 35-pound jugs of olive oil was all the physical preparation he needed.

Despite his allegiance to Luigi’s!, Pioppi admitted to still liking New Haven pizza.

“I love New Haven pizza,” Pioppi said. “I won’t disclose that to my dad, because he’ll get pretty upset, but I mean, there’s just so many great options, in and around campus.”

Pioppi continued to watch Survivor with his parents, who had introduced the show to him when he was just five years old. When his mother beat skin cancer — her third successful battle with cancer — and with business thriving, Pioppi saw Survivor 48 as his chance to compete on his all-time favorite show.

“I just saw Survivor as the ultimate chance for me,” Pioppi said. “Not only to test my strengths and my skills from everything that I’ve learned in my life, but to also give my parents a check at the end of the day and say, ‘neither of you have to go to work ever again. I got this.’”

His parents, friends, neighbors and the Yale community watched Pioppi compete with excitement, especially as he followed in the footsteps of fellow Yale alumni such as Stephen Fishbach ’01, Angelina Keeley SOM ’16, Yul Kwon LAW ’00, Kellie Nalbandian NUR ’24, Daniel Strunk LAW ’19, Laurel Johnson ’10 and Anthony Robinson ’96.

Pioppi made it to the third episode of the show before being voted out by his tribe in the longest tribal council in the show’s history. Yet those three episodes were action-packed, allowing Pioppi the opportunity to put his education, pizzeria experience, resilience and knowledge of social politics to the ultimate test.

“Justin was the winner pick for over 25 percent of the Yale Survivor club,” Elizabeth Steeves ’27, who co-runs the club, said. “We were so excited about him. It’s inspiring to see one of our own up there. Justin had great potential, not just because of his Yale background, but because of how he carried himself.”

In episode one, Pioppi was assigned to the Vula tribe, where he became aligned with tribemates Cedrek McFadden and Saiounia Hughley. His alliances did not last long. In episode three, Justin was selected to go on a journey to play a dice game with big consequences: If he won, he would receive an extra tribal vote. If not, he would lose his vote at the next tribal council.

Justin, to his misfortune, lost the dice game.

At episode three’s tribal council — the third time the largely dysfunctional Vula tribe faced host Jeff Probst — Pioppi, unable to vote, needed McFadden, Hughley and Mary Zheng to vote for anyone but him. But Zheng rolled a Shot in the Dark, stripping herself of a vote and rendering herself immune. That left Pioppi relying solely on McFadden and Hughley.

“Justin got really unlucky with the 50 percent chance of losing his vote and then the one in six chance of Mary getting that Shot in the Dark,” Luis Nguyen ’27, who co-runs the Yale Survivor Club with Steeves, said. “So I don’t know what the math adds up to, but I feel like he was prepared to really go over a run.”

After a convoluted explanation of Survivor voting protocol from Probst, McFadden was told to cast the final vote. Hughley, who had demonstrated an aggressive social game early on, convinced McFadden to vote against Pioppi. She cited the fact that Pioppi had not disclosed to McFadden, whom he claimed as an ally, the results of the dice game.

Pioppi may not have won the million-dollar prize, but he believes he gained valuable lessons and made meaningful connections — just as he had at Yale.

“I just think those connections are just so pure,” Pioppi said. “I just feel blessed that I had the opportunity to [compete].”

Pioppi also said he would consider competing again in the future if the opportunity arose again, but for now, he takes pride in the joy he brought to his family and those who supported him along the way.

Survivor first aired in 2000.

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Several Yale alumni were in attendance, including Jeremy Strong ’01, Edward Norton ’91, Wynton Grant MUS ’17 and Da’Vine Joy Randolph DRA ’11. Strong and Norton were nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, respectively, while Grant was a violinist in the Oscars’ live orchestra and Randolph was a presenter. Colman Domingo, a former School of Drama faculty member, was also nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

“Studios do spend heavily, investing millions of dollars and sometimes tens of millions of dollars, in Oscar campaigns promoting their films,” visiting professor of finance Abraham Ravid wrote. “Nominations can certainly lift the profile of a film or an actor.”

Jeremy Strong ’01, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “The Apprentice,” attended the ceremony. The biographical film, which explores President Donald Trump’s real estate career in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s, was called “fake” and “classless” by Trump.

Strong, who was accepted to Yale with a recommendation from DreamWorks Pictures, initially planned to major in theatre studies. However, his first acting class left him uncomfortable when the professor spoke about Konstantin Stanislavski, the renowned Soviet theatre practitioner.

“Something in me just shut down,” Strong told The New Yorker. “I remember feeling, I need to run from this and protect whatever inchoate instinct I might have.”

He later switched to an English major, but continued to explore his theatre interests, starring in productions of “American Buffalo,” “Hughie” and “The Indian Wants the Bronx” –— all plays in which Al Pacino had starred. During his junior year, Strong hosted Pacino on campus, an event that nearly bankrupted the Yale Dramatic Association, the event’s sponsor.

Edward Norton ’91 was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor in “A Complete Unknown,” a biographical musical drama movie of Bob Dylan. Norton played Pete Seeger, an American banjo-playing folk singer, songwriter and activist who popularized American folk music and deeply influenced bluegrass music.

Norton majored in history at Yale, competed for the Yale rowing team and became fluent in Japanese. After graduation, he worked for Enterprise Community Partners, an American nonprofit focused on advancing racial equality and economic mobility, in Osaka, Japan. He also founded Class 5 Films with his former roommate, Stuart Blumberg ’91.

Strong and Norton ultimately lost the award to Kieran Culkin for his performance in “A Real Pain,” a comedy-drama about reunited cousins who embark on a Jewish heritage tour through Poland in honor of their late grandmother.

Another Yale-trained artist also took part in the night’s festivities — though not in front of the camera. Wynton Grant MUS ’17 performed as a violinist in the Oscars’ live orchestra, providing the musical backdrop for Hollywood’s biggest night. 

A sought-after multi-instrumentalist and composer, Grant has contributed to major film and television scores, including “Oppenheimer,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “The Mandalorian.” He has also collaborated with artists such as Lana Del Rey, Shawn Mendes and Alicia Keys. 

Grant, who received The Dean’s Prize, Yale’s highest award for excellence, was a second violinist in the Yale Philharmonia. Since his graduation, he has described himself as “equally at home in classical and pop music settings, and constantly discovering new techniques for violin performance.” In 2017, he toured Europe with Rostam, the Grammy-winning former guitarist of Vampire Weekend, as the first violinist of a string quartet. 

Colman Domingo, a former faculty member at the David Geffen School of Drama, earned a Best Actor nomination for his role in “Sing Sing,” a film that explores the lives of inmates at the notorious New York prison. Last year, Domingo was also nominated for his portrayal of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in the film “Rustin,” which has earned critical acclaim.

The award ultimately went to Adrien Brody for “The Brutalist.”

Da’Vine Joy Randolph DRA ’11 served as a presenter at this year’s Oscars. Randolph gained widespread recognition last year after winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a grieving mother in the dramedy“The Holdovers.”

While at Yale, Randolph performed in “The Servant of Two Masters,” which explores the comedic complexities of mistaken identity and the pursuit of self-interest. Randolph also performed in “A Portrait of the Woman as a Young Artist,” which Meg Miroshnik DRA ’11 wrote, drawing on themes from Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” Yeats’ “Leda and the Swan” and Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” to depict a woman reclaiming her identity and seeking revenge.

The first Academy Awards presentation was held in 1929.

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A close advisor and friend to Vice President JD Vance LAW ’13, Driscoll becomes the eighth Yale graduate to hold the position, which oversees all matters related to the U.S. Army and advises the Secretary of Defense.

Driscoll’s confirmation followed a largely non-confrontational hearing before the Senate Committee on Armed Services earlier this month. While facing tough questions from Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., regarding his willingness to decline unlawful orders, Driscoll ultimately received bipartisan support, including from Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73, D-Conn.

“As a lawyer, we follow the facts and the law, and that’s what Dan Driscoll will do as secretary of the Army,” Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal’s son, state Rep. Matt Blumenthal LAW ’15, attended Yale Law School alongside Driscoll. During the hearing, Blumenthal, who endorsed Driscoll, noted that both his son and former President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan ’98 LAW ’03 described Driscoll as “a person willing to listen, to learn and to work in a bipartisan way, to put our soldiers first.”

A North Carolina native, Driscoll earned degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School. He served in the army for three and a half years, was deployed to Iraq in 2009 and later worked for Opportunity Nation, a nonprofit focused on reducing economic inequality.

“The world is changing rapidly, and we must ensure the Army is prepared to operate in new, complex and contested environments,” Driscoll said during the hearing. “From advancing our capabilities in multidomain operations to cutting-edge technologies, my sacred duty to our Army is to ensure our soldiers have the world’s finest training, equipment and leadership to accomplish any mission.”

Driscoll studied at Yale Law School on the Elliot Goldstein Scholarship, awarded to students who excel at corporate law.

At Yale Law School, Driscoll became involved in the Yale Veterans Legal Services Clinic, held a prosecution externship with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, interned for the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and clerked for Chief Judge Alex Kozinski on the Ninth Circuit. He also received a Yale Law School grant to serve as “an official observer” at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

“Yale Law School is possibly the only place in the world where you can safely explore so many different intellectual areas,” Driscoll told the Yale Law School Development Office. “And the people are amazing!”

While volunteering at the Veterans Legal Services Clinic in his first year, Driscoll met Vance, who ran the group and became a mentor. In an interview, Driscoll called Vance “a friend I have a ton of respect for” and praised his leadership.

“I think the way that you could tell that JD was so different is he didn’t seem to get kind of sucked up in the power dynamic that exists at a place like Yale Law School,” Driscoll said in an interview with PBS last year. “I think from the outside, people want to view, again, JD as this kind of power-hungry, flattened character who’s just seeking to one day rule the world, and that just couldn’t be any further from the truth of the man I know.”

After graduating from Yale, Driscoll worked as an investment banker and later ran in a Republican congressional primary in North Carolina in 2020, securing only about 8 percent of the vote.

Before administering the oath to Driscoll on Tuesday, Vance called Driscoll “a dear friend of mine.” After taking the oath, Driscoll thanked Vance, saying their “friendship has been the adventure of a lifetime” and expressing excitement for the future.

The Secretary of the Army position was created in 1947 under President Harry S. Truman, replacing the role of Secretary of War.

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Ohio Governor Mark DeWine is term-limited, leaving the seat open in 2026.

“President Trump is reviving our conviction in America,” Ramaswamy told supporters at a warehouse in Cincinnati. “We require a leader here at home who will revive our conviction in Ohio. That is why today I am honored to announce I am running to be the governor of a great state at the heart of the greatest nation known to mankind.”

Following his announcement, Ramaswamy secured endorsements from high-profile Republicans, including President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, his former DOGE co-chair.

“I know him very well, competed against him, and he is something SPECIAL,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He will be a GREAT Governor of Ohio, will never let you down, and has my COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT!”

Ramaswamy, who lives in Ohio with his wife Apoorva Ramaswamy ’11 MED ’15 and their two sons, first gained national recognition as an outsider in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. After finishing fourth in the Iowa caucuses, he dropped out and endorsed Trump.

His endorsement led to speculations about a potential cabinet position in the Trump administration. Instead, he was appointed co-chair of DOGE, a position he held for just under seventy days before resigning.

His tenure at DOGE was reportedly tumultuous. Ramaswamy clashed with Musk and Trump’s inner circle, and in December, he drew controversy by writing on X — formerly Twitter — that “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.” He also sparred with fellow Republicans in a contentious online debate over the H-1B visa policy.

Notably, Ramaswamy made no mention of his brief tenure at DOGE during his campaign launch, a move some analysts suggest was intentional. Ohio has more than 55,000 civilian federal workers, many of whom he might have targeted had he remained at DOGE.

By sidestepping discussion of his time at DOGE, Ramaswamy also avoided reminding voters of his previous political setbacks, including his failed presidential bid and speculation about an appointment to JD Vance’s LAW ’13 Senate seat, which ultimately went to Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.

Instead, Ramaswamy focused on his vision for Ohio, pledging to improve education; position the state as a leader in capitalism and meritocracy; and slash red tape, taxes and bureaucracy. 

Ramaswamy also said that he wanted to “end the epidemic of depression, anxiety, fentanyl, opioid usage, and suicide that has festered in [Ohio].” He announced that he wants to “get the cell phones out of classrooms,” which scientists have attributed to declining academic performance and worsening mental health among students.

A Harvard College graduate, Ramaswamy attended Yale Law School, where he met Vance and joined Shabtai, a Jewish intellectual discussion society. He was also a recipient of the prestigious Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, a graduate fellowship for immigrants and their children.

In November, Ramaswamy returned to Yale to deliver the keynote address at the 14th Annual Conference hosted by Yale’s Buckley Institute.

Ohio was the 17th state to join the union.

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As courts across the country issue rulings that challenge Trump’s agenda, Vice President JD Vance LAW ’13 took to X, arguing that judges should not control what he called the “executive’s legitimate power.” His comments sparked a debate over the judiciary’s role in the checks-and-balances system.

“Yale Law School should be embarrassed,” John Yarmuth ’69, former Democratic Congressman and Chair of the House Budget Committee, wrote on X. “The judge’s legal role is to define what executive powers are legitimate. It’s called separation of powers, which [Vance] apparently doesn’t believe in.”

In the same post, Vance wrote that “if a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal.” He added, “if a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal.”

While traveling to the Super Bowl via Air Force One last Sunday, Trump denounced a judge’s ruling that halted DOGE’s ability to access Treasury payment systems, calling it a “disgrace.”

“No judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision,” Trump said.

That same day, Vance shared a post from Harvard Law School professor Adrian Vermeule, who supports strong executive powers. 

“Judicial interference with legitimate acts of state, especially the internal functioning of a co-equal branch, is a violation of the separation of powers,” Vermeule wrote.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller agreed, writing, “If a district court judge wants control over the entire executive branch … he should run for president.”

After former Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote that “decisions about what is legal and illegal are made by courts of law. Not by the Vice President,” Miller pushed back.

“Hey Pete, care to show us the line in the Constitution where it says a lone unelected district judge can assume decision-making control over the entire executive branch affecting 300M citizens?” Miller wrote. “Any mention of nationwide district court TROs? Or permanent all-powerful bureaucracy?”

Legal scholars and Yale alumni quickly responded.

“They didn’t teach us much law at Yale Law School,” Nathan Robinson LAW ’14, editor-in-chief of the left-wing Current Affairs magazine, posted. “But one thing I do remember is that actually when the executive branch violates the law, the judiciary is fully entitled (and obligated) to command the executive branch to behave legally.”

John Bolton ’70 LAW ’74, who served as National Security Advisor during Trump’s first term, agreed.

“JD Vance must have slept through his Constitutional law class at Yale,” Bolton wrote. Citing Marbury v. Madison, a landmark Supreme Court case that established judicial review, Bolton added that Chief Justice John Marshall said, “‘It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.’”

The debate extended to Yale Law School faculty.

Yale law professor Jed Rubenfeld defended Vance, writing on X that Vance was “correct” and that “judges cannot constitutionally interfere” in areas where the executive branch has “sole and plenary power under the Constitution,” such as “in commanding military operations or exercising prosecutorial discretion.”

Another Yale Law professor, Natasha Sarin ’11, disagreed, writing that the issues Rubenfeld was referring to as in the sphere of the president’s plenary power were not the issues Vance was “implicitly referring” to. Sarin added that “it is not within the executive’s legitimate power to refuse to spend funds Congress has appropriated.”

Norman Ornstein, a political scientist and emeritus scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, also pushed back, writing that Rubenfeld should delete his “account and resign from the law school” if he supported “a president unilaterally stopping congressionally mandated spending and programs” and “Elon Musk and his minions blocking employees from entering their workplaces and hacking into secured government databases.”

As of Wednesday, the New York Times reported that more than 28 court rulings have “temporarily paused” Trump administration policies. The Trump administration “has asked higher courts to intervene,” and some cases could make it to the Supreme Court.

Three Trump-appointees currently serve on the Supreme Court, including the News alumnus Brett Kavanaugh ’87 LAW ’90.

Correction, Feb. 20: The previous version of the article incorrectly identified the Supreme Court case that established judicial review.

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Ellis now holds one of the most powerful positions in the American intelligence community, making him the second Yale alum to do so. The role, which does not require Senate confirmation, was previously held by David S. Cohen LAW ’89, who served in both the Biden and Obama administrations.

“Michael is a smart and highly respected lawyer who graduated from Yale University,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He will now help our fantastic CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, fix the CIA, and make it, once again, the Greatest Intelligence Agency in the World.”

Ellis has maintained a long-standing presence in Republican politics. Before attending Yale Law School, he volunteered for the George W. Bush 2004 presidential campaign while on academic leave from Dartmouth College. Ellis used college credits earned in high school to spend his sophomore and junior years working in polling and strategy for the campaign.

That early involvement helped him secure a position as Associate Director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives in the Bush administration. He also served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

After graduating from Dartmouth summa cum laude — where he served as editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review, a conservative undergraduate publication — Ellis worked as an aide to former Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee.

He was also named on the Forbes Top 30 Under 30 for Law & Policy list. In an interview with the Review, Ellis called it “a very nice honor, especially to be considered among such an impressive bunch of folks,” admitting that he was “not exactly sure how they found me.”

Ellis contributed to legal scholarship while at Yale Law School, writing for the Yale Law Journal about legal strategies in the war on terror and the historical development of elected prosecutors.

He also took on a leadership role within the conservative legal community. In 2011, during his third and final year, he served as president of the Yale Federalist Society, a group that describes itself as providing “conservative and libertarian perspectives that balance the law school’s left-leaning curriculum and enrich its intellectual atmosphere.”

Under Ellis’ leadership, the organization expanded, boasting a club email list of over 200 members and frequently hosting legal discussions and guest speakers. 

“Our mission is to foster an exchange of ideas on important legal issues,” Ellis told YLS Today, the law school’s media publication, in 2011. “In doing so, we challenge our own assumptions and those of a left-leaning student body and faculty.”

One event featured then-Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton, for whom Ellis would later clerk. Ellis also clerked for Amul Thapar, then-Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

While clerking for Sutton, Ellis competed on Jeopardy!, advancing to the final round and winning $16,400. By then, he had moved to Ohio with his wife, Katherine Racicot. 

Following his clerkships, Ellis went on to hold multiple roles in the first Trump administration. He served as deputy national security council legal advisor, special assistant to the President and senior associate counsel to the President.

Ellis was also appointed to the position of general counsel of the National Security Agency just days before Biden took office. The appointment drew criticism, particularly due to reports that Ellis had played a role in attempting to block former National Security Advisor John Bolton “from publishing a damning book about the president.”

On Monday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe praised Ellis’ appointment in an agency press release, calling him “highly respected in the Intelligence Community” and ranking him “among our nation’s finest national security professionals.”

“Having known Michael for many years, I am truly excited to welcome him to Langley,” Ratcliffe added.

The Central Intelligence Agency was established in 1947 during the Harry Truman administration.

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His remarks quickly drew criticism, including from Jackson School professor Rory Stewart, who co-directs the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy. Stewart, a former UK Secretary of State for International Development and member of the UK National Security Council, pushed back on Vance’s invocation of Christian principles.

Citing John 15:12-13 — “love one another as [God] love[s] you”— Stewart described Vance’s argument as “less Christian and more pagan ritual.” He also criticized politicians who “assume to speak for Jesus” and dictate “in which order to love.”

Vance quickly responded, telling Stewart to “just google ordo amoris,” a theological concept referring to rightly ordered love. In “Summa Theologiae,” St. Thomas Aquinas argues that there “needs [to] be some order in things loved out.” Defending his position, Vance wrote that “the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense.”

“Does Rory really think his moral duties to his own children are the same as his duties to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away?” Vance asked. “Does anyone?”

The News could not reach Stewart for comment.

The exchange further escalated when Vance questioned Stewart’s intelligence, writing that “the problem with Rory and people like him is that he has an IQ of 110 and thinks he has an IQ of 130,” adding that “this false arrogance drives so much elite failure over the last 40 years.”

Stewart responded with sarcasm, posting that he was “so impressed” by Vance’s “IQ and Latin” as well as his “ability to measure other’s IQ so instantly and confidently.” He then asked, “Is this supposed to be the moment for me to challenge the VP in an IQ test? And if so will he participate?”

Stewart went on to call Vance’s remarks “false and dangerous,” arguing that “nowhere does Jesus suggest that love is to be prioritized in concentric circles.” Instead, Stewart described Jesus’ love as “universal.” 

In an interview with BBC Radio, Stewart continued his criticism, saying that “JD Vance and Donald Trump have a complete obsession with trying to guess other people’s IQs. And of course the assumption is that their IQs are enormous.” 

He also dismissed Vance’s reading of Aquinas as “obscure” and warned that adopting such an interpretation would lead to “an eccentric reading of Christianity.” Citing the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Stewart argued that Christianity calls upon individuals to “push beyond selfish tribal ethics.”

Kevin Hollinrake, the UK’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, who served in government with Stewart, wrote on X that he agreed with Vance “on [his] order of priorities,” but joked that Vance had “lowballed Rory’s IQ by at least 40.”

Rev. James Martin, a consultant to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications, also weighed in, challenging Vance’s commentary. 

“Jesus’s fundamental message is that *everyone* is your neighbor,” Martin wrote, adding that Christianity teaches people to “help those who seem different, foreign, [or] other.”

Vance is the fourth vice president to have graduated from Yale University.

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