David A. Cortman serves as senior counsel and vice president of U.S. litigation with Alliance Defending Freedom. He joined ADF in 2005 and currently supervises a team of nearly 40 attorneys and legal staff who specialize in constitutional law, focusing on religious freedom, sanctity of life, and marriage and family.
Cortman has successfully litigated hundreds of constitutional law cases in all levels of federal and state court. He has also argued cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, most recently in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, securing a 7-2 victory that challenged Missouri’s denial of a church’s participation in a playground resurfacing program solely because the church is a religious organization. Cortman also argued Reed v. Town of Gilbert, securing a 9-0 ruling that prohibits the government from discriminating against religious speech while favoring political speech. He has served as lead counsel in Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Burwell, successfully challenging Obamacare’s abortion pill mandate, which forces employers to provide healthcare coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs in violation of their religious convictions; ACSTO v. Winn, successfully defending Arizona’s school choice tuition tax credit program; and Geneva College v. Burwell and Southern Nazarene University v. Burwell, challenging the abortion pill mandate as applied to non-profit religious organizations. He was co-counsel in Town of Greece v. Galloway, successfully defending the freedom of Americans to pray at public meetings.
Cortman has appeared as a guest and has written opinion pieces for numerous major media outlets. He earned his J.D. from Regent University School of Law in 1996, graduating magna cum laude. He is a member of the state bar in Georgia, Florida, Arizona, and the District of Columbia, and is admitted to practice in over two dozen federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He also teaches legal courses on the U.S. Constitution and civil rights.