Federalist Society
The Federalist Society logo, depicting the silhouette of James Madison's bust
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Type | Legal |
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Purpose | To promote the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be.[1] |
Location |
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Membership
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60,000–70,000[2][3] |
President
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Eugene B. Meyer[1] |
Executive Vice President
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Leonard Leo[4] |
Budget
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Revenue: $13,721,279 Expenses: $13,356,819 (FYE September 2013)[5] |
Website | www |
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, most frequently called simply the Federalist Society, is an organization of conservatives and libertarians seeking reform of the current American legal system in accordance with a textualist or originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. It is one of the nation's most influential legal organizations.[6] It has played a significant role in moving the national debate to the right on the Second Amendment, campaign finance regulation, state sovereignty, and the Commerce Clause. It plays a central role in networking and mentoring young conservative lawyers.[7]
The Federalist Society began at Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School in 1982 as a student organization that challenged what its members perceived as the orthodox American liberal ideology found in most law schools. The Society asserts that it "is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be."[1]
The Society is a membership organization that features a Student Division, a Lawyers Division, and a Faculty Division. The Society currently has chapters at over 200 United States law schools and claims a membership of over 10,000 law students. The Lawyers Division comprises over 60,000 practicing attorneys (organized as "lawyers chapters" and "practice groups" within the Society's Lawyers Division) in eighty cities.[2] Its headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Through speaking events, lectures, and other activities, the Federalist Society provides a forum for legal experts of opposing views to interact with members of the legal profession, the judiciary, law students, and academics.[2][8]
Contents
Background
The society was started by a group of people including Edwin Meese, Robert Bork, David M. McIntosh, Lee Liberman Otis, Spence Abraham, and Steven Calabresi. Its membership has since included Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia, John G. Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.[9]
The Society looks to Federalist Paper Number 78 for an articulation of the virtue of judicial restraint, as written by Alexander Hamilton: "It can be of no weight to say that the courts, on the pretense of a repugnancy, may substitute their own pleasure to the constitutional intentions of the legislature.... The courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed to exercise WILL instead of JUDGMENT, the consequence would equally be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the legislative body."
Its logo is a silhouette of former President and Constitution author James Madison, who co-wrote The Federalist Papers. Commissioner Paul S. Atkins of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission considered Federalist Society members "the heirs of James Madison's legacy" in a speech he gave in January 2008 to the Federalist Society Lawyers' Chapter of Dallas, Texas. Madison is generally credited as the father of the Constitution and became the fourth President of the United States.[10]
The Society's name is said to have been based on the 18th-century Federalist Party;[11] however, James Madison associated with Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican Party in opposition to Federalist Party policies borne from a loose interpretation of the Commerce Clause. The Federalist Society's views are more associated with the general meaning of Federalism (particularly the New Federalism) and the content of the Federalist Papers than with the later Federalist Party.
Activities
The Federalist Society holds a national lawyers convention each year in Washington, D.C. It is one of the highest profile conservative legal events of the year.[12][13] Speakers have included former ACLU head Nadine Strossen, business executive Carly Fiorina, former BB&T chairman John Allison, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and U.S. Senator Mike Lee.[14]
Federalist Society members helped to encourage President George W. Bush’s decision to terminate the American Bar Association’s nearly half-century-old practice of rating judicial nominees' qualifications for office. Since the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the American Bar Association has provided the service to presidents of both parties and the nation by vetting the qualifications of those under consideration for lifetime appointment to the federal judiciary. The Federalist Society alleged that the ABA showed a liberal bias in its recommendations.[15][16][17] For example, while former Supreme Court clerks nominated to the Court of Appeals by Democrats had an average rating of slightly below "well qualified", similar Republican nominees were rated on average as only "qualified/well qualified." In addition the ABA gave Ronald Reagan's judicial nominees Richard Posner and Frank H. Easterbrook its lowest possible ratings of "qualified/not qualified".[18] Judges Posner and Easterbrook have gone on to become the two most highly cited judges in the federal appellate judiciary.[19]
In The Federalist Society by Michael Avery and Danielle McLaughlin, the authors write that every federal judge appointed by both President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush was either a member or approved by members of the Federalist Society.[8] Avery and McLaughlin write that the Federalist Society is primarily a “group of intellectuals.”[20]
Notable members
Notable members of the Society have included:
- United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (who served as the original faculty advisor to the organization)[21]
- Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito[8]
- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas[8]
- United States Court of Appeals Judge Thomas Griffith[22]
- United States Court of Appeals Judge Edith Clement[23]
- Alex Kozinski, former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit[24]
- Former United States Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler, a co-founder of the Federalist Society[7]
- Former United States Court of Appeals Judge Robert Bork[25]
- Former United States Attorney General Edwin Meese[24]
- Former United States Solicitor General Theodore Olson[24]
- President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate Orrin Hatch[21]
- President of Baylor University and former independent counsel Kenneth Starr[21]
- Former U.S. Senator and Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham[24]
- Former Texas State Representative and Dallas lawyer Bill Keffer[26]
- Professor Richard Epstein of the New York University School of Law[27]
- Professor Randy Barnett of Georgetown University Law Center[7]
- Roger Pilon, Director of Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute[28]
- Former United States Ambassador to the European Union C. Boyden Gray[24]
- Former Columbia Law School Dean David Schizer[29]
- Former United States Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton[24]
- Justice Scalia's son Eugene Scalia
- Former general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget and of the Department of Homeland Security Philip Perry[30]
- Michael Chertoff, former United States Secretary of Homeland Security[30]
- Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft[24]
Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts was reported to have been a member of the Society, but Roberts's membership status was never definitively established. Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino said Roberts "has no recollection of ever being a member."[31] The Washington Post later located the Federalist Society Lawyers' Division Leadership Directory, 1997–1998, which listed Roberts as a member of the Washington chapter steering committee.[32] Membership in the Society is not a necessary condition for being listed in the leadership directory.[32]
See also
References
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Further reading
- Fiss, Owen. What is the Federalist Society?. 15 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 5 (1992)
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External links
- The Federalist Society
- List of chapters from the official website
- Organizational Profile – National Center for Charitable Statistics (Urban Institute)
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