It is the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Federalist Society. A coalition of conservative leaning lawyers and academics that provide a forum for debate at law schools and among practioners of law. Last night the President of the United States spoke at our small, intimate gathering at Union Station. Powerline describes it at this link. All four founders spoke as did Scalia, Thomas and Alito.
I saw a lot of old friends, one is now a Judge, others in journalism and at big firms. It is not a gathering of powerless gadflies. Solicitor Generals, Justices, Counsel to the President were all there. I was even able to introduce my wife to Senator Specter and Kate O'Beirne of NRO.
I am not old enough to have joined the Federalist Society when it was first formed. Nor did I go to either Yale or the University of Chicago. But I was President of a local (D.C.) law school chapter at the end of the 1980's.
It is a great organization that has transformed our law schools for the better and helped nudge the judicial culture towards the center.
Courts exist to declare what the law is. Not to make it what they think it should be. Hopefully, the Federalist Society will be around for another 100 years to remind them of that.
Stolat!
1 comment:
I salute the Federalist Society on their anniversary. I just wish their speakers and members did a better job of living up to their principles, even if it went against what they want. But I do acknowledge that outcome-driven jurisprudence is not the exclusive domain of the right.
JCC
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