Federalist Society

Purpose
Law schools and the legal profession are currently strongly dominated by a form of orthodox liberal ideology which advocates a centralized and uniform society. While some members of the academic community have dissented from these views, by and large they are taught simultaneously with (and indeed as if they were) the law. The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. 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.

Goals
The Society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities. This entails reordering priorities within the legal system to place a premium on individual liberty, traditional values, and the rule of law. It also requires restoring the recognition of the importance of these norms among lawyers, judges, law students and professors. In working to achieve these goals, the Society has created a conservative and libertarian intellectual network that extends to all levels of the legal community.

Events
Members of the Federalist Society at Roger Williams plan to host 6 academic events (debates, lectures, lectures with commentary, and panels) this academic year. In addition to this, we will organize a few social events—some in Bristol, as well as traveling up to Boston to meet with the student chapters of the Boston law schools for a mixer. Perhaps the hi-light of the year, however, is the Federalist Society Student Symposium. Hosted at Yale Law School last year, this annual event brings members from across the country for a thought-provoking conference and banquet on various legal issues. The Society has a strong reputation for hosting speakers on all sides of the ideological spectrum. A number of the Society's most frequent and prominent speakers - from the Left as well as the Right - attest to the fact that the Society has contributed a great deal to free speech, free debate, and the public understanding of the Constitution.

Interesting Facts
Federalist Society members have included Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., Justice Samuel Alito, and Justice Antonin Scalia. The Federalist Society is an organization of 40,000 lawyers, law students, scholars, and other individuals who believe and trust that individual citizens can make the best choices for themselves and society. It was founded in 1982 by a group of law students interested in making sure that the principles of limited government embodied in our Constitution receive a fair hearing.