The Federalist Society
from the archives
Editor’s note: Chris Sprowls penned this article 12 years ago while in law school at Stetson University, where he was vice president of the Stetson chapter of the Federalist Society. He will assume the role of Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives in November 2020.
winter / spring 2008 The Federalist Society: An Ally In The Fight Against Judicial Activism Chris Sprowls
n the wake of last year’s dismissal the group for its so-called “political clout” of several U.S. Attorneys, left-wing to influence both judicial and political Ipolitical pundits and bloggers found appointees within the Bush administration. an unusual target: The Federalist Society. In an all too familiar fashion, these While the Society has no identified political critics have portrayed this legal society as ties, does not file lawsuits on behalf of a secret conservative organization that has conservative issues, and in no way lobbies an unhealthy effect on the integrity of our on Capitol Hill, critics have taken aim at government. This article is intended to from the archives
shine a light on what the Federalist Society really is, what it stands for, and what it The Federalist Society is about means in the fight for the preservation of exploring these ideas. The society has over “originalism.” 180 chapters with 5,000 student members at The Federalist Society for Law and law schools across the country. The lawyer Public Policy Studies traces its origin division boasts 20,000 members, and in to 1982, when a group of conservative 1996 the society began a Faculty Division and libertarian law students became to encourage academic dialogue. In dismayed by the absence of instruction— Florida, all ten accredited law schools claim or instructors, for that matter—expressing chapters. Many of Florida’s conservative- an originalist approach to legal analysis. minded lawyers and jurists remain involved Originalism, or strict constructionism, is with the group through lawyer divisions in the legal philosophy that jurists should Tampa, Orlando, Miami, and Tallahassee.2 interpret the Constitution in a manner The society offers law students the that reflects the original intent of the opportunity to engage legal scholars and framers. leaders in their respective fields by utilizing Originalists believe that the Framers the organization’s speaker’s bureau. The scripted a document that would not bureau provides a dynamic and broad field evolve, devolve, or morph throughout of interesting speakers for chapters to invite the history of the Republic. Of course, the to speaking engagements, group meetings, Framers did expect the document to be or special seminars. The Federalist Society amended, as evidenced by the fact that pays for these speakers to visit law school they chose to amend it themselves, but chapters, thus providing the means they could not have intended for carefully necessary to allow students to engage in chosen words to convey a different the intellectual discourse that the society meaning today than when adopted in embodies. 1789. Ronald Reagan knew the impact that the Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, organization would have on America’s legal and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers education when he said, “The Federalist in 1787 to convince the young nation Society is changing the culture of our that it was because men are not angels nation’s law schools. You are returning the that we need government, and that this values and concepts of law as our Founders government would perpetuate the spirit understood them to scholarly dialogue, of the revolution by providing a system and through that dialogue, to our legal in which no one branch would dominate institutions.” the other two, with the ultimate purpose Mr. Reagan, who once quipped of protecting the basic rights granted to that freedom is only a “generation from our individual citizens by the document extinction,” knew that the Society did and then and now.1 would serve the Republic by safeguarding from the archives
the intent of the Framers and ensure that However, the critics have seemed to the dialogue and spirit of federalism as it notice that many of the same individuals are was described in the Federalist Papers and members of the American Bar Association, embodied in the Constitution would live our nation’s largest legal organization. forever. Hiring members of the ABA does not stir The Federalist Society is dedicated to suspicions of a conspiracy, nor does it serve the proposition that in order to preserve as a lightning rod for political rhetoric, our Republic’s most sacred of principles, despite the fact that a larger number of the rule of law; we must constantly be government lawyers are members of the vigilant in our study, understanding the ABA than of the Federalist Society. commitment to the law, and through it, to The Federalist Society and its members freedom. are about exchanging ideas concerning the As for the Society’s influence on the future of our system while clinging to our debate over originalism, we must look most venerated and rooted principles - only to the many notable current and those that the Republic was founded upon former members, including Justices John and without which our nation would surely Roberts, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, and perish. Clarence Thomas. Former Solicitor General These gatekeepers often find themselves Theodore Olson and Judge Robert Bork are in government service, not because of who also among the group’s most prestigious controls Congress or the White House, but supporters. because the essence of their beliefs is derived While these individuals are some of from the principles that the Founders gave the most conservative individuals in the us and constitute the pillar upon which our eyes of the legal community, they are system rests: the rule of law. also some of its most celebrated scholars. Chris Sprowls is a second year law Some critics, noticing that many of the student at Stetson University College of Law attorneys being hired by the Department and Vice-President of the Stetson Chapter of of Justice are members of the Federalist the Federalist Society. He received his B.A. in Society, have asserted that membership was Political Science from the University of South perhaps code for conservative, somehow Florida indicating that this person is a true believer in some standardized, wholesale version of conservatism.
References
1 Federalist Papers #51. 2 Federalist Society Online, http://www.fed-soc.org/aboutus/id.28/default.asp.