What is the Federalist Society?

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What is the Federalist Society? The answer may surprise you. Many students enter law school never having heard of the Federalist Society. Others know it simply as “that conservative group.” If you find yourself in one of these categories, you are not alone.

The Federalist Society 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. The Federalist 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, and law students and professors. In working to achieve these goals, the Federalist Society has created a conservative network that extends to all levels of the legal community.

Here at the University of Tennessee College of Law, the Federalist Society hosts a number of events throughout the year, including intellectual pursuits such as debates and lectures, as well as social gatherings.

Members will have the opportunity to travel to the annual National Lawyers Convention held in Washington, D.C. in November, which will include addresses by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney, and Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olsen, among many others. Members will also have the opportunity to travel to the annual Federalist Society Student Symposium, held this year at Columbia University. In addition, members will be given the opportunity to help organize and attend the first ever Tennessee Federalist Convention, tentatively slated for early 2006 in Nashville.