The Federalist Society: What You Should Know
What does it do? Who are some famous members?
Issue #132 Government September 8, 2022
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In the past several months, we’ve heard a lot about the Federalist Society and its very conservative members and adherents. Also called “originalists,” people who follow the philosophy of the Federalist Society believe in only the original text of the U.S. Constitution and want to challenge liberal and left-wing politics and politicians.
I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. I am, however, a former government teacher for middle and high school students. This article is my interpretation of this topic from a layperson’s point of view.
The Federalist Society gets its name from The Federalist, a series of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton (1st U.S. Secretary of the Treasury), James Madison (4th President of the United States), and John Jay (1st Chief Justice of the United States) to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. In the 20th century, many people started calling the complete collection “The Federalist Papers.”
The Federal Society particularly advances the premise of Federalist No. 10, written by James Madison, which advocates preventing rule by the majority and for a large commercial republic. Federalist No. 84 opposed the adoption of the Bill of Rights because he thought that a written list might be interpreted as the only right people had. Of course, there are now a total of 27 amendments, of which the amendments that make up the Bill of Rights are the first ten.
The Purpose of the Federalist Society
The Federalist Society was founded in 1982 by a group of law students who believed that law schools and the entire legal profession are dominated by a “liberal ideology” that advocates for a centralized and uniform society. Today, members are law students, lawyers, judges, professors, and heads of organizations.
It states that members want to reprioritize the legal system for individual rights, traditional values, and the rule of law - as it is, not as people may want it to be. The Federalist Society believes in the separation of powers, federalism, limited government, and protecting individual freedoms.
The members believe that individual citizens can make the best choices for themselves and for society and that the principles of limited government are embodied in the Constitution. They also believe that the Constitution has been stretched way beyond the intentions of the Founding Fathers.
Famous Members of the Federalist Society
The Federalist Society includes female members and non-white male members. Ironically, neither women nor non-white and/or non-property-owning men were considered citizens by the original Constitution. Women were considered property (I’m looking at you, Amy Coney Barrett). Slavery was accepted and interracial marriages (I’m looking at you, Clarence Thomas) were illegal.
In the last several years, members of the Federalist Society have accelerated their reach and influence in the legal field nationwide.
Members of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) who are also members of the Federalist Society:
Samuel Alito
Clarence Thomas
Neil Gorsuch
Brett Kavanaugh
Amy Coney Barrett
Other judges who are members of the Federalist Society:
U.S. Court of Appeals: Thomas Griffith (D.C. Circuit), Neomi Rao (D.C. Circuit), Edith Brown Clement (5th Circuit), and Aileen Cannon (U.S. Southern District of Florida)
Members of the United States Senate who are members of the Federalist Society:
Ted Cruz (R-TX), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Todd Young (R-IN)
Professor and Attorney John Eastman, who advocated for Donald Trump to challenge the results of the election by several means, including submitting a slate of “alternate” (read: false) electors to Vice President Pence on January 6, is also a member, although some of the members of the Federalist Society have advocated ejecting members who spread false claims about fraud during the 2020 election like John Eastman, and those who voted against certifying the election, meaning Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley.
Five of the current SCOTUS justices who are also members of the Federalist Society (Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Coney Barrett are also extremely religious conservatives who, although they stated that their personal views do not affect their legal opinions, have obviously relied on their religious beliefs as well as their far-right conservative views to color their decisions on abortion, on religious rights, and on states’ rights. Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett are Catholics (as is Associate Justice Sotomayor) who oppose abortion rights, LGBTQA+ rights, and same-sex marriage.
Except for Sotomayor, these SCOTUS justices almost always rule in favor of those who would use their religious beliefs to discriminate against those with whom they do not agree. Clarence Thomas is one who not only believes that same-sex marriage and abortion should be illegal but so should contraception availability. Of course, he says nothing about the legality of interracial marriage.
The radical right wing of the U.S. judicial system and political systems with the far-reaching influence of the Federalist Society is a constant danger to the rights of many Americans and to our democracy as a whole.
I will further discuss these issues in future op-eds.
What did you know about the Federalist Society before this article? Let us know in the comments!
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