FedSoc Events

On April 3-5, 1987, the Federalist Society's Chicago Student Chapter hosted the sixth annual National Student Symposium at the University of Chicago Law School. The symposium's fourth panel discussed "The Role of the Legislative and Executive Branches in Interpreting the Constitution." Featuring: Prof. Robert Nagel, University of Colorado Law School Prof. Burt Neuborne, New York University Law Sch...

On November 17, 2020, the Milwaukee Lawyers Chapter hosted an online interview with former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly. Appointed to Wisconsin’s high court in 2016 by then-governor Scott Walker, Justice Kelly quickly distinguished himself as one of the Court’s most vocal and consistent advocates for textualism and originalism. Justice Kelly made the most of his four-ye...

On November 12, 2020, The Federalist Society hosted an online showcase discussion for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention with Professors Robert George of Princeton and Cornel West of Harvard. The title of the panel was "Showcase Discussion: A Discussion with Professors Robert George and Cornel West on Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Thought, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the Cancel Culture....

On November 10, 2020, The Federalist Society's Professional Responsibility & Legal Education Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel covered "Freedom of Association in the Legal Profession." The Code of Judicial Conduct for federal judges and the Code of Judicial Conduct template for state judges, as modified by the States, both recognize the p...

On November 13, 2020, The Federalist Society's Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel discussed "Emergency Powers and the Rule of Law." The coronavirus pandemic spotlighted an issue that’s been increasingly relevant the last few years: the extra powers that government gets in emergencies. At the federal...

On November 13, 2020, The Federalist Society's Financial Services & E-Commerce Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel covered "Agency Leaders on Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, and the Evolution of a Central Bank Digital Currency." The pandemic has accelerated the establishment of digital currencies, including central bank digital currencies (CBDC...

On November 13, 2020, The Federalist Society hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. This special session covered "The Future of the Second Amendment's Right to Keep and Bear Arms: From the Supreme Court to Social Unrest in the Streets‎." With contrasting views from the two Presidential candidates, as well as the nomination of Judge Amy Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Cour...

On November 12, 2020, The Federalist Society hosted a virtual address by Justice Samuel Alito as a part of the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. Featuring: Hon. Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court Introduction: Hon. Dean A. Reuter, General Counsel | Vice President & Director, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society ******* As always, the Federalist Society take...

On November 12, 2020, The Federalist Society hosted a virtual address by Judge Janice Rodgers Brown as part of the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. Featuring: Hon. Janice Rogers Brown, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit (ret.); Former Associate Judge, California Supreme Court Introduction: Mrs. Lisa Ezell, Vice President and Director, Lawyers Chapters, The Federalist Soc...

On November 12, 2020, The Federalist Society hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The topic of the panel was "The Presidency and the Rule of Law." The U.S. Constitution states that the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” It also requires the President, before taking office, to swear (or affirm) that he or she will “faithfu...

On November 12, 2020, The Federalist Society hosted a virtual address by Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia as a part of the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. Featuring: Hon. Eugene Scalia, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor Introduction: Mr. Eugene Meyer, President and CEO, The Federalist Society ******* As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or p...

On November 12, 2020, the Federalist Society hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel covered "Law, Social Justice, Wokeness, and Protests: Where Do We Go From Here?". Historically, the rule of law and the concept of justice it represents supply two key roots of the American experiment. Some think the ideology underlying many of the recent protests challenges this...

On November 11, 2020, The Federalist Society's Professional Civil rights Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel covered "Modern Quandaries of Law Enforcement." The debates surrounding the doctrine of qualified immunity and cultural impact of law enforcement have seen renewed vigor in past months, as citizens across the country question how reform,...

On November 11, 2020, The Federalist Society's Intellectual Property Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel covered "Intellectual Property Rights and the Rule of Law." The world’s first democratized intellectual-property legal system, initiated by Art. I, Sec. 8, Cl. 8 of the U.S. Constitution, is intended, per Federalist #43, to: provide un...

On November 11, 2020, The Federalist Society's Professional Labor & Employment Law Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel covered "Agency Leaders on Labor Policy." The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, National Labor Relations Board and U.S. Department of Labor can have a significant negative or positive impact on the American economy a...

On November 11, 2020, The Federalist Society's International & National Security Law Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel covered "The Law, China, and the Possible New Cold War." The rule of law is a cornerstone of American democracy as it is for many other democracies. China has laws and courts, but there is little to no “rule of law&...

On November 10, 2020, The Federalist Society's Litigation Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The topic of the panel was "Are MDL Judges Too Powerful?". Nearly half of all federal civil cases are now consolidated in a few handfuls of so-called MDLs (multi-district litigations). Each MDL is overseen by a single federal district judge even though it can co...

On November 10, 2020, The Federalist Society's Corporations, Securities & Antitrust and Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Groups co-hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel discussed "Regulating Social Media." Federal statutes, like the Communications Decency Act (and its Section 230), as well as more federal common-law disciplines, like antit...

On November 10, 2020, The Federalist Society's Free Speech & Election Law Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel explored "Rule of Law, or Just Making it Up? First Amendment Tiered Scrutiny." Different levels of Scrutiny are a staple of First Amendment Jurisprudence. Strict scrutiny for viewpoint-based restrictions, intermediate scrutiny for r...

On November 9, 2020, The Federalist Society's Administration Law & Regulation Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The topic of the panel was "Regulatory Practice and Oversight in 2021 and Beyond." While we think of “The Administrative State” as the relatively permanent apparatus of government, it has no lawful powers beyond those vested i...

On November 9, 2020, The Federalist Society's Criminal Law Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel covered "Prosecutorial Discretion, Partisanship, and the Rule of Law." In recent years, politically controversial criminal investigations have occupied an enormous part of our national discussion. The Special Counsel investigation into Russian influen...

On November 9, 2020, The Federalist Society's Environmental Law & Property Rights Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel was titled "EPA Turns 50: A Debate on Environmental Progress and Regulatory Overreach." Since 1970, the United States has made significant progress in protecting the nation’s water, cleaning up our air and land, and sa...

On November 9, 2020, The Federalist Society's Religious Liberties Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The topic of the panel was "Religious Liberty and the New Court." Religious liberty and religious free exercise in the modern era often involve the question of when religious exemptions are appropriate or required. A well-trodden debate asks whether the...

On November 18, 2020, the Regulatory Transparency Project hosted a virtual fireside chat with FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips on the House Judiciary Antitrust Staff Report and its potential ramifications. The House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee recently released findings of a 16-month investigation into competition in the digital economy. The 449-page staff report, "Investigati...

On November 20, 2020, The Federalist Society's Student Division and the Columbia Student Chapter hosted the third Feddie Night Fight via online webinar. The two contenders engaged in a knockout debate reprising the discussions surrounding Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. The Feddie Night Fights are a series of online events hosted by Federalist Society student chapters on the last Friday of the mon...