The Federalist Society has always been a coalition between conservative and libertarian lawyers and law students. However, judging from the folks I met at national student conferences when I was in law school (88-91), the libertarians in those days were concentrated at the “elite” law schools. Harvard, Yale, Chicago, all had substantial minorities (or in Chicago’s case, sometimes majorities) of libertarians in their organizations, but once one got past the so-called top 15 schools, active Federalist Society members were almost all standard issue conservatives, with nary a libertarian to be found. Judging by my experiences lecturing at many Fed Society student chapters over the last few months, times have dramatically changed. Quite a few chapter leaders have either mentioned to me that they are libertarians, or made comments that made it clear that they have libertarian views. In part, there is undoubtedly a selection effect involved: Fed Societies with libertarian leaders are more likely to invite a libertarian speaker like myself. But for the most part, my speaking schedule has been dictated by a prearranged travel schedule. My impression is that chapter leaders are now as likely to be libertarians as conservatives (with the caveat that I have mostly spoken in large cities, where religiousand therefore conservative influence is less substantial). If I’m right that current poliltically active “right-wing” law students’ intellectual heroes are as likely to be Richard Epstein or Randy Barnett as Robert Bork or Nino Scalia, this has some interesting implications for the future of Amercan jurisprudence.
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