About Us

The Federalist Society is divided between the national organization and the student chapter at Columbia. Membership in the national organization is not required to participate in the events at Columbia. There are, however, several benefits in membership in the national organization. For a list of those benefits and how to join the national organization, see here. To join the Columbia chapter, email fedsoc@law.columbia.edu. 

The Federalist Society

The Federalist Society is a group of Libertarians and Conservatives 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 National Organization

In April 1982, a small group of law students from Harvard, Stanford, the University of Chicago, and Yale organized a symposium on federalism at Yale Law School. These students were greatly dissatisfied with the academic climate on their campuses and wanted to create a forum for debate on a wider range of legal viewpoints than they were being exposed to in the course of their studies. When the first symposium was held, there were fledging chapters at only these four universities. Inspired by the success of our initial program, other chapters soon formed at law schools across the country, and The Federalist Society was incorporated in August 1982. Later, to answer the obvious need at the next level of the legal community, the Society developed a Lawyers Division that successfully took root in every major legal center.

Since 1982, the Society has grown to include approximately 150 law school chapters and has become a major force in legal education. Currently, the national organization has approximately 25,000 members. The Federalist Society now includes Lawyers Division chapters in 62 cities as well as 15 Practice Groups covering various specialized areas of the law. All chapters and practice groups are run autonomously by their members in coordination with the national office.

The Columbia Chapter

At Columbia, our main activities are debates and lectures from judges, academics, and politicians that bring this diverse perspective on the law to the debate on campus. Recent years' events have included Senators, numerous judges of the Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the most renowned academics and practitioners in the country.

We also hold workshops on preparing for and applying for judicial clerkships, and how to obtain public interest employment.