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

In its mission and purpose, the Federalist Society is unique. The Society is committed to providing a forum for debate, a commitment which extends to inviting speakers who do not agree with the society's principles. Past invitees include Justice Stephen Breyer and law professor Alan Dershowitz, as trenchant opponents of the Federalist Society's goals as could be imagined. UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh explains this openness to dissenting voices by saying that "we think that a fair debate between us and our liberal adversaries will win more converts for our positions than for the other side's." In this manner the Society has redefined the terms of legal debate.

Current and former members of the Federalist Society include:
Antonin Scalia (Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court)
Samuel Alito (Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court)
Clarence Thomas (Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court)
Edwin Meese (former U.S. Attorney General)
Robert Bork (former Judge of the U.S. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia)

Background

In 1982, students from Harvard, Yale, and the University of Chicago Law Schools founded The Federalist Society to challenge the orthodox liberal ideology found in most law schools. Today the Society has chapters in 145 American law schools. Furthermore, The Lawyer Division is comprised of over 20,000 legal professionals and others interested in current intellectual and practical developments in the law. It has active chapters in sixty cities including Detroit. In only a few years, The Federalist Society has become on of the most important and influential legal organizations in the country.

A few years later in 1987/1988, the late Distinguished Professor of Law Joseph D. Grano and a group of students founded the Wayne State Chapter. They wanted to open a dialogue and create a forum for debate on the legal issues of the day. Professor Grano and the students main reason for founding the chapter was to establish a balance of thought at Wayne State Law School. The main debate in those early days was over Miranda rights. Professor Grano often debated the issue with Professor Yale Kamisar from the University of Michigan Law School.