President's Welcome
Welcome to the University of New Mexico chapter of the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies. The Federalist Society is a non-partisan organization interested in the current state of 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.
Law schools and the legal profession are strongly dominated by a form of orthodox liberal ideology that advocates a centralized and uniform society. While some members of the legal community have dissented from these views, by and large they are taught simultaneously with (and often as if they were) the law.
The Federalist Society started as a small group of law students from Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, and Yale. Those 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 their course of legal studies.
Today, there are more than 140 law school chapters. There are also lawyers division chapters in over 50 cities. The national organization has over 5000 members.
Goals of the University of New Mexico chapter of the Federalist Society include:
- Promote discussion of important public policy issues through debate and discussion
- Provide a forum for discussion of local and national federalist issues
- Support socialization within the law school community
