I was invited to this Federalist Society event in Houston, which is to be held at South Texas College of Law Houston (the private law school in Houston had statist squabbles with U.Houston law school years ago when it tried to merge with Texas A&M to become its law school; University of Houston, higher reputation and state-funded so it’s cheaper, didn’t want the competition so finally got the merger blocked; STCL in a fit of pique tacked on “Houston” to its name a few years back):
Good morning,Lawyers are welcome to join the South Texas Federalist Society and the South Texas Law Review for a discussion on America at 250 and originalism featuring Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Judge Patrick Bumatay of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Panelists:
- Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- Judge Patrick Bumatay, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- Ryan J. Lanier, President, South Texas Federalist Society (Moderator)
Time: 11:15 AM-12:15 PM (doors open at 10:45)
Location: South Texas College of Law Houston (1303 San Jacinto Street, Houston, Texas 77002)
Lunch ProvidedRSVP required by Friday, March 27Kindly,Emily
Blast from the past. And why I am leery of the Federalist Society. Bad on IP : I pestered them over years to include more balanced treatment in their bibliography, to no avail (Anti-IP Material Needed in the IP Section of the Federalist Society’s “Conservative & Libertarian Legal…
— Stephan Kinsella (@NSKinsella) March 17, 2026
See the below blast from the past. And why I am leery of the Federalist Society. First, they are horrible on intellectual property: I pestered them over years to include more balanced treatment in their bibliography, to no avail (Anti-IP Material Needed in the IP Section of the Federalist Society’s “Conservative & Libertarian Legal Scholarship: Annotated Bibliography”).
Though their Intellectual Property Practice Group Newsletter did reprint one of my early short articles against IP (Is Intellectual Property Legitimate? , vol. 3, Issue 3 (Winter 2000)) and local chapters have invited me a few times —
KOL079 | “Federalist Society IP Debate (Ohio State)” (2011); KOL253 | Berkeley Law Federalist Society: A Libertarian’s Case Against Intellectual Property; and, to their credit, they had me go against a mainstream pro-IP law professor in KOL235 | Intellectual Property: A First Principles Debate (Federalist Society POLICYbrief).
As I noted here and here,
My host was Aman Sharma, a very staunch libertarian law student and head of the student chapter of the Federalist Society. When I was involved with the Federalist Society (lawyers chapters) in Philadelphia and Houston they were populated with mainly [low-IQ, anti-intellectual/easily-impressed] Newt Gingrich loving neocons; good to see some Austro-libertarians infiltrating their ranks. Sharma told me “I had a lot of fellow students approach me after the event with questions showing a new-found interest in the Mises/Austrian worldview.” That is cool and gratifying.”
Re the Newt Gingrich thing and my early experience souring on FedSoc. There was no FedSoc at LSU Law when I was there (1988-91). It was founded in 1982 but I never heard of it until after law school.
See the old two LewRockwell.com posts, from me and @ThomasEWoods:
Is every conservative organization insane?
February 28, 2004
Bill, I’ve never gone to the site you mention, but the problem is even worse than you suggest. Once-venerable conservative organizations are now sinecures for third-rate hacks with no principles. What principles could these people possibly have if they think George W. Bush is a great president?
I don’t want to mention any names, but I got a fundraising letter not long ago from a well-known, decades-old conservative organization. It ended by noting that political correctness and ignorance of Western civilization are greater threats to freedom even than Saddam Hussein! Wow! Even greater than Saddam, the man with the “unmanned drone” program that turned out to be a single prototype of plywood and string? Surely not that great!
We have sunk to quite a low when conservative organizations are sending out letters whose propaganda quotient is pretty much that of the old Pravda and the Kremlin. There are still people out there who call the nobody weakling Saddam a “threat to freedom”?
As I read major conservative sites, I wonder what in the world these people have in common with me. They hate limited government, they can see no real problems with perpetual war, and the Constitution is for them a vaguely subversive document. Their principle is this: the United States is Good, so whatever the U.S. government (which to them is the same thing, of course) does is also Good, no matter how transparently dishonest its stated rationale. Things these people would laugh at if the old Soviet Union had said or done them are hailed as supreme acts of genius and goodness because the U.S. government has done them.
And to think these are people who complain about moral relativism. Physician, heal thyself!
my reply:
Re: Is every conservative organization insane?
February 28, 2004
Thom, this reminds me of one reason I quit the Federalist Society. While they are more conservative and even more free market than most lawyers, the ones I’ve met have been woefully non-intellectual, ignorant, and completely unlibertarian. I remember a few years ago I was at a luncheon w/ some fellow members of the Houston chapter. I was sitting next to one guy who is an extremely intelligent lawyer, at a big firm, very well educated from some posh New England law school, etc. Trying to draw some interesting conversation out of him–he was kind of quiet and reserved, and I was not sure of how conservative, or libertarian, or whatever he was–I finally asked him something like, “Well, which political philosophers would you say you admire?” The answer stunned me, almost left me speechless: “Oh, I’d say Newt Gingrich.”
‘Nuff said.
