Supreme Court Justices Alito, Barrett Speak at Federalist Society Event

Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett stands during a group photo of the justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, on April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)

The Federalist Society, one of the most influential legal organizations in the United States, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The group hosted its annual gala on Thursday, the Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner, which featured remarks from Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett, among others.

“It’s really nice to have a lot of noise made not by protesters outside of my house,” Barrett remarked as she took the stage at Union Station in Washington.

Pro-abortion protesters have threatened the lives of conservative Supreme Court justices and held illegal protests outside their homes, in connection with the reversal of Roe v. Wade earlier this year.

Barrett mentioned in her brief remarks that she joined the Federalist Society while a professor at Notre Dame Law School, and that she “benefited immensely” from her membership.

She praised the society for its seriousness and accepting different points of view.

The Federalist Society’s 2022 National Lawyers Convention kicked off on Thursday. The theme of this year’s convention is “The Current State of the Legal Profession.” The three-day event, held at Washington, D.C.’s, Mayflower Hotel, brings together hundreds of lawyers, professors, and law students for numerous panel discussions and meetings.

While speaking at the gala dinner, Justice Alito recalled the society’s early lunches at Tony Cheng’s, a Chinese-Mongolian restaurant in Washington. He grabbed a fortune cookie from his pocket, which he claimed he had saved from one of those lunches many years ago.

“I am going to read the fortune. … I hope it will foretell the future of the Federalist Society,” Alito said before reading the fortune. “‘You will flourish and grow and travel to all parts of the country. You will spread wisdom and civility, and you will live as long as your work is needed.’”

Also speaking at the event, Retired Michigan Supreme Court Justice Stephen Markman applauded Alito, who penned the decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that returned abortion policy decisions to state governments.

He said, “the Dobbs decision will be forever indelible part of justice Alito’s legacy.”

Other justices who attended the gala dinner included Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) also attended the event.

The Federalist Society is a group of conservatives and libertarians that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. They believe that “orthodox liberal ideology,” which favors a centralized and uniform society, has taken a stranglehold on law schools and the legal profession.

In recent years, the group has been targeted by Democrats and left-wing commentators. One of the biggest critics of the organization is Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Whitehouse called the group “an operation funded by dark money” in a speech in 2019.

He said the society was used as a “vehicle for powerful interests” which seeks to “acquire control of the judiciary.” He also stated that “nearly 90 percent of Trump’s appellate judges, and his Supreme Court justices, are members of the so-called Federalist Society.”

Whitehouse’s assertions were mocked by William Pryor, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, who delivered the convention’s opening address on Thursday.

“Little did I know that millions of American voters, that the past president of the United States and the United States senators, only provided camouflage for the real operation,” Pryor said.