Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Judicial Engagement Debate - Oct. 13 at Noon

Join us tomorrow, Thursday, October 13th at noon for a debate between Clark Neily and Ed Whelan on the topic of judicial engagement.  Free Lunch from Quiznos and outstanding debate!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Supreme Court Round-Up






















A supreme court round-up featuring two distinguished Georgetown Law Professors.  Please join the Federalist Society for a presentation by Viet Dinh and Paul Clement with a reception to follow.  The event will be this Thursday, September 29th from 6 - 8 p.m. in the Hart Auditorium at Georgetown University Law Center.

Where:  GULC Hart Auditorium
When:  Thursday, September 29 2011
            6:00 to 8:00 p.m.


Monday, April 11, 2011

Lifetime Service Award to Judge Douglas Ginsburg April 26


On April 26, Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will accept the 8th annual Georgetown Federalist Society Lifetime Service Award. Judge Ginsburg will be introduced by the Hon. C. Boyden Gray and deliver an address entitled "An Accidental Life Servant." The event is free and open to all who are interested in celebrating Judge Ginsburg's many excellent years of service on the bench, in the classroom, and in public service. We are very grateful Judge Ginsburg has accepted the award and we look forward to welcoming a big crowd to Georgetown for the occasion.

DATE: 4/26/11
TIME: 6:30-7:30 (reception to follow)
PLACE: Gewirz 12th Floor
RSVP: Requested to gulcfedsoc (at) gmail (dot) com

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Religious Conscience Panel

Please join us on April 14 for a panel discussion on religious conscience exemptions in the health care arena. The protection of conscience for health care providers has, in some arguments, been pitted against the right of an individual to receive a health care product or service. This past February, the Obama Administration revised earlier conscience clause regulations enacted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Bush Administration. What are the practical implications of these revised regulations? How will the federal government now handle complaints filed by health care providers who allege that they have been compelled to violate their moral or religious beliefs? These and other questions will be addressed by our panel of experts.

Panelists include Dr. M. Gregg Bloche of Georgetown Law, Robert Destro of American Law, Farr A. Curlin of the University of Chicago Medical Center, and Professor D. Jessie Hill of Case Western Reserve University School of Law. The panel will be moderated by Professor Mark Rienzi of Catholic Law. Free catered lunch will be provided. This event has been made possible by a generous John Templeton Foundation grant.

DATE: 4/14/11
TIME: 12:30 - 2:00pm
LOCATION: McD 200

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Diane Sykes speaking on April 1

The Georgetown Federalist Society is honored to host Seventh Circuit Judge Diane Sykes on April 1 for a presentation on "Gender and Judging: Perspectives from the Bench." A Lent-appropriate free lunch will be provided featuring chicken, steak and fish tacos. Please join us for this important event featuring one of the most highly regarded judges on the federal bench.

Judge Sykes will also be judging the final round of the Beaudry Moot Court Competition on Thursday night in Hart Auditorium.

Date: 4/1/2011
Place: McD 200
Time: 12-1:30pm 

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

GJLPP to Cosponsor Lifetime Service Award


The Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy will be co-sponsoring the Georgetown Federalist Society's Eighth Annual Lifetime Service Award presentation to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg on April 26 from 6:30-7:30pm in Gewirz 12. Judge Ginsburg's address will be published in Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Winter 2011) of the journal. GJLPP is among the nation's leading journals focusing on conservative and libertarian legal thought.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Patriot Act Panel March 23

On Wednesday March 23, Georgetown FedSoc is co-hosting a panel discussion with ACS entitled "Extend, Amend, or Repeal? The Patriot Act at Ten." The panel will be moderated by Georgetown Law's Laura Donohue and will feature Professor Steve Vladeck from American Law, Michelle Richardson from the ACLU, Richard Samp from the Washington Legal Foundation, and Professor Nathan Sales from George Mason Law.

DATE: 3/23/11
TIME: 6-7:30pm (reception to follow)
PLACE: Gewirz 12

Monday, March 21, 2011

International Trade Panel March 24


Please join us on March 24 from 12-2 for a star-studded international trade panel featuring Claude Barfield from AEI, Tim Reif from USTR, and Professor John McGinnis from Northwestern Law. The panel will be moderated by Neena Shenai, trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee and former AEI research fellow. As always, free lunch will be provided. Special thanks to the Templeton Foundation for the very generous grant that made this event possible. Note: this event is no longer scheduled be to recorded.

DATE: Thursday March 24
TIME: 12-2
PLACE: McD 200

Friday, March 18, 2011

Congressional Clerkship Initiative

On April 5, Georgetown Law is hosting a conference to discuss the merits of creating a Congressional Clerkship program to provide clerkships similar to those offered by the other two branches of government. Details on the initiative and the conference are here. There is also a law student petition that will be delivered to members of Congress attending the conference. You can sign that petition and indicate your support for the initiative here.

Friday, March 11, 2011

New Book by Lester Brickman


Professor Lester Brickman of Cardozo School of Law and the Manhattan Institute has an interesting new book out on the enormous costs imposed by our tort system. This book is a broad and deep inquiry into how contingency fees distort our civil justice system, influence our political system, and endanger democratic governance. Contingency fees are the way personal injury lawyers finance access to the courts for those wrongfully injured. Although the public senses that lawyers manipulate the justice system to serve their own ends, few are aware of the high costs that come with contingency fees. This book sets out to change that, providing a window into the seamy underworld of contingency fees that the bar and the courts not only tolerate but even protect and nurture. Contrary to a broad academic consensus, the book argues that the financial incentives for lawyers to litigate are so inordinately high that they perversely impact our civil justice system and impose other unconscionable costs. It thus presents the intellectual architecture that underpins all tort reform efforts.

Daniel Fisher at Forbes has a good review of the book here. Buy the book on amazon here.  

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Cato Book Forum on Legal Academia


The Cato Institute is hosting a book forum this Thursday at 4pm on Walter Olson's "Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America." The panel will feature Mr. Olson, Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, and Cato's Vice President for Legal Affairs Roger Pilon. Judge Ginsburg will be speaking at Georgetown Law on April 5 to accept our annual Lifetime Service Award. Mr. Pilon spoke at Georgetown Law in January.

Professor Barnett had this to say about the book: "While the public loves to bash lawyers, judges, and politicians, law professors have escaped all blame. Olson provides the inside story of how progressive political ideology became the reigning orthodoxy of elite legal education, providing the legal theories responsible for an overweening government committed to mandating, prohibiting, or regulating every aspect of American life in the "public interest." I wish I could say he exaggerates but, sadly, the legal foundation of the road to serfdom was devised by law professors."

Read more about the book here.
Full details on the book forum and registration info here.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Student Symposium Starts Tonight!



For those of you unable to make it to Charlottesville this weekend, the UVA chapter will be liveblogging the event on their website: http://uvafederalist.blogspot.com/. The schedule of events is here.

Monday, January 31, 2011

John Roberts in Fortune


Fortune Magazine ran a profile piece of Chief Justice John Roberts earlier this month. The article is online here. In a passage germane to our most recent debate, the had this to say about popular opinion and the Court:

"Because there is a constant change in membership on the Court influenced by the political process...it's hard to sustain a view of the law when there's a sustained popular majority that rejects it. Eventually the disconnect results in modifications in constitutional doctrine."

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Coverage of Pilon-Friedman Event



Ann Parks from the Georgetown Alumni Association covered our last event for the alumni magazine. A link to her story is here.