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d36williams t1_iwlnp0z wrote

Reply to comment by paperclip_nazi in WSJ News Exclusive | Yale Law School Abandons U.S. News Rankings, Citing Flawed Methodology by fransisco_flores

Yale's close door culture poisons the larger world, with its secret societies. Federalist is an outgrowth of that.

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JettisonedJetsam t1_iwmwj5t wrote

I don’t really understand why you think the Federalist society is some secret society cabal. I signed up in law school. It cost 5 bucks and they gave us pizza and brought in professors to have debates. Maybe my experience is different than others, but it’s literally just a law school club.

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Throwawayhelp111521 t1_iwn75y1 wrote

> Maybe my experience is different than others, but it’s literally just a law school club.

It's a law school organization with an agenda, especially at prestigious schools like Yale Law School and Harvard Law School, but there's nothing illegal or improper about its objectives.

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JettisonedJetsam t1_iwn7mvq wrote

You’re right. But every law school club has a certain agenda. Obviously fed Soc will have a less popular agenda, and rightly so, but it is literally just a law school club. It’s not a secret society.

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Throwawayhelp111521 t1_iwpmeyg wrote

No, from what I've read, for years, Federal Society graduates have worked hard to get their members in key positions, much more than the ordinary law school organization. I didn't say it was a secret society, but in terms of exercising influence to help its members, it does remind me of societies like Skull and Bones.

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paperclip_nazi t1_iwlnwi6 wrote

The federalist society and conservatism isn’t the fault of Yale law school.

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Chippopotanuse t1_iwmadjs wrote

Not Yale’s fault? Hmmm….let’s walk down memory lane with the Fed Soc to 1982.

  • the Fed Soc was founded in 1982 by students at Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School.

But these weren’t regular students. They were wholesale propped up by the soon-to-be Yale Dean who was the uncle of one of them.

  • The group's first activity was a three-day symposium titled "A Symposium on Federalism: Legal and Political Ramifications" held at Yale in April 1982.

  • The symposium, which was attended by 200 people, was organized by Steven G. Calabresi, Lee Liberman Otis, and David M. McIntosh. (Speakers included Antonin Scalia, Robert Bork, and Theodore Olson.)

How does a random law student like Calabresi organize all that and get such prominent folks on campus??

Well, for the uninitiated, he wasn’t some random student. He is the nephew of Guido Calabresi, (who would become Dean of the Yale Law School shortly thereafter…those family connections help).

And Steven Calebresi would go on to clerk for Judge Bork and Justice Scalia on SCOTUS. (Isn’t it weird how he kinda waltzes in to such competitive clerkships…clerking for the same folks who he somehow convinced to come to Yale for the Fed Sox’s first event…)

From where I sit, the Fed Soc never gets off the ground if prominent folks at Yale and (Yale itself) didn’t wholesale embrace the bullshit theories that it stands for.

I’m sure you are of the mind that it was an innocent student group that just coincidentally had its genesis at Yale.

To each his own I suppose.

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Throwawayhelp111521 t1_iwn6upy wrote

Steven Calabresi is very well-connected, but his uncle, Guido, the former dean of Yale Law School and current federal appellate judge, is not a Federalist Society type.

When Robert Bork was nominated for SCOTUS in 1987, virtually everyone at YLS was against it. There was a very well-attended panel discussion at which his former colleagues spoke. Even the professors who had a friendly relationship with Bork criticized his legal philosophy.

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paperclip_nazi t1_iwmlqsn wrote

But what is Yale supposed to do about that? You can’t just ban fed soc

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Chippopotanuse t1_iwnuvy0 wrote

Yes…yes you can.

As a private college, Yale can most certainly place a particular set of moral, philosophical, or religious teachings above a commitment to free expression. It has EVERY right to do so.

The freedom to associate voluntarily with others around “common goals or beliefs” is an integral part of a pluralistic and free society.

AND ITS WHAT CONSERVATIVE JUDGES AND THE FED SOC USE TO JUSTIFY EXCLUDING GAYS FROM PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS LIKE THE BOY SCOUTS AND FROM RELIGIOUS COLLEGES.

So, students who want to be a part of the shitty federalist society can fuck right off with their complaints about “free speech” if they get banned from private elite colleges.

Yale ain’t the government. It don’t need to accommodate.

Why is that?

Well…back in 2000, Rehnquist, joined by O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas, authored a 5-4 decision in Boy Scouts of America et al. v. Dale.

And that case held that the constitutional right to freedom of association allowed the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to exclude a homosexual person from membership IN SPITE of a state law requiring equal treatment of homosexuals in public accommodations.

More generally, the court ruled that a private organization such as the BSA may exclude a person from membership when "the presence of that person affects in a significant way the group's ability to advocate public or private viewpoints".

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surfpenguinz t1_iwoxf03 wrote

This is the most insane, terrifying, and anti-intellectual comment I’ve ever seen on Reddit, and I’ve been here a while.

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