Federalist Society Convention Opens With Quips Rather Than Worry

Fifth Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham kicked off the Federalist Society’s annual gathering by asking, “Oh my gosh, how excited are we about last week’s blowout victory?”

After people in the audience clapped, he delivered his punchline: he was referring to the University of Texas Longhorns’ victory against the Florida Gators.

The meeting, held at the Washington Hilton, comes a week after President-elect Donald Trump’s reelection — and amid questions about how much influence the Federalist Society’s traditional conservatives will have in the new administration.

The theme of this year’s national lawyers convention is “Group Identity and the Law” and Jonathan Berry, Boyden Gray managing partner, who served in the Trump Labor Department, leaned into the topic during the first panel on Thursday morning.

“I am also a white, cisgender male with brown hair and a beard wearing a navy suit and a totally sweet tie and glasses,” Berry said, to laughter. “My pronouns are he, him, his. And most importantly, we are convening on the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples who voted by a 65-34 margin to reelect President Donald Trump.”