Justice Barrett keeps it light at Federalist Society gala

Facing white-hot scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers, liberal activists and the media, the Federalist Society seemed to try to turn down the temperature Thursday night as it held its annual black tie gala in Washington.

This year’s dinner for the influential conservative legal organization took a more low-key approach that contrasted with the triumphal air that prevailed last year in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and end the federal constitutional right to abortion.

The audience of about 2,500 lawyers listened attentively as Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett offered up a sanitized version of her day-to-day life as one of the court’s newest members.

Despite highly polarized rulings from the court in recent high-profile cases over issues like abortion and affirmative action, Barrett insisted that her relationship with her colleagues is “warm.”

”It’s very collegial. We work very well together,” said Barrett, an appointee of President Donald Trump. “The heat stays on the page.”

Barrett mentioned how some of the court’s traditions help build bonds among the justices, although she did not say whether those connections had led to greater compromise on the court.

“We eat lunch every time there's an oral argument and every other conference,” she said.

“We do a lot of things centered around meals and food and fun that help build relationships.”

Since Barrett was confirmed in 2020, conservatives have dominated the high court, with six GOP appointees sitting alongside three justices appointed by Democratic presidents.

Barrett acknowledged that the justices sometimes have impassioned disagreements about the cases before them, although she stressed that the court’s divides don’t always fall strictly along ideological lines.

“Those kinds of disagreements about what the Constitution requires should not spill over into our interpersonal relationships,” Barrett said. “I wish that were true of every aspect of our society.”

At a packed Washington Hilton ballroom, the on-stage 40-minute interview of Barrett by 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Lisa Branch focused largely on work-life balance and did not probe the substance of the court’s recent rulings or disagreements. The talk came as part of the group’s annual three-day conference.

The dinner drew the same lineup of justices as last year, with Justices Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh looking on in the audience as Barrett spoke. Two of the court’s Republican appointees were absent Thursday night: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas.

The gathering comes as the Supreme Court, the Federalist Society and its leaders are under an unprecedented spotlight from journalists, Democratic lawmakers and liberal legal activists intensely probing ties between the group members, leaders and benefactors and the justices they have helped usher onto the court.

Over the past year, two of the court’s most ardent conservatives — Thomas and Alito — have been the subject of a flurry of investigative reports alleging that they failed to disclose luxury travel provided free of charge by wealthy conservative donors. That has led Senate Democrats to demand that the court reform its ethics practices and adopt a formal ethics code.

In addition, the Federalist Society and co-chair Leonard Leo have been the subject of reports in POLITICO and elsewhere examining how he capitalized on his ties to the ostensibly non-political group to raise more than $1 billion for various ideological causes.

Internal tensions have also roiled the group in recent years, with some grievances driven by Leo’s aggressive fundraising efforts and others related to efforts to manage the public profile of the organization, which claims it does not take positions on legal or political issues.

Last year, a founder and co-chair of the society, Northwestern Law Professor Steven Calabresi, said he’d been instructed by other members of the group’s board to ask journalists not to mention his ties to the society when quoting him in news stories.

Activists critical of Leo and his role in reshaping the federal judiciary sought to dog him at Thursday’s dinner by slapping up posters outside the event and lighting up a building opposite the hotel with a large projection of Leo’s face and the words, “Leonard Leo: Under investigation.”

As part of the immense secrecy surrounding the Federalist Society, the press was allowed only limited access to the event. Seated at tables in a far back corner of the massive ballroom, reporters were barred from any mingling with guests.

There was no official confirmation in advance of the dinner about the speakers nor that any of the justices would be in attendance. Even programs placed on the tables did not indicate who would take part in the evening’s keynote event, which was simply billed as a “judicial conversation.”

Indeed, much of the evening’s festivities were already complete before journalists entered. Reporters were only allowed to attend for roughly an hour to hear Barrett’s exchange with Branch.

Parts of Barrett’s discussion did discuss the way the added security at the court has affected the lives of her and her family. She said the increased security for justices was implemented after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016.

Security, particularly for justices’ family members, was also stepped up dramatically after POLITICO’s report in May 2022 that a draft Supreme Court opinion showed the justices were poised to overturn Roe. That led to noisy protests outside Barrett’s home in Virginia. The pro-abortion-rights marches alarmed many of her neighbors, who’ve noted that one of Barrett’s seven children has special needs.

Barrett did not refer Thursday to the demonstrations, but she did recount slipping her security detail soon after she was confirmed in 2020, while visiting her parents in New Orleans. She said her father knew she was feeling “confined and imprisoned” by the trappings of the new job.

“My dad just held up the keys and said, ‘Go,’” Barrett recounted. “So, I took their SUV. I just kind of drove up and down I-10. I had the window down and I was going above the speed limit, the music blaring … like a teenager or something.”