BUSH GIVES SPEECH TO FEDERALIST SOCIETY

Robert Barnes reports in The Washington Post on Bush's speech last night to the Federalist Society. Writes Barnes:

"With 1,800 members crowding Union Station, the president of the United States on the dais and four Supreme Court justices singing its praises, last night might have marked the time for the Federalist Society to officially surrender its underdog persona.

"Founded in 1982 as a debating organization for conservative law students who said they were frustrated by prevailing liberal orthodoxy, the group celebrated its 25th anniversary with a black-tie dinner and a bracing message from President Bush about the group's twin passions: interpreting the Constitution as the founders wrote it and promoting conservatives to the federal bench. . . ."

"Alito was joined at the dinner by fellow justices Antonin Scalia, who years ago was a faculty adviser to a fledgling campus chapter at the University of Chicago, and Clarence Thomas, who received a rapturous reception from the group earlier in the day when where he sold and spoke about his new book, "My Grandfather's Son." (Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. appeared in a video tribute, and is scheduled to address the organization today.)"