Federalist Society Founders Win $250K Bradley Prize

Four now-prominent attorneys who founded the Federalist Society in 1982 while they were still in law school are being awarded a $250,000 Bradley Prize.

The Bradley Foundation's president, Michael Grebe, says in a written statement that the founders are being honored for "their ingenuity in forming and nurturing an organization dedicated to preserving rule of law” that "has become a vital resource in American legal education," reports the Blog of Legal Times.

They will split the cash award.

Formed as four separate organizations at Harvard, Stanford and Yale universities, as well as the University of Chicago, the Federalist Society wasn't originally envisioned as the national powerhouse it has become, reports the BLT.

“It was only when we started getting letters asking ‘how do we start a chapter of the Federalist Society at our law school?’ that we said, well, I guess we are starting a national organization,” says Lee Liberman Otis, who is now the society’s senior vice president.

The other three founders are Spencer Abraham, Steven Calabresi and David McIntosh.