Meet the little-known LDS lawyer who is about to have a big impact on American law and politics

It takes no stances on policies or candidates. It submits no amicus briefs on weighty and divisive legal cases. It has no job placement program.

No matter.

In the 40-plus years since its founding, The Federalist Society has managed to reshape American jurisprudence — and thus American life — by injecting into the legal mainstream ideas once championed by only a few conservative and libertarian voices.

Chief among them is “originalism,” a belief that the Constitution and other legal texts should be interpreted as they were understood at the time of their adoption. The argument was central, for example, in the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to an abortion.

And now, for the first time in The Federalist Society’s history, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is serving as its president and CEO.

Born in Utah and raised in Idaho, Sheldon Gilbert is the father of four children, all named after presidents, and a former missionary who never leaves home without a copy of the Constitution in his pocket — usually more than one, “in case I need to share.”

He is also — as his former law professor and colleague Jeffrey Rosen put it — “the opposite of MAGA.”

To be clear, Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center quickly added, the University of Utah alum is not a partisan Democrat either — “or,” he continued, “a partisan of any kind.”

Indeed, Gilbert’s new position has excited a politically diverse set of friends, colleagues and former classmates, who view his ascendance as a signal that the organization is choosing to actively divest from polarization.

" His appointment is a radical act of faith by The Federalist Society,” Rosen said, “in the importance of debate” and dialogue.

About The Federalist Society

“FedSoc,” as it’s known in the legal world, was launched by conservative law students in 1982 in reaction to what its founders viewed as the overreach of the U.S. Supreme Court under and in the wake of former Chief Justice Earl Warren.

In the years that followed, the once grassroots student debate club swelled to include, per its website, more than 90,000 members spread across students, working lawyers and faculty.

With that white-hot growth has come ever more funding and political muscle.

At least five of the nine current Supreme Court justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett — and countless federal judges have ties to the well-heeled nonprofit, which doubles as a de facto Rolodex for conservative administrations, from the state to federal level, when hiring attorneys or appointing judges.

Leonard Leo, a former vice president and co-chair for the group, has been particularly active in politics, advising President Donald Trump on judiciary appointments during his first term in office and, according to a 2019 Washington Post investigation, helping to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in support of conservative polices and judges.

All of this has led critics to view The Federalist Society as a right-wing organization masquerading as a debate club for students — this despite the roster of speakers at Federalist Society events that include some of the most prominent voices on the legal left.

Lately, a debate has been rumbling within the organization’s ranks, according to retired federal Judge Thomas Griffith, a Latter-day Saint and Federalist Society supporter. At its core is whether the job of judges is to interpret the law or whether the time has come for them to take a more active role to enact conservative policies.

“Sheldon,” Griffith said, “clearly represents” the former view.

‘A true polymath’

Again and again, those interviewed returned to the same descriptors for Gilbert, including “deeply decent,” “hardworking” and, above all, “curious.”

“One of the most interesting, impressive things about Sheldon,” a former colleague, Walmart Chief Legal Officer Rachel Brand, said, “is how curious and interested and knowledgeable he is about lots of things that have nothing to do with law at all. He’s a true polymath.”

A devoted disciple of Clarence Thomas, Gilbert credits the Supreme Court justice’s writings for shaping his own views on the Constitution.

“[Thomas’] commitment to originalism and following the law where it takes him rather than having a results-oriented approach to the law,” he said, “is something that really appeals to me.”

Ira “Chip” Lupu taught countless students during his 40 years of teaching, first at Boston University and then at George Washington Law School.

“I can name maybe a dozen of them,” Lupu said, who “cared about learning” the way Gilbert did.

As for his politics, Lupu recalled the former student as someone with “libertarian inclinations,” especially on economic issues.

In hiring Gilbert, The Federalist Society chose, he emphasized, “somebody who’s quite consciously not a culture warrior.”

This, too, was a consistent theme among interviewees — that during a time of ideological entrenchment, Gilbert actively orients himself outward, vacuuming up as many arguments and perspectives as listening to audiobooks at triple speed will allow.

“Sheldon,” classmate and former Democratic Utah House candidate Adam Alba said, “seeks out perspectives of people he disagrees with.”

Gilbert’s aims for The Federalist Society

More than a personality quirk, Gilbert’s passion for rigorous debate carries with it an almost religious flavor. He believes deeply in the marketplace of ideas’ ability to surface and sharpen the best arguments.

In his telling, The Federalist Society remains primarily a forum for discussion, especially regarding the Constitution and rule of law — and especially among students. And it’s there, among the rising generation, that he plans to commit his energies as president.

“What I find most exciting is the origin story, that it started with students,” said Gilbert, who co-founded a religious freedom moot court competition as a law student. “And that’s the thing I’m going to focus on.”

Law schools, he said, remain saturated with left-leaning approaches to understanding the law and its application.

“The Federalist Society brings ideological perspectives that they otherwise would not be hearing,” Gilbert said, and, in particular, “really making the case for originalism as the appropriate methods for interpreting the Constitution.”

Wrapped up in this mission, he added, is proving that one can still “disagree without being disagreeable” in today’s world.

“We really strive to encourage our members and the scholars who participate in our events to comport themselves with dignity and respect,” Gilbert said, “and really champion the idea that our ideas will succeed on the merits.”

What of the criticisms against the organization and its perceived politicization?

“It’s important,” he stressed, “to distinguish between The Federalist Society, which does not take stances on policies or candidates, and members of the society.”

Latter-day Saints and the law — an overview

Gilbert demurred when asked how his religious background informed how he approached the law.

But the way Nathan Oman, a Latter-day Saint lawyer and legal historian, sees it, Gilbert’s interest in the Constitution and constitutional law is linked, “at least in part, to his Mormonism and the way Mormonism tends to valorize” the document.

The Constitution appears in the teachings of church founder Joseph Smith, later canonized as scripture in 1833. Doctrine & Covenants 101:79-80 explains that God “established” the nation’s founding charter “by the hands of wise men” because “it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.”

A separate writing from that same year, preserved as D&C 98:5, reads: “And that law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me.”

How Latter-day Saint leaders have approached the Constitution has shifted through the years, Oman said, with each generation viewing it through the issues of their time — from world wars and the New Deal to the assimilation of church members into the American cultural mainstream.

Consistent throughout, however, has been an emphasis on the document’s vaulted status.

Former Utah Supreme Court justice and senior apostle Dallin H. Oaks, speaking in April 2021, referred to the foundational text as “divinely inspired” and one that should be “of special concern” to Latter-day Saints regardless of what country they call home.

At the same time, the global faith has never been “really super closely aligned with the conservative legal movement,” Oman explained, instead remaining steadfastly fixed to concerns of religious freedom even as the issue has passed from the political left to the right.

“Someone like Sheldon, a very thoughtful, legal conservative working within that Federalist Society world that came out of the 1970s and 1980s,” is, he said, “in one sense, a generation behind where I think the central concerns of the church,” with its growing global membership, “is today.”

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