A Surprise at the Federalist Society Gala: Justice Breyer, a Retired Liberal

The glittering annual gala dinner of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group, usually celebrates the justices its members helped place on the Supreme Court. Last year, for instance, the headliner was Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whose appointment in 2020 by President Donald J. Trump created a six-member conservative supermajority.

The other two members of the court named by Mr. Trump — Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh — were the keynote speakers in earlier years, and two other conservatives, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., have also addressed the group.

On Thursday night, a little more than a week after Mr. Trump’s election to a second term, the group did something different, hosting a conversation between Justices Gorsuch and Stephen G. Breyer, a liberal who retired in 2022.

The identities of the dinner speakers had not been publicized, and they were greeted by a standing ovation in an enormous, packed hotel ballroom. The two justices sat in big armchairs and were in high spirits.

Their collective message was that the court is a collegial body whose independence must be protected. The court’s approval ratings dropped sharply after its 2022 decision overruling Roe v. Wade and following reporting on some justices’ failures to disclose luxury travel and gifts. Critics called for ethics rules with an enforcement mechanism, term limits and increasing the court’s membership.

The two justices addressed none of those issues directly on Thursday, but the subtext of their remarks was that some such proposals were misguided.