A zombie army of judges is on the way. Here’s where they come from.
The Republicans waged a scorched-earth battle to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, while the Democrats did the same to keep him off. Why? The only rationale for Kavanaugh’s appointment seemed to be he was on a list of 25 nominees given to Trump by The Federalist Society. In an interview before Kavanaugh’s confirmation, the executive vice president of the Federalist Society said “The list is really good… You can throw a dart at that list and in my view you would be fine.” Kavanaugh wasn’t known for any original thinking or groundbreaking legal work, and not even his supporters pretended he was, but the Federalist Society thought he was top notch and that was enough. Since the Federalist Society has been supplying Trump’s SCOTUS picks, as well as candidates for every other court in the land, and has been for years, we thought it might be interesting to take a look at the Federalist Society and what they stand for…
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies was founded in 1982 and is now one of the most influential legal organizations in the country. Their purpose is to move the US justice system to a more conservative/libertarian standpoint, “checking federal power, protecting individual liberty and interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning”. It’s a membership organization with student, lawyer, and faculty divisions and chapters at over 200 US law schools and “practice groups” totaling over 70,000 lawyers in 90 cities.
The Federalist Society wields extreme power in nominating judges, and the Republicans have pushed hard and successfully to get their members confirmed. According to the Washington Post, it “has evolved into the de facto gatekeeper for right-of-center lawyers aspiring to government jobs and federal judgeships under Republican presidents.” During the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, “membership in the Federalist Society was a proxy for adherence to conservative ideology”, and the Society famously gave Trump his full list of nominees for the SCOTUS. 25 out of 30 of Trump’s appeals court nominees were current or former members of the Society, and of the nine current SCOTUS members, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Thomas, Roberts and Alito are current or former Federalist Society members.
The Federalist Society is one of the most influential groups in our country, yet few people realize their power. If you’d like to learn more about them, here are just a few places to get started…
The Federalist Society website
A Conservative Group’s Closed-Door ‘Training’ of Judicial Clerks Draws Concern, by Adam Liptak in New York Times, Oct 2018
What Is The Federalist Society And How Does It Affect Supreme Court Picks? By All Things Considered on NPR, Jun 2018
The Conservative Pipeline to the Supreme Court, by Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker, Apr 2017
Federalist Court- How the Federalist Society became the de facto selector of Republican Supreme Court justices, by Lawrence Baum and Neal Devins on Slate, Jan 2017
Kavanaugh may have made it harder to become a judge, Penn Federalist Society speakers say, by Grant Bianco in The Daily Pennsylvanian, Sep 2018
Conservative Group Runs a Creepy Secret Boot Camp for Law Clerks, by Libby Watsonin Splinter, Oct 2018
The Federalist Society’s Influence on the Federal Judiciary, by Nancy Scherer and Banks Miller, Jun 2009
The Weekend at Yale That Changed American Politics- What actually happened at the birth of the Federalist Society? By Machael Kruse on Politico.com, Sep 2018
Who are the Federalist Society? Inside the right-wing group picking Trump’s Supreme Court judges, by Sophie McBain in New Statesman America, Sep 2018
Taking Over the Judiciary: The Impact of the Federalist Society, by Stephen Rohde in Los Angeles Review of Books, Aug 2013
The Rise of the Federalist Society, video by Thom Hartmann, Jun 2013
Are Republicans Willing to Lose the House & Senate for Control of the Supreme Court? Video by Thom Hartmann, Oct 2018
New Conservative Lawyers’ Group ‘Checks and Balances’ Bristles at Trump, by Marcia Coyle in National Law Journal, Nov 2018
Justice Brett Kavanaugh Got A Rousing Standing Ovation At This Year’s Federalist Society Convention, by Zoe Tillman on BuzzFeedNews, Nov 2018
GOP plots to confirm Trump nominees more quickly, by Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett on Politico, Feb 2019
Senate confirms dozens of Trump nominees ahead of new Congress, by Grace Segers on CBS News, Jan 2019
The Senate GOP Is Confirming Judges at a Breakneck Pace, by Jessica Corbett on Common Dreams, Feb 2019
Chief Justice Roberts tells right-wing judges to slow their roll, by Ian Millhiser on ThinkProgress, Feb 2019
Judicial adviser Leonard Leo on what Trump is looking for in a Supreme Court nominee, CBS This Morning, Jun 2018
Conquerors of the Courts, by David Montgomery in Washington Post Magazine, Jan 2019
What the Federalist Society Stands For, by Michael Fletcher, Washington Post, Jul 2005
Ideas With Consequences, Amanda Hollis Brusky, Jan 2015
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