[9][7], The American Constitution Society, founded in 2001, was explicitly started as a liberal analogue to the Federalist Society. This may be, as Avery suggests, because Trump is “lazy” and by outsourcing his work to the Federalist Society he can be sure they will put forward people who appeal to the president’s conservative base. 1 ruling where the Supreme Court struck down voluntary desegregation plans in several jurisdictions. The Federalist Society receives significant funding from libertarian industrialists, including the Koch brothers, Richard Mellon Scaife’s foundation and the Mercer family. The main tension within the group is between those who believe their primary function should be constraining the federal judiciary and those who believe their role is to empower the federal judiciary to enforce what they see as America’s founding principles, Teles says. "[2] Barnett said the Federalist Society "involves people, gets them interested, and they oftentimes will do something about that. "[4] According to William & Mary Law School professor Neil Devins and Ohio State University professor Lawrence Baum, the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush "aimed to nominate conservative judges, and membership in the Federalist Society was a proxy for adherence to conservative ideology. Commissioner Paul S. Atkins of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission considered society members "the heirs of James Madison's legacy" in a speech he gave in January 2008 to its lawyers chapter in Dallas, Texas. [2] The society is headquartered in Washington, D.C. [14] By 2017, the Federalist Society had $20 million in annual revenue. Brian Fitzpatrick, a member of the Federalist Society and a Vanderbilt University law professor, sees the environmentalists' fears of "ideological zeal" as ironic—and unfounded. In an op-ed defending the Federalist Society, one of its members argued that the organisation has “no articles of faith.” It sees its mission as correcting the mistakes that the “liberal legal establishment” has made over the decades, and if possible, to reverse them. [17] The Federalist Society invites to its events "capable liberal advocates to try to rebut conservative perspectives. The Federalist Society, which does not lobby for legislation, take policy positions or sponsor or endorse nominees and candidates for public service, is funded through grants, membership and donations. "[27] Liberals have questioned "how suspiciously convenient it is that the jurisprudence advocated by society members so often yields conservative results. The Federalist Society’s influence rose with the presidency of George W Bush – all the federal judges that were appointed by Bush were either members of the Federalist Society or were approved by the group – but it has never been more powerful than it is today. Instead, he found the group "open to testing a diversity of ideas". [26]:99 The authors of The Federalist Society: How Conservatives Took the Law Back from Liberals write that "Conservatives believe, however, that it is not appropriate for the government to promote racial balance. Half the battle is just agreeing that it is essential. The Federalist Society was started in 1982 by conservative law students at Yale and the University of Chicago who wanted to create a counterbalance to what they saw as the liberal orthodoxy of law faculties around the country. She was previously an assistant editor. [15][16] Speakers have included former ACLU head Nadine Strossen, business executive and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, former BB&T chairman John Allison, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, U.S. The Federalist Society was influential in shifting legal views on gun rights, culminating in the Supreme Court ruling District of Columbia v. Heller which struck down gun regulations in the District of Columbia that required guns to be kept "unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock". “It's important for all Americans to understand that the extreme right wing, the extreme conservatives, are much better organised, much better financed, and have a much better idea of what they're about than the liberals or progressives do. Founded in 1982, it is one of the nation's most influential legal organizations. "[2] His participation in the legal challenge to the ACA was initiated at the Federalist Society's 2009 national convention. Cir. The symposium, which was attended by 200 people, was organized by Steven G. Calabresi, Lee Liberman Otis, and David M. McIntosh. The appointees … He almost certainly couldn't have gotten what he wanted without the Federalists. But I think this ideological network that we associated with the Federalist Society has clawed away more and more power from that senatorial role over time,” says Teles. [18], The Federalist Society has 200 student chapters at law schools across the United States as well as lawyers chapters in 90 U.S. cities. "[2], Steven Teles, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University and the author of The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law, wrote that the Federalist Society's influence on the judicial selection process may not be the group's most important impact. "[36] Former Federalist Society executive vice president Leonard Leo said: "What President Trump has done with judicial selection and appointments is probably at the very center of his legacy, and may well be his greatest accomplishments thus far. [23], According to The Washington Post Magazine, "Many individual Federalists are political and ideological warriors, though never in the name of the Federalist Society. The organisation rapidly spread to campuses across the country, spurred by funding from wealthy conservative donors such as the Koch brothers, and later sprung professional chapters too. [29][24] The Bush administration was harshly criticized for the decision to nominate Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, with conservative critics arguing that she lacked a consistently conservative track record, did not have Federalist Society "credentials" and for her purported ties to the American Bar Association (which conservatives considered to be liberal). On the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Alito, Thomas?—?all are members. The conservative power couple donated $3,000 total … Today the Federalist Society has 70,000 members and a presence on almost every university campus and in every major city. The society alleged that the bar association showed a liberal bias in its recommendations. [6]:82–87, The ideas of the Federalist Society were "at the intellectual heart" of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, which challenged the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with members of the group playing a "mostly behind-the-scenes part in NFIB — and in many of the most significant conservative legal victories of the last 30 years. That the Federalist Society has such an active student and professional body makes it different from many other interest groups, which tend to be dominated by Washington staff, says Steven Teles, the author of Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law. Well-known members Federalist Society alumni are among the most accomplished and well-recognized figures in the legal and political spheres. The facts are this: Leonard Leo is the vice-president of the Federalist Society and a staunch conservative and originalist. Top donors include the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, David Koch and Koch Industries Inc., which each contributed $100,000 last year. Its members are united by their judicial philosophy rather than any partisan affiliation to the Republican Party. Ideological purity makes it a formidable political force, Teles told me when we spoke on the Society seeks to! 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