Shortly after the November 2006 midterm elections, in which Democrats took power in both houses of Congress, Vice President Dick Cheney told attendees of the Federalist Society's annual convention in Washington that the administration was intent on pressing full-steam ahead in Iraq. "Some in our country may believe in good faith that retreating from Iraq would make America safer," said Cheney. "Recent experience teaches us the opposite lesson." Although this comment was "admired" by the conference goers, as the Washington Postput it, perhaps more important to them was Cheney's vow that "nothing that's happened in the last two weeks will change [President George W. Bush's] commitment to nominating first-rate talent like John Roberts and Sam Alito," a comment that garnered "big, big applause from the audience of more than 600" (Washington Post, November 18, 2006).
The Federalist Society seeks nothing less than to reshape the landscape of the U.S. judiciary by promoting right-wing judicial activists in positions of power who will push the country rightward. As communications professor Jerry Landay wrote in his 2000 profile of the group: "With 25,000 members plus scores of close affiliates nationwide-including Supreme Court Justices Thomas and Antonin Scalia, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, and University of Chicago brain-boxes Richard Epstein and Frank Easterbrook (also a federal appellate judge)-the Federalist Society is quite simply the best-organized, best-funded, and most effective legal network operating in this country. Its rank-and-file includes conservative lawyers, law students, law professors, bureaucrats, activists, and judges. They meet at law schools and function rooms across the country to discuss and debate the finer points of legal theory and substance on panels that often include liberals-providing friction, stimulus, and the illusion of balance. What gets less attention, however, is that the Society is accomplishing in the courts what Republicans can't achieve politically" (Washington Monthly, March 2000).
Established in 1982 by a small clique of conservative law students and lawyers based at three universities-University of Chicago, Yale, and Harvard-the Federalist Society has grown into one of the country's most powerful legal associations. "In the 1980s and 1990s, the society [became] central casting for the biggest names in Washington's ideological wars- Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Kenneth Starr," wrote Nina Easton, author of the Gang of Five. As of late 2006, according to the Washington Post, the organization boasted a $7 million budget with funding from foundations, individuals, and corporations, and "claims about 40,000 members and associates, student chapters on all 180 or so law school campuses, and 70 more chapters for lawyers and judges."
In addition to holding annual lawyers conventions, maintaining a student division, and producing many publications, the Federalist Society also runs, in conjunction with the American Enterprise Institute, the NGO Watch. Ralph Nader has criticized NGO Watch and AEI: "During the past 22 years, the AEI, their nearby corporate patrons, their allied trade associations and corporate think tanks have, in effect, taken over the executive branch, the Congress, and promoted the judgeships of right-wing corporate lawyers . What's left to do? How to keep its corporate supremacists writing those big checks? Why, go after the liberal or progressive nongovernmental associations. Describe them as a collage of Goliaths running an all-points wrecking machine over government and business" (Common Dreams, June 13, 2003).
A measure of its influence in Washington was the large number of current and former members-about two dozen-who were tapped to serve in the first George W. Bush administration, including Spencer Abraham as energy secretary, Gale Norton as interior secretary, John Ashcroft as attorney general, and Theodore Olson as solicitor general. Other Federalist Society members tapped by Bush (many of whom have now moved out of government or on to different posts) and the positions they held include: Alex Acosta (deputy assistant attorney general), Bradford Berenson (associate counsel to the president), Ralph Boyd (assistant attorney general), Michael Chertoff (assistant attorney general and secretary of homeland security), Paul Clement (principal deputy solicitor general), Daniel Collins (associate deputy attorney general), R. Ted Cruz (associate deputy attorney general), Viet Dinh (assistant attorney general), Noel Francisco (associate counsel to the president), Sarah Hart (director, National Institute of Justice), Brian Jones (general counsel, Education Department), Brett Kavanaugh (associate counsel to the president), Thomas Sansonetti (assistant attorney general), Eugene Scalia (Department of Labor solicitor; son of Antonin Scalia), Larry Thompson (deputy attorney general), and Edward Whelan (principal deputy assistant attorney general). For more, see "The Conservative Movement Moves In," MediaTransparency.org.
The society's inside-the-Beltway influence has been the subject of media scrutiny and has been lambasted by critics, which drew sneers from society members like Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff, who said in an interview: "Some people now have taken up the idea that, really, the Federalist Society is kind of like a modern-day da Vinci conspiracy, a secret society that controls all the legal jobs and all the legal decision-making in the administration. And of course that is nonsense." The Washington Post's David Montgomery commented on Chertoff's remarks: "Of course. Except, um . what about all those Cabinet secretaries, White House lawyers, Justice Department memo writers, and appeals court nominees who are so tight with the society? Not to mention Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, a longtime Federalist" (Washington Post, November 18, 2006).
Among the founders and early supporters of the Federalist Society were Edwin Meese, Irving Kristol, Antonin Scalia, and David McIntosh. In the society's early days, it was regarded as the right-wing counterpart to the National Lawyers Guild. As Bruce Shapiro wrote in a profile of the group for Salon.com: "In 1982, Meese, William Rehnquist, and other first-generation legal conservatives reached out to law students and encouraged the founding of a new organization: the Federalist Society. Funded generously by Richard Mellon Scaife and patrons, the Federalist Society became a national networking organization that nurtured young conservatives and swiftly became the crucial channel to Supreme Court clerkships and prestigious jobs in the Reagan administration. In Closed Chambers, former clerk [Edward] Lazarus outlines how Federalist Society clerks formed a self-described 'cabal against the libs' to push justices in a rightward direction. Conservative donors like Scaife were encouraged to endow professorships and to fund conferences and training institutes to tutor judges in corporate deregulation and other articles of conservative legal faith" (Salon.com, July, 3, 1998).
In November 2003, the Federalist Society hosted a conference on International Law and American Sovereignty that included presentations by a number of Bush administration hardliners, including John Bolton, John Negroponte, and Paula Dobriansky.
In his speech, Bolton addressed the legitimacy of U.S. actions vis-à-vis the war in Iraq, the International Criminal Court, and the Bush administration's counterproliferation policy. He argued: "The question of legitimacy is frequently raised as a veiled attempt to restrain American discretion in undertaking unilateral action or multilateral action taken outside the confines of an international organization, even when our actions are legitimated by the operation of our own constitutional system. The fact, however, is that this criticism would de-legitimize the operation of that constitutional system, while doing nothing to confront the threats we are facing. Our actions, taken consistently with constitutional principles, require no separate external validation to make them legitimate. Whether it is removing a rogue Iraqi regime and replacing it, preventing weapons of mass destruction proliferation, or protecting America against an unaccountable court, the United States will utilize its institutions of representative government, adhere to its constitutional structures, and follow its values when measuring the legitimacy of its actions. This is as it should be, in the continuing international struggle to protect our national interests and preserve our liberties."
The nomination of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rejuvenated claims of the society's undue influence and secretive ways. Well-liked by Federalist Society members, Roberts denied during the confirmation process that he'd ever been a member of the organization, even though he once was listed in its leadership directory. Similarly, when Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, she switched back and forth regarding her opinion of the Federalist Society. In an effort to win conservative support, Miers quickly put out word that she regarded the Federalist Society as an important White House ally (Associated Press, November 2, 2005).
Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito is a longtime Federalist Society member who was nominated by President Bush to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. He moderated a panel discussion about the Patriot Act at the society's November 2004 national conference, introduced a debate on the independent counsel law at the 1989 national conference, and has addressed the society on other occasions. An article he wrote on the role of the lawyer in the criminal justice system, based on a speech he made at the 1997 convention, was published in one of the society's newsletters (Associated Press, November 2, 2005).
Despite the strong conservative leaning of the Supreme Court, many Federalist Society members complain that the court strays too far into liberal territory with its decisions. "What is there to be jubilant about?" asked M. Edward Whelan, a society member and the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. "We have a Supreme Court that has been essentially lawless in so many respects for decades now, and a lot of work has to be done to restore it to its proper role" (New York Times , November 11, 2005).
"Membership in or participation in Federalist Society events doesn't disqualify someone from office, but it can help people understand the judicial philosophy of the nominee," said Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way. "The Federalist Society likes to pretend it's just a debating club, but for the last 20 years it has been at the forefront of the efforts to push a right-wing counterrevolution in the courts and undo decades worth of precedent" (Associated Press, November 2, 2005).
Initial funding for the Federalist Society came from the Institute for Educational Affairs, a group founded by Irving Kristol and William Simon. Kristol remained an important funding adviser, while his son William Kristol became closely involved with the Federalist Society, writing for its publications and speaking frequently at its gatherings. Other early funding came from Pittsburgh mogul Richard Mellon Scaife, the Olin Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation (Nina J. Easton, Gang of Five).
In recent years, the society has received grants from a number of foundations, including Sarah Scaife, Carthage, Koch, Olin, Bradley, Earhart, and Castle Rock (see MediaTransparency.org: Funding Sources: Federalist Society).
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Contact Information
The Federalist Society
1015 18th Street, NW, Suite 425
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 822-8138
Fax: (202) 296-8061
E-mail: info@fed-soc.org
Website: http://www.fed-soc.org
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