The Federalist Society: How Conservatives Took the Law Back from Liberals
Justin Miller Award Recipient
Phil Aubart
Justin Miller Award Category
Leadership
Justin Miller Award Date
2013
Description
Over the last 30 years, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies has grown from a small group of disaffected conservative law students into an organization with extraordinary influence over American law and politics. Although the organization is unknown to the average citizen, this group of intellectuals has managed to monopolize the selection of federal judges, take over the Department of Justice, and control legal policy in the White House.
Four Supreme Court Justices - Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito - are current or former members. Every single federal judge appointed in the two Bush presidencies was either a Society member or approved by members. During the Bush years, young Federalist Society lawyers dominated the legal staffs of the Justice Department and other important government agencies.
The Society has lawyer chapters in every major city in the United States and student chapters in every accredited law school. How did this happen? How did this group of conservatives succeed in moving their theories into the mainstream of legal thought? What is the range of positions of those associated with the Federalist Society in areas of legal and political controversy?
Publisher
Vanderbilt University Press
Publication Date
2013
ISBN
9780826518774