Free Republic

Three years ago Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) stood on the floor of the Senate and said: "Mr. President, I take the opportunity today to right a wrong. Over the past two years, members of the Federalist Society have been much maligned by some of my Democrat colleagues, no doubt because they see political advantage in doing so. The Federalist Society has even been presented as an 'evil cabal' of conservative lawyers. Its members have been subjected to questions that remind one of the McCarthy hearings of the early 1950s. Detractors have painted a picture which is surreal, twisted and untrue."...

In an editorial today, the “hightly respected” New York Times is asking whether or not Judge John G. Roberts is a member of the-hold on to your seats now-Federalist Society-ooh, aah, are you frightened yet? The implication by the Left is that the Federalist Society is some sort of shadowy, cabalistic, perhaps even malevolent, group of hooded, incantation speaking, lawyer-sorcerers who, having sold their souls to the Devil, are intent on corrupting and taking over the Government of the United States. Now once I move beyond my usual sarcastic attitude about trial lawyers and my tendency to say “Of course...

As someone who's been following the antics of the Federalist Society for almost a decade, I was greatly amused by the flap over whether Supreme Court nominee John Roberts is a card-carrying member. He isn't, it turns out. But he did speak at a number of Federalist Society functions. He's a fellow traveler, in other words. That's enough for the left-wing McCarthyites who are trying to portray him as member of some sort of right-wing conspiracy and as an enemy of liberty. In fact, no one in America is quite as obsessed with the nature of liberty as the members...

WASHINGTON -- With the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush, Democrats and liberals -- usually one and the same -- are again fastening their attention on a national organization composed mainly of libertarian conservative lawyers and judges called the Federalist Society. The Society is not open solely to adepts of the law. Others too can join. I myself have been a member in good standing for some years and can report that the Society exerts no secret demands on its members. I have not had to learn any secret handshake...

Confessions of a Conservative Lawyer By Tara Ross Hello, my name is Tara, and I am a member of that infamous conservative organization, the Federalist Society. I even serve on one of its executive committees. Help me, please. My long tenure in the group proves that I am an addict. Just this week, a front page article in the Washington Post helped me to see what a grave error I may have committed by joining this organization. Because of my membership in this group, it appears that whatever chance I had of being a United States Supreme Court Justice may...

After President Bush tapped John G. Roberts Jr. for the Supreme Court, the nominee was widely reported to be a member of the Federalist Society -- an assertion that White House officials vigorously disputed. When it was later disclosed that Roberts was once listed as serving on the steering committee of the group's Washington chapter, Bush aides continued to insist that Roberts has no recollection of ever being a full-fledged member of the conservative legal group. The eagerness of the White House to distance Roberts from the Federalist Society baffled many conservatives . . .

Early reports that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts belonged to the Federalist Society were denied by both Roberts and the White House, but it seems that a liberal New York group critical of the society, the Institute for Democracy Studies, has dug up a 1997-1998 Federalist Society Lawyers' Division Leadership Directory that lists Roberts as a member of the steering committee of the society's Washington chapter. Roberts, at the time a lawyer in private practice, continues to profess no recollection of being a member, the White House says. Two issues loom here. The first is credibility. "The questions about Roberts'...

The NY Post has an op-ed today called "McCarthy Liberals". It outlines the Democrats' attack on the Federalist Society as some sort of subversive, extremist conservative cabal. (with help from the media, of course) I'm not heartened by Republicans' response to the attack. Rather than duck their heads, they need to vigorously defend their fellow conservatives AND educate the public on the role the Federalist Society has played in defending the separation of powers and the proper role of the judiciary. Here's what I suggested in a letter to the editor, NY Post: EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN IN CONGRESS WITH A...

" Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Federalist Society?" There the question was, all but literally, on Page One of Monday's Washington Post. .........a liberal New York group critical of the society, the Institute for Democracy Studies, has dug up a 1997-1998 Federalist Society Lawyers' Division Leadership Directory that lists Roberts as a member of the steering committee of the society's Washington chapter. Two issues loom here. The first is credibility. "The questions about Roberts' involvement with the society," the Post says, "may come down to the meaning of the word 'membership.' " Shades...

With the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush, Democrats and liberals -- usually one and the same -- are again fastening their attention on a national organization composed mainly of libertarian conservative lawyers and judges called the Federalist Society. The Society is not open solely to adepts of the law. Others too can join. I myself have been a member in good standing for some years and can report that the Society exerts no secret demands on its members. I have not had to learn any secret handshake or attend...

Does it matter whether John Roberts was a member of the Federalist Society? What can ideological and political opponents say to slag a Supreme Court nominee who, while clearly of a conservative bent, possesses precisely the sort of nauseatingly impressive if thoroughly conventional c.v. (e.g., Harvard undergrad, Harvard law school, clerking for William Rehnquist, a stint in the Reagan White House) that right-wing, centrist, and left-wing establishment types usually slobber over? Judge John. Roberts may well be the walking, talking equivalent of a mayonnaise sandwich. Certainly he is, like virtually everyone who possesses his pedigree, the product of great affluence...

Ce forewarned: Democrats hope to turn "Federalist Society" into two of the dirtiest words in American politics. They will use this phrase to distort the records of judicial nominees, in a concerted effort to derail their nominations. They've been getting some practice at the state level. In a bitter battle for control of Michigan's highest court last fall, Democrats targeted three incumbent Republican judges for defeat. Prominent in the Democratic campaign was the charge that the judges' affiliation with the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, a powerful "cabal" of conservative lawyers, made them unfit for the bench....

I mentioned Leonard Leo in a previous post but didn't go into much detail about him. I'm well aware of who he is and wrongly assumed that every reader would as well. Fortunately, Confirm Them (cross-posted at Southern Appeal) has stepped up to the plate to provide a little more information on Leo. He's Executive Vice President of the Federalist Society as well as the chairman of Catholic Outreach for the Republican Party.The conservative Catholic Site BeliefNet has some very interesting things to say about Roberts and his family:If Catholics in America tend to fall into two broad categories--those who...

The reasons to worry about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts continue to accumulate. First we learned he attended Harvard, which is always suspicious. Then the New York Times informed us that his wife, who is also a Catholic lawyer, not only worked pro bono for Feminists for Life but has in the past "attended Mass several times a week." Holy mackerel. Then yesterday brought the Washington Post's scoop that Judge Roberts may once have been a card-carrying member of the Federalist Society. Mr. Roberts has said that he doesn't recall belonging to the lawyers' outfit. But in the best tradition...

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. has said that he has no memory of belonging to the Federalist Society, but his name appears in the influential, conservative legal organization's 1997-1998 leadership directory. Having served only two years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after a long career as a government and private-sector lawyer, Roberts has not amassed much of a public paper record that would show his judicial philosophy. Working with the Federalist Society provides some clue of his sympathies. The organization keeps its membership rolls secret, but many key policymakers in the Bush administration...

The Stakes in Roberts's Nomination by BRUCE SHAPIRO [posted online on July 20, 2005] Judge John Roberts is a white male who has spent his entire adult life in Washington. Those facts themselves mean nothing, but they do beg a question: What could be so compelling about Judge Roberts as a Supreme Court candidate that the White House was willing to forswear all claims on ethnic diversity and all geographical political advantage, not to mention the express desire of Laura Bush and countless other women to see a nominee of their gender? To understand Judge Roberts's unique appeal, forget for...

Everyone knows that, like all good Republican lawyers, John G. Roberts Jr. is a member of the Federalist Society, the conservative law and public policy organization where right-of-center types meet to denounce liberalism and angle for jobs in the Bush administration. And practically everyone -- CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Legal Times and, just yesterday, The Washington Post -- has reported Roberts's membership as a fact. One liberal group opposed to Roberts's nomination, the Alliance for Justice, has noted it on its Web site. But they are wrong. John Roberts is not, in fact, a member of the Federalist Society,...

Both the federal courts and the United States Senate rely extensively on precedent for the conduct of their current affairs. Whether or not a particular practice is embodied in any formal rule, both the courts and the Senate have regarded continuity of past practice as an essential part of orderly and fair government and have followed their precedents absent some compelling reason to change.As any person who follows the news knows, the Senate has recently found itself embroiled in controversies about how senators and nominees to the federal bench should behave in posing and answering questions during the judicial confirmation...

WASHINGTON - At a recent Friday luncheon, former Solicitor General Theodore Olson cast his eyes over a hotel ballroom crammed with lawyers and wryly welcomed "all of you Federalists who seem to have mastered the secret handshake." "For those of you who just stumbled in off the street, it is my duty to advise you that you have stumbled into a right-wing cabal — you will never be the same again," the government's one-time chief courtroom lawyer deadpanned as chortles erupted from members of the Federalist Society. The conservative group — which has no secret handshake and opens its forums...

Judge Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit talks to members of Harvard Law School's Fed-eralist Society. Jones said that the question of what is mor-ally right is routinely sacrificed to what is politically expedient. The American legal system has been corrupted almost beyond recognition, Judge Edith Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, told the Federalist Society of Harvard Law School on February 28. She said that the question of what is morally right is routinely sacrificed to what is politically expedient. The change has come because legal...