Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies

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Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies

Overview: Founded in 1982, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies calls itself a group of conservatives and libertarians dedicated to reforming the current legal order[1]. To that end it has set out to build up a network of attorneys to “exercise leadership in shaping national, state, and local policy”.[2]

But its critics, such as People for the American Way, argue that the Society has taken federalism “to an extreme by seeking to block the ability of the federal government to enact and enforce laws protecting the environment, civil rights, workplace health and safety, and other areas”.[3]

Funding

According to the Federalist Society “90% of the funding comes from individuals and foundations; the other 10% comes from corporations[4].

Between 1985 and 2002, the Federalist Society received $8,918,000 in 122 grants from the following conservative organisations[5]:

Connections to the Bush Administration

The Society has long connections to the Republican Administration. Its members “influenced judicial nomination decisions in the Reagan and the elder Bush’s administrations.”[6]

According to the American Press: “the society has been transformed into an unofficial placement office for the Bush administration. Nowhere are its members more prominent than at Energy.[7]”

In 2001 the Washington Post reported how: “Three Cabinet secretaries are active supporters of the Federalist Society -- John D. Ashcroft at Justice, Gale A. Norton at Interior and Spencer Abraham at Energy. Federalists also hold top legal positions throughout the administration, including solicitor general and at least three slots in the White House counsel's office. Only a few months into the Bush presidency, these and other Federalist Society members are making their influence felt in a number of controversial subjects[8].”

Progressive organisations have watched the growing influence of the Federalist Society with alarm, especially its close ties to the Bush Administration. The Institute for Democracy Studies notes[9]:

“The Federalist Society's leaders include some of the most influential figures on the right, among them former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, former federal judge and Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, and former president of the Christian Coalition Donald Paul Hodel. Another key leader of the organization, former President Bush's White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, was cited by The Washington Post as a "possible attorney general in a George W. Bush administration."

Several sitting Supreme Court justices have spoken under the auspices of the Society, and several leading judges on the federal bench serve in an advisory capacity to the Society's local chapters. Backed by several million dollars from right-wing foundations that have played a leading role in building the conservative movement, they are successfully shaping the direction of the challenge to a democratic jurisprudence.

People for the American Way adds: Early predictions of moderation proved wrong largely because observers failed to take into account a very important factor: President Bush’s reliance for policy and staffing decisions on members of key right-wing organizations, notably the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.

The Washington Post noted that: “Bush, in announcing his plans to break a campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide, said he based his decision on "important new information" contained in a controversial and disputed Department of Energy report. That report had been requested by one of the founding members of the Federalist Society, David M. McIntosh, a former GOP representative from Indiana who lost a gubernatorial bid last year”[10].

People for the American Way have noted that “When right-wing leaders attacked the potential nomination of conservative Montana Governor Marc Racicot to be attorney general, it was a leading Federalist Society activist who wrote the memorandum that proved critical in torpedoing Racicot’s hopes. In the end, the post went instead to former Senator John Ashcroft, an extreme conservative and Society member. Today, many Society members are working in the White House counsel’s office, at the top levels of the Department of Justice and in other high administration posts.”.[11]

Six of Bush’s first 11 nominees to the influential federal courts of appeals have been Society members and the following Bush appointments are Society members:[12]

Department of Justice

Office of White House Counsel

Department of Energy

Department of the Interior

Department of Agriculture

Department of Education

Department of Labour

Department of Defense

Department of Health and Human Services

State Department

  • John R. Bolton - Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs

General Services Administration

Principals

Board of Directors

  • Steven G. Calabresi - National co-chairman: ultra-conservative who served as a special assistant to Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese III and as a speechwriter for Vice President Dan Quayle.”.[13]
  • David M. McIntosh - National Co-Chairman: McIntosh was also a special assistant to Meese and special assistant and deputy legal counsel to Quayle. Frequent ally of Newt Gingrich after his 1994 election to the U.S. House of Representatives. His voting record was said to be “extremely conservative, exemplified by his July 28, 1995 vote to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing some sections of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.[14]
  • Gary Lawson - Director
  • Eugene B. Meyer - Director
  • T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr. - Counsellor
  • Brent O. Hatch - Treasurer

Board of Visitors

(formerly Board of Trustees)

Virtually all of the board members are said to be “well-known, right-wing legal and political leaders or otherwise public supporters of radically conservative views.”.[15]

Business Advisory Council

NGOwatch

In June 2003, the American Enterprise Institute and Federalist Society launched NGOwatch to track the growing power of NGOs. This is not an isolated event. With its drive against the power of federal government, it is hardly surprising that the Society also worries about the power on international institutions, treaties and NGOs. Christopher Horner from the CEI has written an anti-Kyoto pamphlet for the Federalist Society in which he argues that “The Kyoto Protocol, and its predecessor the Rio Treaty, offer an excellent joint example of the distorted modern application of the Treaty Power[22].”

Climate

Speaking at the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention in November 2003, Under Secretary for Global Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Paula Dobriansky also attacked the "flawed" Kyoto Protocol:

"There are many flaws to Kyoto, but one of the more troubling is that parties that have no real obligations under the treaty would be allowed to participate in the enforcement mechanism. This is quite unusual for a treaty and clearly has troubling ramifications as a precedent for future agreements, even in other areas. The Protocol would also have taken a severe economic toll on America, and its timelines and emission caps are arbitrary, not based on science”[23]

Contact

  • Address: 1015 18th Street, NW, Suite 425, Washington, D.C. 20036

References

  1. http://www.fed-soc.org/ourbackground.htm
  2. R. G. Neas (2001) The Federalist Society From Obscurity to Power - The Right-Wing Lawyers Who Are Shaping The Bush Administration’s Decisions On Legal Policies and Judicial Nominations, People for the American Way, p26
  3. R. G. Neas (2001) The Federalist Society From Obscurity to Power - The Right-Wing Lawyers Who Are Shaping The Bush Administration’s Decisions On Legal Policies and Judicial Nominations, People for the American Way, p17
  4. http://www.fed-soc.org/Press/FAQs.htm
  5. http://www.mediatransparency.org/search_results/info_on_any_recipient.php?112
  6. R. G. Neas (2001) The Federalist Society From Obscurity to Power - The Right-Wing Lawyers Who Are Shaping The Bush Administration’s Decisions On Legal Policies and Judicial Nominations, People for the American Way, p23
  7. J. Barnett (2001) “Federalist Society Ideology Fuels Energy Department”, Newhouse News Service, 19 April,
  8. T. B. Edsall (2001) “Federalist Society Becomes a Force in Washington - Conservative Group's Members Take Key Roles in Bush White House and Help Shape Policy and Judicial Appointments”, Washington Post, 18 April. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30099-2001Apr17?language=printer
  9. Institute for Democracy Studies (2001) The Federalist Society And The Challenge To A Democratic Jurisprudence, New York; January
  10. T. B. Edsall (2001) “Federalist Society Becomes a Force in Washington - Conservative Group's Members Take Key Roles in Bush White House and Help Shape Policy and Judicial Appointments”, Washington Post, 18 April; http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30099-2001Apr17?language=printer
  11. R. G. Neas (2001) The Federalist Society From Obscurity to Power - The Right-Wing Lawyers Who Are Shaping The Bush Administration’s Decisions On Legal Policies and Judicial Nominations, People for the American Way, p1
  12. R. G. Neas (2001) The Federalist Society From Obscurity to Power - The Right-Wing Lawyers Who Are Shaping The Bush Administration’s Decisions On Legal Policies and Judicial Nominations, People for the American Way, p15, 30-31
  13. R. G. Neas (2001) The Federalist Society From Obscurity to Power - The Right-Wing Lawyers Who Are Shaping The Bush Administration’s Decisions On Legal Policies and Judicial Nominations, People for the American Way, p4
  14. R. G. Neas (2001) The Federalist Society From Obscurity to Power - The Right-Wing Lawyers Who Are Shaping The Bush Administration’s Decisions On Legal Policies and Judicial Nominations, People for the American Way, p4-5
  15. R. G. Neas (2001) The Federalist Society From Obscurity to Power - The Right-Wing Lawyers Who Are Shaping The Bush Administration’s Decisions On Legal Policies and Judicial Nominations, People for the American Way, p4
  16. R. G. Neas (2001) The Federalist Society From Obscurity to Power - The Right-Wing Lawyers Who Are Shaping The Bush Administration’s Decisions On Legal Policies and Judicial Nominations, People for the American Way, p9
  17. http://www.aei.org/scholars/scholarID.6,filter./scholar.asp
  18. R. G. Neas (2001) The Federalist Society From Obscurity to Power - The Right-Wing Lawyers Who Are Shaping The Bush Administration’s Decisions On Legal Policies and Judicial Nominations, People for the American Way, p5
  19. http://www.mediatransparency.org/people/c_boyden_gray.htm
  20. http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=C._Boyden_Gray
  21. http://www.fed-soc.org/businessadvisorycouncil.htm
  22. C. C. Horner & T. Dunman (2002) Modern Developments in the Treaty Process: Recent Developments Regarding Advice and Consent, Withdrawal, and the Growing Role of Nongovernmental Organizations in International Agreements With Particular Examination of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, p51
  23. P. Dobriansky (2003) Address to the 2003 National Lawyers Convention, 15 November
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