Charles Lane reports in today’s Washington Post: “Roberts listed in ’97-’98 Federalist Society directory.” And one can only hope that John Roberts at age 50 retains the acerbic view of the Supreme Court of John Roberts at age 28: “Early on, Roberts trained his wit on high court.”
DEACON adds: Scott’s title captures the McCarthyite flavor of the way liberals would like to treat the Federalist Society. As in this excerpt from Lane’s piece:
“What matters is whether he hung out with them and not whether he signed the form or wrote the dues check,” said David Garrow, a law professor at Emory University. “What’s important is the intellectual immersion.”
Some liberals would like to exclude from consideration for the Supreme Court anyone who belongs to, or has “hung out with,” the main organization for conservative lawyers in the U.S. This is part of their ongoing effort, recent election results notwithstanding, to define the political mainstream as including liberals and moderates, but not conservatives. In this connection, I would note that two of the four founders of the Federalist Society are Spencer Abraham, who went on to become a Senator from Michigan, and David McIntosh, who became a Congressman from Indiana. In what sense is the Federalist Society outside the political mainstream?
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