Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh would not have been nominated to the Supreme Court had the Federalist Society not first chosen him for its shortlist of acceptable nominees. We don’t know the reason(s) he was picked, what assurances, if any, he gave to its leaders (recently or over the years) and what the Federalist Society or Leonard Leo, its executive vice president currently “on leave” to assist the White House, communicated to the president and his advisers about Kavanaugh. (We do know Kavanaugh regularly appeared at and spoke Federalist Society events for nearly 20 years, though no notes, transcripts or recordings of these events are available.)
Never before has any individual or outside, unaccountable group been so influential in shaping the courts, as the Daily Beast’s story last month makes clear:
At the center of the network is Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, the association of legal professionals that has been the pipeline for nearly all of Trump’s judicial nominees. (Leo is on leave from the Federalist Society to personally assist Trump in picking a replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy.) His formal title is executive vice president, but that role belies Leo’s influence.
Directly or through surrogates, he has placed dozens of life-tenure judges on the federal bench; effectively controls the Judicial Crisis Network, which led the opposition to President Obama’s high court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland; he heavily influences the Becket Fund law firm that represented Hobby Lobby in its successful challenge of contraception; and now supervises admissions and hires at the George Mason Law School, newly renamed in memory of Justice Antonin Scalia. …
The Federalist Society network is now estimated to include over 70,000 people. In 2016, they reported $25 million in net assets.
