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(Longtime HN lurker and FedSoc member/leader, although speaking for just myself here.) The Federalist Society's entire annual convention was just broadcast onl

(Longtime HN lurker and FedSoc member/leader, although speaking for just myself here.) The Federalist Society's entire annual convention was just broadcast online this past week,[0] and it's pretty typical of the Society's activities: hosting panels, debates, and speeches on the law featuring a wide breadth of views. If the Federalist Society is some kind of "conspiracy"—one that you can join today, for fifty bucks!—then so is pretty much every other civic organization in existence. [0] https://fedsoc.org/conferences/2020-national-lawyers-convention https://fedsoc.org/conferences/2020-national-lawyers-convent...

jswizzy 6y ago
I don't know what you mean by voters. Since the gay marriage issue was decided by the courts instead of legislatures.
- pnw_hazor 6y ago
  Not in free states like Washington. The voters decided.
- stevenwoo 6y ago
  To be generous and read between the lines, the Supreme Court eventually comes around to opinions that agree with a majority of Americans.The idea of it as an apolitical organization is to ignore reality.
- jjeaff 6y ago
  Technically, the courts interpreted the legislation that was already passed as allowing gay marriage. If there was a political, legislative will, "the people" could pass an amendment to the law specifying that gay marriage is not allowed or protected.
colinmhayes 6y ago
It isn't a conspiracy. It is the organization most at fault for mitch's anti-democratic actions regarding the supreme court that I honestly believe has the potential to completely undermine our government. The supreme court's move to a completely partisan institution is a huge step toward a populist dictatorship. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/supreme-revenge/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/supreme-revenge/
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- chmod600 6y ago
  The supreme court partisanship is overstated. It's brought out all the time as though the sky is falling, but typically when the court is tilted, side-switching magically appears. Roberts, Gorsuch, Kennedy, O'Connor and Souter all switched sides on major issues. Conservatives switch sides a lot more often, but perhaps because the court has been tilted towards Republican nominees.
  - colinmhayes 6y ago
    Sure, but partisanship is getting much worse. The precedent has now been set to completely reject any nomination from the opposing party. That will lead to even more partisanship as nominating "moderates" no longer makes sense. We're in for a future of nothing but Alito's and Thomas's.
    - jjeaff 6y ago
      Partisanship in the nomination process, sure, but it remains to be seen if the more recent nominees will be impartial judges. After all, several court decisions have already not gone the way the gop wanted.
      - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
        It does indeed remain to be seen—but those recent cases were completely ludicrous! That some semblance of logic remains does not help me sleep at night.
        chmod600 6y ago
        What recent cases?
    - chmod600 6y ago
      That's partisanship of Congress, not the Supreme Court. When it comes down to real decisions by SCOTUS, they usually come out more moderate and narrow than you might imagine.
geofft 6y ago
Conspiracies don't have to be spoken in hushed words in smoke-filled rooms to be conspiracies. Nothing about redlining, for instance, was particularly secret, but it was still a conspiracy.
tehjoker 6y ago
FedSoc has a well known reputation for being a nice civic organization for the legal profession and also endorsing the most radical right wing supreme court nominees. Without the broad acceptance by the legal community, it wouldn't be as effective.
- andrewmg 6y ago
  While we might disagree over who's a "radical right wing" nominee, it's indisputable that the Federalist Society hasn't endorsed any nominee for any position.
  - tehjoker 6y ago
    According to this article, FedSoc produces lists of acceptable nominees. That sounds a lot like an endorsement to me. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/01/how-the-federalist-society-became-the-de-facto-selector-of-republican-supreme-court-justices.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/01/how-the-federali... From the Federalist Society website: " Law schools and the legal profession are currently strongly dominated by a form of orthodox liberal ideology which advocates a centralized and uniform society. While some members of the academic community have dissented from these views, by and large they are taught simultaneously with (and indeed as if they were) the law. The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be. The Society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities. This entails reordering priorities within the legal system to place a premium on individual liberty, traditional values, and the rule of law. It also requires restoring the recognition of the importance of these norms among lawyers, judges, law students and professors. In working to achieve these goals, the Society has created a conservative and libertarian intellectual network that extends to all levels of the legal community." https://fedsoc.org/about-us#Background https://fedsoc.org/about-us#Background This text at least implies that such lists produced will be candidates favorable to libertarian or conservative ideologists.
jcomis 6y ago
How you can post this and think you are being realistic after Alito's speech is mind boggling.
throw0101a 6y ago
> If the Federalist Society is some kind of "conspiracy"—one that you can join today, for fifty bucks!—then so is pretty much every other civic organization in existence. The connotation of secrecy with the work "conspiracy" is only one definition. "Conspiracy" and "conspire" have the same root: > 1. the act of conspiring * https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspiracy https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspiracy > 2. to act or work together toward the same result or goal: The wind and rain conspired to strip the trees of their fall color. * https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspire https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspire > A civil conspiracy or collusion is an agreement between two or more parties to deprive a third party of legal rights or deceive a third party to obtain an illegal objective.[1] A conspiracy may also refer to a group of people who make an agreement to form a partnership in which each member becomes the agent or partner of every other member and engage in planning or agreeing to commit some act. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(civil) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(civil) > This is a list of political conspiracies. In a political context, a conspiracy refers to a group of people united in the goal of damaging, usurping, or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination. A conspiracy can also be used for infiltration of the governing system. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_conspiracies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_conspiracies
nickysielicki 6y ago
Thanks for this, I didn't realize membership was so cheap. Joined.

jswizzy 6y ago

I don't know what you mean by voters. Since the gay marriage issue was decided by the courts instead of legislatures.

pnw_hazor 6y ago
Not in free states like Washington. The voters decided.
stevenwoo 6y ago
To be generous and read between the lines, the Supreme Court eventually comes around to opinions that agree with a majority of Americans.The idea of it as an apolitical organization is to ignore reality.
jjeaff 6y ago
Technically, the courts interpreted the legislation that was already passed as allowing gay marriage. If there was a political, legislative will, "the people" could pass an amendment to the law specifying that gay marriage is not allowed or protected.

colinmhayes 6y ago

It isn't a conspiracy. It is the organization most at fault for mitch's anti-democratic actions regarding the supreme court that I honestly believe has the potential to completely undermine our government. The supreme court's move to a completely partisan institution is a huge step toward a populist dictatorship. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/supreme-revenge/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/supreme-revenge/

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
chmod600 6y ago
The supreme court partisanship is overstated. It's brought out all the time as though the sky is falling, but typically when the court is tilted, side-switching magically appears. Roberts, Gorsuch, Kennedy, O'Connor and Souter all switched sides on major issues. Conservatives switch sides a lot more often, but perhaps because the court has been tilted towards Republican nominees.
- colinmhayes 6y ago
  Sure, but partisanship is getting much worse. The precedent has now been set to completely reject any nomination from the opposing party. That will lead to even more partisanship as nominating "moderates" no longer makes sense. We're in for a future of nothing but Alito's and Thomas's.
  - jjeaff 6y ago
    Partisanship in the nomination process, sure, but it remains to be seen if the more recent nominees will be impartial judges. After all, several court decisions have already not gone the way the gop wanted.
    - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
      It does indeed remain to be seen—but those recent cases were completely ludicrous! That some semblance of logic remains does not help me sleep at night.
      - chmod600 6y ago
        What recent cases?
  - chmod600 6y ago
    That's partisanship of Congress, not the Supreme Court. When it comes down to real decisions by SCOTUS, they usually come out more moderate and narrow than you might imagine.

geofft 6y ago

Conspiracies don't have to be spoken in hushed words in smoke-filled rooms to be conspiracies. Nothing about redlining, for instance, was particularly secret, but it was still a conspiracy.

tehjoker 6y ago

FedSoc has a well known reputation for being a nice civic organization for the legal profession and also endorsing the most radical right wing supreme court nominees. Without the broad acceptance by the legal community, it wouldn't be as effective.

andrewmg 6y ago
While we might disagree over who's a "radical right wing" nominee, it's indisputable that the Federalist Society hasn't endorsed any nominee for any position.
- tehjoker 6y ago
  According to this article, FedSoc produces lists of acceptable nominees. That sounds a lot like an endorsement to me. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/01/how-the-federalist-society-became-the-de-facto-selector-of-republican-supreme-court-justices.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/01/how-the-federali... From the Federalist Society website: " Law schools and the legal profession are currently strongly dominated by a form of orthodox liberal ideology which advocates a centralized and uniform society. While some members of the academic community have dissented from these views, by and large they are taught simultaneously with (and indeed as if they were) the law. The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be. The Society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities. This entails reordering priorities within the legal system to place a premium on individual liberty, traditional values, and the rule of law. It also requires restoring the recognition of the importance of these norms among lawyers, judges, law students and professors. In working to achieve these goals, the Society has created a conservative and libertarian intellectual network that extends to all levels of the legal community." https://fedsoc.org/about-us#Background https://fedsoc.org/about-us#Background This text at least implies that such lists produced will be candidates favorable to libertarian or conservative ideologists.

jcomis 6y ago

How you can post this and think you are being realistic after Alito's speech is mind boggling.

throw0101a 6y ago

> If the Federalist Society is some kind of "conspiracy"—one that you can join today, for fifty bucks!—then so is pretty much every other civic organization in existence. The connotation of secrecy with the work "conspiracy" is only one definition. "Conspiracy" and "conspire" have the same root: > 1. the act of conspiring * https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspiracy https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspiracy > 2. to act or work together toward the same result or goal: The wind and rain conspired to strip the trees of their fall color. * https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspire https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspire > A civil conspiracy or collusion is an agreement between two or more parties to deprive a third party of legal rights or deceive a third party to obtain an illegal objective.[1] A conspiracy may also refer to a group of people who make an agreement to form a partnership in which each member becomes the agent or partner of every other member and engage in planning or agreeing to commit some act. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(civil) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(civil) > This is a list of political conspiracies. In a political context, a conspiracy refers to a group of people united in the goal of damaging, usurping, or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination. A conspiracy can also be used for infiltration of the governing system. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_conspiracies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_conspiracies

nickysielicki 6y ago

Thanks for this, I didn't realize membership was so cheap. Joined.