Overview

There are few intellectual movements in modern American political history more successful than the Federalist Society. Created in 1982 to counterbalance what its founders considered a liberal legal establishment, the organization gradually evolved into the conservative legal establishment, and membership is all but required for any conservative lawyer who hopes to enter politics or the judiciary. It claims 40,000 members, including four Supreme Court Justices, dozens of federal judges, and every Republican attorney general since its inception. But its power goes even deeper.In Ideas with Consequences, Amanda Hollis-Brusky provides the first comprehensive account of how the Federalist Society exerts its influence. Drawing from a huge trove of documents, transcripts, and interviews, she explains how the Federalist Society managed to revolutionize the jurisprudence for a wide variety of important legal issues. Many of these issues-including the extent of federal government power, the scope of the right to bear arms, and the parameters of corporate political speech-had long been considered settled. But the Federalist Society was able to upend the existing conventional wisdom, promoting constitutional theories that had previously been dismissed as ludicrously radical. As Hollis-Brusky shows, the Federalist Society provided several of the crucial ingredients needed to accomplish this constitutional revolution. It serves as a credentialing institution for conservative lawyers and judges and legitimizes novel interpretations of the constitution that employ a conservative framework. It also provides a judicial audience of like-minded peers, which prevents the well-documented phenomenon of conservative judges turning moderate after years on the bench. As a consequence, it is able to exercise enormous influence on important cases at every level.A far-reaching analysis of some of the most controversial political and legal issues of our time, Ideas with Consequences is the essential guide to the Federalist Society at a time when its power has broader implications than ever.

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9780199385522

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Reviews

Ideas have consequences because they develop in social networks of power and influence. In this impressive work, Amanda Hollis-Brusky shows how the Federalist Society network of lawyers, judges, scholars, and activists successfully pushed American constitutional law to the right. This book is an important contribution to the study of constitutional change. --Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School A valuable, well-researched addition to the growing literature on the conservative legal network. Rich in detail, thoughtful in execution. --Michael Greve, George Mason University School of Law Ideas with Consequences is a major achievement. Hollis-Brusky makes skillful use of a large body of evidence within her theoretical framework to illuminate the role of the Federalist Society in shaping legal doctrine in the Supreme Court. In the process, she provides a richer understanding of how political and intellectual networks help to bring about constitutional change. --Lawrence Baum, The Ohio State University The Federalist Society takes no positions, files no lawsuits, lobbies no legislators, and gives no political contributions. It is a debating society-though perhaps the most important one in American constitutional history since Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison had dinner by themselves. In Ideaswith Consequences, Amanda Hollis-Brusky shows how a loosely-organized group of lawyers, students, and professors with little of the conventional signs of political power have had such a profound influence on constitutional law. Students and scholars of the Constitution in both law and politics will want to read this book. --John Yoo, Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley School of Law A fascinating, convincing, and highly readable account of how the Federalist Society has contributed significantly to the Supreme Court's conservative tur

A fascinating, convincing, and highly readable account of how the Federalist Society has contributed significantly to the Supreme Court's conservative turn and to fundamental changes in constitutional doctrine. * Ann Southworth, Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine * The Federalist Society takes no positions, files no lawsuits, lobbies no legislators, and gives no political contributions. It is a debating society-though perhaps the most important one in American constitutional history since Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison had dinner by themselves. In Ideas with Consequences, Amanda Hollis-Brusky shows how a loosely-organized group of lawyers, students, and professors with little of the conventional signs of political power have had such a profound influence on constitutional law. Students and scholars of the Constitution in both law and politics will want to read this book. * John Yoo, Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley School of Law * Ideas with Consequences is a major achievement. Hollis-Brusky makes skillful use of a large body of evidence within her theoretical framework to illuminate the role of the Federalist Society in shaping legal doctrine in the Supreme Court. In the process, she provides a richer understanding of how political and intellectual networks help to bring about constitutional change. * Lawrence Baum, The Ohio State University * A valuable, well-researched addition to the growing literature on the conservative legal network. Rich in detail, thoughtful in execution. * Michael Greve, George Mason University School of Law * Ideas have consequences because they develop in social networks of power and influence. In this impressive work, Amanda Hollis-Brusky shows how the Federalist Society network of lawyers, judges, scholars, and activists successfully pushed American constitutional law to the right. This book is an important contribution to the study of constitutional change. * Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School *

Author Information

Amanda Hollis-Brusky is Assistant Professor of Politics at Pomona College where she teaches courses in Constitutional Law, Legal Institutions, and American Politics. She has written on the conservative legal movement, the Christian Lawyering movement, Originalism, and Executive power. Her articles have appeared in journals such as Law and Social Inquiry and Studies in Law, Politics, and Society.

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