On May 29, Trump, on a Truth Social post, characterized the Federalist Society’s co-chairman of its board of directors, Leonard Leo, as a “sleazebag” and “a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America…”
This outrage came after the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court stayed the order by the Court of International Trade which blocked most of Trump’s recently implemented tariffs. Trump blamed the Federalist Society and Leonard Leo for the initial ruling by the latter court.
Leo played a decisive role in Trump’s first term. Before Trump assumed power for the first time, Leo gave him a shortlist of twenty-one Supreme Court candidates. Leo and the Federalist Society guided most of Trump’s other judicial appointments.
Selection of the 234 judges appointed in Trump’s first term was then “in-sourced” to the Federalist Society, according to former White House counsel Don McGahn.
Slate
The ruling by the Court of International Trade was partly handed down by one Trump appointee, presumably someone recommended by the Federalist Society.
The Trump administration is pursuing a dramatic reinterpretation of the Constitutional order. Trump has stated that the only reason any judge would rule against him is doing so in bad faith. That is, he demands total loyalty to his own person, rather than to the Constitution. Him and his allies believe that the federal judiciary serves under the Executive Branch, rather than being a co-equal branch of government.
Although many Federalist Society members have held firm against Trump in recent legal battles, its younger members are being radicalized.
Even on the ground, the young men (and a few women) who swell the Federalist Society’s ranks in law schools are reportedly champing at the bit to embrace the Trumpian project.
So there’s no reason to think the Federalist Society won’t take the hint. Once, the society styled itself a guardian of the original Constitution. Tomorrow, they may serve a different master as they screen candidates to serve in the judicial Praetorian Guard that this president so keenly desires.
Slate
