OF SUCH STUFF IS NIHILISM MADE:

Despite Recent Gains, Conservative Group Is Wary on Direction of Court (DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, 11/11/05, NY Times)

These might seem the best of times for the Federalist Society, the conservative lawyers' group established two decades ago to counter what its founders considered the liberal bent of law schools, bar associations and the federal courts.

A Federalist Society favorite, John G. Roberts Jr., was recently installed as chief justice of the United States. Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., a longtime member, is in line to join him on the Supreme Court.

The debates over their nominations turned the spotlight of public attention on the society, and on the morning of the organization's annual convention on Thursday, President Bush met with Federalist Society leaders at the White House to commend them for their good work.

But at the convention, among the 1,500 scholars, advocates and judges, a number of whom had been on the shortlist for the Supreme Court, the mood was anything but jubilant.

"What is there to be jubilant about?" asked Edward Whelan, the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a former clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia.

Such is their myth of embattlement, here the reality, Engaged in a Very Civil War: The Federalist Society has reshaped the legal system without ever going to court. (David G. Savage, November 11, 2005, LA Times)

These days, the one-time college debating society is seen by both friends and critics as the legal branch of the "vast right-wing conspiracy." It brings together prominent conservative judges, Bush administration lawyers, Cabinet officers, law professors and roomfuls of young lawyers who hope to assume their places in the future.

They share a common concern: that courts and judges have taken on too much power in America's democracy and that this "judicial activism" should be replaced by what Roberts described as a modest and limited role for the judiciary.

In fact, in large measure, they have already reshaped the courts.

Conservative judges, many of them products of the Federalist Society network, have come to dominate the federal bench.

On Thursday, President Bush hosted the group's leaders for an early morning meeting at the White House. As another sign of the society's close ties to the Bush White House, the speaker for Thursday's dinner was Bush's beleaguered political strategist Karl Rove.

Many liberal advocates admit they look with envy at what the Federalist Society has achieved.

"They have been unbelievably successful in a short time," said Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union. "They have taken over the courts and the government. If you go to their meetings, you see the attorney general, senators, the solicitor general. I wish we had the same kind of presence."

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 11, 2005 7:36 AM