The Federalist Society coup, in 16 charts.

[Nevilledog]

https://www.weekendreading.net/p/breaking-the-law-trump-is-the-means

Going into last week’s oral arguments on Trump’s immunity appeal, it was widely believed that as a practical matter the appeals court decision would hold – that Trump did not have immunity for attempting to overturn the results of the election he lost and for inciting a deadly mob to prevent the Electoral College votes from being counted. At that point, it seemed clear that the only motive for SCOTUS to hear Trump’s appeal in the first place was to delay his trial. Indeed, there was no apparent justification for the Supreme Court hearing this appeal other than postponing the trial. After all, Justice Roberts has famously said:

If it is not necessary to decide more to dispose of a case, then it is necessary not to decide more.

Instead, as they have so many times before, the six Federalist Society justices1 opened the door to much darker possibilities. Astonishingly, they were more concerned with erring by setting a precedent that could open the door to frivolous partisan prosecutions by the Justice Department against a future president than they were about erring by setting a precedent that would close the door to accountability for the last president who actually attempted a coup. (Incredibly, the implication, an echo of MAGA paranoia, is that the Justice Department, the criminal justice system, and the jury system are less legitimate than the actions of the unnamed president.)

The Federalist Society Project

Right now there is a real risk that the raw offensiveness of the proceedings – the shock of hearing certain justices entertain the idea of allowing presidential lawlessness – will continue to distract us from the most lethal danger we face. That danger is the completion of the Federalist Society project: to replace America’s liberal democratic constitutional order with an illiberal, revanchist one that does not protect civil rights or constrain the worst excesses of capital, and that allows the Court to make policy without democratic accountability.

It’s a mistake to discuss Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas as individual jurists rather than as politicians who were effectively “appointed” to the Court by the Federalist Society. Whatever your (justifiable) problems with any of those individuals, if they had not been confirmed, there were dozens more lined up on the Federalist bench who would not be doing anything substantially different. (To be clear, I am not saying that the justices have been bought off; I’m reasonably confident they believe in what they are doing. I am saying that they wouldn't be Supreme Court justices if they hadn’t been able to convince the MAGA/corporate judicial gatekeepers of their commitment to the cause.)

*snip*

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Those charts are really good. Well worth a look. . . . . nt

[superpatriotman]

2. K&R

Good (terrifying) read.

[LiberalFighter]

3. The Federalist Society needs to be dismantled.

There needs to be plan implemented to discredit them.

They are Russian operatives.
They steal from old ladies.
They sell girls to Mexico

[MOMFUDSKI]

4. Senator Whitehouse has been on this crap

FOREVER. We wait

[Bundbuster]

5. Thank you Nevilledog, for all your posts

on what I call the Toxic Reichwing Brew of anti-democracy organizations such as

- The Federalist Society
- The Council for National Policy
- The Heritage Foundation
- The Club for Growth
- ALEC
- Judicial Watch
- Americans for Tax Reform
- Alliance Defending Freedom
- Turning Point USA

and many more, springing up and growing like leprosy. Their one common goal - to reshape America into a country that oppresses minorities, promotes theocracy, protects gun rights, counters federal regulation, slashes taxes, favors plutocrats, and rolls back the social progress wrought by the New Deal and the Great Society.

This Toxic Reichwing Brew is the most dangerous threat to democracy today.

[Nevilledog]

7. ...

[Bundbuster]

6. Federalist Society co-chair tied to 'dark money group' trying to 'preempt federal wealth tax'

https://www.alternet.org/federalist-society-koch/

Leonard Leo helped select all three of former President Donald Trump's Supreme Court appointees: Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. And he remains a prominent figure in the right-wing judicial movement, still co-chairing the Federalist Society while heading his consulting firm CRC Advisors.

In a report published by Rolling Stone on April 29, journalists Andrew Perez and Adam Rawnsley describe the connection between CRC, billionaire Charles Koch's political network and a "dark-money group that is currently arguing a Supreme Court case designed to preempt a wealth tax."

"Like many consulting firms," Perez and Rawnsley explain, "CRC does not publicly disclose its clients. However, several of the firm's clients were named in resumes that applicants submitted to an online jobs bank hosted by the Conservative Partnership Institute, which accidentally left the files exposed online. One CRC employee's 2024 resume says his clients include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a dark-money group arguing a case before the Supreme Court this term that is designed to slam the door shut on a federal wealth tax. Experts say the case could upend the nation's tax code."

Caroline Ciccone, president of the watchdog group Accountable.US, told Rolling Stone, "It's no surprise that Leonard Leo's for-profit consulting firm — which has pulled down a whopping $100 million from Leo's own nonprofit network — counts the Koch network and the group leading the Supreme Court billionaire bailout case as clients. We knew that Leo's fingerprints were all over these far-right causes, but now, it appears he's directly profiting off of them, too."