Politics
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Jan 19, 2021

After U.S. Capitol Siege, Federalist Society Considers Purging Trump Supporters

By Shane Trejo

Following the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, the conservative movement is aggressively folding to the Democrats – making capitulations designed to protect the wealth of the donor class even if it means the facilitating the death of American liberties.

The Federalist Society is one of the conservative organizations that is readying a pivot left-ward, with weak conservative members of the society agitating against pro-Trump lawyers involved with the group.

“Recent events… have me extremely troubled about the direction in which the Federalist Society is heading. While I embrace spirited debate and do not believe in the left’s cancel culture instincts, I do believe there is a line that cannot be crossed — insurrection and incitement to undermine the rule of law and our constitution,” attorney Jeremy Rosen wrote in an e-mail to Federalist Society leaders after the Capitol siege.

Rosen, a former Trump judicial nominee who has served as the president of the Los Angeles Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society, is trying to engineer a purge of pro-Trump individuals, particularly those who supported an investigation into electoral fraud, from the group.

“[O]ne of the major causes of this incitement, John Eastman, remains prominently at the head of one of our most significant practice groups and a frequent speaker at our events. And Senators Cruz and Hawley are longstanding members and frequent speakers. I am sure there are others who acted similarly and are in our leadership and speaker ranks,” he wrote in the email.

“I think that the Federalist Society must take a stand to remove anyone from leadership and to take away the legitimacy of our public forums to anyone who participated in this attack on the rule of law and our constitution,” Rosen added.

Rosen is far from the only influential Federalist Society stalwart sharing this opinion. Other long-time members of the organization, such as Gregg Nunziata, a former staffer for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Department of Justice attorney, share Rosen’s desire to purge Trump supporters from the society.

“As we process what happened last week, we need to reflect on how we got here — and how we can get out of this place. The Federalist Society, as an organization and as a community, has some necessary soul-searching to do,”  Nunziata told legal analyst David Lat.

“Obviously the organization includes people who disagree on many things. But we share core convictions about truth, the rule of law, and the Constitution. The organization and its members should be able to speak up strongly in support of those values — and confront the fact that some members of the Society went wobbly on all three of those values, when it most mattered to the country,” he added.

Law professor Irina Manta, a regular speaker at Federalist Society events, is using the Capitol siege to malign Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a former college rival who edged her out to be president of Yale’s Federalist Society chapter when they both attended the university.

“The Federalist Society doesn’t normally issue policy statements. But in light of recent events, I think the organization should explicitly distance itself from any individuals who have played a role in the storming of the Capitol and the contesting of the results of the presidential election. Doing so would be in line with the Fed Soc’s mission to defend the Constitution and the rule of law,” she said.

Big League Politics has reported on how judges appointed to the bench by President Trump based on recommendations from the Federalist Society repeatedly rejected legal challenges to Democrat election fraud:

For years, Republicans have bragged about the quality, rule-of-law judges being appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump at the behest of the Federalist Society.

Now, those same judges are refusing to hear electoral integrity cases in the court of law, dismissing cases without considering evidence, and hiding behind legal fictions in order to abdicate their duty to overturn massive voter fraud. A long-time favorite of the Federalist Society is even boasting in the mainstream media that the organization has duped Trump and his supporters this entire time.

David French, the ‘Never Trumper’ who defends drag queen predators grooming child victims in public libraries, wrote an op/ed in Time Magazine championing the Federalist Society for its judges who are rolling over and allowing the most grotesque crime in U.S. history take place unabated.

“The leading lights of the conservative legal movement won’t touch the election challenges with a ten-foot-pole,” wrote French, who noted that he is a regular at Federalist Society events.

“Many conservative lawyers are also institutionalists. John Roberts is a notable example. They have deep respect for the reputation of the judiciary and the integrity of the bar,” he added.

French made it clear that the Federalist Society is producing judges and legal minds that refuse to demonstrate courage under the pressure, and this is what the conservative movement is all about.

“While a member of Congress believes he risks his career if he doesn’t embrace Trump’s conspiracies, a conservative lawyer in private practice risks his professional reputation (and thus his ability to progress through the highest ranks of his profession) if he does,” French wrote, noting that top conservative legal minds care more about securing their prestige and their bottom line than doing what’s right.

The Federalist Society has promoted judges they knew would support what is best for the corporate elite, and they have failed America as a result. This pathetic organization’s fealty shows why conservatives have conserved nothing except the wealth of oligarchs all these years.