Few organizations have profited as handsomely off of President Donald Trump’s rise to power as the Federalist Society, a kind of bar association for right-wing lawyers.
“We’re going to have great judges, conservative,
that could potentially limit or even eliminate these nationwide orders.But the panel featured a serious conversation over whether judges should have this power, rather than statements of fealty to Trump’s position. Many audience members also seemed troubled by Trump’s anti-injunction stance — at lunch, I sat between two lawyers who often challenge federal laws in court, and who don’t want to lose the ability to obtain nationwide injunctions against those laws.
There’s no doubt that the Federalist Society’s leading lights are thrilled to have a Republican back in the White House, and the society is likely to spend the next three-and-a-half-years watching Trump turn many of its most MAGA-aligned members into judges. But it was often hard to escape the impression that they would be happier if a more methodical Republican — perhaps a Nikki Haley — occupied the Oval Office. As several speakers argued, the sheer goonishness of Trump’s approach to governance may leave movement conservatives with few lasting victories after he’s no longer president.
Nor is the Society likely to be content as mere coalition partners in a MAGA movement led by figures like Trump. It wants to shape major policy decisions, and perhaps to move in a more market-oriented direction than Trump would prefer, and so is working to consolidate power within the judiciary it dominates.