The Federalist Society
The Judicial Capture Operation
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The Federalist Society does not lobby. It does not litigate. It does not write legislation. It does something more consequential than any of those things: it installs the judges who decide what the law means. All six conservative Supreme Court justices have official Federalist Society ties. They serve for life. No election can remove them. That is the point.
What the Federalist Society Is
Founded in 1982 at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Chicago law schools — with Antonin Scalia as a founding faculty advisor — the Federalist Society is the talent pipeline, credentialing system, and ideological formation program for the conservative legal movement. It has 90,000 members and chapters at every ABA-accredited law school in the United States. Federalist Society Its donors have included Google, Chevron, the Koch family foundations, the Bradley Foundation, and the Scaife Foundation. By 2017 it had $20 million in annual revenue. Wikipedia
It is also, as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has documented in extensive Senate floor speeches, three organizations operating under one name. Senator Whitehouse
The Three Federalist Societies
The campus debating society — law school chapters where students engage in conservative legal theory. This is the organization most people know and the one the Society publicly presents. It is real, and it is the least consequential of the three.
The think tank — a highbrow policy organization that convenes forums, hosts Supreme Court justices and major political figures, and issues publications. Ideologically coherent, operating within normal institutional norms.
The dark money judicial pipeline — the organization that Leonard Leo built. This Federalist Society does not debate ideas. It selects, vets, prepares, and installs judges. It raises money from undisclosed corporate donors. It coordinates Senate confirmation campaigns. It operates without transparency, accountability, or any democratic check whatsoever. Senator Whitehouse
Senator Orrin Hatch at the 2018 Federalist Society gala: "Some have accused President Trump of outsourcing his judicial selection process to the Federalist Society. I say, Damn right." Cambridge Core — Journal of Law and Courts
Trump's White House Counsel Don McGahn, at the 2017 Federalist Society gathering: "I've been a member of the Federalist Society since law school. Still am. So, frankly, it seems like it's been in-sourced." Dorf on Law
The Judicial Pipeline — From Law School to the Bench
The Federalist Society's power is cumulative and generational. It operates through a pipeline that runs from a student's first year of law school to a lifetime federal appointment:
Law school recruitment — chapters at every ABA-accredited law school recruit and ideologically form conservative lawyers from year one
Prestigious clerkships — the network secures clerkships with conservative federal judges, building credentials and judicial connections
Career advancement — referrals, speaking opportunities, and connections that accelerate advancement in academia, government, and the private bar
Judicial vetting — when Republican presidents need nominees, the Federalist Society provides the lists, the vetting, and the preparation
Confirmation coaching — nominees are prepared for Senate hearings through intensive sessions
Lifetime appointment — once confirmed, the judge serves for life, beyond any future democratic accountability
Peer-reviewed research published in PLOS One in August 2025, analyzing nearly 25,000 Supreme Court votes from 1986 to 2022, found that justices affiliated with the Federalist Society are approximately 10 percentage points more likely to cast a conservative vote than non-affiliated counterparts — and their voting behavior is significantly more consistent and ideologically predictable. PLOS One
Leonard Leo and the Dark Money Operation
The transformation of the Federalist Society from a campus debating organization into a judicial selection machine was largely the work of one person: Leonard Leo, its longtime Executive Vice President and current co-chairman.
Leo delivered the list of potential Supreme Court nominees to the Trump campaign in 2016. He was involved in the nominations of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett — all three Federalist Society affiliates. With support from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and White House Counsel Don McGahn, Leo ensured that nearly 90 percent of Trump's appellate judges were Federalist Society affiliates. The Conversation
In 2021, conservative billionaire Barre Seid transferred $1.6 billion — the largest known political advocacy donation in U.S. history — to a nonprofit controlled by Leo. ProPublica
What the Federalist Society's Judges Have Done
Six of the nine current Supreme Court justices have official Federalist Society ties: Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. The Conversation
Their decisions have produced:
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) — overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after 50 years
West Virginia v. EPA (2022) — severely curtailed federal agencies' ability to regulate industry using the "major questions doctrine" — a legal framework the Federalist Society spent years developing
Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023) — ended affirmative action in college admissions
Trump v. United States (2024) — established broad presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts, removing a fundamental accountability mechanism for executive power
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024) — overturned Chevron deference, stripping federal agencies of their authority to interpret ambiguous statutes and transferring that authority to courts — dramatically amplifying the Federalist Society's judicial network's ongoing power over all regulatory policy
The Loper Bright decision deserves particular attention. Chevron deference allowed agencies staffed by subject-matter experts — scientists at the EPA, economists at the FTC, doctors at the FDA — to interpret the ambiguous statutes they administered. Overturning it transfers that interpretive authority to lifetime-appointed federal judges, the majority of whom were vetted and installed by the Federalist Society. It is a structural power transfer of historic significance.
During Trump's first term, 226 federal judges were confirmed — the most in any single term since Jimmy Carter. Nearly 90 percent of Trump's appellate judges were Federalist Society members or affiliates. The Conversation
Corporate Funding and Conflicts of Interest
The Federalist Society does not fully disclose its donors. What is documented: Google, Chevron, the Koch family foundations, the Bradley Foundation, and the Scaife Foundation have all funded the Federalist Society — the same organization that shaped the Supreme Court that then shaped their regulatory environment. Wikipedia Law firms whose partners argue before judges the Federalist Society vetted and installed are major donors. Senator Whitehouse has documented this conflict in detail across more than 25 Senate floor speeches. Senator Whitehouse
The conflict is direct and documented: corporations fund the organization that selects the judges who rule on cases involving those corporations, their industries, and the regulations that govern them. No disclosure is required. No recusal standard applies. No accountability mechanism exists.
What Can Be Done ✅
Support judicial reform:
Fix the Court — nonpartisan advocacy for Supreme Court transparency and term limits
Demand Justice — campaigns for Supreme Court reform and tracks dark money in judicial nominations
American Constitution Society — the progressive legal network building a counterpart pipeline to the Federalist Society
Track and expose:
Senator Whitehouse — The Scheme speeches — the most detailed public accounting of Federalist Society dark money available
ProPublica — Leonard Leo — the primary investigative reporting on the $1.6 billion dark money operation
OpenSecrets — track disclosed Federalist Society political spending
Contact your Senators demanding that they scrutinize Federalist Society affiliation in all judicial nominees and require full financial disclosure from nominees regarding dark money ties.
Documents in this library: 📄 The Federalist Society — Organizational Profile & Threat Assessment
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