Federalists Relish Well-Placed Friends

Central to the Federalist Society is the concept of originalism, the view that the Constitution is a document with a fixed and knowable meaning, rather than one whose principles adjust to contemporary times.

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Scalia and Thomas are the idea's most prominent adherents, but Scalia wrote in a new book the organization published this year that while he and Thomas have put originalism "in the game," it "would be foolish to pretend that that philosophy has become (as it once was) the dominant mode of interpretation in the courts, or even that it is the irresistible wave of the future."

Scalia said courts and law schools embrace the alternate view of a "living Constitution" and so too does the ordinary citizen, "who has come to believe that what he violently abhors must be unconstitutional."

"It is no easy task to wean the public, the professoriate and (especially) the judiciary away from such a seductive and judge-empowering philosophy," he said.

There was no argument from the president, however. "In practice, a living Constitution means whatever these activists want it to mean," Bush said. "They forgot that our Constitution lives because we respect it enough to adhere to its words."

Such a view is the group's "mission," Calabresi said, and he and Leo point out that the group does not bring lawsuits, lobby, take positions or endorse nominees. But some of the society's most prominent members are part of a growing network of conservative legal groups that do all those things. And Leo took a leave from the group to work with the White House on judicial nominees.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) has been a particular critic of the society, saying that for the Bush administration, knowing the "secret handshake" is the most important qualification a judicial hopeful can have.

Other liberals are more than grudging admirers of the group's success. Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she has probably spoken at Federalist Society events more than at any other organization's except her own. She enjoys "not just preaching to the choir," she said, and finds the debates open and serious.

She said she does not understand, though, with all the group's success, why it is "still kind of whining about Yale Law School and Hillary Clinton."

Liberal law professors might still be writing the law review articles, she said, but conservatives are writing the laws.