Michael Avery, co-author of 'The Federalist Society' on Thom Hartmann's The Big Think

Michael Avery, co-author with Danielle McLaughlin of "The Federalist Society: How Conservatives Took the Law Back from Liberals" (Vanderbilt University Press) appears on The Big Think with Thom Hartmann.

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THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY
How Conservatives Took the Law Back from Liberals

by Michael Avery and Danielle McLaughlin

"The authors' sober analysis looks at numerous cases and uses both anecdotal examples and data trends to show how Federalist Society members and supporters have consistently steered jurisprudence to the right. ...Much of what The Federalist Society covers will be familiar to readers who closely follow law or politics, but even those readers will find value in its straightforward mix of history, case studies, and legal arguments. For others, it serves as an introduction to a long-term story that has slowly and quietly—but dramatically—changed the American legal system."
—ForeWord Reviews

Although largely unknown to the general public, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies has grown over the past thirty years from a small group of disaffected conservative law students into an organization with extraordinary influence over American politics. But just how did this group of intellectuals succeed in moving their theories into the mainstream of legal thought?

THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY: How Conservatives Took the Law Back from Liberals (April 2013; Vanderbilt University Press; 292 pages; ISBN: 978-0-8265-1877-4; $35.00 hardcover), by Michael Avery and Danielle McLaughlin, is the first book that describes in detail the ideas and legal theories of Federalist Society members and analyzes how they have affected law and public policy.

How influential is the Federalist Society?

• The Society boasts that 45,000 conservative lawyers and law students are involved in its activities.

• The Society has lawyer chapters in every major city in the United States and student chapters in every accredited law school.

• Four Supreme Court Justices—Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito—are current or former members.

• Every single federal judge appointed in the two Bush presidencies was either a Society member or approved by members.

• During the Bush years, young Federalist Society lawyers dominated the legal staffs of the Justice Department and other important government agencies.

Members of the Federalist Society include economic conservatives, social conservatives, Christian conservatives, and libertarians, many of whom differ with each other on significant issues but in the end cooperate for the greater good of advancing a broad conservative agenda.

THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY goes behind the surface of legislative and court battles to answer questions about how law is really made. It tells the story of how a counter-establishment movement, enlisted supporters, developed networks, recruited important allies (including wealthy financial patrons), and grew in influence until it became the Establishment. Ultimately this book is about how ideas drive law, policy, and politics, and what both conservatives and liberals can learn from the formation and rise of the Federalist Society.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Michael Avery, Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School, where he teaches constitutional law and evidence, is a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. From 1970 to 1998 he was in private practice, specializing in plaintiffs' civil rights litigation and criminal defense.

Danielle McLaughlin, currently an Associate in the Boston office of Nixon Peabody LLP, clerked for the Honorable William Young in the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts and served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of High Technology Law at Suffolk University Law School.

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS
Publication date: April 2013
Pages: 292 pages
ISBN: 978-0-8265-1877-4
$35.00 hardcover