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During his first presidential run in 2016, Donald Trump relied on the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization, to assemble a list of potential Supreme Court nominees. Trump’s move, argue UMass Amherst legal scholars Paul M. Collins Jr. and Tim Komatsu, was strategic. It allowed Trump to court conservative and evangelical voters who otherwise would not have voted for him.
The Federalist Society’s sway on Trump was immediate. During his first term, the president appointed Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the court – all of them affiliated with the conservative group. But the organization’s influence over the high court will go well beyond the makeup of today’s high court.
Collins and Komatsu recently examined nearly 25,000 votes cast by Supreme Court justices between 1986 and 2023. They found that justices connected to the Federalist Society are more conservative and more consistently conservative than other justices, meaning they rarely cast votes that buck their conservative values.
Today, every Republican-appointed member of the Supreme Court is affiliated with the Federalist Society. And with justices on the court serving an average of 25 years, Collins and Komatsu explain why Americans are likely to see these judges boost the agenda of the conservative legal movement for decades to come.
Also in this week’s politics news:
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Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas look on during the 60th presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, in the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Chip Somodevilla/Pool Photo via AP
Paul M. Collins Jr., UMass Amherst; Tim Komatsu, UMass Amherst
Research shows that Supreme Court justices affiliated with the group are more consistently conservative than other justices, meaning they seldom deviate from their voting behavior.
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London and other capitals around the world have experienced large protests against the war in Gaza.
Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images
Asher Kaufman, University of Notre Dame
Invites are rescinded, teams and singers are booed, and citizens wonder if they should disclose their nationality. Israelis are feeling the effects of international isolation.
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Pollsters found that 47% of 2024 Trump voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the Epstein controversy. These supporters are at a rally in Doral, Fla., on July 9, 2024.
Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images
Tatishe Nteta, UMass Amherst; Adam Eichen, UMass Amherst; Alexander Theodoridis, UMass Amherst; Jesse Rhodes, UMass Amherst; Raymond La Raja, UMass Amherst
The MAGA base is not happy. Trump’s handling of the Epstein controversy has done significant damage to his standing, particularly among his core supporters.
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Mark Satta, Wayne State University
George Orwell, the author of two classic anti-totalitarian, pro-freedom novels from the 1940s, was a democratic socialist who opposed authoritarian leaders of the left and the right.
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Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University
The US and Europe hope protections for Ukraine can end the conflict. But previous attempts have fallen flat.
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Gibbs Knotts, Coastal Carolina University; Christopher A. Cooper, Western Carolina University
Gerrymandering has existed since the United States’ earliest days, but now technology and political trends are supercharging it.
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Ray Brescia, Albany Law School
A federal court stopped contempt proceedings against Trump administration lawyers, but they may still have to respond to charges in states where they are licensed to practice law.
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