The Federalist Society, which has been in existence for three decades, is one of the most successful intellectual movements in modern American political history. It began as a relatively small organization of conservative lawyers dedicated to eroding the national government's power in virtually every arena except defense and enhancing the power of states vis-à-vis the federal government. It now has 40,000 members, including four Supreme Court Justices,
dozens of federal judges, and every Republican attorney general since the 1980s. Indeed, when Republican presidents have nominated judges, Federalist Society membership has served as the seal of approval. The Federalist Society's influence on American politics is well-known. But how,
exactly, does it exert that influence? In Ideas with Consequences, Amanda Hollis-Brusky brilliantly traces how the Federalist Society does this. Drawing on a database of over 2,000 original and primary documents, including personal interviews with Federalist Society members, archival data, and a complete database of transcripts from Federalist Society National Conferences, Hollis-Brusky constructs the most complete and social scientific narrative of Federalist Society influence to date. In
doing so, she shows how the Federalist Society serves as the hub of a complex circulatory system and how the ideas it generates have become the lifeblood of the conservative movement. In the areas of gun rights, campaign finance, federalism, and state sovereignty, Hollis-Brusky demonstrates how the
Federalist Society's investment in ideas, professional education, and networking has resulted in some of the most revolutionary Supreme Court decisions of the past three decades. Hollis-Brusky also illustrates the ways in which the Federalist Society network worked to help bring these constitutional revolutions about in the first place-by identifying, credentialing, and getting the right kinds of judges and Justices on the bench, and by reducing the stigma associated with once-radical
constitutional theories. Not only a rich story of the conservative legal movement, Ideas with Consequences also develops a powerful social scientific framework for analyzing the ways in which interest groups and networks influence legal and judicial policy in America.
Industry Reviews
"Ideas have consequences because they develop in social networks of power and influence. In this impressive work, Amanda Hollis-Brusky shows how the Federalist Society network of lawyers, judges, scholars, and activists successfully pushed American constitutional law to the right. This book is an important contribution to the study of constitutional change."
--Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School
"A valuable, well-researched addition to the growing literature on the conservative legal network. Rich in detail, thoughtful in execution."
--Michael Greve, George Mason University School of Law
"Ideas with Consequences is a major achievement. Hollis-Brusky makes skillful use of a large body of evidence within her theoretical framework to illuminate the role of the Federalist Society in shaping legal doctrine in the Supreme Court. In the process, she provides a richer understanding of how political and intellectual networks help to bring about constitutional change."
--Lawrence Baum, The Ohio State University
"The Federalist Society takes no positions, files no lawsuits, lobbies no legislators, and gives no political contributions. It is a debating society-though perhaps the most important one in American constitutional history since Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison had dinner by themselves. In Ideas with Consequences, Amanda Hollis-Brusky shows how a loosely-organized group of lawyers, students, and professors with little of the conventional signs of
political power have had such a profound influence on constitutional law. Students and scholars of the Constitution in both law and politics will want to read this book."
--John Yoo, Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley School of Law
"A fascinating, convincing, and highly readable account of how the Federalist Society has contributed significantly to the Supreme Court's conservative turn and to fundamental changes in constitutional doctrine."
--Ann Southworth, Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine
"...this is an excellent account of how an ambitious, and intellectually fearless, organ-iza-tion has proved to be remarkably talented at facilitating constitutional change."
-- Weekly Standard Magazine
"Using rich archival research and interviews with legal elites, Amanda Hollis-Brusky sheds needed light on the Federalist Society. Her analysis shows how it not only helped organize the conservative legal movement but also affected the language and direction of key judicial decisions. The result is a convincing argument that hte ideas formed in the Federalist Society have had, and continue to have, serious consequences.
--Political Science Quarterly
