Senator Schumer: "The days when the Federalist Society would get anything it wanted are over."

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: A Somber Annual Meeting for Conservative Lawyers
By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: November 19, 2006

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 — For the last 20 years, the Federalist Society, a conclave of conservative lawyers, has steadily flourished, even when there was a Democrat in the White House. But the recent election results, along with increased partisan bitterness over judicial nominations, may have given an unaccustomed jolt to members of the group, whose annual convention concluded on Saturday.

The event has usually been one in which many society members could look at their reflections in the hallway mirrors of the Mayflower Hotel here and, with only a little imagination, see themselves wearing a judge’s robes.

No group has been more influential in sending up candidates for the federal courts; when President Bush took office in 2001, the society had recommended to him the majority of his first slate of 11 federal appeals court judges. His appointments to the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., were both active in the Federalist Society and enjoyed strong support from it.

But the wheel of judicial fortune has turned. The Senate Democrats who will be seated in January will constitute a majority, and they say they are determined to block any of Mr. Bush’s judicial nominees whom they deem too conservative....

***

John C. Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who was a senior Justice Department official, said the mood at the convention was notably grim because of the likelihood that Democrats would block any identifiable conservatives from the federal appeals courts or the Supreme Court....Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat who has been outspoken in opposing Mr. Bush’s nominees, said Friday,...“The days when the Federalist Society would get just about anything it wanted are over"....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/washington/19federalist.html

[William769]

1. Good for Senator Schumer!

[HappyWeasel]

2. Thank god.

[madmusic]

3. K&R Every voter need to know about the Funkalist Society

[AZCat]

4. That'd be John "Torture Memo" Yoo, right?

What an asshole.

[TaleWgnDg]

6. one and the same . . . n/t

[treestar]

5. That is one of the best things about this election

That the judiciary will not be filled with anti-freedom "judges."

[williesgirl]

7. k&r

[Hailtothechimp]

8. I just have to say this....

FUCK YOO!

It feels so good to type that...

[gratuitous]

9. And guess who's been addressing their meeting?

Yup, the Attorney General, the Vice President, other administration officials. Now, it may occur to you to wonder just why that is. After all, we have a Democratic side and a Republican side in the House and the Senate, but we have only one President. And the current administration only represents the interests of a very narrow range of Americans.

[mmonk]

10. If we want equal protection under the law,

and such concepts, these people have to be stopped from taking the bench. This is where the right has been concentrating in order to control law and/or turn back established legal concepts they want overturned. They want a sort of lifetime appointed government based on ideology instead of law based on our established legal precedence.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Yep -- in the article, it's noted that they rejoice at the number of years...

Roberts will remain on the bench.

[in_cog_ni_to]

12. Yes! The Federalist Society HAND PICKED and GROOMED Scalito

for the SCOTUS. NO MORE! NEVER AGAIN. WTG, SCHUMER!