The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law

[Are_grits_groceries]

Steve Teles' book provides a great, readable analysis of how pro-market conservatives organized themselves against a legal profession and legal academy that they perceived as biased against them, and succeeded in changing it. It is reminiscent of other books on the rise of the right, such as Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm, but concentrates on a much more specialized group of actors. Rightwing non-profit law firms have succeeded, at least in part, in bringing cases that raised attention for key regulatory issues. Rightwing funders provided the means that allowed legal academics to pioneer 'law and economics,' an approach to legal analysis that has become ever more important in influencing academic analyses, legal decisions and governmental regulatory priorities. Finally, the Federalist Society has allowed conservative lawyers to identify each other and to network (as seen, for example, in the controversies over Justice Department hiring practices under George W. Bush).

http://firedoglake.com/

A book that should be read...

[madfloridian]

1. Falwell and Pat Robertson each started law schools.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3944/is_200410/ai_n9437308

From 2004

"The Rev. Jerry Falwell has opened a fundamentalist Christian law school with high hopes - training a crop of attorneys who will someday remake the nation in the Religious Right's image.

The school, which will be unaccredited for at least three years, enrolled its first class of 61 in August. Most of the students were given scholarships to attend. There are six faculty members.

During a speech at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, Falwcll boasted that the school will produce lawyers and judges who will reshape law in America.

"We are unabashedly proactive," Falwcll told the Dallas Morning News prior to the speech. "We are on a mission to return America to her religious heritage. We're hoping we are training the lawyers who can turn the legal profession back to the right."

In an interview with the Associated Press, Falwell added, "We want to infiltratc the culture with men and women of God who are skilled in the legal profession. We'll be as far to the right as Harvard is to the left."

And Robertson's school from 2007:

http://www.slate.com/id/2163601/

"Monica Goodling has a problem. As senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Justice Department liaison to the White House, Goodling no longer seems to know what the truth is. She must also be increasingly unclear about who her superiors are. This didn't used to be a problem for Goodling, now on indefinite leave from the DoJ. Everything was once very certain: Her boss's truth was always the same as God's truth. Her boss was always either God or one of His staffers.

This week, through counsel, Goodling again refused to testify about her role in the firings of several U.S. attorneys for what appear to be partisan reasons. Asserting her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, Goodling somehow felt she may be on the hook for criminal obstruction. But it was never clear whose truths she was protecting or even whose law seems to have tripped her up. She resigned abruptly Friday evening without explanation.

... A 1995 graduate of an evangelical Christian school, Messiah College, and a 1999 graduate of Pat Robertson's Regent University School of Law (this seems to be her Web page), Goodling's chief claim to professional fame appears to have been loyalty to the president and to the process of reshaping the Justice Department in his image (and thus, His image). A former career official there told the Washington Post that Goodling "forced many very talented, career people out of main Justice so she could replace them with junior people that were either loyal to the administration or would score her some points." And as she rose at Justice, according to a former classmate, Goodling "developed a very positive reputation for people coming from Christian schools into Washington looking for employment in government."

[CatholicEdHead]

4. Don't forget Tom Monaghan and his Ave Maria law school

[madfloridian]

5. Ah, yes, Ave Maria...how could I forget. Artide and 2007 picture.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1423

"Ave Maria, Florida is a lot of things. To its developer, it will be a “compact, walkable, self-sustaining” city of 30,000 people.

To Ave Maria University, it is home to their new campus, the first major Catholic university constructed in the U.S. in 40 years.

To its founder Tom Monaghan, it will be a conservative Catholic city on a hill, where there’ll be no porn on the cable system, no condoms in the stores, and no contraceptives in the pharmacy.

To bitter faculty of Ave Maria Law School, it is the “edge of Corkscrew swamp” where Monghan and his supporters will forcibly relocate them from Ann Arbor."




Construction Photo, circa Jan. 2007

http://goodspeedupdate.com/?p=2081

[corruptmewithpower]

2. I think we could use a new constitution.

The one we have is routinely ignored by pols and judges on either side of the fence when it's convenient to do so.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. I don't think so.

We just need a concerted effort by all to stop the crap.