- Develops a new social scientific framework for analyzing the influence of the Federalist Society network on legal and judicial policy
- Draws on an author-compiled database of over 2,000 documents including previously unexamined archival documents from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, transcripts from personal interviews with 40 key members of the Federalist Society and American Constitution, and complete transcripts of Federalist Society National Conferences from 1982-2011
- Since the Federalist Society does not publish membership lists, this book uses presenters at Federalist Society National Conferences to establish a comprehensive list of over 1,000 key actors within the Federalist Society network
- Clearly identifies specific ways in which members of the Federalist Society have influenced revolutionary Supreme Court decisions in the areas of gun control, campaign finance, federalism and state sovereignty
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.
