Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Understanding Federalist Society Network Influence
Part I: The State Exists to Preserve Freedom
2. The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms: Lost and
Found
3. Judicial Activism, Inc.: The First Amendment, Campaign Finance,
and Citizens United
Part II: The Separation of Governmental Powers is Central to Our
Constitution
4. Federalism and the Commerce Power: Returning to "First
Principles"
5. State Sovereignty and the Tenth Amendment: The
Anti-Commandeering Doctrine
Part III: It is Emphatically the Province and Duty of the Judiciary
Branch to Say What the Law Is, Not What It Should Be
6. Saying What the Law Is: The Federalist Society and the
Conservative Counterrevolution
Appendix A - An Agenda for Future Research: Looking Back, Looking
Forward
Appendix B - List of Interviews
References
Index
Amanda Hollis-Brusky is Assistant Professor of Politics at Pomona College where she teaches courses in Constitutional Law, Legal Institutions, and American Politics. She has written on the conservative legal movement, the Christian Lawyering movement, Originalism, and Executive power. Her articles have appeared in journals such as Law and Social Inquiry and Studies in Law, Politics, and Society.
"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
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