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USA Today
5 hours ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Trump abandons his most impressive presidential legacy: conservative judges
Trump abandons his most impressive presidential legacy: conservative judges | Opinion President Donald Trump has made a point to attack the very conservative judges who helped boost his first term in office. Show Caption Hide Caption Court blocks Trump's tariffs, saying they exceed legal authority A trade court blocked President Donald Trump's tariffs, saying they exceed his legal authority. It's official. President Donald Trump has turned on the conservative legal movement because its activists refuse to put his bidding over the Constitution. Frustration has been building for some time, but late on May 29, Trump posted a lengthy rant about the judiciary to his Truth Social page, criticizing many of the conservative judges he had embraced during his first term. 'I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges,' Trump said on Truth Social. 'I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations.' With that, Trump shifted from being a Republican president with a strong legacy of appointing conservative judges to a Republican president with a growing legacy of attacking conservative judges. That's a bad sign for any of his upcoming judicial nominations. Trump turns on conservative legal movement he helped build Trump and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, helped deliver Republicans a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court. A significant part of that effort was The Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization that advocates for an interpretation of the Constitution that adheres to its original meaning. During his first term, Trump's judicial picks were tightly curated by adviser Leonard Leo, then the executive vice president of The Federalist Society. Most notably, all three of Trump's Supreme Court picks ‒ Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett ‒ all had ties to the organization. Opinion: Vance is doing his best to help Trump tear down the Supreme Court These three justices had a hand in overturning Roe v. Wade, striking down unconstitutional firearm restrictions, striking down racist affirmative action practices, curbing the power of administrative state bureaucrats and blocking much of the illegal Biden agenda. Even beyond the Supreme Court, Trump nominated 226 federal judges during his first term, many of those nominations guided by Federalist Society advisers. When did Trump start to turn on conservative judges? While the beginning of this spiral happened when the Supreme Court refused to entertain his 2020 stolen election claims, things have accelerated in his second term. Now, originalist judges have halted Trump's unconstitutional trade policy and have ruled against parts of Trump's mass deportation attempts. Even so, Trump until now was reluctant to outright condemn The Federalist Society. After all, one of the high points of his conservative agenda was his redecorating of the American courts with top-tier judges. The track record of Federalist Society judges is nothing short of a resounding victory for conservatives and the single best accomplishment of Trump's first term in office. Opinion: Elon Musk is frustrated with Republicans wasting DOGE's effort to cut. So am I. None of that matters now. Trump despises those judges because their loyalty is to the Constitution, not to him. He cannot fathom the discipline or honor required to be committed to preserving America's founding documents, rather than his own self-interest. The partnership between the conservative legal movement and Trump was always a temporary one, and Republicans in Congress had to have known that. While Republicans used Trump to reach their goals within the conservative legal movement, they made the mistake of allowing him to undermine the very accomplishments they made in his first term. Trump's future judicial nominations have judges worried Data from Notre Dame Law professor Derek Muller shows that federal judges are retiring at a record-slow pace at the beginning of Trump's second term. Just 11 vacancies have opened up since January, likely because judges are thinking twice about retiring in the face of who may replace them. Trump's first slate of judicial nominees is taking longer than it did in his first term, with confirmation hearings to take place on June 4, according to Axios. There are also fewer vacancies compared with Trump's first term, when he was handed more than 100 on Day 1 as a result of a stubborn Republican Senate majority in President Barack Obama's second term. Trump appears to be prioritizing his supporters in his early slate of judicial picks. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who has previously represented Trump personally, has been nominated to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Courtof Appeals and sparked some concern even among conservatives. Trump's early judicial picks will determine how comfortable more aging federal judges are with retiring under his second administration. Those committed to the Constitution are understandably worried about who may replace them, and his recent rhetoric does not help me feel better. As Trump's brand of the Republican Party drifts from most of the conservative values it once claimed to support, so too does his support for conservative legal philosophy. Now, anything that stands in the way of Trump is bad, even if it is conservative in ideology. Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump just threw one of his most powerful allies under the bus
On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump publicly split with the Federalist Society, the powerful conservative lawyers' group that he relied on to select judges in his first term. Thanks in no small part to Trump, a majority of the Supreme Court justices are associated with the Federalist Society, as are dozens or even hundreds of other federal judges. But now, Trump apparently regrets his earlier partnership with the Society. 'I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations,' Trump posted on Truth Social. He blames his decision to ally with the Society on the fact that he was 'new to Washington' when he first became president, 'and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges.' He also names Leonard Leo, the co-chair of the Society's board, a 'sleazebag' who 'probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions.' It's a bold move by Trump, because the Federalist Society derives much of its power from the fact that so many of its members have lifetime appointments to the federal bench. Promising conservative lawyers want to join — and pay dues — to the Society because it was seen as a pipeline to power. And the fact that its members have been able to shape policy on everything from abortion to race to student loans made it the premier right-wing legal group. That's not to say Trump will destroy the Society's grip on the judiciary. In fact, he may have inadvertently strengthened it. Older Federalist Society judges and justices may be less likely to retire under Trump now that they know that he's unlikely to rely on the Society to choose their replacement. And sitting Federalist Society judges and justices may view the Trump administration's legal arguments with greater skepticism. Trump's breakup with the Federalist Society isn't particularly surprising. At a recent Federalist Society conference on executive power, many of the speakers denounced Trump's incompetence and warned that it would prevent conservatives from achieving lasting policy victories during this administration. Some argued that Trump's signature economic policy, his tariffs, are illegal. And Trump is right that Leo, and by extension, the Federalist Society and its judges, have 'separate ambitions' that do not always align with Trump or the MAGA movement. While the Federalist Society certainly has plenty of members who are staunch MAGA loyalists, many of its judges still adhere to the more libertarian and less explicitly authoritarian approach that dominated the Republican Party before Trump took it over. Speakers at the recent Federalist Society conference spoke openly about plans to diminish Trump's power and shift authority toward the judiciary. Nor did the Federalist Society's judges rally behind Trump's failed attempt to overturn former President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election. Some of them even actively pushed back – Trump-appointed Judge Stephanos Bibas's opinion rejecting one of Trump's attempts to overturn that election begins with the line 'free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy,' and rejects Trump's claims due to a lack of 'specific allegations and then proof.' In his Thursday night post announcing that he and Leo are never getting back together, Trump pointed to a recent decision by the US Court of International Trade, which struck down an array of Trump's second-term tariffs, as a triggering event. Notably, one of these three judges, Timothy Rief, is a Trump appointee. So it appears that one of the most fruitful partnerships in the conservative legal movement's history is now over. This divorce is likely to diminish both Trump's power and that of the Society in the long run. The Federalist Society is America's most powerful legal organization in large part because it has such a comprehensive network of right-leaning and right-wing lawyers. Top law students often join the Federalist Society because the Society can help place them in clerkships with some of the most prestigious judges. The Society's events give young lawyers a chance to network with senior members of their profession who can connect them with other hard-to-obtain job opportunities. And, because senior lawyers often have a decades-long relationship with the Society, the Society can easily vet them for ideological loyalty if they seek a political appointment such as a federal judgeship. This network also means that the Federalist Society has historically provided a valuable service to Republican presidents. If a federal judicial vacancy arises in, say, Idaho, the president and his top advisers are unlikely to know which members of the Idaho bar are both highly skilled and ideologically committed to the GOP's goals. But the Federalist Society has both a student and a lawyers' chapter in Idaho. So it can identify highly qualified right-wing candidates for the bench and pass that information on to the White House. Without access to this network, Trump is likely to struggle to identify nominees as quickly as he did in his first term, and there are already signs that he's relying on alternative networks to find his second term judges — a shift that may diminish the Society's influence in the long run, because lawyers hoping for a political appointment will no longer gain an advantage by joining it. When Trump announced his first slate of second-term nominees in early May, for example, half of them were lawyers in GOP-controlled state attorney general's offices. These offices might provide Trump with a stream of loyal nominees in red states, but it is unclear how he will identify judicial candidates in blue states where elected officials are unlikely to fill their offices with lawyers sympathetic to the MAGA movement. Trump's split with the Federalist Society may prove to be one of the most consequential legal developments of his second term. The Federalist Society also provides right-of-center lawyers with a forum where they can debate their disagreements and often achieve consensus. Once such a consensus is reached, moreover, Federalist Society events help popularize that consensus among legal conservatives, while also communicating to ambitious young lawyers which policy positions they need to hold in order to secure the Society's aid when those lawyers seek political appointments. This means that judges chosen by the Society tend to have uniform views on a wide range of legal questions, even if those views are unusual within the legal profession as a whole. The Federalist Society, for example, has long popularized a theory known as the 'unitary executive,' which would give the president full control over all federal agencies, even if Congress tried to give those agencies' leaders a degree of independence. This theory played a central role in the Republican justices' shocking decision in Trump v. United States (2024), which established that the president has broad authority to use his official powers to commit crimes. If Trump stops drawing from the Federalist Society when he selects judges, in other words, his second-term nominees are likely to hold views that diverge from those of many sitting Republican judges, even if those nominees might broadly be described as 'conservative.' And that could set back the conservative cause. Before the Federalist Society's founding, for example, President Richard Nixon picked four justices that he believed to be conservative. But three of them joined the Court's abortion rights decision in Roe v. Wade (1973), and Nixon-appointed Justice Lewis Powell wrote a seminal opinion in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), which kept affirmative action alive for several decades. It's also possible that many sitting Federalist Society judges and justices will view Trump with greater skepticism now that he's no longer aligned with an organization that they closely identify with. Because the Federalist Society has been a central part of many lawyers' and judges' professional life for decades, these senior professionals often identify strongly with the Society and react negatively to perceived slights against it. In 2020, for example, the US Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct withdrew a proposal to discourage federal judges from belonging to ideological bar associations like the Federalist Society after that proposal triggered widespread backlash among judges aligned with the Society. When it comes to Trump, many of the lawsuits challenging his tariffs are backed by conservative legal organizations that historically have aligned with the Federalist Society; his attacks on the Federalist Society could make such organizations more likely to challenge him. Trump's split with the Federalist Society, in other words, may prove to be one of the most consequential legal developments of his second term. It is likely to make Republican judges less ideologically homogeneous, which increases the likelihood that any given panel of judges will vote against a conservative litigant. And it also means that many sitting judges will be less likely to retire under Trump, and more likely to view the Trump administration's legal arguments with skepticism.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
In Bizarre Rant, Trump Rips ‘Sleazebag' Leonard Leo Over Legal Setback On Tariffs
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump late Thursday bizarrely tore into a prominent figure of the conservative legal movement, Leonard Leo, and blamed him for a federal court ruling that briefly blocked most of his tariffs. Trump leaned heavily on Leo, a former leader of the conservative Federal Society, in his first term in office for picking people for lifetime federal judgeships. Trump essentially farmed out his judicial selection process to Leo, who handpicked most of the president's appeals court and Supreme Court nominees. That list included judges Trump eventually picked to sit on the U.S. Court of International Trade — judges who ruled Thursday that he didn't have unilateral authority to impose tariffs on most countries — a huge setback to Trump's international economic policy. The president responded by lashing out at Leo for recommending he nominate those judges at all, years ago. (The full court later weighed in and reversed that decision.) 'I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges,' Trump said in a rambling post on social media. 'I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real 'sleazebag' named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions.' The president said Leo 'openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court.' 'I hope that is not so, and don't believe it is!' he continued. 'In any event, Leo left The Federalist Society to do his own 'thing.'' Leo responded with a conciliatory statement in the New York Post, saying he is 'grateful' that Trump transformed the courts in his first term. 'The Federal Judiciary is better than it's ever been in modern history, and that will be President Trump's most important legacy,' he said. Their spat reflects a growing divide between Trump and the conservative legal community that was so central to his judicial nominees in his first term. Trump doesn't have nearly as many vacant court seats to fill this time around, which means there's been less energy being poured into nominating judges. But the bigger issue is that Trump is more unhinged in his second term, flouting laws and brazenly attacking judges who rule against him. He's been pushing the limits of executive power to a breaking point, and with the Republican-led Congress doing nothing to keep him in check, it's fallen on the nation's courts to field endless lawsuits against the administration. The reality for Trump is that he is losing a lot more in court that he's winning. One analysis found that his administration has lost a whopping 96% of rulings in federal district courts so far this month. It's left Trump fuming, as heseems to believe judges should rule in his favor every time. Leo is simply the latest target of his fury amid his legal setbacks. 'Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society have spent decades installing judges to do their bidding from the bench. But anything short of 100% loyalty is unacceptable to Donald Trump, so it's no surprise that he's lashing out,' Meagan Hatcher-Mays of United for Democracy, a coalition of pro-democracy organizations, said in a statement. 'Trump thinks there's no limit to what he is able to get away with, because most of the time, there's not,' she said. The president's attacks on Leo and The Federalist Society could get interesting, though. Leo has helped pick all of the current conservative Supreme Court justices, arguably making him more powerful than any one of them. He is at the center of a massive web of sketchy, dark-monied groups aligned with a staunchly anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-voting rights agenda. A far-right member of the Roman Catholic Church, his goal is to impose a broader cultural war against a 'progressive Ku Klux Klan' and 'vile and immoral current-day barbarians, secularists and bigots.' Leo is managing more than $1.6 billion, which he has been using to expand The Federalist Society model beyond the courts, and into culture and politics. In other words, Leo has been playing the long game and Trump, in his first term, was always a pawn for Leo's broader ambitions. The conservative legal activist was here before Trump was in the White House, and he will be here after he is gone. In his meandering social post, the president said The Federalist Society let him down with its recommendations for judicial nominees in his first term. 'I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten!' he said. 'With all of that being said, I am very proud of many of our picks, but very disappointed in others. They always must do what's right for the Country!'
Epoch Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Trump Censures Federalist Society Amid Tariff Legal Dispute
President Donald Trump issued a scathing criticism of the conservative legal group The Federalist Society in a May 30 Truth Social In his Truth Social post, Trump expressed dismay at the group that advised him regarding appointing judges during his first presidential term.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Rips His Own Dark Money Buddy in Bonkers Rant Over Tariff Losses
Donald Trump unleashed a furious screed lamenting his recent tariff loss, and pointed the finger at 'sleazebag' conservative billionaire Leonard Leo, the ex-chairman of the Federalist Society. In a post on Truth Social Thursday night, Trump railed against the U.S. Court of International Trade's ruling the previous day, which found that the president had exceeded his legal authority by imposing sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, based on vague claims of 'national emergencies.' On Thursday, the Trump administration was granted a temporary stay of the little-known federal court ruling while the government appeals—but that didn't keep Trump from flying off the handle. 'Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of 'TRUMP?' What other reason could it be?' Trump wrote. Trump said that he regretted taking recommendations for judges from the Federalist Society, and lashed out at Leo specifically. 'I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges. I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real 'sleazebag' named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions,' Trump wrote. 'He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court—I hope that is not so, and don't believe it is!' Leo is single-handedly responsible for installing the conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court, and tracelessly pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into the conservative legal movement every year. While two of the judges responsible for blocking Trump's sweeping retaliatory tariffs were appointed by other presidents, one, Judge Timothy Reif, was appointed by Trump during his first term. In 2020, Leo left the Federalist Society to start his for-profit conservative consulting group, CRC Advisors. 'In any event, Leo left The Federalist Society to do his own 'thing.' I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten!' Trump wrote. Trump continued in a lengthy call for the Supreme Court to reverse the ruling, adding that 'Backroom 'hustlers' must not be allowed to destroy our Nation!' Trump's move to shade the conservative playmaker comes as he prepares his own judicial nominees. Crucially, the Trump administration appears to have decided they no longer want qualified judges in the first place, just political sycophants. Pam Bondi told the American Bar Association Thursday that the administration would not cooperate with its vetting process, claiming that it favored candidates put forth by Democratic administrations. This move came shortly after Trump announced that he would nominate Emil Bove, his personal lawyer in the Stormy Daniels trial, for a lifetime federal judiciary appointment.
