Stephen Miller: Federalist Society and Leonard Leo Created A Broken System For Judicial Vetting | Video | RealClearPolitics
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller battles CNN’s Pamela Brown about why some Trump-appointed judges have challenged some of the president’s actions.
“You heard President Trump himself say that the Federalist Society and Leonard Leo have created a broken system for judicial vetting,” Miller said. ” We’re not going to be using the Federalist Society to make judicial nominations at all going forward. But let me tell you about these rogue judges.”
“This administration has religiously complied with even the most unlawful court orders. But it completely upends the constitutional system to have a single judge in Boston assert the same powers as the President of the United States. That is such an offense to democracy,” he said.
The Federalist Society is more about the rule of law and the Constitution than any particular Republican or conservative candidate; at least it’s supposed to be. There’s bound to be tensions between it and Trump’s lawyers. That said, there are plenty of FedSoc members who play the non-partisan hand pretty hard for my tastes.
FedSoc is responsible for the revival of all the ideas about originalism, no small feat. When FedSoc started while I was in law school, “non-interpretivism” was the rising star. Now “living constitutionalism” is more like the creed of the Left. They want to make constitutionalist sounding arguments. At least, they used to want to. More recently, they just sound nuts.
I don’t know Leonard Leo but he must have been doing something right. A billion dollars? Holy cow. And you can always ask yourself the question “where would we be without the Federalist Society?” I think the answer is, somewhere worse. I don’t doubt success may have gone to Leonard’s head a bit. That scale of success is bound to. That’s a risk I’m willing to take. Somebody’s got to get the credit.