ACS v. Federalists

With Samuel Alito's confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice, some pundits predict that we may be witnessing the final act in a great drama that has riveted the nation for decades. Fifty years ago the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education placed the courts at the forefront of the struggle for social justice, and there they remained, largely unchallenged, for three decades. But then, during the Reagan Administration, a conservative legal movement symbolized by (but not limited to) the Federalist Society rapidly rose to prominence. Its agenda was clear: Government--all government, but especially the courts--must be hobbled and the struggle for social justice initiated by Brown halted. Now, with Alito joining fellow conservative John Roberts on the Court, some on the right seem to believe that their great project is nearing completion.

They are, however, dead wrong. Justices Roberts and Alito will take an already conservative court even further to the right, but the struggle for social justice will go on. And I am pleased to report that a new force--full of energy and optimism and new ideas--has entered the fray on the side of those who are committed to our founding values of liberty, equality and justice. It is the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS), which employs many of the undeniably successful techniques perfected by the Federalist Society, but in pursuit of liberal ends.

When I joined many others to help found ACS five years ago, I had high hopes for its potential, but even I have been astonished by its explosive growth and its increasing influence on the nation's legal scene. ACS rapidly made extensive progress in matching the Federalist Society's network of chapters, with thousands of members now organized in student chapters at 142 law schools and lawyer chapters in twenty-one major cities in both blue and red states nationwide. ACS has, as you might expect, a strong presence at Harvard, Yale and Stanford, but it also has active chapters at Brigham Young, Arkansas and Washington and Lee. The lawyer chapters (to which many nonlawyers belong) are not only in New York, Boston and the Bay Area but also Dallas, Atlanta and Nashville.

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