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Comment by slibhb | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone actually think Alito (or Thomas) rule conservatively because of rich conservatives taking them on vacations? It seems clear that the causation is reversed. Which is not to say this behavior isn't ill-advised.

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A defining moment in the conservative legal movement was Planned Parenthood v Casey. They'd appointed conservative judges and were finally ready to reverse Roe v Wade. Then the court ruled (mostly) against them. This followed a general historical trend of judges moderating over time.

The federalist society planned to fix this in two ways: vet judges better and provide judges with a rightwing social circle so they won't be gradually moderated by having mostly liberal friends.

These trips are a small investment if they make sure Thomas is less likely to have occasional idiosyncratic rulings like Gorsuch does.

I feel like you've turned friendship into a conspiracy theory. It seems more likley that a rich conservative might admire and want to be friends with a conservative supreme court justice (and have the means to arrange a meeting).

> Schenck, who was once an anti-abortion activist but broke with the religious right in the last decade over its aggressive tactics and support for gun rights, said the couples were instructed before the dinners to use certain phrases to influence the justices while steering clear of the specifics of cases pending before the court — for example, to “talk about the importance of a child having a father and a mother,” rather than engage in the particulars of a gay-rights case.

> “We would rehearse lines like, ‘We believe you are here for a time like this,’” which is a reference to the Old Testament Book ...

> Schenck said the goal was to create an ecosystem of support for conservative justices, as a way of making them more forthright in their views.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/08/religious-right-sup...

(this is a different org, not fedsoc)

I actually think this is a conspiracy theory. The Federalist's society's explicit goal is to make more justices in courts that will not waver in very specific belief systems. It's a fairly transparent process going back decades. It isn't like this is an organic club from people who already held these beliefs. It's a group of people who held these beliefs thereby installing recruitment centers and solicitations in specific academic institutions in order to influence the students therein towards certain career trajectories. This is like when wealthy people purchase economist departments (this is also a real thing that happens!) by donating tons of money with the stipulation that the head of the department is a specific academic who has views aligning with the wealthy.

Go through your eight other closest coworkers. If at least two of them (including you) have billionaires as friends, I'll accept that it's normal.

Would you accept billionaires as their parents and/or through relationships/marriage with billionaire kids?

I don't think it's that hard. I know quite a few people at maybe bacon number of 2 that falls in this case.

I think federalist society is the closest thing this country has to a deep state cabal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yt2xUJfdyw

Seems like the left wing version of the "George Soros is behind everything I disagree with"

Did you watch the documentary

No have you checked out BILLIONAIRE RADICAL: GEORGE SOROS AND THE SCHEME TO REMAKE AMERICA?

You think guys like Harlan Crow would hang out with Clarence Thomas if he wasn't a SCOTUS judge? Clearly Crow is getting something out of the deal.

Conflicts of interest are mainly defined by the mere possibility of such. We hold low-level accountants and government workers to higher standards of avoiding and outright preventing conflicts of interest than we do the highest members of government.

If you are one of these workers and break the conflict of interests rules or regulations, you will be fired, whether or not you were taking advantage of the conflict.

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