Saturday, April 14, 2007

Justice Department Tracked Federalist Society Influence On U.S. Attorneys

Today, the House Judiciary Committee released a new set of documents from the Department of Justice relating to the firings of eight U.S. Attorneys.

The last page of document set 3 contains an email from Monica Goodling with an attached Excel spreadsheet on “USA data (GWB).”

The spreadsheet appears to assess a list of U.S. Attorneys based on a variety of different qualifications, including prosecution experience and political experience. But there is one column dedicated solely to an assessment of whether the attorneys are members of the Federalist Society. See below. The far right column contains a data column for “FedSoc”:

fedsoc.gif

spread.gif

The Federalist Society has served as a kind of gateway for judges and legal aides who strive to work inside the Bush administration, in effect promoting individuals who have dedicated themselves to enforcing a right-wing ideology rather than the law. University of Illinois Professor Jerry Landay described the group in the Washington Monthly as a “conservative cabal that’s transforming American Law.”

During his Supreme Court nomination hearing, Chief Justice John Roberts repeatedly sought to distance himself from a connection to the conservative legal group, unwilling to be tarred by its association.

Filed under:

Posted by Faiz April 13, 2007 1:11 pm

No comments: