“It’s the Network”: The Federalist Society as a Supplier of Intellectual Capital for the Supreme Court

Abstract

This chapter examines the influence of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy on some of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the past three decades. Mobilizing the epistemic community framework, it demonstrates how network members, acting as amici curiae, litigators, academics, and judges worked to transmit intellectual capital to Supreme Court decision makers in 12 federalism and separation of powers cases decided between 1983 and 2001. It finds that Federalist Society members were most successful in diffusing ideas into Supreme Court opinions in cases where doctrinal distance was greatest; that is, cases where the Supreme Court moved the farthest from its established constitutional framework.

Citation

Hollis-Brusky, A. (2013), "“It’s the Network”: The Federalist Society as a Supplier of Intellectual Capital for the Supreme Court", Sarat, A. (Ed.) Studies in Law, Politics, and Society (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 61), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 137-178. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-4337(2013)0000061008