Trump campaign lawyers who have asked the supreme court to intervene in Pennsylvania’s vote count have close ties to Brett Kavanaugh, the justice who is expected to have a decisive vote in any upcoming election-related rulings.
Justin Clark, a senior lawyer for Donald Trump’s campaign, helped shepherd Kavanaugh’s controversial 2018 confirmation through the Senate in his previous role as White House congressional liaison.
Another lawyer, William Consovoy, the litigator who filed the supreme court challenge on behalf of the Trump campaign, helped to bankroll a high-profile Federalist Society dinner in Kavanaugh’s honour in 2019.
It is far from clear whether the Trump campaign’s bid before the US supreme court – which is challenging Pennsylvania’s inclusion of mail-in ballots received after 3 November – will lead to any changes in the state’s ultimate vote count. But the relationships between the campaign lawyers and Kavanaugh are an example of how conservative lawyers and jurists who have been appointed to the highest court have especially close political ties.
Activist Chris Kang, who serves as chief counsel for Demand Justice, a progressive group that has said it is trying to restore federal courts’ “legitimacy”, said the relationships between Consovoy, Clark and Kavanaugh, were “alarming”.
“It is very troubling. This kind of thing is more commonplace these days, but I don’t think it makes it any less concerning,” Kang said. “It’s a very insular world of supreme court justices and the lawyers who argue in front of them. It does breed a backscratching culture that is very problematic.”
The Federalist Society lies at the heart of the conservative bar, and has played what critics call an outsized role in advising the White House on the nomination of judges and justices.
The lawyers who are part of the Federalist Society, some of whom become judges, share a strict conservative view of the law which, in turn, has helped to propel Republican political causes, like restricting voting rights and opposition to environmental regulations.
One staunch critic of the group, the Rhode Island Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse, has said that nearly 90% of Trump’s appellate judges, as well as most of the supreme court’s conservative justices, are members of the Federalist Society, which is funded entirely by anonymous conservative donors and corporations.
Source: Elections - theguardian.com
