Hollis-Brusky - Ideas with consequences: the Federalist Society and the conservative counterrevolution

Steven Teles, Series Editor

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hollis-Brusky, Amanda, author.
Ideas with consequences : the Federalist Society and the conservative counterrevolution / Amanda Hollis-Brusky.
pages cm
ISBN 9780199385522 (hardback)
eISBN 9780199385546
1. Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies (U.S.) 2. LawPolitical aspectsUnited States. 3. Judicial reviewUnited States. 4. ConservatismUnited States. I. Title.
KF294.F43H65 2015
349.7306dc23
2014011196

Dedicated to Nelson W. Polsby (in memoriam),
who brought this book to life with ten words.

Origin stories about big scholarly projects can be difficult to tell. Scholars struggle to recount the nebulous beginnings, pinpoint the multiple sources of inspiration, and identify the major moments of transformation and revision. The origin story of this book, on the other hand, is rather easy to tell. In April 2006, I presented a paper to faculty and fellow graduate students at a mini-conference held on the University of CaliforniaBerkeleys campus. Inspired by a course I had taken with Shannon Stimson, the paper grappled with Stanley Fishs concept of an interpretive community as it applied to judges and constitutional interpretation. I wondered how one might operationalize the concept of an interpretive communityhow was it bounded, what might it look like, how could we identify its influence? After the presentation, Nelson Polsby waved me over to his seat and uttered the magical words every graduate student longs to hear: I have a dissertation topic for you. I was all ears. You should study the Federalist Society as an epistemic community. I nodded, thanked him, and scribbled a note to myself to look up Federalist Society and epistemic community when I got home. Less than an hour of Internet searching and reading that evening confirmed that, as usual, Nelson Polsby was on to something big and important. Though he passed away less than a year later, this project benefited immensely from his insight, wisdom, and his approach to studying politics and people. The best parts of this book, I am confident, are a reflection of him.

Of course, the project has evolved in significant ways since those early days of graduate school due, in large part, to the helpful advice and suggestions I received from reviewers, conference discussants, and colleagues over the past eight years. In the projects earliest stages, several established scholars took the time to give this fledgling graduate student advice, comments, and encouragement. In particular, I want to thank Jeb Barnes, Thomas Keck, Carol Nackenoff, Lawrence Solum, Ann Southworth, Laura Hatcher, Howard Erlanger, Steve Teles, Cornell Clayton, Mitch Pickerill, Kevin McMahon, Mark Graber, Jonathan Simon, Malcolm Feeley, and Chuck Epp. I am forever grateful and I promise to pay it forward. In transforming this project from dissertation to article to book, I also received helpful comments and suggestions from Austin Sarat, Michael McCann, Laura Beth Nielsen, Jill Weinberg, Josh Wilson, Neil Devins, David Fontana, and Rick Hasen.

I want to thank the Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley as well as the Phi Beta Kappa Alpha Chapter of Northern California for their financial support. I am also deeply indebted to two important centers at UC Berkeleythe Institute for Governmental Studies and the Center for the Study of Law and Society. The Institute for Governmental Studies provided a home for me as an advanced graduate student and an accelerated education (almost through osmosis) about American politics. In particular, I want to thank my fellow carrel-inhabitants who taught me so much and made the Institute a vibrant and dynamic place to work: Dave Hopkins, Matt Grossman, Jill Greenlee, Rebecca Hamlin, Alison Gash, John Hanley, Mike Salamone, Ben Krupicka, John Henderson, Devin Caughey, Lee Drutman, Andrew Kelley, Chloe Thurston, Adrienne Hosek, Loan Le, Bruce Huber, Alex Theodoridis, Abby Wood, and Matt Wright. I was also fortunate to be awarded the Institutes Mike Synar Fellowship for Research in American Politics, which provided financial assistance for the researching of this book.

The Center for the Study of Law and Society was an invaluable resource for me throughout all stages of this project. Its workshops provided me with a crash course in socio-legal research approaches, ethnography, and interviewingskills on which I relied heavily in carrying out the research for this book. The Center also gave me training in Atlas.ti, the qualitative data management program that I used to manage, code, and analyze the thousands of primary sources I gathered for this project. Finally, through the Centers Visiting Scholars program, I was able to spend my post-doctoral year on campus revising the dissertation, collecting additional data for the book, and connecting with scholars doing fascinating work in socio-legal studies. I want to say a special thanks to the Centers Executive Director Rosann Greenspann for continuing to support my affiliation with the Center, as well as to Calvin Morrill and Laurie Edelman for the education they provided me.