Bench Memos

Law & the Courts

#FakeNews on Gorsuch on Imaginary ‘Fascism Forever’ Club

The Daily Mail and the New York Post (parroting the Daily Mail) are trumpeting a ridiculous claim that Neil Gorsuch, while he was a high-school student, founded a student club named “Fascism Forever.” The supposed evidence for their claim is the blurb on him in his high-school yearbook.

Earth to newpaper reporters: High-school yearbook editors sometimes have a sophomoric sense of humor.

I am reliably informed that no such club ever existed and that there was instead an inside joke among friends in the senior class that parodied political debates happening at the school. A contemporary of Gorsuch’s at the school also tells me that yearbook editors added stuff to student blurbs without their permission.

All of this also leads me to doubt the yearbook’s claim that Gorsuch was a “Believer in The World According to Ward.”

Update: Gorsuch’s high school confirms what should have been obvious to everyone: that no such club ever existed and that the yearbook blurb was tongue-in-cheek.

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