That’s the title of my new Confirmation Tales post, which explores a surprising controversy that arose at the outset of John Robert’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 2005.
The White House raced to correct reports that Roberts was, or had ever been, a member of the Federalist Society. When the Washington Post discovered that he had been listed one year as a member of the steering committee of its D.C. chapter, I suddenly found myself part of the story, as I was on the same list. An excerpt:
I provided the Post a simple way to reconcile the apparent conflict:
Whelan, who has been a member of the Federalist Society but said he had no recollection of his own membership on the steering committee, said the society is tolerant of those who come to its meetings or serve on committees without paying dues.
“John Roberts probably realized pretty quickly he could take part in activities he wanted to” without being current on his dues, Whelan said.
What I didn’t volunteer—why complicate matters?—was that I recalled, if rather dimly, that I had seen Roberts at a brainstorming or strategy session that the Federalist Society held one Saturday morning some time in the late 1990s at the Mayflower Hotel. Those of us attending split into two or three discussion groups, and I was not in the group with Roberts. But that breakfast meeting went beyond the involvement that the White House had acknowledged—it was decidedly not a “forum” open to “lawyers and legal scholars of various political stripes.”
The episode illustrates the broader point that no matter how clear the path to confirmation is, the White House and the Supreme Court nominee will be tempted to make it even smoother, even if doing so seems to cast aspersions on their allies.
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