Overturning Roe v. Wade a triumph of decades-long push by conservative legal movement
- In overturning Roe, the Supreme Court relied on originalism, a legal philosophy embraced by conservatives.
- The Federalist Society, which promotes originalism, also helped Trump choose Supreme Court nominees.
- Critics, including some Democratic lawmakers, say the group has too much influence on the court.
WASHINGTON – Back in the spring of 1982 a group of three conservative students put on a conference at Yale University with a simple mission: They wanted to offer a counterweight to what they saw as a saturation of liberal thinking at the nation’s leading law schools.
Their timing was fortunate: Less than two years after Ronald Reagan had ascended to the presidency, conservativism was having a national moment and the students’ effort to capitalize on that political success to fuel a movement in legal circles spread from campus to campus.