Much has been written about the rise of judges who were nurtured in the Federalist Society. They are likely to continue a revolution of formalism in both statutory and constitutional interpretation. But almost nothing has been said about the rise of U.S. Senators who also grew up with the Federalist Society. With the election of Josh Hawley from Missouri, there are now four such senators, including Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
The Federalist Society Senate Caucus, as it were, is also an important development. It brings a kind of intellectual firepower to the Senate that Republicans have rarely had. John Stuart Mill called the Tories the “stupid party,” and their American counterpart rarely in the twentieth century possessed the kind of intellectual heft that the Democrats had in the form of such senators as Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Paul Douglas. But some of these new senators, although quite young, may yet rival these giants in intellectual vigor and achievement. For instance, Josh Hawley wrote a book on Teddy Roosevelt even before going to law school and Yale Professor Paul Kennedy called him the best student he ever had. Ted Cruz brilliantly argued many cases before the Supreme Court.
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