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Abstract:
This paper suggests that the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy can be best understood as a type of legal epistemic community - a network of professionals with certain shared beliefs who, through their activities, work to implement those beliefs in law and policy. After establishing the Federalist Society as an epistemic community, it examines how actors affiliated with this conservative and libertarian legal network were able to insinuate certain shared network beliefs about the 'Unitary Executive' into some of the most controversial legal policies (Office of Legal Counsel opinions and Signing Statements) of the George W. Bush Administration.

Federalist Society, Conservative Legal Movement, Constitutional Change, Epistemic Community, Federalism, Unitary Executive

Abstract:
This paper relies on evidence from personal interviews, archival data and Federalist Society National Conference transcripts from 1982 -2008 to suggest that this network of conservative and libertarian legal elites can best be understood as a kind of epistemic community - a network of professionals with certain shared beliefs who, through their activities, work to insinuate those beliefs into law and policy. In particular, the paper examines how actors connected through the Federalist Society network worked to translate beliefs about the "Unitary Executive" into legal policy during the George W. Bush Administration. To do so, it first establishes a healthy Federalist Society network presence in the Administration - specifically in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel - and then proceeds to engage in a content analysis of network member-authored Legal Opinions and Memos and Signing Statements to search for evidence of beliefs about the Unitary Executive, citations to Federalist Society actor scholarship, and citations to the Originalist canon. Finally, it closes with some tentative conclusions about the conditions under which epistemic communities like the Federalist Society might be more or less successful in their attempts to insinuate their beliefs into legal policy.

Federalist Society, Unitary Executive, Conservative Legal Movement, Constitutional Change, Epistemic Community