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Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito speaks during the Federalist Society's 40th Anniversary dinner at Union Station in Washington on Nov. 10, 2022. | Jose Luis Magana/AP | SUCCESSION PLANNING — The intellectual headquarters of the conservative legal movement is preparing for a rare changing of the guard. Late last week, the Federalist Society’s leader Eugene Meyer announced his plans to step down as president and CEO, kicking off a high-profile national search for the group’s next boss. His legacy is far-reaching: Meyer transformed the organization from a small “debating society” for right-leaning law students into a legal and political powerhouse that has been involved in almost every high-profile conservative judicial appointment of recent decades, including those to the Supreme Court. His departure will mark a rare shift in the senior leadership of the Federalist Society, which is currently co-chaired by the conservative legal activist Leonard Leo . And it comes at a pivotal moment for the conservative legal movement, as it wrestles with the shifting political landscape of the Trumpist right and the consequences of its own jurisprudential successes. Meyer has not announced a formal date for his retirement or named a successor, though the organization is expected to begin considering candidates to replace him later this summer. With Meyer’s successor likely to be named just months before the 2024 election, the decision is expected to signal how closely the society’s leaders plan to align themselves with the MAGA movement — or whether they will lean into the organization’s traditional posture as a big-tent for the legal right. Meyer, who helped found the society in the 1980s and has served as its leader for only 40 years, has long served as a sort of elder statesman within the conservative movement, acting as a bridge between its founding generation and its current, more Trump-ified leadership. His father, Frank Meyer, was a longtime senior editor at William F. Buckley’s National Review who became best known as the philosophical proprietor of “fusionism” — the idea, central to the creation of the modern conservative movement in the post-World War II era, that traditionalist social conservatism and free-libertarianism could serve as mutually reinforcing programs. The younger Meyer made his father’s fusionist creed a cornerstone of the conservative legal movement from its creation , positioning the Federalist Society as an open forum where conservative and libertarian legal thinkers could come together to forge a shared philosophy and legal strategy. “Gene’s unassuming leadership, superb judgment, and determination to keep his eye on the long term have been in many ways the key to the Federalist Society’s becoming and remaining the extraordinary organization it is,” Steven Calebresi, the society’s co-founder and co-chair, wrote in a statement to Nightly. “We have our work cut out for us in selecting the right person to succeed him.” Yet even after the society worked closely with the Trump administration to install conservative judges across the federal judiciary , Meyer’s fusionist vision has drawn fire from more populist and Trump-aligned conservatives, who argue that the conservative legal movement should prioritize key elements of the social conservative agenda — especially immigration restrictions, protectionist trade policy and religious issues like limits on abortion, contraceptive access and gay marriage — over more traditionally libertarian priorities like free trade, tax cuts and deregulation. On the political front, MAGA-aligned conservatives have also criticized the society for being insufficiently radical since Trump left office, arguing that the group is more interested in credentialing egg-headed appeals judges and well-heeled lawyers than in aiding the “America First” political movement in Washington. Within the society itself, the debate has been tactical as well as philosophical. The society was founded to champion the idea of “judicial restraint,” the notion that judges should interpret the law as written and leave the substantive business of lawmaking to elected officials. But following the Trump administration’s successful efforts to install conservative judges across the federal judiciary, the movement has quietly divided over the question of whether conservatives should stay true to the movement’s original principles or embrace a more activist and assertive role for judges. The overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 — which had long served as the conservative legal movement’s unifying objective — further exposed the tactical divide . In the midst of this tumult, Meyer has served as a steady-handed mediator between the society’s competing camps, even as he has acknowledged that the political winds have shifted away from judicial restraint. “I think it would be fair to say there’s been some movement over time more in the direction of interpreting the Constitution and less in the direction of pure judicial restraint,” he told POLITICO Magazine in 2023. But now, with Meyer stepping down and Roe consigned to the ash-heap of history, the glue that has historically held the Federalist Society together is slowly becoming unstuck. Leo told the Washington Post last week that he doesn’t expect Meyer’s departure from the Federalist Society to “[affect] its mission, its principles or the kinds of activities that it historically has engaged in,” but the society’s members are closely watching the selection process for Meyer’s successor as a clue to its ideological and political trajectory. The outcome of that decision may depend in large part on input from Leo, who remains the society’s primary political and financial powerbroker and who has embodied the style of bare-knuckle judicial politicking that some of the society’s members would like to see the organization as a whole embrace. Yet Leo will have to contend with other factional interests as well. Calebresi, Leo’s co-chairman, is a self-described “Never Trumper” (though he has recently adopted a somewhat more sympathetic position toward the former president) who is aligned more closely with the society’s libertarian factions. Despite the claims of its critics on the left that the society is merely a front organization for the radical right, the Federalist Society has always been — and continues to be — a melange of competing factions and personalities, where libertarian academics, ambitious law students, white-shoe lawyers and hard-driving conservative activists subtly jockey for influence and control. The selection of Meyer’s successor will indicate which faction currently has the upper hand, but it’s unlikely to end the race. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at iward@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ianwardreports .
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| | A message from eBay: What makes eBay different from our peers? We don’t compete against the small businesses who rely on our marketplace. In fact, we’ve invested billions into developing tools and innovations that make it easier for sellers to succeed, providing access to the same technologies available to large retailers. Learn how we’re powering America’s small business economy at eBaysmallbiz.com. | | | | | — Supreme Court won’t restrict access to abortion pill: The Supreme Court today maintained access to the abortion pill mifepristone , rebuffing attempts from abortion opponents to roll back policies that have made it easier to obtain the widely used drug. In a unanimous ruling, the court said that several anti-abortion doctors and groups do not have legal standing to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s decisions in 2016 and 2021 to relax various regulatory requirements around the drug. — Biden strikes a pessimistic note on Israel-Hamas cease-fire: President Joe Biden today expressed doubts that a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas would soon come together , telling reporters that “Hamas needs to move.” “No,” Biden responded when asked if he was confident a peace deal was imminent. But, he added, “I haven’t lost hope.” The brief exchange followed a skydiving demonstration during the G7 summit here, where Biden has been meeting with fellow world leaders on a range of foreign policy and economic issues. — Biden announces security deal with Zelenskyy — but its future is in doubt: The United States has extended security guarantees to Ukraine for the next 10 years , a clear effort to signal long-term support for Kyiv’s defense against Russia ahead of a U.S. election that could throw future American aid to Ukraine into doubt. The bilateral security agreement, announced today during the G7 meeting in Italy, will see the U.S. help Ukraine strengthen its defense-industrial base, coordinate on Kyiv’s future weapons needs and inch Ukraine closer to joining NATO.
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Some states have made VOTER REGISTRATION more complex and time-consuming in order to SUPPRESS VOTER REGISTRATION. MAIL-IN MELEE — President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign today called on top Republicans to drop litigation seeking to curtail aspects of mail balloting now that Donald Trump has begun to embrace the method, reports the Associated Press. Trump for years falsely claimed voting by mail was riddled with fraud, but his 2024 campaign began a program this month to encourage mail voting if convenient for people. It is part of Republicans’ attempt to increase mail voting among their supporters. At the same time, the Republican National Committee, newly under the former president’s control, has sued or joined lawsuits seeking to limit certain aspects of mail voting. That includes laws in some states, including Nevada, that allow late-arriving mailed ballots to be counted as long as they are sent by Election Day. LONDON CALLING — President Joe Biden and former President Trump held competing fundraisers in London on Wednesday , CNN reports, amid an intensifying race for campaign cash and signs that the former president is gaining some financial ground. Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, hosted Biden’s event, while actress and political activist Holly Valance hosted the Trump event, which Trump’s son, Don Jr. and his fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, attended. He's called MOSCOW MITCH for good reason...hasn't done anything for KENTUCKY other than the corrupt Russian deal for a 'aluminum plant,' promised of JOBS that the Russian backed out of. CAN’T QUIT YOU — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former President Donald Trump set aside their years-long cold war during a private meeting with Republicans today, a gathering McConnell described as “really positive,” reports POLITICO. The Kentucky Republican, who had not spoken directly with Trump since December 2020, is trying to win back the Senate majority for his successor while also working with a presidential nominee who he strongly criticized after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. Trump praised McConnell for counting votes and said the party needs to be unified and not trashing each other to win in November, according to one attendee. Dementia Don provokes HATE as usual! How is this leadership? ‘HORRIBLE’ HOST CITY — Democrats are in an uproar over Donald Trump reportedly calling Milwaukee, the host city for the GOP’s national convention, “a horrible city” during a meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill, POLITICO writes. Reporters posted about Trump’s remarks after he met with lawmakers behind closed doors in Washington, D.C., today. Trump covered a range of topics, including abortion and tariffs. But it was his comment about his convention’s host city that seemed to spark the most furious response.
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Armenians protest to urge the government to respond to the Azerbaijani military operation launched against the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region on Sept. 19, 2023. | Karen Minasyan/AFP via Getty Images | DIPLOMATIC DOUBLE-CROSS — Belarus delivered advanced weapons to Armenia’s arch enemy even though both countries were supposedly allies in a Russian-led international defense pact, according to leaked documents seen by POLITICO. The cache of files sheds new light on Armenia’s decision this week to announce it will be leaving the military alliance, a dramatic turn that will weaken Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority with former Soviet nations. Armenia is now on the verge of making a historic tilt toward the West, increasingly looking toward Europe and NATO for protection, after decades in which the former Soviet republic relied on Moscow. MACRON’S BIG BET — French President Emmanuel Macron isn’t just staking his political life with his call for a snap election. He is also taking a massive gamble with the French economy . Financial markets are shivering in horror at the prospect of the far-right National Rally gaining more power in the eurozone’s second biggest economy — a scenario that could stall work in parliament and blow even bigger holes in France’s already overstretched budget via a populist spending bonanza. After Macron called the election on Sunday, the tremors were instant. The euro fell for two days in a row against the dollar, the CAC 40 stock market index in Paris lost some 3 percent, and the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond, a barometer of economic and political risk, spiked to new highs for the year.
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$50 billion The size of a new loan agreement between the G7 and Ukraine that was struck today to aid the country in their war effort. The allies will tap Russian sovereign assets that have been frozen in order to finance the loan. |
| | | I DRIVE A LONELY ROAD — One of the most beautiful roads in the world is also one of the most desolate . Stretching from Bolivia to Chile, the Lagunas Route is around 250 miles of gravel and sand that threads through wildlife, high plateaus, volcanoes and geysers. It’s high-altitude and often cold; the route stretches through some indigenous homeland in Bolivia but not many other densely populated places. It thus makes for a trip that can combine natural beauty with often total solitude. Eglė Gerulaitytė recently traversed the road and wrote about what it’s like to be in that sort of environment for the BBC.
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On this date in 2011: The National Archives and presidential libraries release the Pentagon Papers, the secret government study chronicling deception and misadventure in U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War, in its entirety. Pictured is Daniel Ellsberg in 1972 speaking to press in Los Angeles during a recess in his first trial for leaking the information to the media. His first trial ended in a mistrial while his second was dismissed. | George Brich/AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here .
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