Could have told you this was coming:
Sixteen appointees and advisers helping president-elect Barack Obama’s Justice Department transition efforts all recently sat on the board of an organization little known outside legal circles: The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.
I suspect we’ll hear more about this Big Liberal Plot in the coming years. To put it kindly (and honestly), the American Constitution Society (ACS) was a very late response to the conservative Federalist Society. Like the Federalist Society, it’s not a nefarious secret conspiracy – it’s a simple organization of like-minded lawyers who believe that supporting the organization can help advance their ideas about the law and government. I’ve been a member since the outset (2001), but haven’t participated all that much. There are lots of campus-based events, and (in DC, at least) ACS sponsors the occasional forum or lecture. I think the last one I attended was this forum on human rights (co-sponsored with with Center for American Progress – you can view video of it here, if you like). ACS also maintain a blog (natch), which you might find interesting. I write all that in the hope that the next time you hear about “that liberal ACS”, you’ll have some measure of reality to compare to what will almost certainly be a mythologized version of the organization.