As a Student Trump’s SCOTUS Nominee Was an Extremely Conservative Activist
Gorsuch Wrote in His Yearbook He Founded a Group Called the ‘Fascism Forever Club’
London’s Daily Mail has been taking a deep look into President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee’s past, and what they’re finding is cause for concern. As a prep school and ivy school student Neil Gorsuch appears to have been a very politically active conservative who was not shy about attacking liberals.
Created to advocate against what he saw as his professors’ “left-wing tendencies,” Gorsuch “founded and led a student group called the ‘Fascism Forever Club’ at his elite high school,” the Daily Mail reports. (UPDATE: Despite the image from his yearbook, that shows Gorsuch says he founded the club, a classmate now says it was an inside joke.)
Established by Jesuits in 1789, Georgetown Preparatory today is a boys-only $50,000 a year boarding school.
In yearbook photos the Daily Mail has published, Gorsuch can be seen as a young man, reading a book by the founder of the conservative movement, William F. Buckley, whom some now accuse of holding racist beliefs.
Gorsuch’s yearbook photo included a quote by Nixon Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: “The illegal we do immediately, the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”
Friend emails turns out Neil Gorsuch was in her class at Columbia, here are yearbook photos pic.twitter.com/H7VPHMNT61
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) February 1, 2017
After Georgetown, Gorsuch attended Columbia University. Â
Gorsuch, another Daily Mail article reveals, “was one of three Columbia students who started The Federalist, an ‘alternative’ paper which took aim at the New York university’s ‘liberal’ campus life.”
It took aim at liberals, the left, and the university authorities. And it mocked Joe Biden for coming 75th our of 86 students at law school.
‘The Left has too long been unchallenged at Columbia,’ Gorsuch and his colleagues wrote. ‘The whining children must be told, not to shut up (we will not resort to their methods), but to show tolerance for those who place freedom of thought above joining the mob.’Â
The paper ran articles that attacked liberals, including one titled, “The Sanctimonious Left.”
Gorsuch did, however, pen a somewhat libertarian attack on LGBT people.
“While Gorsuch was studying at Columbia from 1985 to 1988, a debate raged across campus about single-sex fraternities. The university started admitting women in 1983 but as of 1987, co-educational fraternities did not exist.
Arguing against ‘co-ed frats’, Gorsuch wrote: ‘We do not ask the Liberal to ‘vindicate himself in the eyes of a Marxist; nor do we ask the Gay and Lesbian alliance to ‘justify’ their lifestyle to the Catholic Ministry.Â
‘We have, at a University like Columbia, the right to disagree, but do we have the right to impose our notions of virtue on others?’
We’re about to find out.
Some responses via Twitter:
I don’t like to impute someone’s teenage views to them as an adult. But Gorsuch’s “Fascism Forever” club is bizarrehttps://t.co/uY4VWDaQlF
— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) February 2, 2017
Not OK:
– Racist AG
– Science denier at EPA
– Friend of Russia at State
– Founder of Fascism Forever Club for SCOTUShttps://t.co/4Qyl9qe6t0— Richard Hine (@richardhine) February 2, 2017
3. I’m sure Gorsuch will ask us to believe his conservatism is about jurisprudence and not “Fascism Forever” politics. Don’t believe him.
— Elliott Lusztig (@ezlusztig) February 2, 2017
Fiercely conservative at prep school, #Gorsuch wrote in yearbook he founded & led “Fascism Forever Club” pic.twitter.com/lnkqYgfYZy
— The Anti-Trump (@IMPL0RABLE) February 2, 2017
I don’t actually hold a high school thing against Gorsuch, but picking the leader of “Fascisim Forever” at Georgetown Prep is so on-brand.
— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) February 2, 2017
Hey guys! So, it’s a bad idea to have SCOTUS justice who started a club called “fascism forever.”
This is a non-partisan statement.
— shannonwoodward (@shannonwoodward) February 2, 2017
the populist revolt chose a child of immense privilege who spent his entire life in tony prep schools for elites https://t.co/FmVg2noXbp
— Mazel Tov Cocktail (@AdamSerwer) February 2, 2017
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Image via Laura Rozen/Twitter
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