This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

A liberal activist group is launching a digital ad campaign targeting the Federalist Society, the conservative legal organization that has championed judges appointed by Donald Trump, such as the supreme court justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.

Brett Kavanaugh and the supreme court: here comes trouble Read more

The ads, to appear on LinkedIn and Facebook, assail major law firms that sponsored the Federalist Society’s recent annual dinner, where Kavanaugh addressed more than 2,000 people in tuxedos and gowns at Washington’s Union Station.

The ads feature photos of a snarling Kavanaugh, along with Dr Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers, a charge he denied.

“The Federalist Society is rebuilding Kavanaugh’s image” through events such as its annual dinner, the ad charges, so why are the law firms paying for it?

Sponsored by Demand Justice, the ads target a half-dozen prominent firms that sponsored the dinner, such as Kirkland & Ellis, where Kavanaugh was a partner, as well as Sullivan & Cromwell, WilmerHale and Consovoy McCarthy.

The bare-knuckle ads are a rarity in the genteel legal world and an example of the increasing toxicity of political debate over Trump’s nominees.

Demand Justice says the ads are the beginning of a campaign “to hold accountable” people who help the Federalist Society “rehabilitate a sexual predator and attack the rule of law”.

The Federalist Society declined to comment. Carrie Severino, a longtime society member and policy director of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network who recently co-authored Justice on Trial, a book sympathetic to Kavanaugh, called criticism by Demand Justice and other liberal groups a badge of honor.

The Federalist Society “is a successful network of conservatives and conservative lawyers that are very effective”, Severino said.

The Trump administration has had more than 160 federal judicial nominees confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, including 48 appeals court judges. About a quarter of current federal appeals court judges were nominated by Trump.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, hailed Trump’s record on reshaping courts in an appearance with the Republican president this month.

“And Mr President, we’re going to keep on doing it,” he said. “My motto is: leave no vacancy behind.”

The Senate will begin considering eight more nominees next week, including Sarah Pitlyk, a former Kavanaugh clerk deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association. Pitlyk, who has never tried a case, works for an anti-abortion-rights group. Many Democrats opposed her nomination.

Brian Fallon, executive director of Demand Justice, is a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and former spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. He said Pitlyk’s nomination and the recent party line confirmation of Steven Menashi, a former White House lawyer named to a New York-based appeals court, show the importance of the ad campaign.

Many Trump nominees, Menashi among them, have ties to the Federalist Society, which has vetted and recommended dozens of lawyers.

“Trump is larding up the judiciary with people who are loyal to him,” Fallon said.

The hard-hitting ads featuring Kavanaugh mirror aggressive tactics conservative groups have used for years, Fallon said.

“The other side has been playing for keeps when it comes the courts for a long time,” he said. “Democrats need to get back in the game.”

Fallon angered more than a few Democrats with an ad criticizing Senator Chris Coons, a moderate who has supported some Trump nominees. Fallon’s group said Coons should have opposed nominees who refused to explicitly endorse Brown v Board of Education, the landmark 1954 supreme court ruling that outlaws school segregation.

Dick Durbin, the No2 Democrat in the Senate, called the ad “way out of line”. Coons, who is up for re-election in 2020, brushed off the criticism.

Fallon said hardball tactics are succeeding. A report card compiled by Demand Justice found that in 2017-18, Senate Democrats voted for Trump’s judicial nominees more than 60% of the time. By 2019, such support plummeted to 28%.

Democrats unanimously opposed Menashi and appeals court judge Neomi Rao, another former Trump aide who like Menashi had never tried a case before winning a lifetime seat on the appellate court.

Fallon said he was “delighted” by Democratic solidarity in both cases. Unified opposition is needed to slow Trump’s transformation of the courts, he said.

WilmerHale and other law firms targeted by the new ads declined to comment.