{"id":1952627,"date":"2023-06-21T06:57:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T10:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/washington-post-exposes-ron-desantis-nefarious-plot-to-govern-as-a-conservative\/"},"modified":"2023-06-21T08:55:20","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T12:55:20","slug":"washington-post-exposes-ron-desantis-nefarious-plot-to-govern-as-a-conservative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/washington-post-exposes-ron-desantis-nefarious-plot-to-govern-as-a-conservative\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Post exposes DeSantis&#8217; conservative governance."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwashington-post-exposes-ron-desantis-nefarious-plot-to-govern-as-a-conservative%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1952627&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2>Gov. Ron DeSantis Used Secretive Panel to Flip State Supreme Court<\/h2>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2023\/06\/20\/gov-ron-desantis-used-secretive-panel-flip-state-supreme-court\/?utm_campaign=wp_main&#038;utm_medium=social&#038;utm_source=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Washington Post<\/a>, Governor Ron DeSantis employed a secretive panel to manipulate the state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>Wow, that sounds bad.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1747854666\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-819fa51a206182e70f0424b2c7cfb31f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-819fa51a206182e70f0424b2c7cfb31f\"><\/div>\n<p>But how did the Florida governor manage to pull off this Machiavellian coup? It\u2019s a complicated story. First, DeSantis narrowly won the governorship in 2018 by obtaining more votes than his opponent. Smart, right? And then, instead of leaving judicial nomination decisions to Democrats and their allies, the governor handpicked his own replacements for three Florida Supreme Court seats after justices were compelled to step down due to the state\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-time-to-end-the-d-c-gerontocracy\/\" title=\"It\u2019s Time to End the D.C. Gerontocracy\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-time-to-end-the-d-c-gerontocracy\/\" title=\"It\u2019s Time to End the D.C. Gerontocracy\">mandatory retirement age<\/a><\/a>, a requirement passed by a referendum of the voters.<\/p>\n<p>But the scheme does not end there. DeSantis also relied on a group of noted legal advisers to help him find competent candidates whose judicial outlooks matched his own.<\/p>\n<p>Here is how reporters Beth Reinhard and Josh Dawsey describe the process:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>The hard-right turn was by design. DeSantis seized on the unusual retirement of three liberal justices at once to quickly remake the court. He did so with the help of a secretive judicial panel led by Leonard Leo \u2014 the key architect of the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s conservative majority \u2014 that quietly vetted judicial nominees in an Orlando conference room three weeks before the governor\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>So, you see, a hard-right turn \u2014 as if there\u2019s any other kind \u2014 was the design of a secretive judicial panel that quietly seized on an unusual moment. Using loaded words to create the impression that a completely standard political event is something insidious and corrupt is an act of Potemkin journalism.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c322001c52eb637a71bd20dce3edec4c fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c322001c52eb637a71bd20dce3edec4c\"><\/div>\n<p>The shadowy Federalist Society, by the way, has around 70,000 lawyers as members and hundreds of chapters at law schools around the country, which have staged thousands of open events and debates over the years. Among the notorious right-wingers who have appeared in front of the group are <a href=\"https:\/\/volokh.com\/2010\/05\/10\/elena-kagan-i-love-the-federalist-society-i-love-the-federalist-society\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Elena Kagan<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2005\/07\/high-society-kate-obeirne\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ruth Bader Ginsburg<\/a>. The group has its entire originalist judicial philosophy, its objectives, and a list of staff members and the board of directors, on <a href=\"https:\/\/fedsoc.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a website<\/a> for everyone to read.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s fair to say the Federalist Society is the most incompetent Star Chamber ever devised.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, Reinhard and Dawsey boil down Leo\u2019s career as having \u201cpushed conservative and libertarian judges onto the nation\u2019s courts through multimillion-dollar influence campaigns fueled by secret donors.\u201d Which, of course, makes it sound as if DeSantis, who the reporters say has an \u201callegiance to the Federalist Society,\u201d is engaged in some kind of favor trading.<\/p>\n<p>In some ways, this is just projection. The piece reads like a consequentialist argument about the fate of liberal policies like abortion. The Post laughably quotes a concerned voice lamenting the fact that the court \u201clacks diversity of viewpoints.\u201d Have you ever read a national story about the left-wing \u201ctakeover\u201d of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/one-of-two-wisconsin-supreme-court-rulings-give-president-trump-the-win-should-be-enough-votes-to-win-the-state\" title=\"One of Two Wisconsin Supreme Court Rulings Give President Trump the Win \u2013 Should Be Enough Votes to Win the State\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/one-of-two-wisconsin-supreme-court-rulings-give-president-trump-the-win-should-be-enough-votes-to-win-the-state\/\" title=\"One of Two Wisconsin Supreme Court Rulings Give President Trump the Win \u2013 Should Be Enough Votes to Win the State\">state court<\/a><\/a>, much less apprehension about a far-left \u201csupermajority\u201d? Of course not.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-38a82a7895920717023ca8db85f8d4ff fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-38a82a7895920717023ca8db85f8d4ff\"><\/div>\n<p>At any rate, a vast number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/washington-post-exposes-ron-desantis-nefarious-plot-to-govern-as-a-conservative\/\" title=\"Washington Post reveals DeSantis' conservative governing scheme.\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/washington-post-exposes-ron-desantis-nefarious-plot-to-govern-as-a-conservative\/\" title=\"Washington Post exposes DeSantis' conservative governance.\">leftist advocacy groups \u2014 including groups working<\/a><\/a> to delegitimize and pack the Supreme Court \u2014 live off \u201cdark money.\u201d None of them advocate for a principled, nonpartisan judicial philosophy.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the alleged crime here is that DeSantis upheld a principled position. Here, for instance, is how the Post explains the instructions given to the supervillains:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Leo and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-nuclear-scientists-sound-alarm-on-lab-vaccine-mandates-fallout-will-be-felt-for-months-to-come\" title=\"Exclusive \u2014 Nuclear Scientists Sound Alarm on Lab Vaccine Mandates: 'Fallout Will Be Felt for Months to Come'\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-nuclear-scientists-sound-alarm-on-lab-vaccine-mandates-fallout-will-be-felt-for-months-to-come\/\" title=\"Exclusive \u2014 Nuclear Scientists Sound Alarm on Lab Vaccine Mandates: 'Fallout Will Be Felt for Months to Come'\">panel asked<\/a><\/a> the finalists about interpreting the Constitution according to its original intent and without applying more-current social, political or cultural lenses, as the Federalist Society advocates, according to the people familiar with the process interviewed by The Post.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>You might not be shocked to learn that Leo was charged with finding exactly the type of candidates that DeSantis had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abcactionnews.com\/news\/state\/ron-desantis-inaugural-speech-read-the-full-transcript\">promised<\/a> his constituents and that contemporary conservative politicians have supported for decades.<\/p>\n<p>What readers of the Post piece may not find out is that DeSantis has no obligation to share everything his advisers tell him. Nor did he have any obligation to accept recommendations from the Florida Bar. These protocols are concocted by the Post. Nevertheless, DeSantis <a href=\"https:\/\/floridaphoenix.com\/2019\/11\/14\/trumps-judicial-guru-helped-gov-desantis-pick-conservative-florida-supreme-court-justices\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">acknowledged<\/a> Leo\u2019s involvement way back in 2019. Which brings me to the glaring lack of any discernible journalism in the piece. There are five instances of the reporters simply repeating what DeSantis said on a podcast \u2014 and another two instances of them repeating what he said in his book. (The Florida governor is apparently terrible at keeping his conspiracies a secret.)<\/p>\n<p>When the Post isn\u2019t warning about the dangers of originalism, it is insinuating that even right-of-center justices who retired during DeSantis\u2019 second term were either paid off or pressured by the governor and his allies, without providing any evidence, much less a person making such an accusation. Even for a hit piece, it is shoddy.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you approve of his judicial choices or not, all we really learned from the Post is that DeSantis is a meticulous planner who surrounded himself with people who helped him navigate the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newsom-recall-petition-close-to-success\" title=\"Newsom Recall Petition Close To Success\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newsom-recall-petition-close-to-success\/\" title=\"Newsom Recall Petition Close To Success\">nomination process<\/a><\/a> and fulfill the promises he made when running. And that\u2019s the real problem for the Post.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-aca05e7fb9b0332046cf8d02fe97160b fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-aca05e7fb9b0332046cf8d02fe97160b\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Washington Post uncovers Gov. Ron DeSantis&#8217; use of a secret panel to control Florida&#8217;s Supreme Court. DeSantis&#8217; clever strategy involved intricate tactics to orchestrate this Machiavellian power shift. Despite winning the 2018 gubernatorial race by a narrow margin, he bypassed conventional judicial nominations, deviating from the usual process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":1952628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[4914,4980,6897,20683,4899,4086],"class_list":["post-1952627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-conservative","tag-desantis","tag-exposes","tag-governance","tag-post","tag-washington"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1952627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1952628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1952627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1952627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1952627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}