According to Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo, the change in leadership is not expected to alter the direction of the 42-year-old organization.
“I don’t see the transition to a new CEO as affecting its mission, its principals or the kinds of activities that it historically has engaged in,” Leo told The Post.
Leo said the group’s new leader “needs to be somebody who can lead the conservative legal movement and continue to promote the organization as a very-important thought leader about our Constitution and the rule of law.”
Meyer’s email said the organization retained CarterBaldwin Executive Search to aid the group’s hunt for a new executive. The search, Leo said, is beginning in the “late spring.”
The Federalist Society has had a hand in backing all six of the sitting conservative justices, starting with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. But it was during the Trump administration that the group’s influence grew with Leo acting as Trump’s unofficial judicial adviser to fill the courts with judges who take what the group views as an originalist approach to interpreting the Constitution. In 2022, the six conservatives voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that guaranteed the right to abortion.
During Trump’s presidency, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed 174 district court judges, 54 circuit court judges and three Supreme Court justices — shifting the balance of the highest court to a 6-3 conservative majority.
But Trump’s relationship with leaders and allies of the Federalist Society has frayed since he left office. In February, The Post reported that Trump has complained that his first-term Justice Department leaders were too weak, that his Supreme Court picks have tried to come across as too “independent” and that the court system has broadly been biased against him as he faces legal jeopardy in multiple jurisdictions.
The former president was convicted by a jury in Manhattan last week on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to an adult-film actress ahead of the 2016 election. The former president faces an additional 54 counts in three other cases, two of which are related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Leo said he expects the Federalist Society will continue to be an influential force in shaping the U.S. judicial system.
Speaking to The Post on Thursday, Leo said that Meyer led the organization through its “successful evolution and transformation over many years” and that it “is excited about the opportunity to continue its work with new leadership.”
