Conservative judge Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, started a "Fascism Forever" club while attending his elite all-male prep school, according to news reports.
Michael O'Loughlin, a reporter for America: The Jesuit Review, tweeted a photo of Gorsuch's yearbook entry from his Jesuit-run prep school:
Known to be fiercely conservative at Georgetown Prep School, #Gorsuch joked in yearbook he founded and led "Fascism Forever Club" pic.twitter.com/zrZZ53iP4I
— Michael J O'Loughlin (@MikeOLoughlin) February 1, 2017
According to the U.K. Daily Mail:
The yearbook described the "Fascism Forever Club" as an anti-faculty student group that battled against the "liberal" views of the school administration.
"In political circles, our tireless President Gorsuch's 'Fascism Forever Club' happily jerked its knees against the increasingly 'left-wing' tendencies of the faculty," said the yearbook.
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This is not the only aspect of Gorsuch's past to come under scrutiny—along with his judicial record—since Trump announced his nomination in a prime-time address Tuesday night.
His yearbook photos from both Georgetown Prep and Columbia University show him quoting Henry Kissinger:
Gorsuch cites Kissinger in his Columbia yearbook: "The illegal we do immediately, the unconstitutional takes a little longer." (oy) pic.twitter.com/Kb5NIELfFR
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) February 1, 2017
And the Washington Post on Wednesday delved into the "short, tumultuous tenure" of Gorsuch's mother, Anne Gorsuch, at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the Reagan administration.
Her time as EPA administrator, wrote reporters Brady Dennis and Chris Mooney, was "marked by sharp budget cuts, rifts with career EPA employees, a steep decline in cases filed against polluters, and a scandal over the mismanagement of the Superfund cleanup program that ultimately led to her resignation in 1983."
Democrats in Congress and progressive advocacy groups have vowed to fight Gorsuch's nomination, citing his past opposition to reproductive rights and environmental regulations as well as his "record of coddling corporations," as Ruth Conniff wrote Wednesday at The Progressive.
