Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch founded and led a student group called the 'Fascism Forever Club' at his elite high school, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The club was set up to rally against the 'left-wing tendencies' of his professors while attending a Jesuit all-boys preparatory high school near Washington D.C.The name may be inconvenient for a Supreme Court nominee facing a tough confirmation battle. However it also shows the depth of Gorscuch's right-wing credentials – and his penchant for mischief while attending his exclusive prep school in the 1980s.
President Donald Trump nominated Gorsuch, a 49-year-old U.S. appellate judge, to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Tuesday.
Gorsuch founded the 'Fascism Forever Club' during his freshman year at Georgetown Preparatory, a now-$30,000-a-year private Jesuit school that is one of the most selective in the United States.
He served as president until he graduated in 1985, according to his senior yearbook.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.
It is not the only example of Gorsuch's early conservative political views. One yearbook photo showed the high school senior kicking back in a chair in a button-down shirt and tie while reading William F. Buckley's 1959 book 'Up from Liberalism', a key text of the conservative movement.
Another photo shows Gorsuch leaning over a railing with his tie undone while sticking his tongue out at the camera.
He listed his other student activities as 'President of the Yard, Student Government' and 'Lousy Spanish Student.' He said he was also president of a group called the 'Committee to reform The Beast.'
His senior quote was: 'I am not an alkie; I never wrote a debate case!'
Gorsuch is shown in another senior photo waving his hand mid-speech outside one of the campus buildings while wearing a blue and black tie. In another, he is pictured at the bottom of a six-boy pyramid while balancing another student on his shoulders.
Georgetown Preparatory is one of the top all-boys prep schools in the United States. Former students include Sen. Chris Dodd, a handful of U.S. congressmen, and multiple members of the Kennedy family. Current tuition is $30,000 a year for day students and $50,000 a year for boarding students.
At 49 years old, Gorsuch would be the youngest nominee to the Supreme Court in 25 years. He currently lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife, Marie Louise.
Gorsuch's conservative credentials are well-established and he was included on a list of potential Supreme Court picks approved by the Heritage Foundation. His nomination to the Supreme Court by President Donald Trump has been praised by prominent right-leaning groups, from the Faith and Freedom Coalition to the National Rifle Association. Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.But it has also drawn criticism from top Democrats who vowed to oppose his nomination.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has already said she will object to Gorsuch's appointment, saying he was chosen 'by far right activist groups that were financed by big business interests.'
Rep. Nancy Pelosi called Gorsuch 'well outside the mainstream of American legal thought' and Sen. Bernie Sanders said the nominee will have to 'explain his hostility to women's rights, support of corporations over workers and opposition to campaign finance reform.'
Gorsuch is not the first Republican presidential appointment in his family. His mother, Anne Gorsuch, was appointed as Environmental Protection Agency administrators by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
While at the agency, Anne Gorsuch oversaw massive budget cuts at the EPA and attempted rollbacks of the Clean Air Act.
She was also reportedly quite glamorous – the Washington Post described her as a woman with 'television-star looks and perfect manicures' who 'wore fur coats and smoked two packs of Marlboros a day.'
Anne Gorsuch came under fire for her conservative policies, and served for just two years before resigning after clashing with congress over subpoenaed records.
This article appeared in the Daily Mail on February 2, 2017.
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February 2, 201
