Fake News: Gorsuch Founded ‘Fascism Forever’ Club in High School

February 2nd, 2017 1:18 PM

UPDATE: Snopes.com graded the Gorsuch story as false.

Did Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch found a “Fascism Forever” club when he was in high school or is he simply the latest victim of fake news?

The New York Post, The Daily Mail, U.S. News and World Report, Vice News and Keith Olbermann, on Thursday, all ran with the story that when he was at Georgetown Prep, Gorsuch founded and led a pro-fascism club. 

However, the National Review’s Ed Whelan has questioned the seriousness and accuracy of the story. According to Whelan: “The supposed evidence for their claim is the blurb on him in his high-school yearbook. Earth to newpaper reporters: High-school yearbook editors sometimes have a sophomoric sense of humor. I am reliably informed that no such club ever existed and that there was instead an inside joke among friends in the senior class that parodied political debates happening at the school. A contemporary of Gorsuch’s at the school also tells me that yearbook editors added stuff to student blurbs without their permission.”

On February 2, the The Daily Mail reported the following: 

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.