Former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold to take new job as president of American Constitution Society

Former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold will soon lead the American Constitution Society, a progressive group of lawyers and legal scholars concerned with judicial nominations and justice issues.

Feingold, who has been teaching at a number of leading law schools in recent years, will take over as president of the Washington, D.C.-based organization March 9. 

The organization's board of directors chose Feingold after a nationwide search.

“The last few years have been very disturbing from a number of points of view, but particularly the attack on the rule of law that began before the current president and has been intensified under the current administration,” Feingold said in an interview Wednesday. 

Among other things, he cited what he called President Donald Trump's interference with the courts and Justice Department, as well as the refusal of Senate Republicans to take up President Barack Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016, Judge Merrick Garland. 

Feingold said the group will advance "progressive legal change" and work with not just progressives but moderates and conservatives in the legal world who believe this is a "crisis moment" and an "all hands on deck moment." 

Feingold, a Democrat who was a U.S. senator from 1993 to 2011, sat on the Judiciary Committee for much of his time in office. He lost elections in 2010 and 2016 to current Senate Republican Ron Johnson. 

In recent years, Feingold has taught at Marquette, Stanford, Harvard and Yale law schools and taught other subjects at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently teaching at Stanford, but when he begins working full time at the American Constitution Society he will be based at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., he said. 

Feingold said the group's mission includes raising public awareness, advocacy and nurturing a pipeline of progressives to pursue public service in the field of law. 

Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.