Fascism Forever club was just a joke high school joke, claim friends of Trump's Supreme Court pick - but campaigners say extremism is no laughing matter

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Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch's former high school classmates say the yearbook description of him as founding a 'Fascism Forever' club was a joke.

Friends tell DailyMail.com that the description was poking fun at the liberal faculty at his elite all-boys school.

But their claim that 'Fascism Forever' was a joke has earned them a rebuke from anti-racism campaigners, who say that a political movement which led to war and genocide is not a laughing matter.

Several of Gorsuch's former schoolmates at Georgetown Preparatory reached out to Dailymail.com after we revealed on Wednesday that he was listed as president of the 'Forever Fascism Club' in his senior yearbook in 1985.

They said the 'club' was a joke, which never really existed in practice.

Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch in his time as a student at Georgetown Prep, the elite all-boys school in Washington

First reference: This was what appeared alongside the would-be Supreme Court Justice's yearbook photo 

Second reference: While some friends claimed it was Gorsuch's own joke, others said it was made by yearbook editors. It did however appear in another section of the yearbook - with no suggestion it was in any way a joke

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 

But there are conflicting versions of how the label 'president of the Fascism Forever Club' ended up under Gorsuch's yearbook photo.

Some who knew Gorsuch say he wrote the caption himself. Others claimed it was added in by friends of Gorsuch, or by editors on the yearbook staff.

'The students would create fictitious clubs; they would have fictitious activities. They were all inside jokes on their senior pages,' one Georgetown Preparatory professor told American Magazine. 

'There was never a club that existed by name or any facsimile of "Fascism Forever" and Neil Gorsuch has never founded or been a part of any organization or group like that, in fiction or otherwise,' said one friend to Dailymail.com, who described the name as a 'self-deprecating joke.'

Gorsuch included 'Fascism Forever Club (Founder and President)' on his list of student activities in his yearbook during his senior year at the elite all-boys school near Washington, D.C.

But adding to the lack of clarity on the background to the joke is that fact that his yearbook picture is not the only reference to the club.  

Elsewhere in the yearbook, the 'club' was described as pushing back against the liberal views of the professors at the Jesuit-run school.

It is in a section which is clearly an account of the year in review - including references to 'games after-parties'. 

'In political circles, our tireless President Gorsuch's "Fascism Forever" forum happily jerked its knees against the increasingly "left-wing" tendencies of the faculty,' said the yearbook.

Although Gorsuch has stayed silent about his own views, many supporters have jumped to his defense, noting that the club's name was likely tongue-in-cheek and did not literally advocate for fascism. 

During his career, the 49-year-old appellate court judge has never outwardly expressed support for the political movement led by Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator.

Georgetown Preparatory is one of the top all-boys prep schools in the United States. This archive shot shows Gorsuch (bottom row on the right) as part of a six-boy pyramid

The new Supreme Court pick (seen with Trump after his nomination was announced on Monday) served as president until he graduated in 1985, according to his senior yearbook

Justice in the making: Another photo shows Gorsuch leaning over a railing with his tie undone while sticking his tongue out at the camera

At 49 years old, Gorsuch (pictured left in an archive shot) would be the youngest nominee to the Supreme Court in 25 years. He currently lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife

Still, some anti-discrimination activists argued that joking about fascism is never funny – particularly for a Supreme Court nominee.

'Apparently, the young Mr. Gorsuch felt that celebrating fascism was some sort of politically incorrect joke,' said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, in a comment to Alternet.

'Fascism is not a joke,' he added. 'There is nothing amusing about it. It has been responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, the destruction of much of Europe, and the attempted genocide of the Jews. The idea that a potential Supreme Court justice may still harbor such notions is chilling, indeed.'

Gorsuch's yearbook photos show he has been a conservative since an early age. 

Gorsuch was the editor and founder of The Federalist Paper at Columbia University, where he chose a quote from Henry Kissinger to go next to his photo

The nominee 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'. If Fascism Forever or other lcubs are fake, they are listed among real activities

Gorsuch's conservative credentials are well-established and he was included on a list of potential Supreme Court picks approved by the Heritage Foundation

But the Supreme Court nominee (pictured front, left as a little boy with his grandmother) has also drawn criticism from top Democrats who vowed to oppose his nomination

Gorsuch (pictured left and right) 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

One picture showed the high school senior kicking back in a chair in a button-down shirt and tie while reading William F. Buckley's classic 1959 book 'Up from Liberalism.'

In another, Gorsuch is pictured with his tie undone while sticking his tongue out at the camera.

His other student activities included 'President of the Yard, Student Government,' 'Lousy Spanish Student,' and president of a group called the 'Committee to reform The Beast.'

He mentions prizes won and pictures show him accepting them - meaning that if the 'Fascism Forever' club was a joke, it was put in among other true achievements and activities. 

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, Louise.

He would also be the only Protestant on the bench, which is majority Catholic and minority Jewish, and its only Westerner - although he was largely brought up in Washington D.C., educated at Columbia in New York, Harvard and Oxford in England, and practiced law in Washington D.C. 

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.