Book Notes
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Chapter Nineteen
1. The Brennan Center released a study: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/growing-racial-disparities-voter-turnout-2008-2022
2. Shelby County cost hundreds of thousands of votes from voters of color: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/growing-racial-disparities-voter-turnout-2008-2022
3. “The guard was taken away”: Sensenbrenner interview with the author
4. Greg Abbott tweeted: Abbott’s tweet that the “Texas #VoterID law should go into effect immediately b/c #SCOTUS struck down section 4 of VRA today. #txlege #tcot #txgop” was posted at 10:19 a.m.
https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/3495323903366430755. Blocked by a unanimous three-judge federal panel: The court found that “uncontested record evidence conclusively shows that the implicit costs of obtaining SB 14-qualifying ID will fall most heavily on the poor and that a disproportionately high percentage of African Americans and Hispanics in Texas live in poverty.”
Federal court rejects Texas voter ID law, NBC News, Aug. 30 2012
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-court-rejects-texas-voter-id-law-flna9723226. 795,955: Texas offered two studies to DOJ, one that said 603,892 Hispanics lacked the new ID and one that claimed 795,955. They never explained the difference. DOJ and federal courts used both, and found both unacceptable. In the official voting determination letter that the DOJ sent in blocking the ID law, assistant attorney general Thomas E. Perez wrote that: “we conclude that the total number of registered voters who lack a driver's license or personal identification card issued by DPS could range from 603,892 to 795,955. The disparity between the percentages of Hispanics and non-Hispanics who lack these forms of identification ranges from 46.5 to 120.0 percent. That is, according to the state's own data, a Hispanic registered voter is at least 46.5 percent, and potentially 120.0 percent, more likely than a non-Hispanic registered voter to lack this identification. Even using the data most favorable to the state, Hispanics disproportionately lack either a driver's license or a personal identification card issued by DPS, and that disparity is statistically significant.
The DOJ letter is online at: https://www.justice.gov/crt/voting-determination-letter-34
The numbers are also cited in the litigation and rulings.
Justice Dept. Blocks Texas on Photo ID for Voting by Charlie Savage, March 12, 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/us/justice-dept-blocks-texas-photo-id-law.html
7. Things had changed in the South: As the Washington Post’s Sari Horwitz reported, new Voter ID bills that ran afoul of the VRA had become something of a surprising new trend in the runup to Shelby County. Obama’s DOJ blocked not only Texas but South Carolina for similar reasons. “The federal actions to block both the South Carolina and Texas voter ID laws represent the first time the government has rejected a voter-identification law in nearly 20 years,” Horwitz observed.
Justice Department bars Texas voter ID law by Sari Horwitz,, Washington Post, March 12, 2012. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-department-bars-texas-voter-id-law/2012/03/12/gIQAUzgW7R_story.html
8. Gun licenses made the list, but college IDs did not:
In Texas, You Can Vote With a Concealed Handgun License—but not a Student ID by Rebecca Leber, New Republic, October 20, 2014
https://newrepublic.com/article/119900/texas-voter-id-allows-handgun-licenses-not-student-idsPolitiFact: Take gun license, but not student ID, to Texas polls by W. Gardner Selby, Austin American Statesman, Sept. 23, 2016
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2016/09/23/politifact-take-gun-license-but-not-student-id-to-texas-polls/985142007/9. “Texas has been a laboratory for this”: Beto O’Rourke interview with the author
10. Emergency legislation: The Voting Rights Act at 50: The Texas Voter ID Story by Jennifer L. Patin, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, August 2015
https://lawyerscommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/The-Voting-Rights-Act-at-50_printable.pdf11. Safeguard against voter fraud: As Jessica Huseman reports in ProPublica: “While (sponsors) insisted their motivation was to prevent in-person voter fraud, neither presented any evidence that such fraud existed — even when specifically asked to do so during floor debates. During the debate in the House in March 2011, state Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Hispanic representative from Dallas, had an exchange with Harless.
‘Do you have any cases of voter impersonation?” he asked her, according to a transcript. She responded, “I’m sure you know more about that than I do.’ ‘She couldn’t tell me about any problems because there weren’t any,’ Anchia told ProPublica. “It was a solution in search of a problem.’” Texas Voter ID Law Led to Fears and Failures in 2016 Election by Jessica Huseman, ProPublica, May 2, 2017
https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-voter-id-law-led-to-fears-and-failures-in-2016-election12. No evidence that such fraud existed: The federal courts could not find proof either. As Patin notes in her Lawyers Committee report, “Judge Ramos found that no evidence to support that any of these rationales was credible. For example, the bill’s proponents claimed that the measure was necessary for preventing in-person voter fraud. Yet between 2002 and 2011, there had been only two tried cases of in-person voter fraud that had resulted in convictions out of tens of millions of votes cast. Similarly, Texas produced only one example of non-citizen voting (by a non-Latino), and one representative ‘admitted that he had no facts to support his concerns about non-citizen voting, but was reacting to allegations.’”
The Voting Rights Act at 50: The Texas Voter ID Story by Jennifer L. Patin, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, August 2015
https://lawyerscommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/The-Voting-Rights-Act-at-50_printable.pdf13. What Texas did produce however: The DOJ’s six-page letter to Texas blocking the law discusses these statistics and filings in detail.
https://www.justice.gov/crt/voting-determination-letter-3414. When a federal court denied preclearance:
All of the documents from the Texas litigation can be found at:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/texas-v-holder15. “Those are the things that pulled the lid off”: Eric Holder interview with the author
16. Alabama and Mississippi also activated: Alabama photo voter ID law to be used in 2014, state officials say by Kim Chandler, Birmingham News, June 25, 2013
https://www.al.com/wire/2013/06/alabama_photo_voter_id_law_to.htmlVoting Rights Act ruling clears path for Mississippi voter ID use in 2014, Associated Press, June 25, 2013. https://www.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2013/06/voting_rights_act_ruling_clear.html
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17. Alabama’s secretary of state estimated: According to the AP, “The secretary of state's office reports that a check of voting records with the state Department of Public Safety shows 20 percent of Alabama's registered voters, or about 500,000 adults, lack a driver's license or non-driver ID issued by the Department of Public Safety.” New photo voter IDs to be available at county registrars' offices and from traveling van, Associated Press, March 10, 2014.
https://www.al.com/wire/2014/03/new_photo_voter_ids_to_be_avai.html18. Ninety-two-year-old great grandmother: According to an AL.com report, “A Huntsville woman, 92, who has lived in the same house in Huntsville for 57 years and voted in every election since she was eligible, was turned away from the polls today because her driver's license expired nine months ago. … The license had expired in August 2013. She had not renewed it because her eyesight is failing and she has made the tough decision to quit driving.” Voter fraud? 92-year-old great-grandmother's expired driver's license unacceptable for voter ID by Kay Campbell, AL.com, June 3, 2014
https://www.al.com/breaking/2014/06/voter_fraud.htmlMSNBC later reported that the law also ensnared a 93-year old Black man who said he had been voting since World War II, but did not have the newly required ID. Voting rights in danger one year after Shelby County, by Zachary Roth, MSNBC, June 23, 2014.
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/voting-rights-danger-one-year-after-shelby-county-supreme-court-ruling-msna35397119. Voter participation plunged: Alabama voter turnout only 41 percent, lowest in decades by Mike Cason, AL.com, November 5, 2014
https://www.al.com/news/2014/11/alabama_voter_turnout_only_41.html20. Alabama closed 31 of its 67 DMV offices: See What Effect Will Shuttering Alabama DMV Offices Have on Black Voters? By Brentin Mock, Bloomberg, Oct. 1, 2015
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-01/alabama-closes-dmv-offices-a-year-after-voter-id-law-kicks-inAlabama puts up more hurdles for voters, New York Times, October 8, 2015
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/opinion/alabama-puts-up-more-hurdles-for-voters.html
Alabama DMV closings draw call for federal voting rights probe by Zachary Roth, MSNBC, October 5, 2015
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/alabama-dmv-closings-draw-call-federal-voting-rights-probe-msna69641621. Eight of the 10 counties: As the Birmingham News columnist John Archibald wrote, “Alabama might as well just send an invitation to the Justice Department. Come on in guys. Come on down. No need to reply with an RSVP. Because we know you'll be here. How could you resist? Because Alabama just took a giant step backward. Take a look at the 10 Alabama counties with the highest percentage of non-white registered voters. That's Macon, Greene, Sumter, Lowndes, Bullock, Perry, Wilcox, Dallas, Hale, and Montgomery, according to the Alabama Secretary of State's office. Alabama, thanks to its budgetary insanity and inanity, just opted to close driver license bureaus in eight of them. All but Dallas and Montgomery will be closed.” Alabama sends message: We are too broke to care about right and wrong, by John Archibald, AL.com. Sept. 30, 2015.
https://www.al.com/opinion/2015/09/alabama_sends_message_we_are_t.h22. While the state suggested they closed the offices for budgetary decisions, a state investigation proved otherwise. Rebekah Mason suggested closure of DMV offices in majority black counties, report shows by John Sharp. AL.com, April 8, 2017
https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2017/04/rebekah_mason_suggested_closur.htmlAs it turns out ... Bentley's driver's license closures were racial, after all by Kyle Whitmire, AL.com, January 5, 2017
https://www.al.com/opinion/2017/01/as_it_turns_out_bentleys_drive.html23. Roberts in Shelby County: 570 U.S. 529 (more) 133 S. Ct. 2612; 186 L. Ed. 2d 651. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/570/12-96/case.pdf
24. Voter turnout plummet: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096123/voter-turnout-midterms-by-ethnicity-historical/
In 2024, a Brennan Center study concluded that Shelby County led to a dramatic increase in the racial gap in voter turnout – and that the effects were disproportionate in the states and localities that had been covered by preclearance. “We find that the gap has consistently grown since 2012 and is growing most quickly in parts of the country that were previously covered under Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was suspended by the Supreme Court in its 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder.” Kevin Morris and Coryn Grange, Brennan Center. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/growing-racial-disparities-voter-turnout-2008-2022
25. Voter roll purges: Myrna Perez, Kevin Morris and others at the Brennan Center have spent years studying and tracking voter roll purges and these statistics come from their work.
https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/vote-suppression/voter-purgeshttps://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/voter-purge-rates-remain-high-analysis-finds
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/purges-growing-threat-right-vote
26. Racial targeting: Keeping Voters off the Rolls, Impact of Documentary Proof of Citizenship and Illegal Voter Purges, by Liz Kennedy and Danielle Root, Center for American Progress, 2017. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/keeping-voters-off-rolls/
A 2023 Demos study found that “Flawed voter purge practices–such as removals for inactivity or based on inaccurate identification of felony status or citizenship status—[which] often disproportionately target voters of color, naturalized citizens, and other communities, and can prevent many eligible persons from exercising their right to vote.” https://www.demos.org/press-release/threats-ballot-access-new-report-examines-risks-wrongful-voter-removals-across
Among other academic studies: The racial burden of voter list maintenance errors: Evidence from Wisconsin’s supplemental movers poll books by Gregory A. Huber, Marc Meredith, Michael Morse and Katie Steele, Science Advances, February 17, 2021/
Sci Adv. 2021 Feb; 7(8): eabe4498. 10.1126/sciadv.abe4498
27. Florida, which had been sued:
Justice Department sues Florida over voter purge by David Adams, Reuters, June 12, 2012. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE8571GU/
After Mistakenly Purging Citizens, Florida Agrees to Let Them Vote by Lizette Alvarez, New York Times, September 13, 2012
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/us/politics/florida-agrees-to-let-citizens-mistakenly-purged-from-rolls-to-vote.htmlFlorida's Scott readies second 'disgusting' voter purge by Steve Benen, NBC, August 5, 2013. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/floridas-scott-readies-second-disgusting-voter-purge-flna6c10849664
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28. Texas removed 363,000: Study: States with racial discrimination history purge voter rolls more aggressively, by Jacqueline Thomsen, The Hill, July 20, 2018
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/398038-report-states-with-history-of-racial-discrimination-more-aggressively/29. Georgia went even further: Dramatic increase in voters purged from voter rolls between 2014 and 2016 by Adia Robinson, ABC, July 24, 2018
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/millions-voters-purged-voter-rolls-2014-2016-report/story?id=5675691430. Purge some 300,000 voters: GOP candidate improperly purged 340,000 from Georgia voter rolls, investigation claims, by Erin Durkin, The Guardian, Oct. 19, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/19/georgia-governor-race-voter-suppression-brian-kemp
31. Pausing an additional 53,000: Georgia Republican candidate for governor puts 53,000 voter registrations on hold, Ben Nadler, Associated Press, October 11, 2019
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/10/11/georgia-republican-candidate-brian-kemp-puts-53-000-voter-registrations-hold/1608507002/Georgia put 53,000 voter registrations on hold, fueling new charges of voter suppression, by P.R. Lockhart, Vox, October 12, 2018
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/11/17964104/georgia-voter-registration-suppression-purges-stacey-abrams-brian-kempAfter The Purge by Angela Caputo, Geoff Hing and Johnny Kauffmann, American Public Media, October 29, 2019
https://www.apmreports.org/story/2019/10/29/georgia-voting-registration-records-removed32. Reducing the number of voting precincts: Precinct closure numbers from Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote, a report by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, September 2019
https://civilrights.org/democracy-diverted/ and https://civilrightsdocs.info/pdf/reports/Democracy-Diverted.pdf33. “As a result of the Shelby vs Holder”:
https://civilrights.org/democracy-diverted/The full memo courtesy of Georgia Public Broadcasting is online at:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7232120-Brian-Kemp-Poll-Memo34. The Journal Constitution then determined: Precinct closures harm voter turnout in Georgia, AJC analysis finds by Mark Niesse and Nick Thieme, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Dec. 13, 2019 https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/precinct-closures-harm-voter-turnout-georgia-ajc-analysis-finds/11sVcLyQCHuQRC8qtZ6lYP/
35. “Breakdown, by race”: William Wan’s exemplary reporting in the Washington Post is indispensable to this story. Inside the Republican creation of the North Carolina voting bill dubbed the ‘monster’ law by William Wan, Washington Post, September 2, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/inside-the-republican-creation-of-the-north-carolina-voting-bill-dubbed-the-monster-law/2016/09/01/79162398-6adf-11e6-8225-fbb8a6fc65bc_story.html
36. “Is there no category for Hispanic voter?”: Inside the Republican creation of the North Carolina voting bill dubbed the ‘monster’ law by William Wan, Washington Post, September 2, 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/inside-the-republican-creation-of-the-north-carolina-voting-bill-dubbed-the-monster-law/2016/09/01/79162398-6adf-11e6-8225-fbb8a6fc65bc_story.html
37. “Number of student ID cards,” “Needs it two hours or less:” Inside the Republican creation of the North Carolina voting bill dubbed the ‘monster’ law by William Wan, Washington Post, September 2, 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/inside-the-republican-creation-of-the-north-carolina-voting-bill-dubbed-the-monster-law/2016/09/01/79162398-6adf-11e6-8225-fbb8a6fc65bc_story.html
38. The monster: Inside the Republican creation of the North Carolina voting bill dubbed the ‘monster’ law by William Wan, Washington Post, September 2, 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/inside-the-republican-creation-of-the-north-carolina-voting-bill-dubbed-the-monster-law/2016/09/01/79162398-6adf-11e6-8225-fbb8a6fc65bc_story.html
39. “Legal headache”: Inside the Republican creation of the North Carolina voting bill dubbed the ‘monster’ law by William Wan, Washington Post, September 2, 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/inside-the-republican-creation-of-the-north-carolina-voting-bill-dubbed-the-monster-law/2016/09/01/79162398-6adf-11e6-8225-fbb8a6fc65bc_story.html
40. “It was voter suppression on steroids”: Rev. William Barber interview with the author
41. “Surgical precision”: The federal court decision, which is the background for this discussion and includes the racial data and the voter registration data, can be found here: https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/nc-4th.pdf
It is a wild read and terrifically summarized in The ‘smoking gun’ proving North Carolina Republicans tried to disenfranchise black voters, Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post, July 29, 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/29/the-smoking-gun-proving-north-carolina-republicans-tried-to-disenfranchise-black-voters/42. “The most restrictive voting law”: https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/nc-4th.pdf
43. Just two: https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/nc-4th.pdf
44. “As a South Carolinian, I’m glad”: Graham quoted in Ballot Blocked: The Political Erosion of the Voting Rights Act by Jesse H. Rhodes, Stanford University Press, 2017
Excerpted at: https://www.sup.org/books/extra/?id=26493&i=Excerpt%20from%20the%20Introduction.html
45. “We’re not going to update this at all”: Lynn Westmoreland interview with the author
46. “I was told to go pound sand”: Sensenbrenner interview with the author
47. “The green light to go ahead with this”: David Price interview with the author
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Chapter Twenty
Blessing of extreme partisan gerrymanders: Rucho v Common Cause 139 S. Ct. 2484 (2019)https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/18-422_9ol1.pdf
Lewis: I think electing Republicans is better … and i do not believe it’s possible: Rucho v. Common Cause leaves the map wide open for gerrymandering by Ryan Rousseau, Reuters
https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/insights/articles/rucho-v-common-cause-approves-partisan-gerrymandering
GOP strategists had tried: I found the 11-2 draft maps in Thomas Hofeller’s files and wrote about it in To fix racial gerrymander, North Carolina Republicans considered a map that could have elected an all-white slate by David Daley, The Intercept, October 30, 2019
https://theintercept.com/2019/10/30/north-carolina-gerrymandering-maps-redistricting/
Helped convince a bipartisan lower court: Common Cause v. Rucho (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina) September 8, 2017
https://clearinghouse.net/doc/135370/
A devastating smoking gun: North Carolina’s Legislative Maps Are Thrown Out by State Court Panel by Michael Wines and Richard Fausset, New York Times, September 3, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/us/north-carolina-gerrymander-unconstitutional.html
The fierce rebuke: Common Cause v. Rucho (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina) September 8, 2017
https://clearinghouse.net/doc/135370/
Formerly competitive state: You can follow North Carolina’s congressional transformation over two decades at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_delegations_from_North_Carolina#2003%E2%80%932023:_13_seats
An influential report from Harvard: The political scientist Andrew Reynolds writes that” Indeed, North Carolina does so poorly on the measures of legal framework and voter registration, that on those indicators we rank alongside Iran and Venezuela. When it comes to the integrity of the voting district boundaries no country has ever received as low a score as the 7/100 North Carolina received. North Carolina is not only the worst state in the USA for unfair districting but the worst entity in the world ever analyzed by the Electoral Integrity Project.” North Carolina is no longer classified as a democracy by Andrew Reynolds, Raleigh News and Observer, December 31, 2016
https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article122593759.html#storylink=cpy
“Invidious,” “discriminatory”: Common Cause v. Rucho (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina) September 8, 2017
https://clearinghouse.net/doc/135370/
Judge Tatel’s decision: Shelby Cnty., Alabama v. Holder, 679 F.3d 848, 400 U.S. App. D.C. 367 (D.C. Cir. 2012)
https://campaignlegal.org/sites/default/files/Opinion_5-18-12.pdf
Small yet influential target audience: Mr. Chief Justice, it's not "gobbledygook": New N.C. ruling shows how to fix gerrymandering by David Daley, Salon, January 13, 2018
https://www.salon.com/2018/01/13/mr-chief-justice-its-not-gobbledygook-new-n-c-ruling-shows-how-to-fix-gerrymandering/
Unleashed gerrymanders the likes of which the nation had never seen: Partisan gerrymandering and the efficiency gap by Nicholas Stephanopoulos and Eric McGhee, University of Chicago Law School, October 2014
https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1946&context=public_law_and_legal_theory
New technology, big data: Ratf**ked by David Daley and How Redistricting Became a Technological Arms Race by Vann R. Newkirk II, the Atlantic, October 2017
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/gerrymandering-technology-redmap-2020/543888/
Opponents of gerrymandering keep winning by Robert Barnes, Washington Post, February 4, 2018
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/opponents-of-gerrymandering-keep-winning-but-it-might-not-affect-2018/2018/02/04/83e5785c-078f-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html
REDMAP is the true original sin: It’s the PowerPoint that redefined American politics by David Daley, the Boston Globe, September 6, 2020
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/07/opinion/its-powerpoint-that-redefined-american-politics/
Big sort: Forget the "Big Sort": Republicans' advantage in Congress was carefully engineered by David Daley, June 11, 2018
https://www.salon.com/2018/06/11/forget-the-big-sort-republicans-political-advantage-was-carefully-engineered/
Trump descended the escalator: The escalator ride that changed America by Micael Kruse, Politico, June 14, 2019
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/06/14/donald-trump-campaign-announcement-tower-escalator-oral-history-227148/
REDMAP stats between 2009 to 2012: Ratf**ked by David Daley, WW Norton, New York, 2016
Pennsyvania between 2008 and 2012: Ratf**ked by David Daley, WW Norton, New York, 2016
Sorted but not of their own volition: Forget the "Big Sort": Republicans' advantage in Congress was carefully engineered by David Daley, June 11, 2018
https://www.salon.com/2018/06/11/forget-the-big-sort-republicans-political-advantage-was-carefully-engineered/
Ratf**ked: Ratf**ked by David Daley, WW Norton, New York, 2016
REDMAP: The original Redistricting Majority Report, complete with 2010 and 2012 reports, remain available online here:
https://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/
Additional documents and files available with my Salon piece How the Republicans rigged Congress by David Daley, Salon, February 6, 208
https://www.salon.com/2018/02/06/how-the-republicans-rigged-congress-and-poisoned-our-politics/
Rove in Wall Street Journal: The GOP targets state legislatures by Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2010
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703862704575099670689398044
Funded with $30 million: Meet the Fortune 500 companies funding the political resegregation of America by Andy Kroll, Mother Jones, Nov. 21, 2014
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/rslc-redistricting-fortune-500-political-resegregation/
Ratf**ked, Daley
Updated numbers included in Blame these companies for GOP minority rule, by Tessa Stuart, Rolling Stone, February 4, 2024
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/corporate-america-republican-minority-rule-1234959739/
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Republican State Leadership Committee Spends Big to Keep State Houses in the Red by Calvin Sloan, Center for Media and Democracy, November 8, 2016
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2016/11/08/republican-state-leadership-committee-spends-big-keep-state-houses-red/
Here’s how it works: Industry, lawmakers and money mingle in Cleveland by Ashley Balcerzak and Robert Maguire, Open Secrets, July 20, 2016
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/07/heres-how-it-works-industry-lawmakers-and-money-mingle-in-cleveland/
“There are 18 state legislative chambers”: The GOP targets state legislatures by Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2010
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703862704575099670689398044
Then in 2012: Ratf**ked, Daley
The House the GOP built by David Daley, New York magazine, April 24, 2016
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/04/gops-house-seats-are-safe-heres-why.html
More than 50 million Americans: Too many Americans live under minority rule. Here’s why by Arnold Schwarzenegger and David Daley, Washington Post, September 9, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/09/09/schwarzenegger-too-many-voters-live-under-minority-rule-heres-why/
Citing a University of Southern California study by Dr. Christian Grose
https://issuu.com/robquigley/docs/the_worst_gerrymanders_of_2018_us_state_legislatur
“It really becomes an apartheid system”: Bob Inglis interview with the author, also included in Inside the Republican plot for permanent minority rule by David Daley, New Republic, October 15, 2020
https://newrepublic.com/article/159755/republican-voter-suppression-2020-election
ID, voter rolls, closed precincts, modern day poll taxes: Inside the Republican plot for permanent minority rule by David Daley, New Republic, October 15, 2020
https://newrepublic.com/article/159755/republican-voter-suppression-2020-election
“First we’re going to gerrymander”: Bill Kristol interview with the author, also included in Inside the Republican plot for permanent minority rule by David Daley, New Republic, October 15, 2020
https://newrepublic.com/article/159755/republican-voter-suppression-2020-election
“Then we saw the election results”: Eric Holder interview with the author
The autopsy, DOA: Inside the Republican plot for permanent minority rule by David Daley, New Republic, October 15, 2020
https://newrepublic.com/article/159755/republican-voter-suppression-2020-election
“The redistricting changed the dynamic”: Michael Steele interview with the author, also included in Inside the Republican plot for permanent minority rule by David Daley, New Republic, October 15, 2020
https://newrepublic.com/article/159755/republican-voter-suppression-2020-election
Mark Meadows: Ratf**ked, Daley, and Asheville’s woe’s are the story of America by David Daley, CNN, November 23, 2019
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/23/opinions/gerrymandering-voting-districts-america-daley/index.html
Hofeller as Zelig: The league of dangerous mapmakers by Robert Draper, The Atlantic, October 2012
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-league-of/309084/
Ratf**ked, Daley
The secret files of the master of modern Republican gerrymandering by David Daley, the New Yorker, September 6, 2019 https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-secret-files-of-the-master-of-modern-republican-gerrymandering
How the Republicans rigged Congress by David Daley, Salon, February 6, 2008
https://www.salon.com/2018/02/06/how-the-republicans-rigged-congress-and-poisoned-our-politics/
Hofeller tasked with 2011 map: The league of dangerous mapmakers by Robert Draper, The Atlantic, October 2012
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-league-of/309084/
Ratf**ked, Daley
The secret files of the master of modern Republican gerrymandering by David Daley, the New Yorker, September 6, 2019 https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-secret-files-of-the-master-of-modern-republican-gerrymandering
Shuler quits: Ratf**ked, Daley, and Asheville’s woe’s are the story of America by David Daley, CNN, November 23, 2019
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/23/opinions/gerrymandering-voting-districts-america-daley/index.html
“Kenya or wherever it is”: The video of Mark Meadows’s “birther” routine about President Obama can be seen at https://x.com/stevemorris__/status/1100881913756176386
“Damn near close to what Jim Crow laws were”: Michael Steele interview with the author, also included in Inside the Republican plot for permanent minority rule by David Daley, New Republic, October 15, 2020
https://newrepublic.com/article/159755/republican-voter-suppression-2020-election
Hofeller’s handiwork: The secret files of the master of modern Republican gerrymandering by David Daley, the New Yorker, September 6, 2019 https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-secret-files-of-the-master-of-modern-republican-gerrymandering
The man who rigged America’s election maps by Alvin Chang, Vox, Oct 17, 2019
https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/10/17/20917852/gerrymander-hofeller-election-map
North Carolina’s Legislative Maps Are Thrown Out by State Court Panel by Michael Wines and Richard Fausset, New York Times, September 3, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/us/north-carolina-gerrymander-unconstitutional.html
Newly Discovered Files Suggest GOP Lawmakers Lied in Court About Racial Gerrymandering to Stop An Election by Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, June 6, 2019
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/hofeller-republican-gerrymandering-north-carolina.html
Long denied that this line: How North Carolina became a laboratory for the GOP's subversion of democracy by David Daley, Salon, August 29, 2021
https://www.salon.com/2021/08/29/how-north-carolina-became-a-laboratory-for-the-gops-subversion-of-democracy/
Obtained 18 hard drives The secret files of the master of modern Republican gerrymandering by David Daley, the New Yorker, September 6, 2019 https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-secret-files-of-the-master-of-modern-republican-gerrymandering
NC College Voters for ZIP ID: The secret files of the master of modern Republican gerrymandering by David Daley, the New Yorker, September 6, 2019 https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-secret-files-of-the-master-of-modern-republican-gerrymandering
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80 pct College Voters on Non-Match List: The secret files of the master of modern Republican gerrymandering by David Daley, the New Yorker, September 6, 2019 https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-secret-files-of-the-master-of-modern-republican-gerrymandering
GOP legal team defending the monster: Democrats could sink another Trump judicial nominee by Li Zhou, Vox, November 28, 2018
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/28/18112715/democrats-trump-thomas-farr
Thomas Farr to the court: Trump Judicial Nominee Set To Fail Amid Voter Suppression Charges, NPR, by Jessica Taylor and Kelsey Snell, November 29, 2018
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/29/671591929/trump-judicial-nominee-set-to-fail-amid-voter-suppression-charges
Hofeller wrote to a Republican attorney: The secret files of the master of modern Republican gerrymandering by David Daley, the New Yorker, September 6, 2019 https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-secret-files-of-the-master-of-modern-republican-gerrymandering
“Sociological gobbledygook”: Oral arguments in Gill v Whitford, Supreme Court of the United States, October 3, 2017
https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2017/16-1161_mjn0.pdf
“Sigma of party X”: Oral arguments in Gill v Whitford, Supreme Court of the United States, October 3, 2017
https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2017/16-1161_mjn0.pdf
Decision in Whitford: Supreme Court of the Unted States, June 18, 2017
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-1161_dc8f.pdf
Judge Wynn, writing for the lower federal court: Common Cause v. Rucho (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina) September 8, 2017
https://clearinghouse.net/doc/135370/
Tour de force of intellectual dishonesty: Roberts decision is here. Rucho v. Common Cause, 588 U.S. ___ (2019)
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/18-422_9ol1.pdf
“No license to reallocate political power”: Rucho v. Common Cause, 588 U.S. ___ (2019)
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/18-422_9ol1.pdf
“Deprived citizens of the most fundamental”: Rucho v. Common Cause, 588 U.S. ___ (2019)
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/18-422_9ol1.pdf
Read from bench: You Can Now Hear Elena Kagan Read Her Searing Dissent in the Partisan Gerrymandering Case by Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, October 25, 2019
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/elena-kagan-audio-partisan-gerrymandering-dissent.html
Swift, devastating and entirely predictable: Gerrymandering on steroids is the new normal by David Daley, CNN, April 22, 2022
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/22/opinions/new-york-florida-gerrymandering-new-normal-daley/index.html
New York and Maryland: New York's top court rejects congressional maps drawn by Democrats, Associated Press, April 22, 2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/27/1095100208/new-york-redistricting-rejected
Maryland court strikes down congressional map as illegal Democratic gerrymander by Zach Montellaro, Politico, March 25, 2022
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/25/maryland-court-congressional-map-illegal-democratic-gerrymander-00020518
When one brave GOP justice: Ohio Republicans want to gerrymander the state. One GOP judge stands in their way by Sam Levine, The Guardian, April 14, 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/14/maureen-oconnor-republicans-gerrymander-elections-ohio
I obtained an exclusive audio recording: How to Get Away With Gerrymandering by David Daley, Slate, October 2, 2019
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/alec-meeting-gerrymandering-audio-recording.html
“How to survive redistricting”: How to Get Away With Gerrymandering by David Daley, Slate, October 2, 2019
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/alec-meeting-gerrymandering-audio-recording.html
Mitchell, Von Spakovsky and PILF: Special Report: How a small group of U.S. lawyers pushed voter fraud fears into the mainstream by Simon Lewis and Joseph Tanfani, Reuters, September 9, 2022
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2601GY/
PILF and 85 fund: Report by Accountable.us online at
https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Leo_Elections.pdf
Corkery and PILF: Leo’s Network Funnels $3.2 Million to Amicus Filers Supporting Trump, Report by Accountable.us available online at
https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Supreme-Court-Architect-Leonard-Leo-Backs-Supreme-Court-Amicus-Brief-Filers-Defending-Trump-In-Insurrection-Case-With-At-Least-3.2-Million-In-Leo-Network-Funding-.pdf
Snead and Honest Elections Project and Leo network: Report by Accountable.us online at
https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Leo_Elections.pdf
Voter fraud data base: Analysis: Heritage Foundation’s Database Undermines Claims of Recent Voter Fraud, the Brennan Center for Justice, September 8, 2017
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/analysis-heritage-foundations-database-undermines-claims-recent-voter
“Political adult blood sport”: Westmoreland audio and transcript available at How to Get Away With Gerrymandering by David Daley, Slate, October 2, 2019
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/alec-meeting-gerrymandering-audio-recording.html
“You are going to be sued:” Cleta Mitchell audio and transcript available at How to Get Away With Gerrymandering by David Daley, Slate, October 2, 2019
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/alec-meeting-gerrymandering-audio-recording.html
Cleta Mitchell and big lie: The Big Money Behind the Big Lie by Jane Mayer, the New Yorker, August 9. 2021
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie
“Mindless state legislators”: Mitchell audio and transcript available at How to Get Away With Gerrymandering by David Daley, Slate, October 2, 2019
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/alec-meeting-gerrymandering-audio-recording.html
“Get rid of it before you go home”: Mitchell audio and transcript available at How to Get Away With Gerrymandering by David Daley, Slate, October 2, 2019
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/alec-meeting-gerrymandering-audio-recording.html
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Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter 21: This look at the Leo network and it’s financing isn’t possible without the brilliant work to follow the money by some of the best reporters and researchers in the business, including: Lisa Graves of True North Research; Accountable.us; Un-Koch My Campus and Allison Vioenta; Ken Vogel of the New York Times; Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864; Sheldon Whitehouse’s The Scheme, A conservative activist’s campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019 https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/ and How Scalia Law School Became a Key Friend of the Court by Steve Eder and Jo Becker, New York Times, April 30, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/supreme-court-scalia-law-school.html
Council for National Policy: Anne Nelson’s The Shadow Network is the definitive book on CNP’s roots and influence
“He is one of us”: Rebekah Mercer quoted in A conservative activist’s campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
“No one has been more dedicated”: Mistaken Attack by Andy Schlafly on Leonard Leo by Ed Whelan, National Review, December 9, 2016
https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/schlafly-attack-leonard-leo/
Thomas pressured lawmakers: Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice, pressed Ariz. lawmakers to help reverse Trump’s loss, emails show by Emma Brown, Washington Post, May 20, 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/05/20/ginni-thomas-arizona-election-emails/
Ginni Thomas pressed 29 Ariz. lawmakers to help overturn Trump’s defeat, emails show by Emma Brown, Washington Post, June 10, 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/06/10/ginni-thomas-election-arizona-lawmakers/
Ginni Thomas emailed Wisconsin lawmakers, asking them to help overturn 2020 election and ‘fight back against fraud’ by Zachary Cohen, CNN, September 1, 2022
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/01/politics/ginni-thomas-overturn-2020-election-wisconsin/index.html
Thomas and John Eastman: Ginni Thomas corresponded with John Eastman, sources in Jan. 6 House investigation say by Jacqueline Alemany, Josh Dawsey and Emma Brown, Washington Post, June 15, 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/15/ginni-thomas-john-eastman-emails/
“Singlehandedly changed the face of the judiciary”: Thomas quoted in Judicial activist directed fees to Clarence Thomas’s wife, urged ‘no mention of Ginni’ by Emma Brown, Shawn Boburg and Jonathan O'Connell, Washington Post, May 4, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/05/04/leonard-leo-clarence-ginni-thomas-conway/
Video of her speech available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-RQrAj2OSE
“Number three most powerful person”: Video available at https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5034911/user-clip-leonard-leo-powerful-man
“God help us”: Video available at
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5034911/user-clip-leonard-leo-powerful-man
“We stand at the threshold”: The Washington Post obtained the secret audio. A conservative activist’s campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
“No one in this room has probably experienced the transformation”: The Washington Post obtained the secret audio. A conservative activist’s campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
“Don’t know of any time in history when a person’s had as much trust as you”: The Washington Post obtained the secret audio. A conservative activist’s campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
He transformed the Federalist Society: Among others, but particularly clear: The Right-Wing Legal Network Is Now Openly Pushing Conspiracy Theories by Dahlia Lithwick and Richard L. Hasen, Slate, May 27, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/leonard-leo-federalist-society-voter-fraud.html
Most powerful engine of the conservative revolution in the real world: Amanda Hollis-Brusky’s book Ideas With Consequences is the best guide here, along with essential journalism and scholarship including but not limited to The Conservative Pipeline to the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin, the New Yorker, April 10, 2017
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/17/the-conservative-pipeline-to-the-supreme-court
A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Riehl, Jonathan. 2007. The Federalist Society and Movement Conservatism: How a Fractious Coalition On the Right Is Changing Constitutional Law and the Way We Talk and Think about it. https://doi.org/10.17615/32hd-y571
We don’t talk about Leonard by Andy Kroll, Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, ProPublica, October 11, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority
Driving extreme agendas: Captured Courts: The GOP’s Big Money Assault On The Constitution, Our Independent Judiciary, And The Rule of Law, U.S. Senate report prepared by Sens. Debbie Stabenow, Chuck Schumer and Sheldon Whitehouse, May 2020
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Courts%20Report%20-%20FINAL.pdf
Its complexity, its funding, its reach and its goals: Testimony of Lisa Graves President of the Center for Media and Democracy Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights “What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary” March 10, 2021
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Final_CMD_Lisa%20Graves_Written%20Testimony%20for%20March%2010%202021%20Subcommittee%20Hearing1.pdf
Interlocking set of lavishly funded groups: Graves is essential on this, as is Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s The Scheme, and a series of Senate committee reports called Captured Courts, including this one on Leo from May 2020 and another from June 2022 on the Judicial Crisis Network.
May 2020:
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Courts%20Report%20-%20FINAL.pdf
June 2022
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Captured%20Courts%20Report%204-5-22.pdf
Meyer and Calabresi work hard: Among others, “The Federalist Society is a debate club,” co-founder Calabresi told the New York Times. As the piece notes, “The blurred lines between the group's official debate-club role and the private activities of many of its members were on display last week as the group's longtime president, Eugene B. Meyer, dismissed as "silly" accusations that the society was exercising secret influence. "That's just not how we operate," he said.”
Debating the Subtle Sway of the Federalist Society by Jason DeParle, New York Times, August 1, 2005
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/01/politics/politicsspecial1/debating-the-subtle-sway-of-the-federalist.html
No position on cases: Among others, “The society goes to great lengths to emphasize that it does not take policy positions or weigh in on the merit of individual cases, preferring to present itself as a neutral “debate society” for right-leaning intellectuals.” Politico noted before interview with Eugene Meyer in The Federalist Society Isn’t Quite Sure About Democracy Anymore by Ian Ward, Politico, March 17. 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/03/17/federalist-society-democracy-opinion-00087270
Calabresi responded: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/11/06/letter-11-6/
Article in the Yale Daily News: SFFA funded by large conservative groups with Federalist Society ties by Anika Arora Seth, Yale Daily News, Nov. 3, 2002
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/11/03/sffa-funded-by-large-conservative-groups-with-federalist-society-ties/
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Calabresi told Totenberg: The issue might also have been his support of a brief opposing the Independent State Legislature Theory https://x.com/NinaTotenberg/status/1591119064440635396
Calabresi quickly rejoined the team: It did not take long before he got the message and realized which way the movement was blowing. The Federalist Society Is Surrendering the Conservative Legal Movement to Donald Trump by Jay Willis, Balls and Strikes, June 12, 2024
https://ballsandstrikes.org/legal-culture/steven-calabresi-donald-trump-federalist-society/
“The people you meet here and the networks you build up over years — they’re very, very important”: Josh Blackman added that “The people I met at student conferences a decade ago are now sitting federal judges.” Quoted in The Federalist Society Isn’t Quite Sure About Democracy Anymore by Ian Ward, Politico, March 17, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/03/17/federalist-society-democracy-opinion-00087270
Something entirely more powerful: A very clear distillation of how this happened is How the Federalist Society became the de facto selector of Republican Supreme Court justices by Lawrence Baum and Neal Devins, Slate, Jan. 31. 2017
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/01/how-the-federalist-society-became-the-de-facto-selector-of-republican-supreme-court-justices.html
Gatherings: In addition to the public FedSoc conventions and soirees, what happens behind closed doors matters intently as well. Supreme Court justices aren’t the only ones that the Leo network helps wine and dine. As Andrew Perez writes in Jacobin: “In 2021 and 2022, two conservative, billionaire-funded legal interests sent more than one hundred federal judges on 251 trips to conferences and seminars in cushy locations around the country and overseas, according to a Lever review of hundreds of federal financial disclosure forms. In all, George Mason University (GMU) and the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers network, funded more than 40 percent of travel-related payments reported by federal judges in those years, far more than any other group.” Billionaire-Backed Conservative Legal Groups Are Paying for Judges’ Luxury Vacations by Andrew Perez, Jacobin, December 2023
https://jacobin.com/2023/12/federalist-society-gmu-billionaire-funding-vacations-federal-court-judge-corruption
Molly Redden of Huffington Post has also done indispensable work on this, revealing the extent of the conservative judges’ junket circuit and its consequences in Inside The Ritzy Retreats Hosting Right-Wing Judges by Molly Redden, Huffington Post, March 19, 2024
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/judges-luxury-travel-corpus-linguistics_n_65f75ff6e4b0defe9b276601
And, How A Luxury Trip For Trump Judges Doomed The Federal Mask Mandate by Moly Redden, Huffington Post, June 3
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/judges-luxury-travel-mask-mandate_n_665e065be4b0a8b68eea43fa
Given the rights sort of cases: This 2023 report by Accountable.US demonstrates Leo’s ties through lawyers, funding, and amicus briefs to some of the most consequential 2023 Supreme Court decisions: Leonard Leo’s Involvement in Pending SCOTUS Cases, Accountable.US, June 14, 2023
https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Leonard-Leos-Involvement-in-Pending-SCOTUS-Cases.pdf
Stacked and packed the judiciary at all levels: Among others, We don’t talk about Leonard by Andy Kroll, Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, ProPublica, October 11, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority
Drew Tipton: The Worst Trump Judge In America Is Drew Tipton. “How does an average lawyer with an average résumé end up taking control of federal immigration enforcement? Simple: He joined the Federalist Society.” By James LaRock, Balls and Strikes, November 13, 2023
https://ballsandstrikes.org/fedsoc-twelve/the-worst-trump-judge-in-america-is-drew-tipton/
Thomas Hardiman: US appeals judge urges new standard on 'cruel and unusual' punishment by Nate Raymond, October 19, 2023
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-appeals-judge-urges-new-standard-cruel-unusual-punishment-2023-10-18/
Head-scratching, ahistoric and judges as culture warrior decisions: For just a handful of examples, this Accountable US report: https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/20240102-FedSoc-Affiliated-Fifth-Curcuit-Judge-Rulings.pdf
As well as this 2024 Center for American Progress report by Jeevna Sheth and Devon Ombres
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-5th-circuit-court-of-appeals-is-spearheading-a-judicial-power-grab/
“One-stop shopping network for identifying, helping promote, credentialing, and supporting conservative lawyers”: Ruth Marcus quoted in One man's outsized role in shaping the Supreme Court and overturning Roe, by Jonaki Mehta and Courtney Dorning, June 30, 2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1108351562/roe-abortion-supreme-court-scotus-law
All-expense-paid resort for supporting lawyers and judges: In addition to the public FedSoc conventions and soirees, what happens behind closed doors matters intently as well. Supreme Court justices aren’t the only ones that the Leo network helps wine and dine. As Andrew Perez writes in Jacobin: “In 2021 and 2022, two conservative, billionaire-funded legal interests sent more than one hundred federal judges on 251 trips to conferences and seminars in cushy locations around the country and overseas, according to a Lever review of hundreds of federal financial disclosure forms. In all, George Mason University (GMU) and the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers network, funded more than 40 percent of travel-related payments reported by federal judges in those years, far more than any other group.” Billionaire-Backed Conservative Legal Groups Are Paying for Judges’ Luxury Vacations by Andrew Perez, Jacobin, December 2023
https://jacobin.com/2023/12/federalist-society-gmu-billionaire-funding-vacations-federal-court-judge-corruption
Molly Redden of Huffington Post has also done indispensable work on this, revealing the extent of the conservative judges’ junket circuit and its consequences in Inside The Ritzy Retreats Hosting Right-Wing Judges by Molly Redden, Huffington Post, March 19, 2024
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/judges-luxury-travel-corpus-linguistics_n_65f75ff6e4b0defe9b276601
And, How A Luxury Trip For Trump Judges Doomed The Federal Mask Mandate by Moly Redden, Huffington Post, June 3
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/judges-luxury-travel-mask-mandate_n_665e065be4b0a8b68eea43fa
FedSoc dream list: Among others, An inside look at how Trump's Supreme Court list is made: ‘A tremendous investment of time’ by Tyler Olson, Fox News, July 10, 2020
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/behind-the-scenes-of-how-trumps-supreme-court-list-is-made and https://www.chicagotribune.com/2018/07/08/a-look-at-the-list-helping-trump-reshape-the-supreme-court/
Would claim the Holy Grail: the permanent power of the courts: The conservatives who signed on for this deal with an authoritarian devil often justified themselves with the cry of “But Gorsuch.” Was it worth it? In an interview with Politico, the conservative historian Matthew Continetti suggested that the end of Roe v Wade meant that “(t)he ‘But Gorsuch’ conservatives made a winning bet, for sure. But as every gambler knows, sometimes that’s when the real trouble begins.” The ‘But Gorsuch’ voters beat the ‘Never Trumpers’ — for now. By Chris Suellentrop, Politico, June 24, 2022
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2022/06/24/the-but-gorsuch-voters-beat-the-never-trumpers-for-now-00042351
“We’re going to have great judges, conservatives, all picked by the Federalist Society”: Trump on Breitbart News Radio cited by, among others, Ballotpedia
https://ballotpedia.org/Trump_administration_judicial_nominees_and_the_administrative_state#
“Donald was aware of Fed Society’s work”: Sam Nunberg interview with the author
No one could even pretend any longer: “FedSoc is the engine of the conservative legal movement. Why do so many elite liberal lawyers still take its “debate club” act seriously?” asked Jay Willis in Stop Playing Nice With the Federalist Society, by Jay Willis, Balls and Strikes, November 11, 2021
https://ballsandstrikes.org/legal-culture/federalist-society-stop-playing-nice/
“Really did cross the line”: Amanda Hollis-Brusky interview with the author
Leo postpones start: Who is conservative activist Leonard Leo? A friend of Clarence Thomas by Timothy Bella, Washington Post, May 5, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/05/leonard-leo-clarence-thomas-ginni/
Leaves of absence: The Federalist Society has long clung to the fig leaf that its officials consult with GOP administrations on selections of judges separate or apart from their work at FedSoc, even though the work at FedSoc is how the connections to the conservative judges and the conservative funders were made. But even while on leave, reports not only show that Leo continued to benefit from FedSoc facilities – and that his salary grew. As Accountable.US points out, citing the Washington Post, “In the interview with The Post, Leo said he took time off from the Federalist Society — a charity that says it does not endorse specific nominees — during the nomination fights in 2005 and 2006. The group’s tax filings show that his compensation in those two years jumped by nearly 50 percent, to about $328,000 annually. Leo did not respond to a question about how his compensation was affected by his time off. A spokesman for the Federalist Society said Leo’s pay went up — despite the time off — because of the organization’s “extraordinary revenue growth.” Back at the Federalist Society the following year, his compensation was $419,000.”
https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/021123-Leo-Corruption-Narrative.pdf
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As well as A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Accountable.US also points out that during Leo’s leave, he met reporters at the FedSoc offices, citing another Washington Post interview. “I met Leo at the Federalist Society’s offices in Washington. Despite the fact that in his personal capacity while on leave from the society he put so much effort into advising the Trump administration on judges, he endorses the network theory of the society, telling me, 'It’s less about who gets what job and more about building a community that can be self-perpetuating and self-sustaining and self-driving.'” Conquerors of the Courts by David Montgomery, Washington Post, January 2, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/01/02/feature/conquerors-of-the-courts/
$15 million: A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Buoyant celebratory dinner for conservative legal activists: As Open Secrets notes, “It was a cold winter night in Washington, D.C., not long after President George W. Bush won a second term, and the mood at the upscale Italian restaurant was downright celebratory. The most prominent guest was Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but his table also boasted a mix of high-powered conservatives, including some deep-pocketed donors. Among the elite were Federalist Society executive Leonard Leo, fundraiser and lawyer Ann Corkery, and California real estate magnate Robin Arkley II. “The big prize was to sit next to Scalia,” quipped one attendee at the soiree, adding that Arkley was one such lucky winner.” The JCN Story: Building a Secretive GOP Judicial Machine by Viveca Novak and Peter Stone, Open Secrets, March 23, 2015
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine/
Leo’s names changed names and addresses: This chapter benefits greatly from the brilliant work by Heidi Przybyla, especially Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
Often listed on official filing documents: Leonard Leo’s Network Is Increasingly Powerful. But It Is Not Easy to Define by Ken Vogel, New York Times, October 12, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/leonard-leo-network.html
A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
Note address on page one. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7223993-2015-Bradley-Summary-Judicial-Education-Project.html
Influence-peddling scene: Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
The JCN Story: Building a Secretive GOP Judicial Machine by Viveca Novak and Peter Stone, Open Secrets, March 23, 2015
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine/
Leonard Leo’s Network Is Increasingly Powerful. But It Is Not Easy to Define by Ken Vogel, New York Times, October 12, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/leonard-leo-network.html
The Scheme by Sheldon Whitehouse, New Press, 2022
Confirmation to Crisis: The Scheme by Sheldon Whitehouse, New Press, 2022
The JCN Story: Building a Secretive GOP Judicial Machine by Viveca Novak and Peter Stone, Open Secrets, March 23, 2015
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine/
Longtime Leo confidante Carrie Severino: Among others, Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
At once obvious yet legally distinct: Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
The JCN Story: Building a Secretive GOP Judicial Machine by Viveca Novak and Peter Stone, Open Secrets, March 23, 2015
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine/
Leonard Leo’s Network Is Increasingly Powerful. But It Is Not Easy to Define by Ken Vogel, New York Times, October 12, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/leonard-leo-network.html
The Scheme by Sheldon Whitehouse, New Press, 2022
A security guard called over to the Federalist Society: A conservative activist’s campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Distance was a corridor: A conservative activist’s campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
United against Obama judiciary selections: Among others, GOP rallies around court blockade by Burgess Everett, Politico, May 8, 2016
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/gop-supreme-court-merrick-garland-222898
Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
The JCN Story: Building a Secretive GOP Judicial Machine by Viveca Novak and Peter Stone, Open Secrets, March 23, 2015
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine/
Leonard Leo’s Network Is Increasingly Powerful. But It Is Not Easy to Define by Ken Vogel, New York Times, October 12, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/leonard-leo-network.html
JCN hits Ayotte with ads: Conservative group to launch $2 million ad campaign to block Supreme Court nomination by Catherine Ho, Washington Post, March 18, 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/03/18/conservative-group-to-launch-2-million-ad-campaign-to-block-supreme-court-nomination/
Toes line on Garland: Supreme Court nomination fight becomes issue in Senate campaign by Josh McElveen, WMUR, April 13, 2016
https://www.wmur.com/article/supreme-court-nomination-fight-becomes-issue-in-senate-campaign/5210195
“Fury from the conservative base”: We don’t talk about Leonard by Andy Kroll, Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, ProPublica, October 11, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority
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Chapter Twenty-One (Cont'd)
JCN shifts to state judges and judicial elections: The Scheme, speech six, Judicial Crisis Network, by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, August 5, 2021
https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/the-scheme-speech-6-judicial-crisis-network/
The JCN Story: Building a Secretive GOP Judicial Machine by Viveca Novak and Peter Stone, Open Secrets, March 23, 2015
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine/
Wellspring: Among others, Testimony of Lisa Graves President of the Center for Media and Democracy Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights “What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary” March 10, 2021
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Final_CMD_Lisa%20Graves_Written%20Testimony%20for%20March%2010%202021%20Subcommittee%20Hearing1.pdf
Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Leonard Leo’s Network Is Increasingly Powerful. But It Is Not Easy to Define by Ken Vogel, New York Times, October 12, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/leonard-leo-network.html
Captured Courts, Report by US Senate Democrats
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Courts%20Report%20-%20FINAL.pdf
Led by Ann Corkery, founded as part of Koch network: Testimony of Lisa Graves President of the Center for Media and Democracy Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights “What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary” March 10, 2021
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Final_CMD_Lisa%20Graves_Written%20Testimony%20for%20March%2010%202021%20Subcommittee%20Hearing1.pdf
Wellspring as dark money sluicegate: Wellspring gives big boost to Judicial Crisis Network with $6.6 million grant by Viveca Novak, Open Secrets, November 24, 2015
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/11/wellspring-gives-big-boost-to-judicial-crisis-network-with-6-6-million-grant/
Testimony of Lisa Graves President of the Center for Media and Democracy Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights “What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary” March 10, 2021
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Final_CMD_Lisa%20Graves_Written%20Testimony%20for%20March%2010%202021%20Subcommittee%20Hearing1.pdf
Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Wellspring and JCN: The JCN Story: Building a Secretive GOP Judicial Machine by Viveca Novak and Peter Stone, Open Secrets, March 23, 2015
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine/
Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
American Constitution Society report on Dark Money and the Courts
https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/acs-on-dark-money-who-is-capturing-our-courts-wisconsin-edition/
Testimony of Lisa Graves President of the Center for Media and Democracy Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights “What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary” March 10, 2021
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Final_CMD_Lisa%20Graves_Written%20Testimony%20for%20March%2010%202021%20Subcommittee%20Hearing1.pdf
Dosh into RAGA and the RSLC: Testimony of Lisa Graves President of the Center for Media and Democracy Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights “What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary” March 10, 2021
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Final_CMD_Lisa%20Graves_Written%20Testimony%20for%20March%2010%202021%20Subcommittee%20Hearing1.pdf
The JCN Story: Building a Secretive GOP Judicial Machine by Viveca Novak and Peter Stone, Open Secrets, March 23, 2015
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine/
Singer and Federalist Society: Accountable.US has the receipts
https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023-08-15-Research-on-Paul-Singer-CFPB-v-CFSA-SCOTUS-Interest.pdf
Arkley and Federalist Society: We don’t talk about Leonard by Andy Kroll, Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, ProPublica, October 11, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority
The JCN Story: Building a Secretive GOP Judicial Machine by Viveca Novak and Peter Stone, Open Secrets, March 23, 2015
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine
Garland blockade: Behind the Merrick Garland blockade, the Brennan Center for Justice, report by Victoria Bassetti, May 5, 2016
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/behind-merrick-garland-blockade
Much of the work was done … CRC: A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Greg Mueller and Leo: Among others, Leonard Leo: Man in the Middle, Part I by Greg Olear, June 27, 2023
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/leonard-leo-man-in-the-middle-part
Mueller and Swift Boat: Among others, Leonard Leo: Man in the Middle, Part I by Greg Olear, June 27, 2023
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/leonard-leo-man-in-the-middle-part
CRC and FedSoc: Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Kavanaugh doppleganger: As Politico tells the story, “It turns out that the Keystone Cops detective work by conservative legal activist Ed Whelan — which set Washington abuzz with the promise of exonerating Brett Kavanaugh, only to be met by mockery and then partially retracted — was not his handiwork alone. CRC Public Relations, the prominent Alexandria, Virginia-based P.R. firm, guided Whelan through his roller-coaster week of Twitter pronouncements that ended in embarrassment…” PR firm helped Whelan stoke half-baked Kavanaugh alibi by Eliana Johnson, Politico, September 21, 2018
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/21/ed-whelan-kavanaugh-tweets-pr-firm-836405
“I was contacted by Leonard Leo”: “I had additional followup communications with Mr. Leo shortly thereafter,” Gorsuch wrote, meaning his first two discussions during the judicial selection process were with Leo. U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Neil Gorsuch, Questionnaire for nominee to the Supreme Court, page 67
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Neil%20M.%20Gorsuch%20SJQ%20(Public).pdf
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JCN backs Gorsuch: Once again, Accountable.US has the receipts
https://www.accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/The-Judicial-Crisis-Network-Spent-A-Total-Of-37-Million-To-Confirm-President-Trumps-Supreme-Court-Nominees%E2%80%94Averaging-12.3-Million-Per-Nominee.pdf
Mobilized $17 million … first to keep it warm: Accountable.US has the receipts
https://www.accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/The-Judicial-Crisis-Network-Spent-A-Total-Of-37-Million-To-Confirm-President-Trumps-Supreme-Court-Nominees%E2%80%94Averaging-12.3-Million-Per-Nominee.pdf
JCN press release: https://web.archive.org/web/20170705003230/https:/judicialnetwork.com/judicial-crisis-network-launches-10-million-campaign-preserve-justice-scalias-legacy-support-president-elect-trump-nominee/
“Most robust operation in the history of confirmation battles”: JCN press release, January 9, 2017
https://web.archive.org/web/20170705003230/https:/judicialnetwork.com/judicial-crisis-network-launches-10-million-campaign-preserve-justice-scalias-legacy-support-president-elect-trump-nominee/
1.2 billion engagements: CRC Strategies website via Archive.org. CRC took credit as follows: “CRC spearheaded a ten-week communications program when Justice Neil Gorsuch was nominated to the Supreme Court. Program highlights included:
9,500+ media hits including 60+ TV appearances
5,000+ quotes in news stories
1.2 billion media impressions
50+ million online video views
116+ million targeted impressions of non-video content
Over 670,000 unique website visits
Available online at https://archive.ph/2019.03.04-161727/http://www.crcstrategies.com/case-studies/#selection-785.0-815.34
“You would have to ask them:” The full exchange between Whitehouse and Gorsuch:
Senator WHITEHOUSE. What is interesting is that this group sees a huge difference between you that I do not understand. The darkmoney group that is spending money on your election spent at least $7 million against him getting a hearing and a confirmation here and indeed produced that result by spending that money, and then now we have $10 million going the other way. That is a $17 million delta, and for the life of me I am trying to figure out what they see in you that makes that $17 million delta worth their spending. Do you have any answer to that?
Judge GORSUCH. You would have to ask them.
Senator WHITEHOUSE. I cannot because I do not know who they are. It is just a front group. There is a—it has been I think fairly and fully documented that there is a small group of billionaires who are working very hard to influence and even to control our democracy: Kochs, Mercers, DeVoses, and, yes, Anschutzes. They often network together. They attend planning conferences. They pool their resources. As a candidate, President Trump made fun of the beg-a-thon, to use his word, that the Koch brothers run every year to bring candidates to their conference. They set up an array of benign-sounding front groups to both organize and conceal their manipulation of our politics. And Supreme Court Justices socialize with this small group, and then they go and they tender—render decisions that give that small group immense political advantage, particularly the ability to hide the political expenditure of their money. And then they go back and socialize some more with that group and they even speak at the beg-a-thon political retreats. Does that look right to you? How, as a judge, do you think—as a Justice of the Supreme Court should you comport yourself in terms of keeping a distance from interests that are before the Court?
Judge GORSUCH. Senator, I have no information about anything you have just described. I do not know about that.
Confirmation hearing on the nomination of Hon. Neil M. Gorsuch to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, pages 138-9, online at
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115shrg28638/pdf/CHRG-115shrg28638.pdf
“I do not know who they are”: Confirmation hearing on the nomination of Hon. Neil M. Gorsuch to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, pages 138-9, online at
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115shrg28638/pdf/CHRG-115shrg28638.pdf
“Does that look right to you?”: Confirmation hearing on the nomination of Hon. Neil M. Gorsuch to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, pages 138-9, online at
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115shrg28638/pdf/CHRG-115shrg28638.pdf
“Senator i have no information on that”: Confirmation hearing on the nomination of Hon. Neil M. Gorsuch to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, pages 138-9, online at
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115shrg28638/pdf/CHRG-115shrg28638.pdf
Washington Post and New York Times: A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Leonard Leo’s Network Is Increasingly Powerful. But It Is Not Easy to Define by Ken Vogel, New York Times, October 12, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/leonard-leo-network.html
BH gives seven figures to inauguration: $1 million mystery gift to Trump inauguration traced to conservative legal activists by Robert Maguire, Open Secrets, May 14, 2018
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/05/mystery-gift-to-trump-inauguration-from-conservative-activists/
Landmark report by the Washington Post: A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Key broker of the deal was Chris Jankowski: The Leonard Leo presidential primary, The Lever, April 20, 2023
https://www.levernews.com/the-leonard-leo-presidential-primary/
Transfer the cash back and forth: A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Center for Responsive Politics and Maplight managed to track: New ‘dark money’ group led by Trump judicial adviser tied to network promoting his court picks by Anna Massoglia and Andrew Perez, Open Secrets, February 27, 2019
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/02/dark-money-group-led-by-trump-judicial-adviser-scotus-picks/
“Branded as neutral but having the people who know, know”: Higgins quoted at a 2015 speech before David Horowitz’s foundation, later cited by Jezebel and Washington Post, among others
Heather Higgins: Moving the needle, Front Page magazine, November 30, 2015
https://www.frontpagemag.com/heather-higgins-moving-needle-frontpagemagcom/
The Scheme, by Sheldon Whitehouse, p. 90
AE shipped $1m to the NRA: A conservative activist’s behind the scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, May 21, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/
Rule of Law Trust: As CREW reports, “The only other people linked to RLT in the sparse filing are either longtime Federalist Society officials-turned-consultants like Leo, or operatives with a long history working behind the scenes on dark money groups tied to Leo. For example, RLT’s single largest payment in 2018 was a $1.5 million consulting fee paid to Jonathan Bunch, a former vice president of the Federalist Society who has been involved in a number of entities tied to Leo. Bunch is now the president of CRC Advisors, a firm formed by Leo this past January. RLT paid an additional $300,004 to a firm called YAS, LLC for consulting. According to DC government records, the firm is registered to Maria Marshall, a former director of operations at the Federalist Society who currently serves as the vice president of CRC Advisors. The records for RLT are maintained by Neil Corkery — who, along with his wife, Ann, is a longtime ally of Leo’s and has been tied to some of the largest conservative dark money groups in the country for more than a decade.” $80 million dark money group tied to Trump Supreme Court advisor, Leonard Leo by Robert Maguire, CREW, October 23, 2020
$80 million: $80 million dark money group tied to Trump Supreme Court advisor, Leonard Leo by Robert Maguire, CREW, October 23, 2020
Lisa Graves testified: Testimony of Lisa Graves President of the Center for Media and Democracy Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights “What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary” March 10, 2021
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Final_CMD_Lisa%20Graves_Written%20Testimony%20for%20March%2010%202021%20Subcommittee%20Hearing1.pdf
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“Hub of a secretive scheme”: Testimony of Lisa Graves President of the Center for Media and Democracy Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights “What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary” March 10, 2021
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Final_CMD_Lisa%20Graves_Written%20Testimony%20for%20March%2010%202021%20Subcommittee%20Hearing1.pdf
CRC Advisors: Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
Rebranded themselves: The Scheme by Sheldon Whitehouse, pp 86-87
Concord Fund then registered: The Scheme by Sheldon Whitehouse, pp 86-91
Legal vanguard of election denialism: This conservative group helped push a disputed election theory by Hansi Lo Wang, NPR, August 12, 2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/12/1111606448/supreme-court-independent-state-legislature-theory-honest-elections-project
Fair Fight has additional receipts:
https://fairfight.com/honest-elections-project-exposed/
As does Documented
https://documented.net/investigations/the-honest-elections-projects-attack-on-voting-rights
Revealed: conservative group fighting to restrict voting tied to powerful dark money network by Sam Levine and Anna Massoglia, the Guardian, May 27, 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/27/honest-elections-project-conservative-voting-restrictions
“Twinned 501(c)(3)s”: Sheldon Whitehouse interview with the author
3220 N St … UPS Store … no suites: Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism, Politico, March 1, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
$28 million from one donor: Mystery Donor Gave $28 Million to Help Get Gorsuch on Supreme Court by Robin Blitzer, Law and Crime, November 22, 2017
https://lawandcrime.com/politics/mystery-donor-gave-28-million-to-help-get-gorsuch-on-supreme-court/
Tax Returns Identify Dark Money Organization As Source of GOP Supreme Court Attacks by Andrew Perez and Margaret Sessa-Hawkins, Maplight, November 21, 2017
https://lawandcrime.com/politics/mystery-donor-gave-28-million-to-help-get-gorsuch-on-supreme-court/
$58 million to the JCN: Testimony of Lisa Graves President of the Center for Media and Democracy Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights “What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary” March 10, 2021
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Final_CMD_Lisa%20Graves_Written%20Testimony%20for%20March%2010%202021%20Subcommittee%20Hearing1.pdf
It’s expenditures go to reimburse the BH Group: Testimony of Lisa Graves President of the Center for Media and Democracy Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights “What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary” March 10, 2021
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Final_CMD_Lisa%20Graves_Written%20Testimony%20for%20March%2010%202021%20Subcommittee%20Hearing1.pdf
$895,000 to Leo’s America Engaged: Testimony of Lisa Graves President of the Center for Media and Democracy Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights “What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary” March 10, 2021
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Final_CMD_Lisa%20Graves_Written%20Testimony%20for%20March%2010%202021%20Subcommittee%20Hearing1.pdf
Marble Charitable Trust: An Unusual $1.6 Billion Donation Bolsters Conservatives by Kenneth P. Vogel and Shane Goldmacher, New York Times, August 22, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/us/politics/republican-dark-money.html
How a Secretive Billionaire Handed His Fortune to the Architect of the Right-Wing Takeover of the Courts by Andrew Perez, The Lever, and Andy Kroll and Justin Elliott, ProPublica, August 22, 2022
https://www.propublica.org/article/dark-money-leonard-leo-barre-seid
Marble spent $182 million: The New York Times calls it $1 million more. Group Tied to Influential Conservative Activist Spent $183 Million in a Year by Rebecca Davis O’Brien, May 12, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/us/politics/leonard-leo-marble-freedom-trust.html
$153 million to Schwab: Group Tied to Influential Conservative Activist Spent $183 Million in a Year by Rebecca Davis O’Brien, May 12, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/us/politics/leonard-leo-marble-freedom-trust.html
The Concord Fund: Group Tied to Influential Conservative Activist Spent $183 Million in a Year by Rebecca Davis O’Brien, May 12, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/us/politics/leonard-leo-marble-freedom-trust.html
$12 million in fees to CRC Advisors: New Details From Leonard Leo’s Trust Fund Expose the Inner Workings of the Right by Evan Vorpahl, TRUTHOUT, June 17, 2023
https://truthout.org/articles/new-details-from-leonard-leos-trust-fund-expose-the-inner-workings-of-the-right/
Bradley hacked: How did the Bradley files become public? Center for Media and Democracy:
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/how-did-bradley-files-become-public/
Bradley files available through Center for Media and Democracy: https://www.exposedbycmd.org/bradley-files/
Bradley funds Federalist Society: Among others, The Federalist Society, from obscurity to power, report by People for the American Way
https://www.pfaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/federalist-society-report.pdf?
The third Federalist Society, floor speech by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, March 28, 2019
https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/the-third-federalist-society/
Accountable.US report
https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/021123-Leo-Corruption-Narrative.pdf
How a Few Secret Donors Are Fueling the New Right-Wing Infrastructure by Isabela Dias, Mother Jones, April 30, 2024
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/04/bradly-impact-fund-michael-flynn-stephen-miller-culture-war-project-veritas-american-first-legal-cpi/
Founders win prizes: List of Bradley winners available at
https://www.bradleyfdn.org/prizes/winners/the-federalist-society
Designed by Federalist Society-aligned thinkers: The conservative pipeline to the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin, the New Yorker, April 10, 2017
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/17/the-conservative-pipeline-to-the-supreme-court
Bradley had already ponied up: According to the internal Bradley grant report, “the King statutory-interpretation case itself was brought with Bradley support by the Competitive Enterprise lnstitute, and the Friedrichs freedom-of-speech and -association case was broughtwith Bradley support by the Center for lndividual Rights. The legal work on both cases has been done in cooperation with Jones Day attorneys.” See page two. https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/7223993/2015-Bradley-Summary-Judicial-Education-Project.pdf
Leo needed extra support: The grant report states “The request is initiated by Bradley Prize recipient Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies” See page two. https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/7223993/2015-Bradley-Summary-Judicial-Education-Project.pdf
$250,000: “Each of the two amicus-brief efforts costs approximately $250,000, for a total of $500,000.” See page three
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/7223993/2015-Bradley-Summary-Judicial-Education-Project.pdf
Initiated: According to the internal Bradley grant request, “The request is initiated by Bradley Prize recipient Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (about which see the pending, separate recommendations by the lmplementation & impact Committee and earlier in these IRA materials), who works closely with JEP president Neil Corkery. “
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7223993-2015-Bradley-Summary-Judicial-Education-Project.html
UPS Store: Note address on page one. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7223993-2015-Bradley-Summary-Judicial-Education-Project.html
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Chapter Twenty-One (Cont'd)
“Very important to orchestrate high caliber amicus efforts”: Internal Bradley foundation grant report, see page two, first uncovered by Lisa Graves for Center for Media and Democracy
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7223993-2015-Bradley-Summary-Judicial-Education-Project.html
Carry the names of former clerks: The request notes that “The briefs have been put together by attorneys with Cooper & Kirk, Ogletree Deakins, Boyden Gray & Associates, and Wiley Rein, with former clerks of Supreme Court justices on most of them,” and that “Some of the briefs are being put together by attorneys with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Jones Day. The additional ones may be done by Bancroft & Associates, Boyden Gray & Associates, and Kirkland & Ellis - again, with former clerks of justices on most of them.” See pages two and three. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7223993-2015-Bradley-Summary-Judicial-Education-Project.html
“Is there a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to which Bradley could direct”: Emails provided by Center for Media and Democracy, online at: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7223998-2014-Bradley-Leonard-Leo-Neil-Corkery-Carrie.html
“Judicial Education Project could take and allocate”: Leo email on page six. Emails provided by Center for Media and Democracy, online at: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7223998-2014-Bradley-Leonard-Leo-Neil-Corkery-Carrie.html
Loops in Corkery: Leo email on page five. Emails provided by Center for Media and Democracy, online at: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7223998-2014-Bradley-Leonard-Leo-Neil-Corkery-Carrie.html
Eight law professors, all of them with long-standing relationships with the Society: As Graves notes, this is not the activity of a debate club. “So, in the case of Friedrichs, the Bradley Foundation was in touch with the Executive Vice President of the Federalist Society about helping to subsidize an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court that was later written and filed on behalf of professors, all of whom were contributors to the Federalist Society.” Snapshot of Secret Funding of Amicus Briefs Tied to Leonard Leo–Federalist Society Leader, Promoter of Amy Barrett by Lisa Graves, True North Research, October 9, 2020
https://truenorthresearch.org/2020/10/snapshot-of-secret-funding-of-amicus-briefs-tied-to-leonard-leo-federalist-society-leader-promoter-amy-coney-barrett/
A dozen different amicus briefs: Snapshot of Secret Funding of Amicus Briefs Tied to Leonard Leo–Federalist Society Leader, Promoter of Amy Barrett by Lisa Graves, True North Research, October 9, 2020
https://truenorthresearch.org/2020/10/snapshot-of-secret-funding-of-amicus-briefs-tied-to-leonard-leo-federalist-society-leader-promoter-amy-coney-barrett/
A Flood of Judicial Lobbying: Amicus Influence and Funding Transparency by Sheldon Whitehouse, Yale Law Journal, October 24, 2021
https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/a-flood-of-judicial-lobbying-amicus-influence-and-funding-transparency
Leo tells McConnell: Confirmation Bias by Carl Hulse, Harper, 2019, pp. 14-17
Had to be McConnell’s idea: Confirmation Bias by Carl Hulse, Harper, 2019, p. 17
“Kiss his ring”: Ruth Marcus quoted in One man's outsized role in shaping the Supreme Court and overturning Roe, by Jonaki Mehta and Courtney Dorning, June 30, 2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1108351562/roe-abortion-supreme-court-scotus-law
Advancing the wild-eyed theorems: As Balls and Strikes observed of the Gorsuch concurrence: “David Feber, a former Gorsuch clerk, wrote in the Yale Journal on Regulation that Gorsuch’s Gutierrez-Brizuela concurrence “electrified administrative law scholars.” Libertarian law professor Jonathan Adler touted it in The Washington Post as a “compact and powerful argument.” Neil Gorsuch Has Been Planning a Reactionary Revolution For a Long Time by Joel Jacobson, Balls and Strikes, April 26, 2022
https://ballsandstrikes.org/legal-culture/neil-gorsuch-gutierrez-brizuela-opinion/
Gorsuch aced his audition: As Balls and Strikes observed: “Judges typically write concurring opinions when they agree with the result but disagree with their colleagues’ reasoning, or think the majority devoted too little attention to an important point. But Gorsuch authored the majority opinion in Gutierrez-Brizuela. He wrote separately to concur with himself in a 23-page opinion that did not mention the petitioner or outline a course of action the Tenth Circuit might adopt in the future. Instead, he devoted the entire concurrence to making an argument that the Supreme Court should overturn one of the modern conservative legal movement’s most-despised cases: Chevron v. Natural Resource Defense Council. The Tenth Circuit has no power to overrule the Supreme Court, of course. Gorsuch was opining about something that was, quite literally, none of his business, as long as he remained a mere circuit court judge. By proposing a course of action only a Supreme Court justice could follow, he was effectively saying, “Give me the job and this is what I’ll do.” Neil Gorsuch Has Been Planning a Reactionary Revolution For a Long Time by Joel Jacobson, Balls and Strikes, April 26, 2022
https://ballsandstrikes.org/legal-culture/neil-gorsuch-gutierrez-brizuela-opinion/
Chevron deference: As Sheldon Whitehouse notes, “If you haven’t heard of it, that is the advantage of capturing the Court – other than a few high-profile cases each term, judges can use theory and jargon to hide the true impact of their rulings.” The Scheme, Whitehouse, page 99.
Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch: Gorsuch opinion in Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch, No. 14-9585 (10th Cir. 2016)
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca10/14-9585/14-9585-2016-08-23.html
Padded his own resume: Among others, see The Scheme, Whitehouse, pp 98-100 and a brilliantly reported chapter called Auditioning in Supreme Ambition: Brett Kavanaugh and the Conservative Takeover by Ruth Marcus, Simon and Schuster, 2018
For Federalist Society review: No less than Leonard Leo praised these cases on Fox News: “You know, he's got a couple of cases on religious freedom which is really important. He does have one really important finance case and he's got all these cases involving the administrative state where he gets into the whole issue of how government needs to be accountable and transparent and the separation of powers and the constitution needs to be respected. Its' an incredible record, almost 300 opinions.” Leonard Leo on why Trump appointed Judge Kavanaugh, Fox News transcript, The Ingraham Angle, July 9, 2018
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/leonard-leo-on-why-trump-appointed-judge-kavanaugh
“Major questions”: The Curious Rise of a Supreme Court Doctrine That Threatens Biden’s Agenda: The “major questions doctrine,” promoted by conservative commentators, is of recent vintage but has enormous power and may doom student loan relief and other programs by Adam Liptak, New York Times, March 6, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/06/us/politics/supreme-court-major-questions-doctrine.html
Dissent in PHH Corp v Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/B7623651686D60D585258226005405AC/$file/15-1177.pdf
More than a dozen times: More than three dozen, as Mark Joseph Stern counts in Liberty for Whom, Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, July 11, 2018
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/brett-kavanaugh-has-spent-his-career-protecting-polluters-scammers-corporations-and-gun-sellers.html
Then in a footnote: Supreme Ambition: Brett Kavanaugh and the Conservative Takeover by Ruth Marcus, Simon and Schuster, 2018, pp 151-67
Kavanaugh would get it done: Among others, Supreme Ambition: Brett Kavanaugh and the Conservative Takeover by Ruth Marcus, Simon and Schuster, 2018, pp 151-67
The Scheme, Whitehouse, New Press, 2022
Liberty for Whom, Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, July 11, 2018
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/brett-kavanaugh-has-spent-his-career-protecting-polluters-scammers-corporations-and-gun-sellers.html
Judge Kavanaugh on Separation of Powers, by Carolyn Shapiro, ACS Expert Forum, August 9, 2018
https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/judge-kavanaugh-on-separation-of-powers/
Consumer advocacy groups are extremely worried about Brett Kavanaugh by Emily Stewat, Vox, July 11, 2018
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/11/17556120/brett-kavanaugh-elizabeth-warren-cfpb-regulations
Kavanaugh works his way into circle of trust: As Whitehouse writes, “No one auditioned harder than Brett Kavanaugh. As a circuit judge, he spoke at fifty-two Federalist Society events, which has to be a record. But simply parroting right-wing doctrine to friendly Federalist Society audiences might not be enough, So he made sure his circuit court opinions signaled his chops.” The Scheme, Whitehouse, p. 98
“The signal had been given”: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse interview with the author
Grown in the FedSoc and Leo network laboratory: Among others, Amy Coney Barrett’s Long Game: The newest Supreme Court Justice isn’t just another conservative—she’s the product of a Christian legal movement that is intent on remaking America by Margaret Talbot, the New Yorker, February 7, 2022
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/02/14/amy-coney-barretts-long-game
Notre Dame and Leo: Among others, Napa, Koch funding sparks backlash from Notre Dame professors by John Gehring, National Catholic Reporter, December 16, 2021
https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/napa-koch-funding-sparks-backlash-notre-dame-professors
Leonard Leo Allies Lead Effort to Establish Publicly Funded Religious School: A legal clinic at University of Notre Dame has helped represent the school while its officials have maintained ties to right-wing Supreme Court justices. By Julia Conley, Common Dreams, December 29, 2023
https://www.commondreams.org/news/oklahoma-charter-school
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Clerked with Scalia: Amy Coney Barrett, Supreme Court nominee, is Scalia’s heir by Michael Tarm, Associated Press, September 26, 2020
Fellowship from the Olin Foundation: It is fascinating to cast one’s eye along the list of Olin Fellows published by Teles in The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement (2008, Princeton University Press) and see so many names crucial to its present-day success, including a young Amy Barrett. It’s an indication of how successfully the right invested in its young intellectual scholars. Teles, Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement, pages 176-77.
Generously funded by Bradley: Behind Janus: Documents Reveal Decade-Long Plot to Kill Public-Sector Unions by Mary Bottari, In These Times, February/March 2022
https://inthesetimes.com/features/janus_supreme_court_unions_investigation.html
Snapshot of Secret Funding of Amicus Briefs Tied to Leonard Leo–Federalist Society Leader, Promoter of Amy Barrett by Lisa Graves, Center for Media and Democracy, October 10, 2020
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/10/10/snapshot-secret-funding-amicus-briefs-tied-leonard-leo-federalist-society-leader-promoter-amy-barrett/
Ruling: Janus v AFSCME decision available at
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-1466_2b3j.pdf
Impact of Janus: The Impact of Janus on the Labor Movement, Five Years Later by Michael Artz, American Bar Association, October 31, 2023
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/labor-and-employment-rights/impact-of-janus-on-the-labor-movement/
West Virginia v EPA: Decision in West Virginia v EPA available at
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1530_n758.pdf
Impact: Supreme Court Strips Federal Government of Crucial Tool to Control Pollution by Adam Liptak, New York Times, June 30, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/06/30/us/supreme-court-epa
As the Times also noted, “West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, is the product of a coordinated, multiyear strategy by Republican attorneys general, conservative legal activists and their funders, several with ties to the oil and coal industries, to use the judicial system to rewrite environmental law, weakening the executive branch’s ability to tackle global warming. Coming up through the federal courts are more climate cases, some featuring novel legal arguments, each carefully selected for its potential to block the government’s ability to regulate industries and businesses that produce greenhouse gases.” Republican Drive to Tilt Courts Against Climate Action Reaches a Crucial Moment by Coral Davenport, New York Times, June 19, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/19/climate/supreme-court-climate-epa.html
Federalist Society-approved favorites … fund their way to the bench: Among others, The JCN Story: Building a Secretive GOP Judicial Machine by Viveca Novak and Peter Stone, Open Secrets, March 23, 2015
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/03/the-jcn-story-building-a-secretive-gop-judicial-machine/
The organized takeover of Wisconsin courts: How big money has eroded a core democratic institution by Ruth Conniff, Wisconsin Examiner, July 29, 2021
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2021/07/29/the-organized-takeover-of-wisconsin-courts/
American Constitution Society report on Dark Money and the Courts
https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/acs-on-dark-money-who-is-capturing-our-courts-wisconsin-edition/
https://www.acslaw.org/analysis/reports/dark-money/
Trump’s Court Whisperer Had a State Judicial Strategy. Its Full Extent Only Became Clear Years Later by Andrea Bernstein and Andy Kroll, ProPublica, October 23, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/leonard-leo-wisconsin-documents-state-courts-republicans-judges
How Republicans flipped America’s state supreme courts by Aaron Mendlson, Center for Public Integrity, July 24, 2023
https://publicintegrity.org/politics/high-courts-high-stakes/how-republicans-flipped-americas-state-supreme-courts/
FedSoc in Florida: Gov. Ron DeSantis used secretive panel to flip state Supreme Court by Beth Reinhard and Josh Dawsey, Washington Post, June 20, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/20/gov-ron-desantis-used-secretive-panel-flip-state-supreme-court/
Gerrymander undone: Ratf**ked, Daley, also, Florida's Supreme Court has struck another blow against gerrymandering by Andrew Prekop, Vox, December 5, 2015
https://www.vox.com/2015/12/5/9851152/florida-gerrymandering-ruling
DeSantis and Leo: Gov. Ron DeSantis used secretive panel to flip state Supreme Court by Beth Reinhard and Josh Dawsey, Washington Post, June 20, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/20/gov-ron-desantis-used-secretive-panel-flip-state-supreme-court/
“It was just Ron and the Fed Soc crew”: Gaetz quoted from Gov. Ron DeSantis used secretive panel to flip state Supreme Court by Beth Reinhard and Josh Dawsey, Washington Post, June 20, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/20/gov-ron-desantis-used-secretive-panel-flip-state-supreme-court/
Originalism, textualism, original intent: Gov. Ron DeSantis used secretive panel to flip state Supreme Court by Beth Reinhard and Josh Dawsey, Washington Post, June 20, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/20/gov-ron-desantis-used-secretive-panel-flip-state-supreme-court/
All Federalist Society members: DeSantis stacked Florida’s supreme court with cronies who wage his wore on wokeness or else by Akela Lacy, The Intercept, July 3, 2023 3 https://theintercept.com/2023/07/03/desantis-florida-supreme-court/
DeSantis and Florida gerrymander: How Ron DeSantis Blew Up Black-Held Congressional Districts and May Have Broken Florida Law by Joshua Kaplan, ProPublica, October 11, 2022
https://www.propublica.org/article/ron-desantis-florida-redistricting-map-scheme
DeSantis wants more aggressive map: As the AP wrote: “As the Republican Legislature last year debated a map that would have kept a Black performing district in North Florida, DeSantis used social media to say it would be “D.O.A.” if passed. After vetoing the map, DeSantis directed aide Alex Kelly to draw a new one and submit it to the Legislature, which approved it in a special session with no changes. DeSantis purposely dismantled a Black congressional district, attorney says as trial over map begins by Brendan Farrington, Associated Press, September 26, 2023
https://apnews.com/article/florida-redistricting-black-voters-desantis-7d1211cd8f43f30ebb2c8d5d424c915e
Court allows it: Federal Court Upholds Florida’s Congressional Map That Eliminated Historically-Black District by Rachel Selzer, Democracy Docket, March 27, 2024
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/federal-court-upholds-floridas-congressional-map/
Link to decision: https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/222-2024-03-27-Order.pdf
11-bedroom Maine summer home: Why did Trump’s ‘judge whisperer’ buy a house on the Maine coast? By Colin Woodard, Portland Press Herald, August 19, 2019
https://www.centralmaine.com/2019/08/18/why-did-trumps-judge-whisperer-buy-a-house-on-the-maine-coast/
Leonard Leo also bought a law school: Among others, The Secrets of Leonard Leo, the Man Behind Trump’s Supreme Court Pick, by Jay Michaelson, Daily Beast, July 24, 2018
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-secrets-of-leonard-leo-the-man-behind-trumps-supreme-court-pick
Leonard Leo’s $1.6 billion payday, Senate floor speech by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, September 13, 2022
https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/scheme-18_leonard-leos-16-billion-payday/
The Federalist Society might prefer to suggest that Leo acted on his own here. But many of these emails come from his personal account. FedSoc co-founded Meyer made a crucial introduction to the donor who funded much of this deal. And when George Mason Law began getting difficult press mentions about it, someone – likely the donor, Seid, whose name is redacted – emailed a story to Leo and Meyer, both at their Federalist Society emails, which Leo them forwarded to Butler with a request for a phone meeting. See the email on page 432
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=432
Carry the name of Antonin Scalia: In the Washington Post story announcing the renaming, it’s noted that: “Leonard A. Leo, a member of the Federalist Society who was close with Scalia and his family, was approached by a donor who asked that the university name the law school in honor of the late justice, and offered a $20 million donation. Leo said the donor was someone who had met and admired Scalia, but declined to describe him other than “a great philanthropist.”” George Mason law school to be renamed the Antonin Scalia School of Law by Susan Svrluga, Washington Post, April 1, 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/03/31/george-mason-law-school-to-be-renamed-the-antonin-scalia-school-of-law/
Two donors provided the cash: George Mason law school to be renamed the Antonin Scalia School of Law by Susan Svrluga, Washington Post, April 1, 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/03/31/george-mason-law-school-to-be-renamed-the-antonin-scalia-school-of-law/
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Persistent FOIA requests from a recent alumna, Allison Pienta: Pienta’s heroic work is available in two big reports on Unkoch My Campus
https://www.unkochmycampus.org/charles-koch-foundation-george-mason-mercatus-donor-influence-exposed and
https://www.unkochmycampus.org/dec-20-2018-donor-control-at-gmu-update
The report on the FedSoc takeover of GMU Law is here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5400da69e4b0cb1fd47c9077/t/5c1d302b4fa51a38153ac07e/1545416751164/Update+to+Report+on+Federalist+Society+Takeover+of+GMU+Law+12+17+2018.pdf
And hundreds of pages of emails can be found here:
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
It’s the BH Fund: Update to report on the Federalist Society takeover of Scalia Law by Allison Pienta
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5400da69e4b0cb1fd47c9077/t/5c1d302b4fa51a38153ac07e/1545416751164/Update+to+Report+on+Federalist+Society+Takeover+of+GMU+Law+12+17+2018.pdf
Two officers listed … Leo and Bunch: Documented on page 14
https://ia800703.us.archive.org/22/items/PDFAttachmentsToUpdateToReportOnFedSocTakeover1272018_201812/PDF%20Attachments%20to%20Update%20to%20Report%20on%20Fed%20Soc%20Takeover%2012%207%202018.pdf
Launched with $24 million from Barre Seid: New Dark Money Group Led by Trump Judicial Adviser Tied to Network Promoting His Court Picks by Anna Massoglia and Andrew Perez, Maplight, February 27, 2019
https://maplightarchive.org/story/new-dark-money-group-led-by-trump-judicial-adviser-tied-to-network-promoting-his-court-picks/
Introduced by Federalist Society cofounder Eugene Meyer: Leonard Leo used Federalist Society contact to obtain $1.6B donation: The society’s close ties to Leo’s network raise questions about its nonpartisan, non-political status by Heidi Przybyla, Politico, May 2, 2023
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/02/leonard-leo-federalist-society-00094761
“The Federalist Society network has billions now”: Bruce Bartlett interview with the author
When Henry Butler took over: How Scalia Law School Became a Key Friend of the Court by Steve Eder and Jo Becker, New York Times, April 30, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/supreme-court-scalia-law-school.html
Sinking in U.S. News: How Scalia Law School Became a Key Friend of the Court by Steve Eder and Jo Becker, New York Times, April 30, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/supreme-court-scalia-law-school.html
Five-year plan: Emails between Becker and Leo (from his Federalist Society account) between pages 11 and 36
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=11
Heavily redacted: https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=11
There are a number of questions that came up: https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=11
I very much appreciate your wise counsel: https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=36
Charles Koch and other conservatives: The long roots of conservative influence at George Mason is just one of the topics brilliantly revealed by Nancy MacLean in her groundbreaking Democracy In Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America (Viking, 2017)
“$30,000,000 deal came together last night”: Email available at
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=59
“A game changer for Mason Law”: Email available at
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=60
Jonathan Mitchell is an obvious target: Email available at https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
Undercut abortion rights: The legal mind behind America’s most extreme abortion law by Mary Tuma, The Guardian, October 10, 2021
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/10/texas-abortion-law-jonathan-f-mitchell-profile
Bounty hunter: He helped craft the 'bounty hunter' abortion law in Texas. He's just getting started by Sarah McCammon, NPR, May 8, 2023
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/08/1174552727/jonathan-mitchell-abortion-texas-sb8-roe-v-wade-dobbs
Flummoxed lower courts: Behind the Texas Abortion Law, a Persevering Conservative Lawyer by Michael S. Schmidt, New York Times, September 12, 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/12/us/politics/texas-abortion-lawyer-jonathan-mitchell.html
Pages of emails: https://www.unkochmycampus.org/charles-koch-foundation-george-mason-mercatus-donor-influence-exposed and
https://www.unkochmycampus.org/dec-20-2018-donor-control-at-gmu-update
The report on the FedSoc takeover of GMU Law is here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5400da69e4b0cb1fd47c9077/t/5c1d302b4fa51a38153ac07e/1545416751164/Update+to+Report+on+Federalist+Society+Takeover+of+GMU+Law+12+17+2018.pdf
And hundreds more pages of emails can be found here:
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
Insisted that the entire Leo-brokered $30 million deal would go to scholarships: As Sheldon Whitehouse noted in a Senate floor speech, “Both gifts came with grant agreements …. The agreements do stipulate that the money was intended to fund “scholarships,” but also specify that gifts were conditioned on the school’s providing “funding . . . and support for,” – you guessed it – Neomi Rao’s “Center of the Study of the Administrative State.”
“ Private communications revealed with the grant agreements show that the Koch Foundation and their handpicked law school administrators viewed all this money as fungible. The Law School did a press release. It’s announcement of the funding stated: “The scholarship money will also benefit the institution because it frees up resources that can be allocated for other priorities, including additional faculty hires and support for academic programs.” Whitehouse remarks on the Federalist Society and Leonard Leo, Senate floor speech, May 29, 2019
https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/whitehouse-remarks-on-the-federalist-society-and-leonard-leo/
“Meeting a Mission”: Grant report with Koch begins on page 156. The Leo report is more heavily redacted but similar. https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=156
A sample status report from Butler begins on page 732
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=732
CSAS and Liberty and Law: The status reports are available between pages 732-735
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=732
“Additional related areas of concentration and intellectual leadership”: Attachment A to the grant proposal notes that George Mason Law will “Develop additional related areas of concentration and intellectual leadership such as intellectual property, legal history, constitutional studies, administrative law, and the relationship between law and liberty.” Page 132.
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=132
CSAS and Liberty and Law: The status reports are available between pages 732-735
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=732
The grant application with Koch also notes that “The School will advance the mission of two new academic centers in cooperation with the School's Law & Economics Center. • Center for the Study of the Administrative State • Center for Liberty & Law” https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=132
“Cash is king”: The status reports notes under “Most Pressing Needs i. Cash is King (scholarships are cash)”
Email available at page 734
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
Naming-gifts scholarship revenue:
Email available at page 734
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
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Chapter Twenty-One (Cont'd)
First director is Rao: Neomi Rao, the Scholar Who Will Help Lead Trump’s Regulatory Overhaul by Steve Eder, New York Times, July 9, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/business/the-scholar-who-will-help-lead-trumps-assault-on-rules.html
Butler tries to lure her back: Butler asks Gray for $1.5 million for an endowed chair that would “help me to entice Neomi to return home to Scalia law after she dismantles the administrative state”
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5750669-Antonin-Scalia-Law-School-Grant-Agreement
“After she dismantles the administrative state”: Alex Kotch of SLUDGE discovered these emails between Butler and C. Boyden Gray longtime conservative lawyer who served several GOP presidents
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5750669-Antonin-Scalia-Law-School-Grant-Agreement
Leo and Rao: Leonard Leo’s dark Federalist Society is installing judges that are poised to systematically and relentlessly dismantle government agencies that keep us safe and secure, remarks on Senate floor by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, May 29, 2019 https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/whitehouse-remarks-on-the-federalist-society-and-leonard-leo/
Never tried a case: Leonard Leo’s dark Federalist Society is installing judges that are poised to systematically and relentlessly dismantle government agencies that keep us safe and secure, remarks on Senate floor by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, May 29, 2019
https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/whitehouse-remarks-on-the-federalist-society-and-leonard-leo/
Balls and Strikes: The Worst Trump Judge In America Is Neomi Rao by James LaRock, Balls and Strikes, June 8, 2023
https://ballsandstrikes.org/legal-culture/the-worst-trump-judge-in-america-is-neomi-rao/
Intimately involved: Leo and allies recommend candidates for faculty, the student body and to lead programs. See emails at pages 51, 490, 643, 708, 728 and 735, among others. https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
Leo even oversees menu: Emails begin page 632
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
“That I will be approving, and, as we discussed, paying for”: Email available at page 632
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
Save the date postcards: Emails begin page 620
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
Leo suggested adjunct professors: https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
“We’re on it”: The adjunct prospect is blurred out, but as the chain shows, met Leo at an event, followed up with him at his FedSoc address, and then Leo sent the entire exchange to Butler with his recommendation from that account as well. Email available at page 51
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
Leo apprised of Rachel Brand: Email available at page 643
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
“Unanimous! Thanks for all your help” Email available at page 643
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf
Leo forwarded Butler a potential student: The dean enthuses: “Leonard, Absolutley! [sic] I will work with the admissions office to make sure we get together. Thanks for your help.” Emails begin page 5
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=5
Verret writes Bunch: The email says that “Jonathan works at Fed Soc on many important projects. Anna Francis runs our clerkship program. I also cc our faculty clerkship committee chairman Professor Lund. We are hoping to place Scalia Law Alumni who are current members of our Fed Soc student chapter, alumni who were active in Fed Soc, and other Scalia Law conservative and libertarian alums in federal clerkships. We wonder ifthere may be an opportunity to get such candidates in front of judges incoming under the new administration as they seek clerks under atypical timeframes.” Email available at
https://ia803107.us.archive.org/33/items/GMUFOIACharlesKochFoundationFull/GMU%20FOIA%20Charles%20Koch%20Foundation%20Full.pdf#page=731
“Compete to be the next incoming president of the Federalist Society”: Michael Greve interview with the author
Scalia Law hires justices: How Scalia Law School Became a Key Friend of the Court by Steve Eder and Jo Becker, New York Times, April 30, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/supreme-court-scalia-law-school.html
“Fantastico!”: Gorsuch quoted from How Scalia Law School Became a Key Friend of the Court by Steve Eder and Jo Becker, New York Times, April 30, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/supreme-court-scalia-law-school.html
Harlan Crow portrait: Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica, April 6, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow
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Leo sets them with chums: Matchmaker Leonard Leo Helps Unite Billionaires With Supreme Court Justices by Jeet Heer, The Nation, June 23, 2023
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/leo-alito-court-curruption/
Leonard Leo’s SCOTUS-FedSoc Sponsor Family Program by Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, June 21, 2023
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/leonard-leos-scotus-fedsoc-sponsor-family-program
Thomas complains about cash: A “Delicate Matter”: Clarence Thomas’ Private Complaints About Money Sparked Fears He Would Resign by Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski and Brett Murphy, ProPublica, Dec. 18, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-money-complaints-sparked-resignation-fears-scotus
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted gifts worth millions of dollars over 20 years, analysis finds by Gabriel Cortés and Kevin Breuninger, CNBC, June 6, 2024
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/06/supreme-court-justices-millions-dollars-gifts-clarence-thomas.html
Linda Greenhouse Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_effect_(United_States_Supreme_Court)
$10 million: Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica, April 6, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow
Hospitality to Thomas: Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica, April 6, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow
Alito, Singer, Alaska: Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court by Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica, June 20, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court#
“Comfortable but rustic”: Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court by Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica, June 20, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court#
Did not recuse: Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court by Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica, June 20, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court#
Would have otherwise veen vacant: In an oped in the Wall Street Journal, Alito wrote that, “As for the flight, Mr. Singer and others had already made arrangements to fly to Alaska when I was invited shortly before the event, and I was asked whether I would like to fly there in a seat that, as far as I am aware, would have otherwise been vacant. It was my understanding that this would not impose any extra cost on Mr. Singer. Had I taken commercial flights, that would have imposed a substantial cost and inconvenience on the deputy U.S. Marshals who would have been required for security reasons to assist me.” Justice Samuel Alito: ProPublica Misleads Its Readers by Samuel A. Alito Jr., Wall Street Jounral, June 20, 2023
https://www.wsj.com/articles/propublica-misleads-its-readers-alito-gifts-disclosure-alaska-singer-23b51eda?mod=opinion_lead_pos5
Schenck stories: Three blockbuster pieces that laid the entire scheme out.
Former Anti-Abortion Leader Alleges Another Supreme Court Breach by Jodi Kantor and Jo Becker, New York Times, Nov. 19, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/us/supreme-court-leak-abortion-roe-wade.html
SCOTUS Justices ‘Prayed With’ Her — Then Cited Her Bosses to End Roe by Kara Voght and Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, July 6, 2022
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/roe-supreme-court-justices-1378046/
‘Operation Higher Court’: Inside the religious right’s efforts to wine and dine Supreme Court justices by Peter S. Canellos and Josh Gerstein, Politico, July 8, 2022
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/08/religious-right-supreme-court-00044739
Schenck to Congress: Schenck testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, December 8, 2022
https://www.c-span.org/video/?524567-1/hearing-politics-supreme-court
“Stealth missionaries”: Schenck statement to House Judiciary Committee
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU00/20221208/115220/HHRG-117-JU00-Wstate-SchenckR-20221208.pdf
Mingle at Supreme Court Historic Society: Former Anti-Abortion Leader Alleges Another Supreme Court Breach by Jodi Kantor and Jo Becker, New York Times, Nov. 19, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/us/supreme-court-leak-abortion-roe-wade.html
Alito tips off to Hobby Lobby: Former Anti-Abortion Leader Alleges Another Supreme Court Breach by Jodi Kantor and Jo Becker, New York Times, Nov. 19, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/us/supreme-court-leak-abortion-roe-wade.html
“It is making a difference”: Schenck testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, December 8, 2022
https://www.c-span.org/video/?524567-1/hearing-politics-supreme-court
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Chapter Twenty-Two
Vanderbilt University study found: The poll also found that gun violence in schools was among Tennessee parents’ top five concerns, and that “a majority of Tennessee parents agree on several firearm-related school safety measures.” 70.5 background check https://news.vumc.org/2023/03/09/majority-of-tennessee-parents-agree-on-several-school-firearm-safety-measures-poll/
Rapidly unleashed its patented array of vote-suppressing tactics: Tennessee Made It Harder to Register Voters. Activists Consider What’s Next by Matt Vasilogambros, Stateline, August 14, 2019. https://stateline.org/2019/08/14/tennessee-made-it-harder-to-register-voters-activists-consider-whats-next/.
Gov. Bill Lee signs new Tennessee law that punishes voter signup missteps by Jonathan Mattise, Associated Press. https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/03/tennessee-voter-registration-new-law-punishes-voter-signup-missteps-suit-filed/3658674002/
The nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project graded the state’s congressional map an F for racial gerrymandering, and its analysis found zero competitive seats in the state senate and just seven in the state house. https://gerrymander.princeton.edu/reforms/TN
Lawmakers eviscerated a longtime blue district: A masterclass in election-rigging: how Republicans ‘dismembered’ a Democratic stronghold, by Andrew Witherspoon and Sam Levine, The Guardian, January 25, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2022/jan/25/nashville-tennessee-gerrymandering-congress-republicans and In Nashville, a Gerrymander Goes Beyond Politics to the City’s Core by Michael Wines, The New York Times, Feb. 18, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/18/us/nashville-gerrymandering-republican-democrat.html
Took aim at the city itself: When a Legislature Goes to War With Its State’s Richest City by Kathy Gilsinan, Politico, April 14, 2023 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/14/tennessee-culture-war-nashville-00091784
Inside the Tennessee legislature, where a GOP supermajority reigns by Kevin Sullivan, May 15, 2023, Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/15/inside-tennessee-legislature-where-gop-supermajority-reigns/
TN governor signs off on changes to sports authority, WKRN.com by Chris O’Brien, May 15, 2023.
https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-politics/gov-lee-signs-off-on-sports-authority-scramble-weeks-after-titans-stadium-approval/
What insurmountable, gerrymandered supermajority power can do: How redistricting brought Tennessee to this moment by Adam Edelman, NBC News, April 11, 2023. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/redistricting-brought-tennessee-moment-rcna78953
Weaken the state’s permit requirements: After Mass Shootings, Republicans Expand Access to Gun by Mike Baker, Serge F. Kovaleski and Glenn Thrush, March 29, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/us/nashville-gun-laws.html
Goaded TN Republicans into swift action: GOP expels Democratic Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson from House over gun-control protest, Melissa Brown, Nashville Tennessean, April 6, 2023. https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/06/tennessee-expulsion-vote-democrats-justin-jones-gloria-johnson-justin-pearson/70079929007/
Maybe “even worse”: House Speaker equates Nashville’s peaceful protests against gun violence with Jan. 6 insurrection. Tennessee Lookout, by Adam Friedman and Sam Stockard. March 31, 2023. https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/03/31/housespeakerequatesnashvillespeacefulprotestsagainstgunviolencewithjan6insurrection/
Minority rule playbook perfected in North Carolina: See North Carolina wrote the playbook Wisconsin and Michigan are using to undermine democracy by Tara Golshan, Vox, Dec. 5, 2018. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/5/18125544/north-carolina-power-grab-wisconsin-michigan-lame-duck
North Carolina's Republican legislators stage unprecedented power grab by Alex Kotch, Facing South, Dec. 16, 2016. https://www.facingsouth.org/2016/12/north-carolinas-republican-legislators-stage-unprecedented-power-grab
Legislative Entrenchment and Lame-Duck State Power Grabs, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, October 2019.
https://journals.law.harvard.edu/crcl/legislative-entrenchment-and-lame-duck-state-power-grabs/
Inside the Republican Power Grab in North Carolina by Drew Millard, Vice, Dec. 16, 2016.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/qkbnjw/republican-power-grab-north-carolina
“We never saw it coming”: Jackson in interview with author.
“To pull off an ambush like that”: Jackson quoted by Golshan in Vox
Few states proved quite so ambitious: How Republicans are trying to strip power from Democratic governors-elect by Tara Golshan, Vox, Dec. 14, 2018
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/4/18123784/gop-legislature-wisconsin-michigan-power-grab-lame-duck
Lame-Duck Power Grabs Aren't New, But Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan Are ‘More Aggressive’ by Alan Greenblatt. Governing, Dec. 4, 2018. https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-wisconsin-power-governor-evers-michigan-walker-whitmer.html
Lame-Duck Power Grabs Escalate Unsettling Trend by Sophie Quniton, Stateline, Dec. 7, 2018
https://stateline.org/2018/12/07/lame-duck-power-grabs-escalate-unsettling-trend/
The Republicans’ Midwest Power Grab by Russell Berman, the Atlantic, Dec. 4, 2018.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/gop-power-grab-wisconsin-and-michigan/577246/
Republicans Are Clinging to Power in Wisconsin. Expect to See More GOP Power Grabs by Emma Roller, The Intercept, Dec. 7, 2018
https://theintercept.com/2018/12/07/wisconsin-legislature-power-grab/Lame-duck Wisconsin Republicans vote to weaken incoming Democratic governor, attorney general. Associated Press, Dec. 5, 2018/
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/lame-duck-wisconsin-republicans-vote-weaken-incoming-democratic-governor-attorney-n944001
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“A new front in the war”: Senator Hintz interview with the author
“The legislature remains accountable to the people of Wisconsin”: League of Women Voters v. Evers, 387 Wis. 2d 511, 929 N.W.2d 209, 2019 WI 75 (Wis. 2019)
https://law.justia.com/cases/wisconsin/supreme-court/2019/2019ap000559.html
Gaveled in and out in mere seconds: Wisconsin GOP leaders rapidly ended special sessions on abortion: Republican lawmakers reject special session Evers called to end 1849 abortion law by Ben Baker, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 22, 2022. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/22/wisconsin-republicans-gavel-out-tony-evers-special-session-abortion-laws/7691460001/
Voting protections during the pandemic: Coronavirus Election Session Gavels In and Out
By Frederica Freybergm PBS Wisconsin, April 5, 2020. https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/coronavirus-election-session-gavels-in-and-out/
Police violence: Wisconsin’s Governor Called a Special Session on Police Reform. Republicans Stopped It After 30 Seconds by David Daley, Rolling Stone, Sept. 1, 2020.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/wisconsin-legislature-jacob-blake-shooting-kenosha-gerrymander-gun-violence-1053561/
Child care: Gavel in and Out: Governor Evers Special Session lasts less than sixty seconds https://www.nbc26.com/news/local-news/in-your-neighborhood/gavel-in-and-out-governor-evers-special-session-lasts-less-than-sixty-seconds
Refused to leave office: Wisconsin justices wrangle with case of appointed official refusing to leave his seat by Joe Kelly, Courthouse News, March 10, 2022.
https://www.courthousenews.com/wisconsin-justices-wrangle-with-case-of-appointed-official-refusing-to-leave-his-seat/
“A ruse to cover up pure, raw, political power”: Judge Niess interview with the author
Along 4-3 partisan lines: Wisconsin justices allow GOP-appointed official to stay in office despite expired term by Joe Kelly, Courthouse News, June 29, 2022.’
https://www.courthousenews.com/wisconsin-justices-allow-gop-appointed-official-to-stay-in-office-despite-expired-term/
Walker’s judicial appointments: Brennan, Bradley and Kelly’s ties to FedSoc discussed in Scott Walker Ties Himself to the Federalist Society by Molly Beck, Wisconson State Journal, Dec. 18, 2016.
https://madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/scott-walker-ties-himself-to-the-federalist-society/article_15b2e76a-5229-5ab1-b785-5e6c39087671.html#utm_source=host.madison.com&utm_campaign=%2Femail%2Fwsj-news%2F%3Fref%3Demail&utm_medium
The danger of the Federalist Society approach by Emily Mills, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dec. 23, 2016.
Daniel Kelly’s FedSoc bio:vhttps://fedsoc.org/contributors/daniel-kelly
Justice Daniel Kelly Follows Conservative Path In Bid To Keep Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat by Shawn Johnson, Wisconsin Public Radio April 1, 2020. https://www.wpr.org/justice/justice-daniel-kelly-follows-conservative-path-bid-keep-wisconsin-supreme-court-seat
The Rise of Federalist Sociery Judges by Bruce Thompson, Urban Milwaukee July 25, 2018.
https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2018/07/25/data-wonk-the-rise-of-federalist-society-judges/#google_vignette
WAR spent $2.6 million: Untangling the WAR Machine. True North Research. https://truenorthresearch.org/2023/02/untangling-the-war-machine-led-by-right-wing-dark-money-operative-eric-okeefe/
Influence peddler of the month, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
https://www.wisdc.org/follow-the-money/46-influence-peddler/5533-influence-peddler-of-the-month-wisconsin-alliance-for-reform
Who is capturing our courts? (Wisconsin edition), by Lisa Graves, Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch, Nov. 7, 2019
https://www.prwatch.org/news/2019/11/13503/who-capturing-our-courts-wisconsin-edition
RSLC stepped up: Graves, Who is capturing our courts, and The Million Dollar Judges of 2015-16 by Billy Corriher, Center for American Progress
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-million-dollar-judges-of-2015-16-independent-spending-and-secret-money/
Judicial Fairness Institute and swung into action: Graves, Who is capturing our courts.
According to research by True North: Graves, Who is capturing our courts.
Frighteningly close: Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules Trump Election Challenge 'Unreasonable In The Extreme,” by Vanessa Romo, NPR, Dec. 14, 2020
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/14/946463134/wisconsin-supreme-court-rules-trump-election-challenge-unreasonable-meritless
Gableman, to lead an investigation into voter fraud: 'An incompetent circus': Michael Gableman's 2020 election review reaches 1 year and the $1 million mark with little to show, by Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 2, 2022 https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/07/02/michael-gableman-investigation-1-year-1-million-little-show/7699123001/
Decertification of state’s 2020 election results: Wisconsin GOP’s 2020 report embraces fringe election decertification theory by Zach Montellaro, Politico, March 1, 2022. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/01/wisconsin-republicans-embrace-election-decertification-00012793
Groups with ties to Leo: Election-denying donors pour millions into key Wisconsin supreme court race by Alice Herman, The Guardian, March 14, 2023 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/14/wisconsin-supreme-court-election-funding-donors-election-denier
Mega donors fuel over $40 million in donations for record-shattering 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Wisconsin Watch, April 3, 2003 https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/mega-donors-fuel-over-40-million-in-donations-for-record-shattering-2023-wisconsin-supreme-court-race/
In Wisconsin’s supreme court race, a super-rich beer family calls the shots by Ed Pilkington and Sam Levine, The Guardian, Feb. 21, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/21/wisconsin-supreme-court-primary-election-uihlein-family-campaign-finance
After Millions In Dark Money Support, Dan Kelly Won’t Recuse Himself From Cases Involving Big Donors by Matt Cohen, Wisconsin Independent, March 22, 2023
https://wisconsinindependent.com/supreme-court/after-millions-in-dark-money-support-dan-kelly-wont-recuse-himself-from-cases-involving-big-donors/
“It is hard to recognize Ohio”: Governor Taft interview with the author
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Bribery and racketeering case: For more information on the Ohio scandal, see
How a $60 million bribery scandal helped Ohio pass the ‘worst energy policy in the country.’ Grist, by Nathanael Johnson, Jan. 26, 2022.
https://grist.org/politics/how-a-60-million-bribery-scandal-helped-ohio-pass-the-worst-energy-policy-in-the-country/
Ex-First Energy executives, Ohio utility regulator charged by state in bailout and bribery scanda by Marty Schladen and Morgan Trau, Ohio Capital Journal, Feb. 12, 2024
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/02/12/ex-first-energy-executives-ohio-utility-regulator-charged-by-state-in-bailout-and-bribery-scandal/
Fraud and corruption on rise at U.S. utilities in Ohio and elsewhere by Mario Alejandro Ariza and Kristi E. Swartz, Floodlight, March 1, 2024
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/03/01/fraud-and-corruption-on-rise-at-u-s-utilities-in-ohio-and-elsewhere-threatening-energy-transition/
Ex-OH House Speaker Larry Householder sentenced to maximum 20 years, Columbus Dispatch, by Laura A. Bischoff and Jessie Balmert, June 29, 2023
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2023/06/29/ex-ohio-house-speaker-larry-householder-faces-prison-in-corruption-case/70235375007/
All too accurate paraphrase: “We can kind of do what we want,” Huffman told the Columbus Dispatch. Meet Matt Huffman: The Lima Republican who runs Ohio, Columbus Dispatch, May 19, 2022.
https://www.dispatch.com › story › news › 2022/05/19
“They don’t care”: Chief Justice O’Connor interview with the author
Blew right past it: The messy story of Ohio redistricting and the deliberate failure of the commission to deliver constitutional maps, in defiance of court orders, is well-chronicled by many reporters, including Redistricting: One year later, Ohio a unique, flawed case by Susan Tebben, Ohio Capital Journal, Sept. 2, 2022
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/09/02/redistricting-one-year-later-ohio-a-unique-flawed-case/
Unconstitutional maps rule Ohio elections in 2022 by Tyler Buchanan, Axios, July 20, 2022
https://www.axios.com/local/columbus/2022/07/20/unconstitutional-maps-rule-ohio-elections-2022
The chaos theory behind Ohio’s redistricting fiasco by Jim DeBrosse, Cincinnati magazine, April 15, 2022
https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/the-chaos-theory-behind-ohios-redistricting-fiasco/
Republicans keep gerrymandered maps – after they were struck down by court, The Guardian, by Sam Levine, July 21, 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/21/ohio-republicans-gerrymandered-maps
The ugliness of gerrymandering, epitomized in Ohio by Aaron Blake, Washington Post, Jan. 13, 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/13/ugliness-gerrymandering-epitomized-ohio/
Analysis: Why new Ohio redistricting maps are an 'insult to democracy' by John Avlon, CNN, Nov. 19, 2021
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/11/19/redistricting-ohio-republicans-avlon-reality-check-newday-ldn-vpx.cnn
Ohio voters asked for fairness in redistricting. They didn’t get it by Dan Balz, Washington Post, Jan. 17, 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ohio-voters-asked-for-fairness-in-redistricting-they-didnt-get-it/2022/01/17/10bb1b8c-77a9-11ec-bf97-6eac6f77fba2_story.html
“More clearly constitutional”: Ohio Redistricting Commission approves new state legislative maps that maintain Republican supermajority despite anti-gerrymandering reforms by Jessie Balmert, Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 23, 2021
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2021/09/23/redistricting-lawsuit-triggers-ohio-supreme-court-review-4-year-statehouse-maps/8418902002/
Chose not to recuse: Justice Pat DeWine won't recuse himself from lawsuits over maps approved by father Gov. Mike DeWine by Jessie Balmert, Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 30, 2021
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2021/09/30/justice-pat-dewine-wont-recuse-himself-redistricting-lawsuits/5932977001/
Discussed impeaching O’Connor: Ohio Republicans discussing impeachment of Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor after map ruling by Haley BeMiller, Jessie Balmert, Laura A. Bischoff, Columbus Dispatch, March 18, 2022
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2022/03/18/ohio-republicans-want-impeach-maureen-oconnor-over-redistricting/7088996001/
Supporting O’Connor’s impeachment: LaRose would ‘be fine with’ chief justice’s impeachment over redistricting rulings by Marty Schladen, Ohio Capital Journal, April 1, 2022 https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/04/01/larose-would-be-fine-with-chief-justices-impeachment-over-redistricting-rulings/
“I should vote no”: Ohio Supreme Court case interviews detail how negotiations on Statehouse maps fell apart by Jessie Balmert, Titus Wu, Laura A. Bischoff, The Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 25, 2021
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/10/25/ohio-redistricting-commission-lawsuit-depositions-statehouse-maps-fell-apart/6176172001/?utm_source=dispatch-Ohio%20Politics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=baseline&utm_term=hero&utm_content=OHIO-COLUMBUS-NLETTER10
“When Hitler intimidated the judiciary”: Chief justice in Ohio map flap: Court attacks harm democracy by Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press, Dec. 21, 2022
https://apnews.com/article/politics-ohio-1b0c7575627136cb1fb6d672465081eb
Federalist Society judges: Young conservative who clerked for Ginsburg nominated to the federal bench in Louisville by Andrew Wolfson, Louisville Courier-Journal, August 12, 2020
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/mitch-mcconnell/2020/08/12/young-conservative-who-clerked-ruth-bader-ginsburg-nominated-federal-judge/3359966001/
Thapar’s Senate judicial questionnaire online at https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Thapar%20SJQ%20Public.pdf
“We must presume”: Federal court implements Statehouse maps twice declared unconstitutional by Ohio Supreme Court, staff report, Ohio Capital Journal, May 27, 2022
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/05/27/federal-court-implements-statehouse-maps-twice-declared-unconstitutional-by-ohio-supreme-court/
“Rewards the commission’s brinkmanship”: Federal court implements, Ohio Capital Journal, May 27, 2022
Too bad, so sad: Federal court implements, Ohio Capital Journal, May 27, 2022
“This was the plan all along”: Chief Justice O’Connor interview with the author
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Chapter Twenty-Three
Leah Davis:
https://www.mw-law.com/attorney/davis-leah/. Davis is also a member of the Christian Legal Society. That organization filed an amicus in the Dobbs case supporting the Mississippi abortion ban
https://reproductivefreedomforall.org/report/inside-the-group-fighting-to-ban-medication-abortion-alliance-for-hippocratic-medicine/
Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. For more on the dark money and right-wing power players behind AHM and this case, see Who Exactly Is Behind the Supreme Court’s Big Mifepristone Case? by Melissa Gira Grant, New Republic, March 7, 2024
https://newrepublic.com/article/179626/mifepristone-abortion-supreme-court-alliance-hippocratic-medicine
The Christian Right’s Imaginary Nation by Sarah Jones, New York, March 15, 2024
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/how-the-christian-right-invents-cases-against-abortion.html
Inside the group fighting to ban medical abortion, NARAL, March 1, 2023
https://reproductivefreedomforall.org/resources/inside-the-group-fighting-to-ban-medication-abortion-alliance-for-hippocratic-medicine/
The Supreme Court Abortion Pill Case Is Based on Imaginary Patients and Shoddy Science by Madison Pauly, Mother Jones, March 25, 2024
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/03/mifepristone-supreme-court/.
The shadow medical community behind the attempt to ban medication abortion, The Intercept, Feb. 28, 2023
https://theintercept.com/2023/02/28/medication-abortion-lawsuit/
Bristol, Tenn.: AHM’s EZ-1023 filed with the IRS shows to the Bristol address. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24223757-alliance-for-hippocratic-medicine_form-1023-ez_2023-05-10
The New Republic’s Grant ran the address on Google street view and found a sign at that address for something called the Christian Medical and Dental Association
https://newrepublic.com/article/179626/mifepristone-abortion-supreme-court-alliance-hippocratic-medicine
Davis register her law office:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23505124-alliance-for-hippocratic-medicine-sos-document
Everything to do with a judge named Matthew J. Kacsmaryk:
Kacsmaryk’s religious and anti-abortion beliefs are documented in The Texas judge who could take down the abortion pill, by Caroline Kitchener and Ann E. Marimow, Washington Post, Feb. 25, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/25/texas-judge-abortion-pill-decision/
The Texas Tribune documented his deep Federalist Society ties and delved into First Liberty in Federal judge at center of FDA abortion drug case has history with conservative causes by Eleanor Klibinoff, Texas Tribune, March 15, 2023
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/15/federal-judge-amarillo-abortion-fda/
The great Ian Millhiser walked through his record case by case in How an obscure Christian right activist became one of the most powerful men in America, Vox, Dec. 17, 2022, concluding that, “Many of Kacsmaryk’s decisions are so poorly reasoned that they can be rebutted in just a couple of sentences.”
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/12/17/23512766/supreme-court-matthew-kacsmaryk-judge-trump-abortion-immigration-birth-control
Abortion pill order latest contentious ruling by Texas judge by Lindsay Whitehurst and Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press, April 8, 2023
https://apnews.com/article/texas-judge-matthew-kacsmaryk-abortion-pill-fda-75964b777ef09593a1ad948c6cfc0237
America’s Worst Judge Declares War on Drag by Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, Sept. 22, 2023
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/09/judge-matthew-j-kacsmaryk-declares-war-on-drag.html
Only federal judge: The Texas Tribune noted that the AHM did not file their lawsuit in Maryland, home to the FDA, but in Amarillo, a city with no abortion clinic but a federal courthouse with, importantly, just one federal judge presiding. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk hears 95% of the cases filed in Amarillo.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/15/federal-judge-amarillo-abortion-fda/
Near-perfect:
https://www.txnd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/orders/3-327.pdf
Blown fuse of American jurisprudence: The 5th Circuit Is the Blown Fuse of American Jurisprudence, by Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, Jan 30, 2023
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a42709368/5th-circuit-court-conservatives/
Federal judges explain things to me, by Felicia Kornbluh, American Prospect, April 10, 2023
https://prospect.org/justice/2023-04-10-federal-judge-supreme-court-fda-abortion-drug/
Kacsmaryk raceway had become well-traveled: Abortion pill order latest contentious ruling by Texas judge by Lindsay Whitehurst and Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press, April 8, 2023
https://apnews.com/article/texas-judge-matthew-kacsmaryk-abortion-pill-fda-75964b777ef09593a1ad948c6cfc0237
How an obscure Christian right activist became one of the most powerful men in America, Ian Millhiser, Vox, Dec. 17, 2022,
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/12/17/23512766/supreme-court-matthew-kacsmaryk-judge-trump-abortion-immigration-birth-control
The Texas Tribune documented his deep Federalist Society ties and delved into First Liberty in Federal judge at center of FDA abortion drug case has history with conservative causes by Eleanor Klibinoff, Texas Tribune, March 15, 2023
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/15/federal-judge-amarillo-abortion-fda/
Well-known to all: Kacsmaryk’s religious and anti-abortion beliefs are documented in The Texas judge who could take down the abortion pill, by Caroline Kitchener and Ann E. Marimow, Washington Post, Feb. 25, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/25/texas-judge-abortion-pill-decision/
The Texas Tribune documented his deep Federalist Society ties and delved into First Liberty in Federal judge at center of FDA abortion drug case has history with conservative causes by Eleanor Klibinoff, Texas Tribune, March 15, 2023
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Co-founded the Federalist Society’s chapter in Fort Worth:
https://www.txnd.uscourts.gov/news/press-release-judge-matthew-joseph-kacsmaryk
According to the Federalist Society web site, Kacsmaryk has spoken at no fewer than 10 FedSoc events, including one on the same day briefs were due in the Mifeprestone case
https://www.jezebel.com/judge-matthew-kacsmaryk-federalist-society-leonard-leo-1850170444
Approved by Leonard Leo:
Texas District Court Judge Who Ruled on Mifepristone was Handpicked by the Same Network that Brought the Lawsuit by Anne Nelson, Washington Spectator, April 18, 2023
https://washingtonspectator.org/texas-judge-who-ruled-on-mifepristone-was-handpicked-by-same-network-that-brought-lawsuit/
Conservatives Are Turning to a 150-Year-Old Obscenity Law to Outlaw Abortion by Melissa Gira Grant, New Republic, April 12, 2023
https://newrepublic.com/article/171823/kacsmaryk-mifepristone-abortion-comstock-act
A Federalist Society for all things by Lucian K. Truscott IV, Salon, March 18, 2023
https://www.salon.com/2023/03/18/a-federalist-society-for-all-things-dark-money-enters-the-culture/
First Liberty:
Kacsmaryk’s religious and anti-abortion beliefs are documented in The Texas judge who could take down the abortion pill, by Caroline Kitchener and Ann E. Marimow, Washington Post, Feb. 25, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/25/texas-judge-abortion-pill-decision/
The Texas Tribune documented his deep Federalist Society ties and delved into First Liberty in Federal judge at center of FDA abortion drug case has history with conservative causes by Eleanor Klibinoff, Texas Tribune, March 15, 2023
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/15/federal-judge-amarillo-abortion-fda/
90 percent:
https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/the-third-federalist-society/
State Policy Network
https://spn.org/organization/first-liberty-institute/
Coordinated right-wing organizations: Texas District Court Judge Who Ruled on Mifepristone was Handpicked by the Same Network that Brought the Lawsuit by Anne Nelson, Washington Spectator, April 18, 2023
https://washingtonspectator.org/texas-judge-who-ruled-on-mifepristone-was-handpicked-by-same-network-that-brought-lawsuit/
Much of its eight-figure annual budget: DonorsTrust and the Schwab Charitable Fund are critical First Liberty donors
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/first-liberty-institute/
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/751403169
https://www.monitoringinfluence.org/org/donors-trust/
https://www.donorstrust.org/religious-freedom-the-fight-for-american-faith/
The Same Dark Money Groups That Helped Overturn Roe Are Also Behind Attacks on Abortion Pill by Ansev Demirhan, Ms magazine, Feb. 6, 2023
https://msmagazine.com/2023/02/06/fda-abortion-pills/
Dark money is flowing to groups trying to limit medication abortion. Leonard Leo is again at the center, Amanda Becker, 19th News, Jan. 4, 2024
https://19thnews.org/2024/01/leonard-leo-center-medication-abortion-restriction-efforts/
First of several six-figure payments:
The Case That Could Ban the Abortion Pill Nationwide Is in the Hands of the Worst Possible Judge by Susan Rinkunas, Jezebel, March 1, 2023
https://www.jezebel.com/judge-matthew-kacsmaryk-federalist-society-leonard-leo-1850170444
Set out the whole pay-to-play arrangement: Videos show closed-door sessions of leading conservative activists: ‘Be not afraid of the accusations that you’re a voter suppressor’ by Robert O'Harrow J, Washington Post, October 14, 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/council-national-policy-video/2020/10/14/367f24c2-f793-11ea-a510-f57d8ce76e11_story.html
Council for National Policy: Anne Nelson’s book, Shadow Network, Media, Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right is the indispensable source on the CNP’s roots and victories
Ginni Thomas: Is Ginni Thomas a Threat to the Supreme Court? By Jane Mayer, the New Yorker, Jan. 21, 2022
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court
Why the Fifth Circuit Keeps Making Such Outlandish Decisions. In The Atlantic, Stephen Vladeck writes that the Fifth Circuit’s “disregard for the Supreme Court has the ironic effect of making the justices look more moderate.” The Atlantic, Stephen I. Vladeck, Nov. 28, 2023
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/11/fifth-circuit-conservative-supreme-court/676116/
Matter everywhere: America’s Fifth Circuit Problem. American Prospect, By Hassan Ali Kanu, April 15, 2024
https://prospect.org/justice/2024-04-15-americas-fifth-circuit-problem/\
Transformed into a vehicle: The woman who could bring down Roe v Wade by Caroline Kitchener, Washington Post, Dec. 1, 2021
https://www.washingtonpost.com/gender-identity/the-woman-who-could-bring-down-roe-v-wade/
Lynn Fitch asks U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, by Will Stribling, Mississippi Today, July 26, 2021
https://mississippitoday.org/2021/07/26/lynn-fitch-asks-u-s-supreme-court-to-overturn-roe-v-wade/
Preempt down: Antagonisms flare as red states try to dictate how blue cities are run by Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Washington Post, Nov. 27, 2023
226 judges: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/01/13/how-trump-compares-with-other-recent-presidents-in-appointing-federal-judges/
Pace that dwarfs: Trump’s 226 judges in four years put him on target to exceed Obama (320), George W. Bush (322) and Bill Clinton’s (367) two-term pace.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/01/13/how-trump-compares-with-other-recent-presidents-in-appointing-federal-judges/
54 federal appellate judges: As Pew notes, “Trump appointed 54 federal appellate judges in four years, one short of the 55 Obama appointed in twice as much time. In the process, Trump “flipped” the balance of several appeals courts from a majority of Democratic appointees to a majority of Republican appointees.”
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/01/13/how-trump-compares-with-other-recent-presidents-in-appointing-federal-judges
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-legacy-factbox/factbox-donald-trumps-legacy-six-policy-takeaways-idUSKBN27F1GK/
State supreme courts: Trump’s Court Whisperer Had a State Judicial Strategy. Its Full Extent Only Became Clear Years Later by Andrea Bernstein and Andy Kroll, ProPublica, Oct. 23, 2023
https://www.propublica.org/article/leonard-leo-wisconsin-documents-state-courts-republicans-judges
Writes Nicholas Goldrosen: The New Preemption of Progressive Prosecutors by Nicholas Goldrosen, 2021 U. Ill. L. Rev. Online 150 (Apr. 18, 2021)
https://www.illinoislawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Goldrosen.pdf
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Banning plastic bags:
https://www.plasticbaglaws.org/preemption
Tennessee, for example, 93 percent:
https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/environmental/healthy-places/healthy-places/land-use/lu/rural-areas.html#:~:text=Based%20on%20the%202010%20Census,and%20community%20development%20and%20health.
Two-thirds live:
https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/environmental/healthy-places/healthy-places/land-use/lu/urban-areas.html
Presley v Etowah County Commission: 502 U.S. 491 (1992)
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/502/491/case.pdf
Jaylen Lewis: Details on the Lewis shooting available from, among others:
Mississippi wants to expand an aggressive police force responsible for recent shootings, NBC, by Bracey Harris and Jon Schiuppe, Feb. 24, 2023
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mississippi-capitol-police-jackson-shootings-rcna70474
Jaylen Lewis, Dad Of 2 Killed In Police Involved Shooting. Family Demands Answers by Roland Martin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSk9jyEP0Hw
Slain man’s mother decries plan to expand Mississippi police by Emily Wagster Pettus, AP, March 6, 2023
https://apnews.com/article/jackson-mississippi-black-voting-rights-courts-police-6739a4dbe7e93969cd4b70ccd00cd458
Capitol police officers on administrative leave following fatal Sunday shooting, Clarion Ledger, by Joshua Williams, Sept. 29, 2022
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2022/09/29/jaylen-lewis-shooting-jacksoncapitol-police-officers-placed-on-administrative-leave/69527514007/
Hostile takeover in Jackson by Tana Ganeva, Truthdig, April 20, 2023
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/hostile-takeover-in-jackson/
“Plantation Politics”: How White Mississippi Lawmakers Want to Seize Power in Majority-Black Jackson, Democracy Now, March 9, 2023
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/3/9/jackson_apartheid
83 percent: Black Mississippi capital distrusts plans by white officials by Emily Wagster Pettus, Associated Press, Feb. 26, 2023
https://apnews.com/article/jackson-mississippi-government-judges-local-control-15ced19f16f22c454c505704ef7d943c
New political walls: Mississippi wants to expand an aggressive police force responsible for recent shootings, NBC, by Bracey Harris and Jon Schiuppe, Feb. 24, 2023
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mississippi-capitol-police-jackson-shootings-rcna70474
Black Mississippi capital distrusts plans by white officials by Emily Wagster Pettus, Associated Press, Feb. 26, 2023
https://apnews.com/article/jackson-mississippi-government-judges-local-control-15ced19f16f22c454c505704ef7d943c
As state-run police expand into Jackson, some welcome the help. Others see racism, NPR, March 8, 2023
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1161305763?storyId=1161305763
State-Run Capitol Police’s Jurisdiction Would Cover All Jackson If Bill Becomes Law by Kayode Crown, Mississippi Free Press, Feb 13, 2023
https://www.mississippifreepress.org/31048/state-run-capitol-polices-jurisdiction-would-cover-all-jackson-if-bill-becomes-law
It reminds me of apartheid: Lumumba on bills aimed at Jackson: ‘It reminds me of apartheid’ by Alex Rozier, Mississippi Today, Jan. 30, 2023
https://mississippitoday.org/2023/01/30/lumumba-likens-legislation-aimed-at-jackson-to-apartheid/
Unaccountable: Mississippi wants to expand an aggressive police force responsible for recent shootings, NBC, by Bracey Harris and Jon Schiuppe, Feb. 24, 2023
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mississippi-capitol-police-jackson-shootings-rcna70474
Black Mississippi capital distrusts plans by white officials by Emily Wagster Pettus, Associated Press, Feb. 26, 2023
https://apnews.com/article/jackson-mississippi-government-judges-local-control-15ced19f16f22c454c505704ef7d943c
That terrifies me, it also angers me: Slain man’s mother decries plan to expand Mississippi police by Emily Wagster Pettus, AP, March 6, 2023
https://apnews.com/article/jackson-mississippi-black-voting-rights-courts-police-6739a4dbe7e93969cd4b70ccd00cd458
Gerrymandered Georgia, Texas and Florida passed: https://ballotpedia.org/Police_department_budget_preemption_conflicts_between_state_and_local_governments
Advanced a bill to takeover the St. Louis police:
House passes St. Louis police takeover bill, fate in Senate is uncertain, MissouriNet, by Anthony Morabith, April 2, 2024
Seventeen states have introduced 37 bills: Seventeen states have now tried to pass bills that strip powers from reform-minded prosecutors, by Akela Lacy, The Intercept, March 3, 2023
https://theintercept.com/2023/03/03/reform-prosecutors-state-legistatures/
Limit the long-standing discretion: Texas Legislature passes bill reining in “rogue” prosecutors, by Jolie McCullough and Eleanor Klibanoff, Texas Tribune, May 28, 2023
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/28/texas-legislature-prosecutors-removal/
Texas House approves sweeping limits on local regulations in GOP’s latest jab at blue cities by Joshua Fechter, Erin Douglas and Alex Nguyen, Texas Tribune, April 18, 2023
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/04/18/texas-house-local-control/
Paxton continues wearing a path: Federal judge at center of FDA abortion drug case has history with conservative causes by Eleanor Klibinoff, Texas Tribune, March 15, 2023
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/15/federal-judge-amarillo-abortion-fda/
Drew Tipton: The worst Trump judge in America is Drew Tipton by James LaRock, Balls and Strikes, Nov. 13, 2023
https://ballsandstrikes.org/fedsoc-twelve/the-worst-trump-judge-in-america-is-drew-tipton/
Reed O’Connor: A look at the low-key Texas judge who tossed Obamacare shows a history of notable conservative cases by Kevin Krause, Dallas Morning News, Dec. 18, 2018
Leading donors to RAGA: US dark-money fund spends millions to back Republican attorneys general, by Peter Stone, The Guardian, June 23, 2023
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/23/concord-fund-republican-attorneys-general
And Leonard Leo’s Concord Fund Top Funder of Republican AGs Group in 2024, David Armiak, Center for Media and Democracy, April 16, 2024
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2024/04/16/leonard-leos-concord-fund-top-funder-of-republican-ags-group-in-2024/
Lifted Concord’s overall giving: Leonard Leo’s Concord Fund Top Funder of Republican AGs Group in 2024, David Armiak, Center for Media and Democracy, April 16, 2024
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2024/04/16/leonard-leos-concord-fund-top-funder-of-republican-ags-group-in-2024/
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Chapter Twenty-Four
High-tech security center: Visit to Fuentes home in San Luis
Made a brief appearance: Kira Lirner broke this story open. ‘A witch-hunt’: how Arizona jailed a grandmother for ballot collecting by Kira Lerner, The Guardian, Feb. 11, 2023
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/11/arizona-ballot-collecting-law-guillermina-fuentes
Widely debunked: For a sampling of factchecks of the documentary, FACT FOCUS: Gaping holes in the claim of 2K ballot ‘mules’ by Ali Swenson, Associated Press, May 3, 2022
https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-covid-technology-health-arizona-e1b49d2311bf900f44fa5c6dac406762
The final repudiation of 2000 mules by Philip Bump, Washington Post Feb. 15, 2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/15/dsouza-2000-mules-repudiation/
A big lie in a new package by Danny Hakim and Alexandra Berzon, New York Times, May 29, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/29/us/politics/2000-mules-trump-conspiracy-theory.html
‘2000 Mules’ offers the least convincing election-fraud theory yet by Philip Bump, Washington Post, May 17, 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/11/2000-mules-offers-least-convincing-election-fraud-theory-yet/
A pro-Trump film suggests its data are so accurate, it solved a murder. That's false, NPR, May 17, 2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/17/1098787088/a-pro-trump-film-suggests-its-data-are-so-accurate-it-solved-a-murder-thats-fals
Grew faster than any city: https://www.biggestuscities.com/city/san-luis-arizona, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luis,_Arizona
It felt like another world: Fuentes interview with the author
Law-free zone: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-1257_g204.pdf
“Purity of the ballot box”: The racist history of this phrase is told in A Texas bill drew ire for saying it would preserve ‘purity of the ballot box.’ Here’s the phrase’s history by Hannah Knowles, May 21, 2021
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/05/09/texas-purity-ballot-box-black/
Old poison in new bottles: Reno v. Bossier Parish School Bd., 528 U.S. 320 (2000) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/528/320/
Arkansas ballot works like a charm: The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States by Alexander Keyssar, Basic Books, 2009
“Closes its eyes to the facts”: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-1257_g204.pdf
Even then the state battled to make it harder: Details and statistics on Arizona’s open decades of defiance to voting rights for all from
The History of Indian Voting Rights in Arizona: Overcoming Decades of Voter Suppression by Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, Arizona State Law Journal, March 2015. 47 Ariz. St. L.J. 1099 (2015)
https://arizonastatelawjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Ferguson_Final.pdf
Arizona has suppressed Black, Latino and Native American voters for more than a century by Grace Oldham, Arizona Republic, Sept. 13, 2020
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2020/09/13/arizonas-history-suppressing-black-latino-native-american-voters/5771359002/
Voting Rights in Arizona, An Advisory Memorandum of the Arizona Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights July 2018
https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/2018/07-25-AZ-Voting-Rights.pdf
Court battles test Arizona’s long history of voter suppression, Alexia Fernández Campbell, Center for Public Integrity, October 2020
https://publicintegrity.org/politics/elections/us-polling-places/court-battles-test-arizonas-long-history-of-voter-suppression/
Arizona has a history of its voting laws coming under federal scrutiny. That continues today by Ray Stern, Arizona Republic, August 23, 2022
https://www.azcentral.com/in-depth/news/politics/elections/2022/08/23/arizona-has-history-its-voting-laws-coming-under-federal-scrutiny/10141649002/
All the way to the U.S. Supreme Court https://arizonahistoricalsociety.org/2020/07/15/fighting-for-a-voice-native-americans-right-to-vote-in-arizona/
Native People Won the Right to Vote in 1948, but the Road to the Ballot Box Is Still Bumpy, Debra Utacia Krol, Pulitzer Center, Nov. 4. 2022
https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/native-people-won-right-vote-1948-road-ballot-box-still-bumpy
Voter Suppression of Native Americans in Arizona, Native Americans Right Fund fact sheet
https://vote.narf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/AZ-Native-American-Voter-Suppression-FactSheet.pdf
Navajo Nation nation amicus brief in support of DNC in Brnovich v DNC, Judith M. Dworkin, counsel of record
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-1257/166696/20210119144012772_40513%20pdf%20Ferguson-Bohnee.pdf
Rejected ballots document continued problems in Arizona’s elections by Brandon Quester, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
https://azcir.org/rejected-ballots-document-continued-problems-in-arizonas-elections/
Navajo voters in one Arizona County see their ballots rejected more frequently. Here’s what would fix that by Jen Fifield and Carrie Levine, Votebeat, Nov. 3, 2022
https://www.votebeat.org/arizona/2022/11/3/23438048/navajo-nation-apache-county-native-american-voting-access/
Lack of polling sites, not independents, caused Maricopa election chaos by Rob O'Dell, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, and Caitlin McGlade, Arizona Republic, March 23, 2016
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/03/23/maricopa-county-presidential-primary-election-chaos-arizona/82174876/
There are 866 fewer places to vote in 2016 by Ari Berman, The Nation, Nov. 4 2016
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/there-are-868-fewer-places-to-vote-in-2016-because-the-supreme-court-gutted-the-voting-rights-act/
'None of This Is a Coincidence': Voting Lines Are Shorter -- But Mostly for Whites by Caroline Cournoyer, Governing, Feb. 15, 2018
https://www.governing.com/archive/sl-voting-lines-white-black.html
Arizona fielded 22 DOJ preclearace objections and Half of Arizona’s counties: Voting Rights in Arizona, 1982-2006 by James Thomas Tucker, Rodolfo Espino, Tara Brite, Shannon Conley, Ben Horowitz, Zak Walter and Shon Zelman, USC Law Journal, 2006
https://gould.usc.edu/students/journals/rlsj/issues/assets/docs/issue_17/06_Arizona_Macro.pdf
Never identified any actual fraud: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed with a lower court in DNC v Hobbs that “No specific, concrete example of voter fraud perpetrated through ballot collection was presented by or to the Arizona legislature during the debates on H.B. 2023 or its predecessor bills” and that “No Arizona county produced evidence of confirmed ballot collection fraud in response to subpoenas issued in this case, nor has the Attorney General’s Office produced such information.”
No proof of a single case: “There is no evidence of any fraud in the long history of third-party ballot collection in Arizona,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found in DNC v Hobbs
https://cases.justia.com/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/18-15845/18-15845-2020-01-27.pdf?ts=1580148080
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“I used to be a role model”: Fuentes interview with the author
Handwriting analysis: Investigators confirmed that all the ballots were signed by the voter, Arizona woman sentenced to 30 days in jail for collecting 4 ballots, Associated Press, Oct. 14, 2022
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2022/10/14/guillermina-fuentes-sentenced-30-days-jail-collecting-ballots/10496276002/
Tracy Kay McKee: Woman avoids jail for voting dead mom’s ballot in Arizona, Associated Press, May 1, 2022
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/woman-avoids-jail-voting-dead-moms-ballot-arizona-rcna26823
A district court quickly identified his motivation: The ninth circuit observed that the district court had “no illusions” about Shooter’s motivation. It found that “Due to the high degree of racial polarization in his district, Shooter was in part motivated by a desire to eliminate what had become an effective Democratic GOTV strategy. Indeed, Shooter’s 2010 election was close.”
Recognized the intent and potential effects: DOJ sent a letter regarding the third-party ballot collection that said the state provided “insufficient [information] to … determine that the proposed changes have neither the purpose nor will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.” The Justice Department said that without that information, it may object to the change after sixty days.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-1258/142490/20200427163810767_Arizona%20Republican%20Party%20v.%20DNC%20-%20Cert%20Petition%20-%20Appendix.pdfId. at 881.
Targeted at voting practices:
https://cases.justia.com/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/18-15845/18-15845-2020-01-27.pdf?ts=1580148080
Final hours of the state legislative session … party-line vote: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-1258/142490/20200427163810767_Arizona%20Republican%20Party%20v.%20DNC%20-%20Cert%20Petition%20-%20Appendix.pdf
Unverified, farfetched, even demonstrably false: https://cases.justia.com/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/18-15845/18-15845-2020-01-27.pdf?ts=1580148080
Arizona banned: Jan Brewer signs controversial Arizona election overhaul by Jeremy Duda, Arizona Capitol Times, June 19, 2023
https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2013/06/19/jan-brewer-signs-controversial-arizona-election-overhaul-bill/
Broke the larger package of restrictions apart: The circuit court found that the GOP sponsor of the bill “admitted that the legislature’s goal … was to break the bill into smaller pieces and reintroduce individual provisions ‘a la carte.’”
https://cases.justia.com/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/18-15845/18-15845-2020-01-27.pdf?ts=1580148080
“What it’s like to live in a rural, rural area”: In the case that would become Brnovich, Rep. Charlene Fernandez foreshadowed the effects of the law on San Luis and “described a lack of home mail service in rural San Luis, a city that is 98 percent Hispanic. Almost 13,000 residents rely on a post office located across a major highway. With no mass transit, a median income of $22,000, and many people not owning cars, receiving and sending mail in San Luis can be more difficult than in other communities.”
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-1258/142490/20200427163810767_Arizona%20Republican%20Party%20v.%20DNC%20-%20Cert%20Petition%20-%20Appendix.pdf and https://law.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/FeldmanvArizona-ExcerptsofRecordVolumeI-XII.pdf and
https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/D.-Ariz.-16-cv-01065-dckt-000085_000-filed-2016-06-10.pdf
“Videos we’ve all seen”: The lower court decisions go into great detail on the LaFaro video and the legislative record
https://cases.justia.com/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/18-15845/18-15845-2020-01-27.pdf?ts=1580148080
Also, Viral Video of "Ballot Stuffing" in Phoenix Shows a Perfectly Legal Practice By Matthew Hendley, Phoenix New Times, Oct. 23, 2014
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/viral-video-of-ballot-stuffing-in-phoenix-shows-a-perfectly-legal-practice-6647259
Don Shooter, meanwhile: Sen. Shooter can't shoot straight on debunked vote-fraud story, by Robbie Sherwood, YourValley, March 30, 2015
https://www.yourvalley.net/stories/sen-shooter-cant-shoot-straight-on-debunked-vote-fraud-story,91830
Jonathan Rodden, a Stanford political scientist: The entire Rodden report that includes these statistics can be found here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-1257/162052/20201130133300128_19-1257%20-1258%20Joint%20Appendix.pdf
It is fully discussed in the court decisions:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-1258/142490/20200427163810767_Arizona%20Republican%20Party%20v.%20DNC%20-%20Cert%20Petition%20-%20Appendix.pdf
“Overreach”: A partisan battle in an overreach of a case bt Rick Hasen, SCOTUSblog, February 22, 2021
https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/02/a-partisan-battle-in-an-overreach-of-a-case/
Georgia 2021 bill: What Georgia’s voting law really does by Nick Corasanti and Reid J. Epstein, New York Times, April 2, 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/us/politics/georgia-voting-law-annotated.html
Callaway plantation: Black voter says a painting at Georgia governor’s voter bill signing shows the plantation where her family worked for generations, by Natasha Chen and Theresa Waldrop, CNN, March 28, 2021
Oral argument Brnovich: https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2020/19-1257_1b7d.pdf
Brnovich decision:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-1257_g204.pdf
Actually rewrote the statute itself: Some of the very best pieces on this include:
This Court Has Abandoned the Most Essential Element in American Democracy: Voters by Adam Serwer, the Atlanric, July 2021
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/supreme-court-bonta-brnovich/619550/
The Supreme Court Just Mangled the Voting Rights Act Beyond Recognition by Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, July 1, 2021
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/07/brnovich-voting-rights-act-alito.html
The Supreme Court’s Latest Voting Rights Opinion Is Even Worse Than It Seems by Richard L. Hasen, Slate, July 8, 2021
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/07/supreme-court-sam-alito-brnovich-angry.html
The Supreme Court Gives a Green Light to Voter Suppression, Matt Ford, the New Republic, July 1, 2021
https://newrepublic.com/article/162698/alito-brnovich-vra-voter-suppression
Advocates decry Supreme Court’s surprisingly sweeping voting rights decision by Josh Gerstein and Zach Montellaro, Politico, July 1, 2021
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/01/supreme-court-voting-rights-decision-advocates-497736
Justice Alito Eviscerates Voting Rights Act With Masterclass Of Sophistry, Joe Patrice, Above the Law, July 1, 2021
https://abovethelaw.com/2021/07/justice-alito-eviscerates-voting-rights-act-with-masterclass-of-sophistry/
“It has been very quiet”: Luis Marquez interview with the author
We don’t want to help: ‘We’re Afraid’: Town That Inspired Debunked Voter Fraud Film Braces for Election Day, by Jack Healy and Alexandra Berzon, New York Times, Nov. 4, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/us/arizona-voter-fraud-san-luis.html
Texas Tribune: She helped create the Big Lie. Records suggest she turned it into a big grift by Cassandra Jaramillo, Reveal, Texas Tribune, June 14, 2022
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/14/true-the-vote-big-lie-election-fraud/
Bradley Foundation: The Big Money Behind the Big Lie by Jane Mayer, New Yorker, August 2, 2021
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie
Wired into conservative and Americans for Prosperity: How True the Vote Fabricates Claims of Election Fraud, for Fun and Profit by Mimi Swartz, Texas Monthly Aug. 22, 2022
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/true-the-vote-election-fraud/
James Bopp: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/14/true-the-vote-big-lie-election-fraud/
Sean Morales Doyle: Quoted in Healy and Berzon, NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/us/arizona-voter-fraud-san-luis.html
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Chapter Twenty-Five
Merrill v Milligan (later Allen v Milligan, when Alabama elected a new attorney general): The stakes were well captured by Harvard Law profesor Nicholas Stephanopoulos in this q-and-a:
https://hls.harvard.edu/today/supreme-court-preview-merrill-v-milligan/
And also by Ian Millhiser in Alabama’s high-stakes Supreme Court fight over racial gerrymandering, explained, by Ian Millhiser, Vox, October 2, 2022
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/10/2/23377432/supreme-court-alabama-merrill-milligan-racial-gerrymandering-voting-rights-act
And by Colby Itkowicz in Once again, Alabama is the battleground over Black voting rights by Colby Itkowicz, Washington Post, April 6, 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/06/south-redistricting-black-voters/
Ruled that Alabama needed to redraw: Federal judges order Alabama to redraw Congressional map, WBRC, January 25, 2022
https://www.wbrc.com/2022/01/25/federal-judges-order-alabama-redraw-congressional-map/
Textbook case: Michael Li of the Brennan Center showed how clear-cut this case was on Twitter
https://x.com/mcpli/status/1490858804858130434
Blocked the lower court’s decision: Supreme Court Restores Alabama Voting Map That a Court Said Hurt Black Voters by Adam Liptak, The New York Times, February 7, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/us/politics/supreme-court-alabama-redistricting-congressional-map.html
Allowing Alabama to hold elections on a map that a federal court had deemed racially discriminatory: Irreparable Injury: Voters in Six States Cast Ballots Under Illegal Maps in 2022 by Paige Anderholm, Democracy Docket, September 14, 2023
https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/irreparable-injury-voters-in-six-states-cast-ballots-under-illegal-maps-in-2022/
The Court regularly relies on the Purcell principle of not changing election laws too close to an election – but particularly when it benefits Republican candidates or interests
https://www.democracydocket.com/purcell/
Appeals to Roberts’s past: John Roberts’s Long Game by Linda Greenhouse, The Atlantic, October 2022
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/john-roberts-supreme-court-voting-rights-act/671239/
Moore v Harper – an audacious challenge: What’s Really at Stake in a Politically Charged Supreme Court Case on Elections by Ian MacDougall, ProPublica, Nov. 30, 2022,
https://www.propublica.org/article/moore-v-harper-explained-scotus-elections
How Six States Could Overturn the 2024 Election by Barton Gellman, The Atlantic, July 2022
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/moore-harper-scotus-independent-state-legislature-election-power/670992/
Much like the unitary executive doctrine or the major questions doctrine: See The Scheme 15: The hothouse and WV v EPA by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senate, June 14, 2022
https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/the-scheme-15-the-hothouse-and-wv-v-epa/
ISL benefits GOP: Why Republicans want to redefine one word in the Constitution by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN, July 6, 2022
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/05/politics/independent-state-legislature-theory-what-matters/index.html
Terrified the nation’s top scholars of the Revolutionary era: Scholars of America’s founding filed this amicus
https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2022-10/2022.10.26_Amicus%20Brief%20of%20Founding%20Era%20Scholars%2021-1271.pdf
Historically implausible: The brief explains that, “As historians who have studied and written extensively about the constitutional history of the revolutionary era, our answer to the question driving this litigation is clear. The original public meaning of the Elections Clause did not give the state legislatures exclusive power to regulate congressional elections, unchecked by the state constitution or other branches of state government. Nothing in the records of the deliberations at Philadelphia or the public debates surrounding ratification supports that contention. There is no evidence that anyone at the time expressed the view that Petitioners now espouse; nor would anyone have attempted to disprove an idea that had never been broached. Petitioners' interpretation is also historically implausible in view of the framers' general fear of unchecked power and their specific distrust of state legislatures. There is no plausible eighteenth-century argument to support Petitioners' view. The Respondents' interpretation, in contrast, treats the word "legislature" as it was ordinarily understood in revolutionary America. The legislature is a lawmaking body created by the state constitution. It has no legal authority to legislate outside the constitution, let alone contrary to it. On this interpretation, the Elections Clause grants to the state legislatures the power to regulate elections to Congress, a lawmaking institution that the Constitution itself had just created. But it does not take the extraordinary further step of liberating the legislatures from the constraints of state laws and constitutions.”
https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2022-10/2022.10.26_Amicus%20Brief%20of%20Founding%20Era%20Scholars%2021-1271.pdf
State supreme court justices stood together in amici: States’ chief justices group argues against independent state legislatures ‘theory’ by Sam Stockard, Nevada Current, September 15, 2022
https://nevadacurrent.com/2022/09/15/states-chief-justices-group-argues-against-independent-state-legislatures-theory/
The brief can be found at https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2022-09/2022.09.06_Amicus_CCJ.pdf
“Wrong as a matter of law”: A step too far even for a long-time GOP election law warrior who said enough. His amicus brief lays out his credentials in the trenches: “During that time, he represented numerous political parties, political campaigns, candidates, members of Congress and state legislatures, governors, and others in matters including federal and state campaign finance laws, redistricting, ethics and gifts rules, pay-to-play laws, election administration, government investigations, communications law, and election recounts and contests. He served as counsel to all three Republican national party committees and represented four of the past six Republican presidential nominees (including, through his former law firm, President Trump’s 2020 Campaign). He also served as counsel to the Republican Governors Association. Mr. Ginsberg has extensive experience on the state legislative level through four decades of assisting with state and local campaigns, recounts and redistricting, including organizing Republican legal efforts as chief counsel to the Republican National Committee from 1989–1993 when Republicans put in place the maps that ended 40 unbroken years of Democratic control of the House of Representatives. He played a central role in the 2000 Florida recount…”
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-1271/244068/20221026162059761_21-1271%20Moore%20v%20Harper%20%20Brief%20of%20Benjamin%20L%20Ginsberg%20as%20Amicus%20Curiae.pdf
Key document believed a forgery: Fraudulent Document Cited in Supreme Court Bid to Torch Election Law by Ethan Herenstein and Brian Palmer, Politico, September 15, 2022
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/15/fraudulent-document-supreme-court-bid-election-law-00056810
Gop lawyers dusted off in bush v gore
Arizona AIRC case: Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona. Independent Redistricting Commission, 576 U.S. 787 (2015)
https://www.oyez.org/cases/2014/13-1314
“What chumps!” Roberts dissent in AIRC case at
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/576/787/
Constitutional spitballs: ISL in New Yorker: How a Fringe Legal Theory Became a Threat to Democracy by Andrew Marantz, the New Yorker, June 5, 2023
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/06/12/how-a-fringe-legal-theory-became-a-threat-to-democracy
Bush v Gore and equal protection: Election law experts from Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law explained its usage – and potential future uses – in this important piece
https://www.scotusblog.com/election-law-explainers/bush-v-gore/
Equal Protection? The Supreme Court's Decision in Bush v. Gore by Geoffrey R. Stone, University of Chicago
https://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/1/777777122240/
Found the state legislature argument more alluring: Rehnquist concurrence in Bush v Gore available at https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-949.ZC.html
Scalia piece of shit: Scalia thought Bush v. Gore legal rationale was a ‘piece of sh-t’ but backed it anyway by David Mark, Washington Examiner, March 7, 2019
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/1843981/scalia-thought-bush-v-gore-legal-rationale-was-a-piece-of-sh-t-but-backed-it-anyway/
“In most cases comity and respect for federalism”: Rehnquist concurrence in Bush v Gore available at https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-949.ZC.html
Another look at standard which engendered considerable disagreement: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21199163-alabamascotusord020722
Inspect the boundaries: See the heat map produced by Moon Duchin of Tufts University, which shows how clearly the boundaries crack and pack Black voters
https://redistricting.lls.edu/wp-content/uploads/AL-milligan-20220124-opinion-and-order-granting-PI.pdf
What I found was startling: Black voters are being written out of U.S. democracy by David Daley, CNN, February 22, 2022
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/opinions/racial-gerrymandering-census-alabama-daley/index.html
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Tuskegee and suppression: Alabama again at center of challenges to Voting Rights Act by DeArbea Walker, Center for Public Integrity, October 6, 2022
https://publicintegrity.org/politics/elections/who-counts/alabama-again-at-center-of-challenges-to-voting-rights-act/
Gomillon v Lightfoot: Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339 (1960)
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/364/339/
Moore v Harper and FedSoc/Leonard Leo connections: Leonard Leo-Tied Group Pushing Radical Election Theory Got $66 Million Recently From 'Dark Money' Hub by David Moore, Sludge, December 6, 2022
https://readsludge.com/2022/12/06/leonard-leo-tied-group-pushing-radical-election-theory-got-66-million-recently-from-dark-money-hub
Leo Closely Connected to Nearly All of This Term’s Major SCOTUS Decisions report by Accountable.US
https://accountable.us/research/leo-closely-connected-to-nearly-all-of-this-terms-major-scotus-decisions/
Conservative Activist Poured Millions Into Groups Seeking to Influence Supreme Court on Elections and Discrimination by Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Andrew Perez and Aditi Ramaswami, The Lever, December 14, 2022,
https://www.propublica.org/article/leonard-leo-scotus-elections-nonprofits-discrimination
NC court overturns map as partisan: North Carolina Supreme Court strikes down GOP-drawn congressional map by Ally Mutnick, Politico, February 4, 2022
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/04/north-carolina-congressional-map-struck-down-00005974
Adopts 7-7 map: Judges replace the NC congressional redistricting plan by Lynn Bonner, NC Newsline, February 24, 2022
https://ncnewsline.com/2022/02/24/judges-replace-the-nc-congressional-redistricting-plan-the-state-supreme-court-denies-all-requests-for-a-stay/
7-7: 2023-2025 North Carolina congressional delegation
https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_congressional_delegations_from_North_Carolina
If a redistricting process more violative of the U.S. Constitution exists, it is hard to imagine it: Emergency action for stay filed by Speaker Moore with U.S. Supreme Court February 22, 2022
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21A455/215064/20220225161437927_2022-02-25%20Moore%20Emergency%20Application.pdf
This Court should put a stop to the North Carolina judiciary’s usurpation of the General Assembly’s specifically enumerated constitutional authority: Emergency action for stay filed by Speaker Moore with U.S. Supreme Court February 22, 2022
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21A455/215064/20220225161437927_2022-02-25%20Moore%20Emergency%20Application.pdf
Morley and ISL: Michael T. Morley, The Intratextual Independent "Legislature" and the Elections Clause, 109 Nw. U. L. Rev. Online 131 (2015),
Available at: https://ir.law.fsu.edu/articles/618
and later Morley, Michael T. (2020) "The Independent State Legislature Doctrine, Federal Elections, and State Constitutions," Georgia Law Review: Vol. 55: No. 1, Article 2.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/glr/vol55/iss1/2
Brennan Center compiled the leading academic work on both sides of the issue here
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/guide-recent-scholarship-independent-state-legislature-theory
Morley has quietly backed away from the way in which this theory has been used. As the New Yorker noted, “Morley did not submit an amicus brief in Moore v. Harper; reached recently by e-mail, he wrote that he has “consistently and publicly criticized attempts to cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election.” A law professor who knows Morley told me, “...I think he found an interesting academic argument that no one else was making, and the work he did on it has been important to his career, so now he can’t fully walk away from it, but he can’t fully defend it, either.””
How a fringe legal theory became a threat to democracy by Andrew Marantz, the New Yorker, June 12, 2023
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/06/12/how-a-fringe-legal-theory-became-a-threat-to-democracy
Roberts cites Morley: Any ambiguity about the meaning of “the Legislature” is removed by other founding era sources. “[E]very state constitution from the Founding Era that used the term legislature defined it as a distinct multimember entity comprised of representatives.” Morley, The Intratextual Independent “Legislature” and the Elections Clause, 109 Nw. U. L. Rev. Online 131, 147, and n. 101 (2015) (citing eleven State Constitutions).
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/576/787/
Ginsberg decision: Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona. Independent Redistricting Commission, 576 U.S. 787 (2015)
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/576/787/
“Help of the young legal scholars”: Federalist Society bio now lists 10 appearances https://fedsoc.org/contributors/michael-morley
Georgia law review article acknowledges, among others “the Young Legal Scholars panel at the 22nd Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference.”
https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1129&context=glr
Extends deadline for mail-in ballots: Federal judge allows extra week for counting Wisconsin absentee ballots by Tucker Higgins, CNBC, September 21, 2020
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/21/2020-election-judge-extends-wisconsin-absentee-ballot-voting-1-week.html
Kavanaugh and “clearly expressd intent of the legislature”: Democratic National Committee v Wisconsin State Legislature, October 26, 2020
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/20a66_new_m6io.pdf
Gorsuch and “State legislatures bear primary responsibility”: Democratic National Committee v Wisconsin State Legislature, October 26, 2020
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/20a66_new_m6io.pdf
“Exceptionally important and recurring”: Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch dissent at:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21a455_5if6.pdf
“Almost certain to keep arising”: Kavanaugh concurrence at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21a455_5if6.pdf
Heart of John Eastman and Big Lie: John Eastman is having a bad time by Paige Anderholm, Democracy Docket, July 11, 2023
https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/john-eastman-is-having-a-bad-time/
Central to Honest Elections Project briefs: This conservative group helped push a disputed election theory by Hansi Lo Wang, NPR, August 12, 2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/12/1111606448/supreme-court-independent-state-legislature-theory-honest-elections-project
ISL in PA: The group’s brief – not only citing ISL but the discredited Pinckney Plan – can be found at
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-542/158843/20201026174831279_HEP%20Amicus%20Brief%20FINAL.pdf
“Something we just stumbled across”: This conservative group helped push a disputed election theory by Hansi Lo Wang, NPR, August 12, 2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/12/1111606448/supreme-court-independent-state-legislature-theory-honest-elections-project
Accountable.us follows the money: Shadowy Right-Wing Groups Gave Nearly $90 Million to Organizations Behind Moore V. Harper, Accountable US report, December 6, 2022
https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ALTERNATE-20221201_MI-Donor-Groups-Funding-Independent-State-Legislature-Theory-FINAL-1-1.pdf
$70.4 million through DonorsTrust: Shadowy Right-Wing Groups Gave Nearly $90 Million to Organizations Behind Moore V. Harper, Accountable US report, December 6, 2022
https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ALTERNATE-20221201_MI-Donor-Groups-Funding-Independent-State-Legislature-Theory-FINAL-1-1.pdf
Bradley, Scaife, Searle: Shadowy Right-Wing Groups Gave Nearly $90 Million to Organizations Behind Moore V. Harper, Accountable US report, December 6, 2022
https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ALTERNATE-20221201_MI-Donor-Groups-Funding-Independent-State-Legislature-Theory-FINAL-1-1.pdf
DonorsTrust gives 85 Fund $48 million: Conservative ‘dark money’ group raised record $50M in 2020 after election rebranding by Anna Massoglia, Open Secrets, December 16, 2021
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/12/conservative-dark-money-group-raised-record-50m-in-2020-after-election-rebranding/
$28, 135,529: The Dark Money Groups Spending Big To Shape The Supreme Court Are The Same Groups That Spent Millions Pushing Trump’s Big Lie And Funding Insurrectionists, Report by Accountable US, March 2022
https://www.accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/The-Dark-Money-Groups-Spending-Big-To-Shape-The-Supreme-Court-Are-The-Same-Groups-That-Spent-Millions-Pushing-Trumps-Big-Lie-And-Funding-Insurrectionists.pdf
Challenged election results in five states: The Dark Money Groups Spending Big To Shape The Supreme Court Are The Same Groups That Spent Millions Pushing Trump’s Big Lie And Funding Insurrectionists, Report by Accountable US, March 2022
https://www.accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/The-Dark-Money-Groups-Spending-Big-To-Shape-The-Supreme-Court-Are-The-Same-Groups-That-Spent-Millions-Pushing-Trumps-Big-Lie-And-Funding-Insurrectionists.pdf
Bradley and Cleta Mitchell: The Dark Money Groups Spending Big To Shape The Supreme Court Are The Same Groups That Spent Millions Pushing Trump’s Big Lie And Funding Insurrectionists, Report by Accountable US, March 2022
https://www.accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/The-Dark-Money-Groups-Spending-Big-To-Shape-The-Supreme-Court-Are-The-Same-Groups-That-Spent-Millions-Pushing-Trumps-Big-Lie-And-Funding-Insurrectionists.pdf
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Chapter Twenty-Six
Moore decision: Moore v. Harper, 600 U.S. ___ (2023)
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1271_3f14.pdf
Milligan: Allen v. Milligan, 599 U.S. ___ (2023)
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/599/21-1086/
Lonely child, chief justice who wasn’t: A sampling of headlines including June 24, 2022: The Day Chief Justice Roberts Lost His Court by Adam Liptak, New York Times, June 24, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/us/abortion-supreme-court-roberts.html
The lonely chief: How John Roberts lost control of the court by Josh Gerstein, Politico, June 25, 2022
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/25/chief-john-roberts-court-00039237
Chief Justice John Roberts lost the Supreme Court and the defining case of his generation by Joan Biskupic, CNN, June 26, 2022
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/26/politics/john-roberts-chief-justice-roe-dobbs-analysis/index.html
The chief justice who isn’t by Matt Ford, New Republic, October 20, 2022
https://newrepublic.com/article/168051/john-roberts-lost-control-supreme-court
Conservative statesman: John Roberts, conservative statesman by Ross Douthat, New York Times, July 1, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/opinion/john-roberts-supreme-court-statesman.html
Chief justice takes back the reins: Chief justice takes back the reins at the Supreme Court this term, NPR, July 5, 2023
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1185864571?storyId=1185864571
Democracy services another day: Democracy survives another day by Philip Bump, Washington Post, June 27, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/27/supreme-court-roberts-election-rules-north-carolina/
A dumbfounded Slate: John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh Really Did Just Save the Voting Rights Act by Mark Josephh Stern, Slate, June 8, 2023
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/john-roberts-brett-kavanaugh-save-voting-rights-act.html
Slate saw through the conventional wisdom: As Stern and Lithwick write, “That story is the one Chief Justice John Roberts would probably like to have you tell; it is both descriptively accurate and superficial to the point of distortion. The court did, indeed, refuse an invitation to clobber several liberal precedents and policies, which had the effect of leaving the law in place, a set of status quo decisions dressed up as liberal “wins.” It then used the resulting good press as cover to pulverize laws that directly improved the lives of tens of millions of Americans, including the most vulnerable and underprivileged among us. And it achieved these goals largely through the invisible hand of docket manipulation, a trick that’s unique to the modern Supreme Court.” John Roberts Is Winning. The Rest of Us Are Losing by Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, July 3, 2023
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/07/supreme-court-john-roberts-winning-americans-losing.html
Kavanaugh concurrence in Allen: Begins on page 42 of Allen v. Milligan, 599 U.S. ___ (2023)
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/599/21-1086/
Kavanaugh concurrence in Allen: Begins on page 42 of Allen v. Milligan, 599 U.S. ___ (2023)
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/599/21-1086/
“At this time:” The implicit invitation in those three words noted by, among others, John Sullivan Baker of the Fordham Democracy Project, October 9, 2023
https://fordhamdemocracyproject.com/2023/10/09/justice-kavanaughs-allen-v-milligan-concurrence-invites-further-challenges-to-section-2/#:~:text=The%20Kavanaugh%20Concurrence,addition%2C%20he%20raised%20four%20points.
There Are Still Two Major Legal Threats to the Voting Rights Act, Rick Hasen, Slate, June 12, 2023
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/supreme-court-term-voting-rights-act-threats.html
“[T]he Whole Point of the Enterprise” by Ellen Katz, Election Law Blog, June 9, 2023
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=136723
Alabama defied court and dared them to uphold ruling: U.S. Supreme Court faces ‘outright defiance’ from Alabama by Zach Wolf, Cnn, July 23, 2024
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/24/politics/alabama-congressional-map-what-matters/index.html by Sam Levine and Andrew Witherspoon, the Guardian, September 1, 2023
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/01/alabama-discrimination-black-voters-gerrymandering
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They didn’t believe them: Alabama Is Defying the Supreme Court on Voting Rights by Adam Serwer, the Atlantic, July 28, 2023
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/alabama-defies-voting-rights-act-supreme-court/674850/
Sign of why VRA needed: Once again, Alabama is the battleground over Black voting rights by Colby Itkowicz, Washington Post, April 6, 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/06/south-redistricting-black-voters/
The free pass for elections on unconstitutional maps: Illegal voting maps were used in some states in 2022. This legal idea allowed them by Hansi Lo Wang, NPR, July 19, 2023
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/19/1186746963/alabama-redistricting-map-gerrymandering-purcell-principle
Importance of this: “The know-it-all campaign savants at the Times-branded political site The Upshot declared this decade’s maps the fairest in years—and much of the media mainstream followed their lead. But the apostles of this confident appraisal remained blind to the way state after state dismantled competitive seats, diluted minority voters (with an assist from the US Supreme Court), and allowed lawmakers drawing district lines to declare the winners. As a result, the maps ultimately produced a photo finish that only highlighted the immense power of gerrymandering. … Maps that likely violated Voting Rights Act (VRA) protections against racial gerrymanders were allowed to proceed in Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana.”
The GOP’s Bid to Claim a Rigged House Majority by David Daley, the Nation, November 10, 2022
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/the-gops-bid-to-claim-a-rigged-house-majority/
They will have John Roberts: If Democrats win the House they will have John Roberts to thank by Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times, June 14, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/opinion/milligan-voting-rights-2024.html
Louisiana uses Milligan smartly: It took mere weeks for the Kavanaugh concurrence to appear in a filing from Louisiana, where the GOP wanted to preserve a racial gerrymander of its own. “Notably, this temporal argument was acknowledged by members of the Milligan Court but, because it was not properly raised, the Court did not consider it. 143 S. Ct. at 1519 (Kavanaugh, J., concurring) (“Justice Thomas notes, however, that even if Congress in 1982 could constitutionally authorize race-based redistricting under §2 for some period of time, the authority to conduct race-based redistricting cannot extend indefinitely into the future. See post, at 1543–1544 (dissenting opinion). But Alabama did not raise that temporal argument in this Court, and I therefore would not consider it at this time.”).” https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23868826/robinson-2023-07-06-5th-circuit-letter-filed-by-louisiana.pdf
Louisiana Argues that the District Court Considering Voting Rights Challenge to Louisiana Congressional Redistricting Should Consider if Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is No Longer Constitutional, Rick hasen, Election Law Blog, July 7, 2023
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=137307
Race and college admissions: Supreme Court’s Harvard Ruling Caps Chief Justice Roberts’ Long-Held View on Race by Greg Stohr, Bloomberg, June 30, 2023
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-30/supreme-court-s-harvard-ruling-caps-roberts-long-held-view-on-race?embedded-checkout=true
Common Cause: Press release from June 27, 2023 at
https://www.commoncause.org/north-carolina/democracy-wire/victory-us-supreme-court-stops-power-grab-by-nc-politicians-in-historic-moore-v-harper-ruling/
“Rejected”: Mother Jones: Supreme Court Rejects a Republican Effort to Hijack Elections
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/06/moore-v-harper-supreme-court-rejects-independent-state-legislatures-theory/#:~:text=The%20Biden%20administration%20and%20other,independent%20state%20legislature%20theory%20outright.
MSNBC: Supreme Court rejects GOP-backed effort to transform U.S. elections
https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/supreme-court-ruling-moore-harper-north-carolina-elections-rcna87123
Washington Post: The Supreme Court rejected a radical theory on elections.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/27/supreme-court-moore-harper-isl/
Democracy Docket: U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Independent State Legislature Theory in Moore v. Harper
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/u-s-supreme-court-rejects-independent-state-legislature-theory-in-moore-v-harper/#:~:text=North%20Carolina-,U.S.%20Supreme%20Court%20Rejects%20Independent%20State%20Legislature%20Theory%20in%20Moore,Harper&text=WASHINGTON%2C%20D.C.%20%E2%80%94%20On%20Tuesday%2C,state%20legislature%20(ISL)%20theory.
CAP: High Court’s Rejection of Independent State Legislature Theory Is a Win for Democracy, But Questions Remain
https://www.americanprogress.org/press/release-high-courts-rejection-of-independent-state-legislature-theory-is-a-win-for-democracy-but-questions-remain/
Roberts decision: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1271_3f14.pdf
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Moore takes step toward ISL: As the brilliant scholar Rick Pildes writes, “Relief that the court did not endorse this extreme position, though, must be tempered by the fact — which many initial responses to the decision have not recognized — that the court simultaneously endorsed a version of the independent state legislature theory. The court held that the Constitution imposes some limits on the way state courts interpret their own state constitutions.” The Supreme Court Rejected a Dangerous Elections Theory. But It’s Not All Good News by Rick Pildes, New York Times, June 28, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/opinion/supreme-court-independent-state-legislature-theory.html
Pinckney Plan: Fraudulent Document Cited in Supreme Court Bid to Torch Election Law by Ethan Herenstein and Brian Palmer, Politico, September 15, 2022
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/15/fraudulent-document-supreme-court-bid-election-law-00056810
“Do not have free rein”: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1271_3f14.pdf
Not transgress ordinary bounds:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1271_3f14.pdf
What does it mean?: The Supreme Court Rejected a Dangerous Elections Theory. But It’s Not All Good News by Rick Pildes, New York Times, June 28, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/opinion/supreme-court-independent-state-legislature-theory.html
Pildes on decision: The Supreme Court Rejected a Dangerous Elections Theory. But It’s Not All Good News by Rick Pildes, New York Times, June 28, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/opinion/supreme-court-independent-state-legislature-theory.html
No assessment of merits: As a result, there’s no sense of what “ordinary bounds” or “free rein” might be, or any sense from the Court whether the North Carolina supreme court crossed that line. The Supreme Court Rejected a Dangerous Elections Theory. But It’s Not All Good News by Rick Pildes, New York Times, June 28, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/opinion/supreme-court-independent-state-legislature-theory.html
Didn’t need to: N.C. Supreme Court reverses redistricting ruling in a win for Republicans by Patrick Marley and Robert Barnes, April 28, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/28/north-carolina-courts-redistricting-voter-id/
Kavanaugh concurrence: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/600/21-1271/
High Court Calvinball: The creator of the Supreme Court Calvinball line is the tremendous Adam Serwer of the Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/gavin-newsom-california-gun-law-scotus/621000/
Ultimate message is the court will decide: An ‘Imperial Supreme Court’ Asserts Its Power, Alarming Scholars by Adam Liptak, The New York Times, December 19, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/us/politics/supreme-court-power.html