1). “Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire”, April 6, 2023, 5 a.m. EDT, Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott & Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica, at <https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow>
2). “Revelations About Justice Thomas Prompt Calls for Tighter Ethics Rules”, Apr. 7, 2023, Zach Montague, New York Times.
3). “Conservative Activist Poured Millions Into Groups Seeking to Influence Supreme Court on Elections and Discrimination”, Dec 14, 2022, Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Andrew Perez and Aditi Ramaswami, The Lever, ProPublica, at <https://www.propublica.org/article/leonard-leo-scotus-elections-nonprofits-discrimination>
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista: Yesterday ProPublica published the great expose piece posted here as Item 1)., “Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire”, about the corrupt extreme right-wing Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas. It specifically discusses Thomas taking millions of dollars worth of gifts from extreme right-wing businessman, with a fortune based on a massive amount of inherited wealth, and reactionary activist Harlan Crow. Just the one trip the Thomases took to Indonesia, entirely funded by Crow, discussed in the article had an actual value of over $500,000. Thomas' salary is $285,000 per year. Crowe also furnished around $500,000 to Ginny Thomas, the far-right activist wife of the justice, to further some of her reactionary political operations. Thomas tries, without much success, to posture as a regular guy once saying in a passage quoted in the article that states: “I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that.”
The New York Times published an article today, posted here as Item 2). “Revelations About Justice Thomas Prompt Calls for Tighter Ethics Rules”, that summarizes the material discussed in the ProPublica article posted here. In addition it contains some comments about the ethics of Thomas' actions versus those of other federal judges.
Finally there is the question of the role of the Director of the Federalist Society, Leonard Leo. He worked for years, always with lavish funding of course, to make sure that anytime a Republican was in the White House that; young, ardent, ideologically rigid, and usually unqualified reactionaries were appointed and confirmed for all Federal Judiciary appointments. He worked closely, with Kentucky Senator and sometimes majority leader Mitch McConnell, to create the current 6 - 3 reactionary / fascist composition of the U.S. Supreme Court by blocking the Merrick Garland confirmation. ProPublica, back in December of 2022 posted an article included here as Item 3)., “Conservative Activist Poured Millions Into Groups Seeking to Influence Supreme Court on Elections and Discrimination”, about Leo and the Federalist Society being given $1.6 Billion to work with to continue the fascistization of the U.S. Federal and State Judicial systems. Needless to say, $ 1.6 Billion is a lot of money and will buy significant results for the far-right.
1). “Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire”, April 6, 2023, 5 a.m. EDT, Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott & Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica, at <https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow>
(Graphical static images of videos, that precede the actual text of the ProPublica expose article. These videos included a bit of a panoramic sweep of the objects being highlighted. To see the videos go to the article, at <https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow >)
In late June 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.
If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too.
(Caption: Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni, front left, with Harlan Crow, back right, and others in Flores, Indonesia, in July 2019. Credit: via Instagram)
For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.
The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts, two ethics law experts said. He also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht, these experts said.
Thomas did not respond to a detailed list of questions.
In a statement, Crow acknowledged that he’d extended “hospitality” to the Thomases “over the years,” but said that Thomas never asked for any of it and it was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”
Through his largesse, Crow has gained a unique form of access, spending days in private with one of the most powerful people in the country. By accepting the trips, Thomas has broken long-standing norms for judges’ conduct, ethics experts and four current or retired federal judges said.
“It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” said Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton. When she was on the bench, Gertner said, she was so cautious about appearances that she wouldn’t mention her title when making dinner reservations: “It was a question of not wanting to use the office for anything other than what it was intended.”
Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who served in administrations of both parties, said Thomas “seems to have completely disregarded his higher ethical obligations.”
“When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” said Canter, now at the watchdog group CREW. “Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink.”
When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust. Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink.
—Virginia Canter, former government ethics lawyer
ProPublica uncovered the details of Thomas’ travel by drawing from flight records, internal documents distributed to Crow’s employees and interviews with dozens of people ranging from his superyacht’s staff to members of the secretive Bohemian Club to an Indonesian scuba diving instructor.
Federal judges sit in a unique position of public trust. They have lifetime tenure, a privilege intended to insulate them from the pressures and potential corruption of politics. A code of conduct for federal judges below the Supreme Court requires them to avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.” Members of the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts has written, “consult” that code for guidance. The Supreme Court is left almost entirely to police itself.
There are few restrictions on what gifts justices can accept. That’s in contrast to the other branches of government. Members of Congress are generally prohibited from taking gifts worth $50 or more and would need pre-approval from an ethics committee to take many of the trips Thomas has accepted from Crow.
Thomas’ approach to ethics has already attracted public attention. Last year, Thomas didn’t recuse himself from cases that touched on the involvement of his wife, Ginni, in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. While his decision generated outcry, it could not be appealed.
Crow met Thomas after he became a justice. The pair have become genuine friends, according to people who know both men. Over the years, some details of Crow’s relationship with the Thomases have emerged. In 2011, The New York Times reported on Crow’s generosity toward the justice. That same year, Politico revealed that Crow had given half a million dollars to a Tea Party group founded by Ginni Thomas, which also paid her a $120,000 salary. But the full scale of Crow’s benefactions has never been revealed.
Long an influential figure in pro-business conservative politics, Crow has spent millions on ideological efforts to shape the law and the judiciary. Crow and his firm have not had a case before the Supreme Court since Thomas joined it, though the court periodically hears major cases that directly impact the real estate industry. The details of his discussions with Thomas over the years remain unknown, and it is unclear if Crow has had any influence on the justice’s views.
In his statement, Crow said that he and his wife have never discussed a pending or lower court case with Thomas. “We have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue,” he added.
In Thomas’ public appearances over the years, he has presented himself as an everyman with modest tastes.
“I don’t have any problem with going to Europe, but I prefer the United States, and I prefer seeing the regular parts of the United States,” Thomas said in a recent interview for a documentary about his life, which Crow helped finance.
“I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There’s something normal to me about it,” Thomas said. “I come from regular stock, and I prefer that — I prefer being around that.”
“You Don’t Need to Worry About This — It’s All Covered”
Crow’s private lakeside resort, Camp Topridge, sits in a remote corner of the Adirondacks in upstate New York. Closed off from the public by ornate wooden gates, the 105-acre property, once the summer retreat of the same heiress who built Mar-a-Lago, features an artificial waterfall and a great hall where Crow’s guests are served meals prepared by private chefs. Inside, there’s clear evidence of Crow and Thomas’ relationship: a painting of the two men at the resort, sitting outdoors smoking cigars alongside conservative political operatives. A statue of a Native American man, arms outstretched, stands at the center of the image, which is photographic in its clarity.
(Caption: A painting that hangs at Camp Topridge shows Crow, far right, and Thomas, second from right, smoking cigars at the resort. They are joined by lawyers Peter Rutledge, Leonard Leo and Mark Paoletta, from left. Credit: Painting by Sharif Tarabay)
The painting captures a scene from around five years ago, said Sharif Tarabay, the artist who was commissioned by Crow to paint it. Thomas has been vacationing at Topridge virtually every summer for more than two decades, according to interviews with more than a dozen visitors and former resort staff, as well as records obtained by ProPublica. He has fished with a guide hired by Crow and danced at concerts put on by musicians Crow brought in. Thomas has slept at perhaps the resort’s most elegant accommodation, an opulent lodge overhanging Upper St. Regis Lake.
The mountainous area draws billionaires from across the globe. Rooms at a nearby hotel built by the Rockefellers start at $2,250 a night. Crow’s invitation-only resort is even more exclusive. Guests stay for free, enjoying Topridge’s more than 25 fireplaces, three boathouses, clay tennis court and batting cage, along with more eccentric features: a lifesize replica of the Harry Potter character Hagrid’s hut, bronze statues of gnomes and a 1950s-style soda fountain where Crow’s staff fixes milkshakes.
(Caption: First image: A lodge at Topridge where Thomas has stayed. Second image: Thomas fishing in the Adirondacks. Credit: First image: Courtesy of Carolyn Belknap. Second image: Via NYup.com.)
Crow’s access to the justice extends to anyone the businessman chooses to invite along. Thomas’ frequent vacations at Topridge have brought him into contact with corporate executives and political activists.
During just one trip in July 2017, Thomas’ fellow guests included executives at Verizon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, major Republican donors and one of the leaders of the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business conservative think tank, according to records reviewed by ProPublica. The painting of Thomas at Topridge shows him in conversation with Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society leader regarded as an architect of the Supreme Court’s recent turn to the right.
In his statement to ProPublica, Crow said he is “unaware of any of our friends ever lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any case, and I would never invite anyone who I believe had any intention of doing that.”
“These are gatherings of friends,” Crow said.
Crow has deep connections in conservative politics. The heir to a real estate fortune, Crow oversees his family’s business empire and recently named Marxism as his greatest fear. He was an early patron of the powerful anti-tax group Club for Growth and has been on the board of AEI for over 25 years. He also sits on the board of the Hoover Institution, another conservative think tank.
A major Republican donor for decades, Crow has given more than $10 million in publicly disclosed political contributions. He’s also given to groups that keep their donors secret — how much of this so-called dark money he’s given and to whom are not fully known. “I don’t disclose what I’m not required to disclose,” Crow once told the Times.
Crow has long supported efforts to move the judiciary to the right. He has donated to the Federalist Society and given millions of dollars to groups dedicated to tort reform and conservative jurisprudence. AEI and the Hoover Institution publish scholarship advancing conservative legal theories, and fellows at the think tanks occasionally file amicus briefs with the Supreme Court.
I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There’s something normal to me about it. I come from regular stock, and I prefer that — I prefer being around that.
—Clarence Thomas Listen to Thomas speak, from the documentary “Created Equal.”
(Graphical Image of the link to Thomas Speaking in the documentary Created Equal, to listen to the podcast go to the article at <https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow> )
On the court since 1991, Thomas is a deeply conservative jurist known for his “originalism,” an approach that seeks to adhere to close readings of the text of the Constitution. While he has been resolute in this general approach, his views on specific matters have sometimes evolved. Recently, Thomas harshly criticized one of his own earlier opinions as he embraced a legal theory, newly popular on the right, that would limit government regulation. Small evolutions in a justice’s thinking or even select words used in an opinion can affect entire bodies of law, and shifts in Thomas’ views can be especially consequential. He’s taken unorthodox legal positions that have been adopted by the court’s majority years down the line.
Soon after Crow met Thomas three decades ago, he began lavishing the justice with gifts, including a $19,000 Bible that belonged to Frederick Douglass, which Thomas disclosed. Recently, Crow gave Thomas a portrait of the justice and his wife, according to Tarabay, who painted it. Crow’s foundation also gave $105,000 to Yale Law School, Thomas’ alma mater, for the “Justice Thomas Portrait Fund,” tax filings show.
Crow said that he and his wife have funded a number of projects that celebrate Thomas. “We believe it is important to make sure as many people as possible learn about him, remember him and understand the ideals for which he stands,” he said.
To trace Thomas’ trips around the world on Crow’s superyacht, ProPublica spoke to more than 15 former yacht workers and tour guides and obtained records documenting the ship’s travels.
On the Indonesia trip in the summer of 2019, Thomas flew to the country on Crow’s jet, according to another passenger on the plane. Clarence and Ginni Thomas were traveling with Crow and his wife, Kathy. Crow’s yacht, the Michaela Rose, decked out with motorboats and a giant inflatable rubber duck, met the travelers at a fishing town on the island of Flores.
(Caption: First image: From left, Crow, Paoletta, Ginni Thomas and Clarence Thomas in Indonesia in 2019. Clarence Thomas flew to the country on Crow’s jet, according to another passenger on the plane. Second image: A worker from Crow’s yacht ferries Thomas and others on a small boat in Indonesia. Credit: via Facebook)
Touring the Lesser Sunda Islands, the group made stops at Komodo National Park, home of the eponymous reptiles; at the volcanic lakes of Mount Kelimutu; and at Pantai Meko, a spit of pristine beach accessible only by boat. Another guest was Mark Paoletta, a friend of the Thomases then serving as the general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget in the administration of President Donald Trump.
Paoletta was bound by executive branch ethics rules at the time and told ProPublica that he discussed the trip with an ethics lawyer at his agency before accepting the Crows’ invitation. “Based on that counsel’s advice, I reimbursed Harlan for the costs,” Paoletta said in an email. He did not respond to a question about how much he paid Crow.
(Paoletta has long been a pugnacious defender of Thomas and recently testified before Congress against strengthening judicial ethics rules. “There is nothing wrong with ethics or recusals at the Supreme Court,” he said, adding, “To support any reform legislation right now would be to validate these vicious political attacks on the Supreme Court,” referring to criticism of Thomas and his wife.)
The Indonesia vacation wasn’t Thomas’ first time on the Michaela Rose. He went on a river day trip around Savannah, Georgia, and an extended cruise in New Zealand roughly a decade ago.
(Caption: During a New Zealand trip on Crow’s yacht, Thomas signed a copy of his memoir and gave it to a yacht worker. Credit: Obtained by ProPublica)
As a token of his appreciation, he gave one yacht worker a copy of his memoir. Thomas signed the book: “Thank you so much for all your hard work on our New Zealand adventure.”
Crow’s policy was that guests didn’t pay, former Michaela Rose staff said. “You don’t need to worry about this — it’s all covered,” one recalled the guests being told.
There’s evidence Thomas has taken even more trips on the superyacht. Crow often gave his guests custom polo shirts commemorating their vacations, according to staff. ProPublica found photographs of Thomas wearing at least two of those shirts. In one, he wears a blue polo shirt embroidered with the Michaela Rose’s logo and the words “March 2007” and “Greek Islands.”
Thomas didn’t report any of the trips ProPublica identified on his annual financial disclosures. Ethics experts said the law clearly requires disclosure for private jet flights and Thomas appears to have violated it.
(Caption: Thomas has been photographed wearing custom polo shirts bearing the logo of Crow’s yacht, the Michaela Rose. Credit: via Flickr, Washington Examiner)
Justices are generally required to publicly report all gifts worth more than $415, defined as “anything of value” that isn’t fully reimbursed. There are exceptions: If someone hosts a justice at their own property, free food and lodging don’t have to be disclosed. That would exempt dinner at a friend’s house. The exemption never applied to transportation, such as private jet flights, experts said, a fact that was made explicit in recently updated filing instructions for the judiciary.
Two ethics law experts told ProPublica that Thomas’ yacht cruises, a form of transportation, also required disclosure.
“If Justice Thomas received free travel on private planes and yachts, failure to report the gifts is a violation of the disclosure law,” said Kedric Payne, senior director for ethics at the nonprofit government watchdog Campaign Legal Center. (Thomas himself once reported receiving a private jet trip from Crow, on his disclosure for 1997.)
The experts said Thomas’ stays at Topridge may have required disclosure too, in part because Crow owns it not personally but through a company. Until recently, the judiciary’s ethics guidance didn’t explicitly address the ownership issue. The recent update to the filing instructions clarifies that disclosure is required for such stays.
How many times Thomas failed to disclose trips remains unclear. Flight records from the Federal Aviation Administration and FlightAware suggest he makes regular use of Crow’s plane. The jet often follows a pattern: from its home base in Dallas to Washington Dulles airport for a brief stop, then on to a destination Thomas is visiting and back again.
ProPublica identified five such trips in addition to the Indonesia vacation.
On July 7 last year, Crow’s jet made a 40-minute stop at Dulles and then flew to a small airport near Topridge, returning to Dulles six days later. Thomas was at the resort that week for his regular summer visit, according to a person who was there. Twice in recent years, the jet has followed the pattern when Thomas appeared at Crow’s properties in Dallas — once for the Jan. 4, 2018, swearing-in of Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho at Crow’s private library and again for a conservative think tank conference Crow hosted last May.
Thomas has even used the plane for a three-hour trip. On Feb. 11, 2016, the plane flew from Dallas to Dulles to New Haven, Connecticut, before flying back later that afternoon. ProPublica confirmed that Thomas was on the jet through Supreme Court security records obtained by the nonprofit Fix the Court, private jet data, a New Haven plane spotter and another person at the airport. There are no reports of Thomas making a public appearance that day, and the purpose of the trip remains unclear.
Jet charter companies told ProPublica that renting an equivalent plane for the New Haven trip could cost around $70,000.
On the weekend of Oct. 16, 2021, Crow’s jet repeated the pattern. That weekend, Thomas and Crow traveled to a Catholic cemetery in a bucolic suburb of New York City. They were there for the unveiling of a bronze statue of the justice’s beloved eighth grade teacher, a nun, according to Catholic Cemetery magazine.
(Caption: Thomas attended the 2021 unveiling of a statue of his eighth grade teacher. Credit: via Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Newark)
As Thomas spoke from a lectern, the monument towered over him, standing 7 feet tall and weighing 1,800 pounds, its granite base inscribed with words his teacher once told him. Thomas told the nuns assembled before him, “This extraordinary statue is dedicated to you sisters.”
He also thanked the donors who paid for the statue: Harlan and Kathy Crow.
Do you have any tips on the courts? Josh Kaplan can be reached by email at joshua.kaplan@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 734-834-9383. Justin Elliott can be reached by email at justin@propublica.org or by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240.
Matt Easton contributed reporting. Design and development by Anna Donlan
2). “Revelations About Justice Thomas Prompt Calls for Tighter Ethics Rules”, Apr. 7, 2023, Zach Montague, New York Times.
An investigation by ProPublica revealed that Clarence Thomas accompanied Harlan Crow, a conservative donor and real estate billionaire, on a series of luxury vacations without disclosing them.
WASHINGTON -- Democratic lawmakers reiterated calls on Thursday to tighten ethics rules for the Supreme Court after a report revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas had accepted luxury gifts from a major conservative donor without disclosing them.
An investigation by ProPublica described how Justice Thomas accompanied the donor, Harlan Crow, a real estate billionaire, on a series of vacations for nearly two decades. The trips included extended stays on Mr. Crow's yacht, flights on Mr. Crow's private jet and visits to Mr. Crow's all-male private retreat in Monte Rio, Calif.
The disclosure early Thursday renewed scrutiny of Justice Thomas, who has long faced questions over conflicts of interest in part because of the political activities of his wife, Virginia Thomas.
No formal code of conduct on the Supreme Court specifically bars the justice from taking the trips mentioned in ProPublica's reporting. But under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, justices, like federal judges, must file a financial disclosure each year that lists gifts of more than $415 in avoidance of even an ''appearance of impropriety.'' The cost of one of the trips with Mr. Crow may have exceeded $500,000, according to ProPublica.
Lawmakers have seized on the lack of enforceable ethics code governing Supreme Court justices, urging that they be held to standards similar to those in place for members of the executive and legislative branches.
The Senate is considering a bill that would codify that practice, in line with past legislation. And new rules adopted in March now require the justices to report travel by private jet and extended stays at commercial properties including hotels, resorts and hunting lodges.
On Thursday, lawmakers emphasized that stricter standards were necessary.
''In every other place in government, there is an ethics rule that applies,'' Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat of Rhode Island who sits on the Judiciary Committee's panel that oversees federal courts, said in an interview. ''The only place in the United States government where that is not true is the United States Supreme Court, where the nine justices have exempted themselves from this very basic process.''
Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, who oversees the Senate Judiciary Committee, echoed that sentiment.
''The highest court in the land shouldn't have the lowest ethical standards,'' Mr. Durbin said in a statement, adding that Justice Thomas's conduct was ''simply inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let alone a justice on the Supreme Court.''
Justice Thomas has reliably voted with the conservative majority in far-reaching decisions that overturned a constitutional right to abortion, expanded the role of religion in public life and gave Americans a broad right to carry guns outside the home.
He was narrowly confirmed to the court in 1991 after a brutal hearing in which he denied accusations of sexual harassment.
The friendship between Justice Thomas and Mr. Crow has raised eyebrows since the 1990s. Mr. Crow has donated to causes led by Ms. Thomas, including financing a Savannah, Ga., library project in Justice Thomas's name, and personally contributing $500,000 to Ms. Thomas, who at the time was organizing for a Tea Party-related group.
According to ProPublica, the justice spends about a week every summer at Mr. Crow's lakeside resort in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. The property features three boathouses, an artificial waterfall, a clay tennis court and a replica of Hagrid's hut from ''Harry Potter.''
The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Crow denied any improper influence over the judicial system.
''The hospitality we have extended to the Thomases over the years is no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends,'' he said in a statement. ''We have been most fortunate to have a great life of many friends and financial success, and we have always placed a priority on spending time with our family and friends.''
Questions of conflict of interest have dogged Justice Thomas for years, in part because of Ms. Thomas's political work.
Text messages Ms. Thomas sent to top officials in the Trump administration in the weeks between the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol demonstrated that she was actively involved in influencing the legal effort to subvert the race. The disclosure raised questions over whether Justice Thomas should have stepped aside on cases related to the riot.
Instead Justice Thomas participated in several cases involving Jan. 6 or the outcome of the 2020 election.
Some lawmakers, in calling for justices to abide by a code of conduct, urged that Justice Thomas be held to account and step down.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, called for his impeachment.
''This is beyond party or partisanship,'' she added on Twitter. ''This degree of corruption is shocking - almost cartoonish.''
Activists pushing for reforms to the court demanded more structural changes.
''Nothing is going to change without a wholesale, lawmaker-led reimagining of its responsibilities when it comes to basic measures of oversight,'' said Gabriel Roth, the executive director of Fix the Court.
Abbie VanSickle contributed reporting.
PHOTO: Thomas This article appeared in print on page A18.
3). “Conservative Activist Poured Millions Into Groups Seeking to Influence Supreme Court on Elections and Discrimination”, Dec 14, 2022, Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Andrew Perez and Aditi Ramaswami, The Lever, ProPublica, at <https://www.propublica.org/article/leonard-leo-scotus-elections-nonprofits-discrimination>
Newly obtained records show how Leonard Leo, an architect of the right-wing takeover of the courts, has been funding groups pushing to change elections and anti-discrimination laws.
(Caption: Leonard Leo outside the Supreme Court during the confirmation hearing for Justice Neil Gorsuch Credit: Mark Peterson/Redux)
Flush with money after receiving the largest-known political advocacy donation in U.S. history, conservative activist Leonard Leo and his associates are spending millions of dollars to influence some of the Supreme Court’s most consequential recent cases, newly released tax documents obtained by ProPublica and The Lever show.
The documents detail how Leo, who helped build the Supreme Court’s conservative majority as an adviser to President Donald Trump, has used a sprawling network of opaque nonprofits to fund groups advocating for ending affirmative action, rolling back anti-discrimination protections and allowing state legislatures unreviewable oversight of federal elections.
The records also show that the Leo-aligned nonprofits paid millions of dollars to for-profit entities connected to Leo.
Leo and one of his top associates did not respond to requests for comment.
The money flowed mostly through so-called dark money groups, which don’t have to disclose their donors. They are required to reveal the recipients of their spending in their annual tax returns, which are released to the public, but often those are also dark money groups or other entities that have minimal disclosure rules.
As ProPublica and The Lever detailed in August, Leo was gifted a $1.6 billion fortune last year by a reclusive manufacturing magnate, Barre Seid. The newly revealed tax documents cover last year, just as Leo was in the process of receiving that enormous donation.
The Supreme Court case involving a Colorado-based website designer who refuses to work for same-sex couples provides a window into Leo’s strategy.
At least six groups funded by Leo’s network have filed briefs supporting the suit, which seeks to overturn Colorado’s anti-discrimination law. The Ethics and Public Policy Center, which records show received $1.9 million from Leo’s network, submitted a brief supporting the web designer. So did Concerned Women for America, which has received at least $565,000 over the past two years from the Leo network, as well as an organization called the Becket Fund, which got $550,000 from a Leo group.
Leo’s network has also been the top funder of the Republican Attorneys General Association, or RAGA, which spends money to elect GOP attorneys general and serves as a policy hub for the state officials. Twenty Republican attorneys general have also filed a brief in support of the case. One Leo group donated $6.5 million to RAGA during the 2022 election cycle, according to the association’s federal filings.
The largest donation by Leo’s network was $71 million given to DonorsTrust, a so-called donor-advised fund that pools money from numerous funders and gives it out to largely conservative and libertarian groups. Past reports have described DonorsTrust as a “dark-money ATM” of the conservative movement.
Another case that Leo groups have sought to influence is Moore v. Harper, which could have sweeping implications for American democracy. The question posed in the case is whether the Constitution affords state legislatures the power to create rules for federal elections without state court oversight or intervention.
The Honest Elections Project, an initiative within another key Leo organization, the 85 Fund, has backed the plaintiff’s case with an amicus brief. The tax documents show that the 85 Fund also donated $400,000 in 2020 to the Public Interest Legal Foundation, an Indianapolis-based conservative legal group that filed a supportive brief in the case.
Thirteen Republican attorneys general filed a brief backing the suit as well.
The Supreme Court is also hearing two cases this term brought by the conservative group Students for Fair Admissions that are challenging universities’ affirmative action policies. The group received $250,000 from the 85 Fund in 2020, the tax records show, more than a third of the total it raised that year.
Speech First, which the records show received $700,000 in 2020-21 from the 85 Fund, filed briefs backing Students for Fair Admissions in both cases. Republican attorneys general, backed by Leo’s network, submitted briefs, too.
The other theme to emerge from the new tax records is the large amount of expenditures going to for-profit entities run by or connected to Leo. The 85 Fund’s largest outside vendor for 2021 was CRC Advisors, a for-profit consulting firm chaired by Leo. The 85 Fund paid CRC Advisors $22 million last year, tax records show.
The largest outside vendor to the Concord Fund, another hub in Leo’s network, was also CRC Advisors, which received nearly $8 million over the course of a year. Concord also paid $500,000 to BH Group, another for-profit firm led by Leo.
There is no prohibition on nonprofits sending business to companies they have connections to, but any deals must be made at a fair market value.
The companies did not immediately respond to questions about the payments.
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