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The activists included #FederalistSociety leader #LeonardLeo &his ideological soulmate, a hard-edged activist named #GinniThomas, the wife of #SCOTUS Justice #ClarenceThomas.
“Ginni really wanted to build an organization & be a movement leader. Leonard [Leo] was going to be the conduit of that” said a person familiar….
She also had… #HarlanCrow, the… #billionaire who helped Thomas & her husband in many ways, from #funding #luxury #vacations to picking up #tuition payments for their great-nephew.

…the #CitizensUnited ruling… upended nearly 100 years of #CampaignSpending #restrictions.

The #conservative #legal movement seized the moment w/greater success than any other group, & the consequences have shaped American #jurisprudence & #politics in dramatic ways.

From those early discussions among #Leo, #Thomas & #Crow would spring a billion-dollar force that has helped remake the #judiciary & #overturn longstanding legal #precedents on #abortion, #AffirmativeAction & many other issues.

It funded #legal scholars to devise theories to challenge #liberal #precedents, helped to #elect state #attorneys general willing to apply those theories & launched lavish campaigns for #conservative judicial nominees who would cite those theories in their rulings from the bench.

The movement’s triumphs are now visible but its engine remains hidden: A billion-dollar network of groups, most of which are registered as #TaxExempt #charities or #SocialWelfare orgs. Taking advantage of gaps in #disclosure #laws, they shield the IDs of most of their #donors & some of the recipients of the #funds. Among those who’ve been paid by the groups are… individuals w/close personal ties to #Leo — including a whopping $7M to a group run by a close friend & his wife.

They also include a for-profit business for which #Leo himself is chairman & which received tens of millions… from his #nonprofit network.

Leo’s role as the central figure in this movement has long been known, culminating in his acquisition last year of what many believe to be the largest #political #donation in history. Few are aware of the extent to which the movement’s baby steps were taken in concert with #GinniThomas.

A key #LeonardLeo aide, Sarah Field, would come aboard to help #GinniThomas manage the group, which they called #LibertyCentral.

After Liberty Central went public, it provoked an outcry over a #SCOTUS justice’s wife promoting causes like overturning #Obamacare that were before her husband’s court. Leo & Thomas changed gears. His network reactivated a dormant group, the #JudicialEducationProject, which would go on to become a major supplier of #AmicusBriefs before the nation’s highest court.

She (#GinniThomas) created a for-profit consulting biz using a similar name — #LibertyConsulting — that enabled her to perform consulting work for #conservative activist grps.

The #JudicialEducationProject supplied some of her biz: Docs indicate #LeonardLeo ordered at least 1 recipient of his groups’ funds, #KellyanneConway, to pay #GinniThomas for unspecified work, acc/to a #WaPo story….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/05/04/leonard-leo-clarence-ginni-thomas-conway/

Now, #LibertyConsulting is a focus of interest from congressional committees probing #SCOTUS’s #ethics disclosures. #Senate #Democrats have demanded that #LeonardLeo & #HarlanCrow provide a list of “gifts, payments, or other items of value” they’ve given #GinniThomas & her husband.

Meanwhile, Leo’s network of *nonprofits* — whose annual donations have skyrocketed into the hundreds of millions of dollars — is the subject of an investigation by the DC AG….

the probes have combined to raise the question of whether #Leo’s groups have taken advantage of lax #disclosure #laws to send additional business & funds to #GinniThomas, among others…. That would be legal as long as Thomas was providing services commensurate w/the payments.

“The real question then is, ‘what is Ginni Thomas qualified to do, what did they pay her to do, and was it fair market value?’” said Laura Solomon, a PA tax atty who reps hundreds of #charitable & other #TaxExempt orgs….

Many people trace the start of the #conservative #legal movement to 1982, the year of the founding of the #FederalistSociety, which provided a forum for #law students & profs w/conservative ideas to incubate their theories.

But the movement that has had such a profound impact on the courts today — one that involves #money & #politics, more than legal theories or principles — gained steam in the wake of the #CitizensUnited decision.

The case followed a highly unusual path —one blazed by a five-justice #conservative majority who seemed determined to strike a blow against #CampaignFinance restrictions.

Initially, the dispute centered on whether a conservative #nonprofit’s unflattering documentary on fmr Democratic presidential candidate #HillaryClinton violated campaign finance #laws.

Instead of resolving the case along the lines argued by the lawyers, the justices took the unusual step of asking for re-arguments based on a sweeping question — whether they should #overrule prior decisions approving laws that limited #spending on #political campaigns.

The re-argument took place on Sept 9, 2009. Two months later, on Nov 6, #CletaMitchell filed an IRS application on behalf of #GinniThomas to form the group that became #LibertyCentral Inc.

…The application was approved 7 days before #ClarenceThomas joined the 5-4 majority on a decision that would open the door to a new era of major #spending on groups like the one his wife was forming. After putting up $500k, the lion’s share of her #nonprofit’s seed money, #HarlanCrow held an event for #GinniThomas at his palatial home in Dallas. The group later made clear its goal was disassembling President Barack #Obama’s agenda, mainly the #AffordableCareAct.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Ronald Reagan appointee, assumed in his majority opinion in #CitizensUnited that #donations & #spending around such groups would be transparent. Justice #ClarenceThomas, in his concurring opinion, argued against “forcibly disclosed donor information,” which could “pre-empt citizens’ exercise of their First Amendment rights.”

The #CitizensUnited decision — which extended #FreeSpeechRights to #corporations, #nonprofits & #unions — effectively curbed efforts to rein in #political spending, while paving the way for follow-up rulings from courts & the #FEC that would unleash additional billions of dollars in donations. Those donors would spawn a boom in #TaxExempt “#charitable” & “#SocialWelfare” groups as vehicles for spending on political activity.

Excellent reporting by @HeidiReports it continues & gets even crazier w/millions going to #GinniThomas; characters such as #JohnEastman, #CletaMitchell & more submit amicus briefs & attempt to influence #SCOTUS; #CarrieSeverino a #ClarenceThomas clerk & #LeonardLeo #JEP assoc briefs SCOTUS on the anti-#abortion anti-#Obamacare #HobbyLobby case; the 2016 #Trump election; #FederalistSociety groomed judges #AmyConeyBarrett, #BrettKavanaugh & #NeilGorsuch get appointed.
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