Leonard Leo is quietly remaking state high courts in his conservative image

[In It to Win It]

GRID News

For the past decade, Leonard Leo has led a multimillion-dollar effort to remake state Supreme Courts, leveraging hefty support from corporate backers like Philip Morris and Charles Koch and his late brother, David.

Leo, a longtime conservative power broker and the co-chairman of the Federalist Society, is well known for the key role he reportedly played in influencing then-President Donald Trump’s nomination of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. More recently, he made news this year as the recipient of the largest single political contribution in U.S. history — a $1.6 billion windfall from reclusive billionaire Barre Seid.

Less well known, however, is Leo’s role in orchestrating a successful decadelong effort to aid at least a dozen conservative judges in winning or retaining their seats on state high courts.

A Grid investigation has found that a network of political nonprofits connected to Leo has funneled at least $31 million in campaign funds into at least 42 races for seats on state Supreme Courts or other high-level state judgeships in 15 states since 2010.

“Leonard Leo has already spent a fortune to distort state judicial elections, including for state Supreme Courts, to elect radical partisan hacks who stop at nothing to undermine voting and democracy,” Norm Ornstein, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, noted at the time Seid’s donation became publicly known. “The same, of course, for the U.S. Supreme Court. Now he has $1.6 billion for it.”

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[SharonAnn]

1. Leonard Leo, a leader in the Opus Dei cult, is simply implementing their plan. Take over the law

and implement their version of a theocracy. This is how they try to take over in every country.

They know that the real power to change a country comes from controlling the legal system.

They started under Francisco Franco in Spain. They implemented their dictatorship in Chile under Pinochet and Peru under Fujimori.

They are led by zealotry and money and they are deadly serious but try to keep a low profile. Did I say money? Lots and lots and lots of it.

They are dangerous, extremely dangerous and they are way too close to controlling our judiciary at both the state and federal level.

[2naSalit]

2. They have a...

Death grip on the throat of Montana legislature and are pushing really hard to replace the Supreme court here. We defeated them on the ballot so they are now trying to change our Constitution and other attempts to change the rules so they can proceed with the takeover.