Charles Pierce: The Supreme Court Has Deformed Our Politics at Every Level

[Nevilledog]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a45080137/ginni-thomas-leonard-leo-citizens-united/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/gURty

Over the weekend, Heidi Przybyla of Politico blew a very loud whistle on the cozy relationship between Federalist Society puppetmaster Leonard Leo, crackpot political activist Ginni Thomas, and the carefully manufactured conservative majority on the Supreme Court of the United States in the person of Ginni's husband, Justice Clarence Thomas. The initial revelation lies right there in the very first anecdote in the story. It all comes back to Citizens United v. FEC, the egregious 2010 decision that legalized political influence-peddling and protected the free speech rights of bagmen and their customers. Turns out that Leo and Thomas knew enough about what was coming down from the bench to get a well-financed operation up and running in advance of the eventual decision.

In the months before the ruling dropped in January of that year, a group of conservative activists came together to create just such an organization. Its mission would be to, at the time, block then-President Barack Obama’s pet initiatives. The activists included Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo and his ideological soulmate, a hard-edged activist named Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

“Ginni really wanted to build an organization and be a movement leader,” said a person familiar with her thinking at that time. “Leonard [Leo] was going to be the conduit of that.” She also had a rich backer: Harlan Crow, the manufacturing billionaire who had helped Thomas and her husband in many ways, from funding luxury vacations to picking up tuition payments for their great-nephew.

Oh, him again. What a marvelous mechanism for coincidence this is.

At the time, the Citizens United ruling was widely expected, as the court had already signaled its intentions. When it came, it upended nearly 100 years of campaign spending restrictions. The conservative legal movement seized the moment with greater success than any other group, and the consequences have shaped American jurisprudence and politics in dramatic ways.

*snip*

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[2naSalit]

2. This needs a LOT of attention.

[rubbersole]

3. Charlie Pierce appears on the Stephanie Miller Show every Tuesday.

You can hear his fantastically humorous take on current RW outrages that will crack you up. He's a national treasure.

[StClone]

5. We need Charile. I hope he's around for a long, long, long time.

Witty insightful humor, and well-versed in the way of the world.

[spanone]

4. K&R

[Pepsidog]

6. Whitehouse has been screaming this for years to anyone who will listen. Roberts, as I recall,

Last edited Mon Sep 11, 2023, 04:35 PM - Edit history (1)

dismissed the idea that money in campaigns leads to corruption. So add Citizens United, along with the tossing out pre-clearance with the Voting Rights Act decision because we elected a black president and are now a post-racial society, to the list of SCOTUS fails. ( I forget the name of the VRA case).

[calimary]

8. And has ANYONE of significance paid ANY attention?

The one thing this White House needs, and rather desperately, is some PR coaching. And some aggressive PR action!

I think they trust that, as America starts discovering the slow-to-emerge benefits that President Biden has seen through and/or initiated, people will just “get it”.

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!!

That might have worked years ago, before the right and far-right started getting smart, and more aggressive, and gaining eager messengers who were/are glib and telegenic. We NEED more aggressive push-back of our own, and as often and widespread as possible!!!

[Pepsidog]

10. Sadly,I agree.

[Hekate]

7. Kick -- kick -- kick

[DownriverDem]

9. You can go back farther

Hippies & college kids were protesting for not just being against the VietNam War, but also social justice & the environment. Then the repub powers that be looked on & said "this will not stand". Stopping progress has been their plan ever since. So when the voters alternated between voting for the repubs then Dems, very little gets done It's amazing what has gotten done under Clinton, Obama and Biden. We have a tough fight ahead.

[Johonny]

11. The humor of this is Citizen United destroyed the GOP

The GOP political structure is gone. What's left is a collection of rich influence peddlers and/or their own niche cult of personality candidates. The two "party" conventions under Trump were closer to Idiocracy than anything the GOP put on prior to Citizen United. It will not get better. There's nothing in the system left to fix this.

[malthaussen]

12. That "no paywall" link led me to infinite capchas...

... and I'm definitely not a robot.

-- Mal

[2live is 2fly]

13. Some of us are shaking our heads wondering why Bidens' numbers are tied with tfg, maybe its

bc he's in denial about expanding SCOTUS. What can President Biden do to raise his poll numbers? Get on board with adding at least three, maybe four justices.