How Leonard Leo's project to reshape US judiciary got its start in Wisconsin

[mysteryowl]

Well...well...well, the truth eventually comes out. It is nice to know who helped facilitate judicial disaster in America.

The conservative strategist and dark money organizer has worked to place ideologically sympathetic judges at state level and all the way up to the US supreme court.

In July 2015, Wisconsin’s supreme court shielded Governor Scott Walker, then a rising Republican star with aspirations to the presidency, from a criminal investigation.

The court’s conservative majority halted the investigation into what prosecutors suspected were campaign finance violations. One of the deciding votes was cast by Justice David Prosser, a conservative who had won re-election a few years earlier in a heavily contested race.
[snip]
If Leo’s name sparks a note of recognition, it’s usually because he was Donald Trump’s judge whisperer and a leading figure in helping create the 6-3 conservative supermajority on the US supreme court. Leo realized decades ago it was not enough to have a majority of supreme court justices; he would have to approach the legal system holistically if he wanted to bring lasting change. To undo landmark rulings like Roe v Wade, Leo understood that he needed to make sure the court heard the right cases brought by the right people and heard by the right lower court judges.

Leo built a machine to achieve that goal. He helped ensure the nominations of justices from Clarence Thomas to Amy Coney Barrett. He used his closeness to the justices to attract donors to support his larger effort. He then used those donations to build a network of dark money groups supporting his candidates and causes across the US. And he helped elect or appoint state supreme court justices who were predisposed to push American jurisprudence to the right.

Wisconsin was where Leo honed his strategy.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/23/leonard-leo-us-judiciary-wisconsin-north-carolina

[UTUSN]

1. K&R

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. The story at Pro Publica:

https://www.propublica.org/article/leonard-leo-wisconsin-documents-state-courts-republicans-judges