A lawyer for the conservative powerhouse mentioned that it’s a violation of Leo’s free speech to ask him for accountability.
Far proper affect peddler Leonard Leo rebuffed Senate Democrats’ inquiry into his reportedly extraordinarily shut relationship with Supreme Court docket justices this week, making an argument that consultants have criticized as “comically absurd.”
David B. Rivkin Jr., a lawyer for Leo, wrote in a defiant letter that Senate Judiciary leaders’ request that Leo account for any items and favors he’s given to Supreme Court docket justices is just not solely “politically charged” but additionally a violation of two constitutional amendments — a weird argument at greatest.
Rivkin claimed that the Democrats’ inquiry is a violation of the First Modification proper to free speech and the due course of clause of the Fifth Modification, and mentioned that the Democrats have a document of concentrating on and “vilifying” Leo for his right-wing beliefs. He additionally argued, equally to Chief Justice John Roberts, that Congress doesn’t have the ability to supervise the Supreme Court docket, which consultants have mentioned is simply not true.
Leo has been the topic of scrutiny from lawmakers and authorities watchdogs not only for his and his darkish cash community’s relentless mission to erode Individuals’ civil rights, but additionally for his place of utmost energy inside U.S. politics.
For many years, political insiders have identified him as one of the influential folks in politics, pulling the levers of energy from his place of relative anonymity among the many public; Supreme Court docket Justice Clarence Thomas, who Leo has covertly helped uplift for a few years, as soon as jokingly referred to Leo because the “number three most powerful person in the world.” Leo enjoys a very shut relationship with the Supreme Court docket, having performed a component in getting each sitting conservative justice nominated to the bench.
The letter got here in response to an inquiry from Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and the Senate Judicary’s Federal Courts Subcommittee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) earlier this month asking for Leo to offer the Senate with a full account of any items and favors that he had offered to Supreme Court docket justices.
The inquiry was prompted by a number of bombshell studies discovering that Supreme Court docket justices, notably Thomas and Samuel Alito, had accepted giant items from conservative billionaires — due, some authorized observers have famous, to a matchmaking service run by Leo to pair conservative justices with conservative beneficiaries. Actually, Leo had reportedly arranged a 2008 fishing journey during which Alito was given a free flight on hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer’s personal jet, after which Alito dominated in a 2014 case in favor of Singer’s agency.
Authorized consultants have mentioned that Rivkin’s arguments are outrageous. “Leonard Leo advances comically absurd authorized arguments to justify his defiance of legitimate congressional oversight,” Alex Aronson, civil rights lawyer and advocate for judiciary accountability, wrote on Twitter (now referred to as X). “Like Harlan Crow, Leo can do that solely as a result of he is aware of that the justices he put in — and whose pockets he strains — will in the end shield him.”
Although Rivkin says that Democrats are politically motivated in desirous to scrutinize Leo — ignoring the clear political motives behind the Supreme Court docket’s current selections — Durbin and Whitehouse have pointed out that they’ve been pursuing stronger ethics pointers for the Court docket for a few years, relationship again to the Barack Obama administration.
“I wasn’t motivated by any determination by this courtroom — they weren’t even in existence,” Durbin instructed Vainness Honest earlier this yr. “We’re actually not zeroing in and saying, ‘should you repair the Thomas downside, the Court docket’s in good condition.’ We predict all of the justices must be held to the identical commonplace, at the very least of the opposite courts in the USA.”
Lawmakers additionally emphasised their objectives to make sure all Supreme Court docket justices adhere to ethics requirements in markup for an ethics reform invoice final week.
“The Supreme Court docket has been captured by particular pursuits,” mentioned Whitehouse. “We’re right here as a result of the very best courtroom within the land has the bottom commonplace of ethics anyplace within the federal authorities.”
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