1y ago

The king of dark money effectively controls the US supreme court now | Joel Warner

www.theguardian.com The king of dark money effectively controls the US supreme court now | Joel Warner

From its recent rulings to its billionaire donor scandals, this supreme court term has been defined by judicial activist Leonard Leo

politics @lemmy.world

The king of dark money effectively controls the US supreme court now

www.theguardian.com /commentisfree/2023/jun/30/supreme-court-leonard-leo-dark-money

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As the Lever helped expose last year, Leo’s judicial activism was supercharged in 2021 when a conservative surge protector magnate secretly funneled $1.6bn to his new dark money fund – the largest known political advocacy donation in US history.
Even the design of the student debt case reeks of Leo’s involvement, since just like the Colorado suit, it appears to have been based on DC machinations. As the Lever reported, the student loan servicer at the heart of the case – whom Republican attorneys general argued would be harmed by Biden’s student loan plan – would in reality face no financial harm at all.
The US has a serious problem about the impartiality of the SCOTUS. Dems not going hard to fix the problem is not helping the situation. Future of US Legal System is not looking good for the average Joe.
- Imagine what the Rs would do if the same scandal leaked for D judges.
  
  They lose their minds of absolutely anything, so my guess is that they would ‘lose their minds’.

Americans are finally starting to figure out that corruption is alive and well here.
- I doubt anyone has had impressions of the US government otherwise, though the popular view of lobbyists handing out bags of cash is very shallow. What is new is viewing the supreme court as not being above the fray. That's also the sort of genie that doesn't go back into the bag.
  
  You would be incorrect. A lot of Americans have long held this idea that other countries have a lot of corruption (not all of them, but some) in a way that the US surely never could.

Arm yourselves and organize. Politicians aren't going to bite the hand that feeds them.
- Can anyone explain to me how guns will help if the national guard is at your door? Or the military? Do people really think that they could go to war against the United States because the US government becomes overrun by fascists?
  At worst you'll be labeled a terrorist and immediately murdered. Even if you ignore the military, brandishing a gun Infront of a cop is a death sentence (if you aren't white).
  
  The black panthers are really the best example of the (few) benefits and many costs of armed community defense. It's much worse now, too.
- Actually guns are bad and you should feel bad. Only the state security forces should be armed.

Right blames something on Soros: lol one man doesn’t have that much power
But this dude is totally pulling all the strings of the government, the king of dark money, got it
- Remember bribing Supreme Court Justices is exactly like literacy programs and organizing to expand voting rights.
- The left doesn't say that one man doesn't have the power to pull strings, the left says that there's no evidence of Soros doing it.
  A subtle distinction, but an important one.
  Leonard Leo literally hand-picked every judge that Donald Trump appointed, all 234 of them, including 3 supreme court justices.
  Leo then paid for nonsense cases to be filed in jurisdictions with friendly (read his own hand-picked) judges. These cases were all based on lies. Because it never mattered if there was any truth to them. They then get kicked up the chain to Leo's hand-picked supreme court, where the justices rule how Leo wanted from the beginning. Well, 3 hand-picked, and 1 bribed, all that's needed from there is to get Alito to fall in line, and that man has Fox News brain so bad that it's scary.
  And that's how one man can shape the law in any way he wants, even if congress and the presidency are controlled by Democrats
  
  You don't have to say it's subtle. It's far from that to people who can read.
- The classic "why don't people agree with me when I try to blame Jews for global conspiracies?"
- That's a nice straw man you made there. Unless, of course, you're specifically aware of anyone in this thread making that argument.

The upside of this dystopia we live in is headlines like this, which make it seem like a fun fantasy dystopia rather than a dull christofascist one.

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