Bench Memos

Law & the Courts

Senator Whitehouse’s Selective Search for Dark Money

Yesterday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) chaired a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on “What’s Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big-Money Assault on Our Judiciary.” It was largely what you would expect. Senator Whitehouse and his hand-picked witnesses weaved a sinister tale of corporate influence and special interest manipulation, in which Leonard Leo played a starring role. Meanwhile, Scott Walter of the Capital Research Center documented the more long-standing and extensive networks of progressive money seeking to influence the legal system with which Senator Whitehouse and his witnesses were not particularly concerned. (Maybe this is “light money”?) I also testified, explaining why the claims that the Roberts Court is particularly activist or business-oriented in its rulings are untrue. Somehow, I doubt Senator Whitehouse was convinced. The full video and links to written testimony are here.

Jonathan H. Adler is the Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. His books include Business and the Roberts Court and Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane.
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