(New York) When Donald Trump wanted to show the American right that he was trustworthy, he asked for help from Leonard Leo, who was then vice-president of the Federalist Society, an organization of conservative and libertarian jurists.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
It was at the start of the 2016 presidential campaign. Leo responded by drawing up a list of candidates to succeed ultraconservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died suddenly. And Trump hastened to reveal it.
Today, Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society can boast of having played a direct role in the selection and confirmation of five of the nine Supreme Court justices: John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney. Barrett.
This feat makes Leo one of the most influential men in the United States that most Americans have never heard of. A fundamentalist Catholic and member of the Order of Malta, this Long Island native is a networking genius. Since the early 1990s he has created, through the Federalist Society and a myriad of other organizations, a vast brotherhood of jurists who interpret the Constitution as it meant when it was adopted more 200 years old.
PHOTO CAROLYN KASTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Leonard Leo, former vice president of the Federalist Society
His vision is on the way to becoming reality: to infiltrate the federal courts to bring the United States back to a time when contraception, abortion and gay marriage were not constitutional rights.
To achieve their ends, Leo and his allies have raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the years from billionaires whose identities are often unknown. But Koch Industries, Chevron, and the Richard Mellon Scaife Foundation, among others, are known to be among the largest funders of the Federalist Society. They have in common to oppose any measure to fight against global warming likely to threaten their interests.
And the new Supreme Court majority could grant one of their fondest wishes, as early as this week or next week, and justify every donation they make to the Federalist Society and other Leonard Leo organizations.
” The worse is yet to come. Last Friday, after the repeal of Roe v. Wade, this phrase crossed the lips of many people worried about the future of American rights.
But this “worse” could also have a global effect following the decision that the Supreme Court must render in the case “West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)”.
The highest court in the United States is called upon to determine whether the EPA, a federal government agency, has the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, which produce nearly 20% of the electricity in the States. -United.
In 2007, by the narrowest majority, the Supreme Court recognized the EPA’s power, just as this agency is responsible for limiting air pollution under the Clean Air Act, a law from the 1960s.
However, the Supreme Court has been transformed since 2007. It now includes ultra-conservative judges who want to dismantle what is called the “administrative state”, embodied here by the EPA. Last March, during the hearing of the case “West Virginia v. EPA,” those same judges sympathized with the argument of the plaintiffs — 15 attorneys general from conservative states — that it is up to Congress — not the EPA — to regulate CO2 emissions.2 coal-fired power plants.
The catch is that Congress is unlikely to do anything about global warming, being under the influence of the same donors who funded the Federalist Society’s legal lobbying and the Republican attorneys general’s election campaigns.
Such a scenario, combined with a Supreme Court decision to strip the EPA of the ability to regulate CO2 coal-fired power plants, would be catastrophic for the planet, according to environmentalists.
“Without efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, temperatures could rise by up to 5.6°C with irreversible impacts for thousands of years,” climate scientists wrote to the Supreme Court.
But Leonard Leo does not intend to stop there. At the head of a new organization, CRC Advisors, the former vice president of the Federalist Society is leading the legal action of Republican attorneys general and targeting the rules of the “administrative state” to be challenged in court.
One of these rules, announced in 2021 by the Biden administration, aims to reduce car pollution by requiring manufacturers to sell more electric vehicles.
When they take up this case, ultra-conservative Supreme Court justices, who owe their position in part to Koch Industries and Chevron money, will scan the Constitution and see no mention of electric vehicles. Can we doubt their verdict?