RDP Analysis Finds 13 Court Whisperer-Backed Groups Urged SCOTUS To Gut Securities Law Enforcement
The Supreme Court has issued a 6-3 ruling in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy kneecapping the ability of the SEC and other federal agencies to crack down on corporate wrongdoing.
This case starts with the SEC fining George Jarkesy, a conservative talk-radio host and hedge fund manager, $300,000 for securities fraud—he had brazenly lied to investors about the value of his hedge fund. But Jarkesy challenged the decision on the basis that the process by which he was fined—an administrative proceeding adjudicated by an administrative law judge (ALJ)—was unconstitutional.
In 2022, the far-right Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of Jarkesy, ruling that both SEC ALJs and perhaps all SEC adjudications of securities fraud are unconstitutional.
In the words of journalist Mark Joseph Stern, the Supreme Court’s decision today is a “massive blow to the federal government’s ability to enforce regulations against lawbreakers.” The decision is a boon for white collar criminals.
Some of the organizations that supported the weakening of the SEC have direct ties to the powerful friends and benefactors of the Court. The very same people who are flying Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to vacation destinations on private jets are closely tied to organizations that are urging the Court through amicus briefs to rule in a manner favorable to corporate wrongdoers.
An RDP review of amicus briefs in the case finds at least 13 amicus filers with ties to court-whisperers and judicial gift givers like Leonard Leo, Charles Koch, Paul Singer, Harlan Crow, and wealthy elites in the Horatio Alger Association in which Clarence Thomas is a key member.
- COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a right-wing think tank and longtime climate change denial advocate that opposes a host of federal labor, consumer, health, and environmental protections. It was founded in 1984 by former Koch collaborator Fred Smith.
- CHARLES KOCH: Koch’s philanthropic arms jointly gave over $640,000 to CEI between 1997 and 2015. CEI is also an associate member of the Koch-linked State Policy Network.
- LEONARD LEO: Leonard Leo’s 85 Fund gave CEI $250,000 in 2020.
- AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY: Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a right-wing group whose top priorities include defunding public education, opposing environmental and human health protections, separating families by repealing DACA, and promoting the interests of the wealthy.
- KOCH: AFP is the “main political arm” of the Koch network. Koch Industries and the Koch nonprofits have given AFP and its related arms tens of millions of dollars, including $20 million from Koch Industries to AFP’s super PAC in the 2022 election cycle alone. AFP is also an associate member of the Koch-linked State Policy Network.
- CATO INSTITUTE: The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank that has long advocated for defunding social services like Social Security and public schools and eliminating key environmental, labor, and anti-discrimination protections.
- KOCH: The Cato Institute was co-founded by Charles Koch in 1977 under the original corporate name of the “Charles Koch Foundation, Inc.” Koch Industries and Koch nonprofits have given Cato tens of millions of dollars over the past 45 years. The Cato Institute is also an associate member of the Koch-linked State Policy Network.
- NEW CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE: The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) is a conservative litigation group that champions a wide array of right-wing causes, from overturning Chevron deference to attacking gun safety laws. NCLA has supported Elon Musk’s attacks on the NLRB and has previously defended Federalist publisher Ben Domenech and mega-corporation Oracle in cases against the NLRB and Department of Labor, respectively.
- KOCH: The Charles Koch Foundation provided $1 million of the $1.6 million NCLA raised in 2017, its first year of operation, giving a total of over $3 million from 2017 to 2021. The Charles Koch Institute gave NCLA an additional $2 million in 2020 and 2021. The New Civil Liberties Alliance is also an associate member of the Koch-linked State Policy Network. NCLA’s president Mark Chenoweth previously served as in-house counsel for Koch Industries.
- LEO: Leonard Leo’s 85 fund gave NCLA $1 million in 2020.
- CLAREMONT INSTITUTE’S CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL JURISPRUDENCE: The Claremont Institute is an “anti-democracy think tank” that defended and supported Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
- JOHN EASTMAN: Claremont’s litigation arm, the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, is led by “coup memo” author and Trump co-conspirator John Eastman. Eastman is a former law clerk to Justice Thomas and exchanged emails with Ginni Thomas ahead of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. In October 2023, Thomas recused from the Eastman Jan. 6 case, though he did not disclose the reason for recusal.
- US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: The Chamber is the largest corporate lobbying group in the country, representing predatory Wall Street banks and major fossil fuel companies, as well as some corporate criminals. The Chamber spends millions annually on federal lobbying and dark money political contributions to promote an anti-worker, anti-consumer, and anti-climate deregulatory agenda.
- HORATIO ALGER ASSOCIATION: Chamber advisor (and former president) Thomas Donohue and Chamber board member Frank VanderSloot are both inductees of the Horatio Alger Association, an exclusive circle of wealthy business elites that has lavished Clarence Thomas with luxury gifts and received unprecedented access to the Supreme Court building.
- KOCH: Charles Koch’s foundation has given large amounts of money to bankroll the Chamber’s work, including a 2021 grant of $817,500 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and a 2022 grant of $1.65 million to fund the Chamber’s JobSIDE initiative.
- INDEPENDENT WOMEN’S LAW CENTER: The Independent Women’s Law Center is the litigation arm of the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), a right-wing group that originated as “Women for Judge Thomas.”
- LEO: Between 2020 and 2021, Leonard Leo’s 85 Fund gave IWF $660,000. Leo’s Freedom and Opportunity Fund gave IWF’s advocacy arm $4 million in 2016-2017 during the fight to fill Justice Antonin Scalia’s SCOTUS seat.
- KOCH: Billionaire Charles Koch is a major funder of the Independent Women’s Forum. In 2019, the Charles Koch Foundation gave $100,000 to the Independent Women’s Forum. Between 2020 and 2021, the Charles Koch Institute gave $303,000 to the Independent Women’s Forum. IWF is also an associate member of the Koch-linked State Policy network.
- LIBERTY JUSTICE CENTER: The Liberty Justice Center (LJC) is the litigation arm of the conservative Illinois Policy Institute, which has supported legal assaults on collective bargaining, gun safety measures, and public school funding.
- HORATIO ALGER ASSOCIATION: The LJC received $1 million in 2021 from the Marcus Foundation, a charitable giving nonprofit run by Home Depot co-founder and Republican megadonor Bernard Marcus. Marcus is also a 1993 inductee into the Horatio Alger Association, an exclusive circle of wealthy business elites that has lavished Clarence Thomas with luxury gifts and received unprecedented access to the Supreme Court building.
- KOCH: LJC is an associate member of the Koch-linked State Policy Network.
- ENERGY TRANSFER LP: Energy Transfer is one of the 50 largest corporations in America. It owns and operates a variety of industrial assets, including more than 125,000 miles of pipeline. The company has a long history of leaks from its pipelines that have spoiled water and damaged the environment.
- HORATIO ALGER ASSOCIATION: Kelcy Warren, Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Energy Transfer, is a member of the Horatio Alger Association, an exclusive circle of wealthy business elites that has lavished Clarence Thomas with luxury gifts and received unprecedented access to the Supreme Court building. In an association booklet published online, Warren and Clarence Thomas can be seen standing next to each other during Warren’s induction ceremony.
- INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE: The Institute for Justice (IJ) is a libertarian litigation group that has opposed affirmative action and fought for initiatives that funnel public money to private schools, including religious private schools. IJ’s founder, Clint Bolick, now sits on the Arizona Supreme Court and recently had a hand in restoring the state’s Civil War-era abortion ban.
- HARLAN CROW: The Trammell and Margaret Crow Foundation, which Harlan Crow is President and Director of, gave IJ $225,000 between 2019 and 2021.
One brief was filed jointly by a host of groups, including these four with ties to court-whisperers:
- ADVANCING AMERICAN FREEDOM: Advancing American Freedom (AAF) is a conservative advocacy group founded in April 2021 by former Vice President Mike Pence. AAF staunchly opposes reproductive rights and bodily autonomy, aims to defund public education, denies climate science, and opposes rail safety regulations. AAF has filed a petitioner-side amicus brief in both Loper Bright and Relentless.
- LEO: Leonard Leo’s Concord Fund contributed more than $1.5 million to Advancing American Freedom between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2022.
- MANHATTAN INSTITUTE: The Manhattan Institute is a right-wing think tank that has defended trickle-down economics, spread climate denial propaganda at the behest of the fossil fuel industry, and argued for the privatization of social services.
- PAUL SINGER: Multi-billionaire Paul Singer, a benefactor of Justice Alito, is the current Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Manhattan Institute. He contributed $8,760,000 to the Manhattan Institute between 2011 and 2022, funding $1,635,000 in 2022 alone.
- KOCH: The Manhattan Institute received $3,182,717 from Koch organizations and foundations between 1997 and 2017. The Manhattan Institute is also an associate member of the Koch-linked State Policy Network.
- LEO: Leonard Leo’s 85 Fund gave the Manhattan institute $450,000 in 2022.
- CROW: Kathy Crow, wife of real estate mogul Harlan Crow, is a current Trustee of the Manhattan Institute.
- AMERICANS FOR LIMITED GOVERNMENT: Americans for Limited Government (ALG) is an ultraconservative group that supported the fake elector plot.
- LEO: Leonard Leo’s Concord Fund gave ALG $1,685,000 between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022.
- ALG touts on its website an endorsement from Ginni Thomas: “If America had an official fire department to help preserve our liberties, Rick Manning and Americans for Limited Government could be its Captain.”
Others who filed briefs arguing that the SEC should be kneecapped include:
- MARK CUBAN AND ELON MUSK: Surprise, surprise. More billionaires who want to weaken our top financial regulator. Who could have guessed it?
- MORRIS & DICKSON: Drugmaker Morris & Dickson is angry that an ALJ at the DEA recommended in 2019 that the company’s license be revoked for its substantial role in the opioid crisis. The recommendation was only implemented four years later (prompting some questions about the DEA’s revolving door) and has already been reversed. Still, the company seems to be taking its anger out on ALJs everywhere.
- TOTALENERGIES GAS & POWER: This gas company is currently facing an enforcement action from FERC for market manipulation, and it would prefer not to have to face a FERC ALJ. The SEC also fined the company nearly $400 million in 2013 for bribing a government official in Iran in order to secure business in the country! No surprise this corrupt company would want weaker administrative agencies.
- DAVID JULIAN: An ALJ recommended in December 2022 that former Chief Auditor of Wells Fargo David Julian be made to pay $7 million and banned from banking for life for his culpability in the fake-accounts scandal. As he explains in his amicus brief, he is not too happy about this.
The Revolving Door Project (RDP) scrutinizes executive branch appointees to ensure they use their office to serve the broad public interest, rather than to entrench corporate power or seek personal advancement.
Progressive Dems Call for Codifying Chevron After 'Dangerous' Supreme Court Ruling
"I plan to introduce legislation to protect the government's policymaking ability that existed under Chevron that has worked for the last 40 years," Sen. Ed Markey said.
Following the Supreme Court's ruling on Friday overturning the so-called Chevron doctrine—which instructed courts to defer to federal agencies' reasonable interpretations of laws passed by Congress as they regulate everything from food safety to labor rights to climate pollution—progressive lawmakers vowed to take action to protect the power of these agencies to shield the public from toxic chemicals and unscrupulous employers.
Legislators expressed concerns about the impacts of the court's 6-3 ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce, which ended a 40-year precedent established by Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council in 1984.
"Now, with this ill-advised decision, judges must no longer defer to the decisions about Americans' health, safety, and welfare made by agencies with technical and scientific expertise in their fields," Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement. "MAGA extremist Republicans and their big business cronies are rejoicing as they look forward to creating a regulatory black hole that destroys fundamental protections for every American in this country."
"This unhinged Supreme Court needs to stop legislating from the bench, and we must pass sweeping reform to hold them accountable."
"I plan to introduce legislation to protect the government's policymaking ability that existed under Chevron that has worked for the last 40 years," Markey said.
Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) called the ruling "dangerous" and urged Congress to "immediately pass" the Stop Corporate Capture Act, which she introduced in March 2023.
In a statement Friday, Jayapal said the act was "the only bill that codifies Chevron deference, strengthens the federal-agency rulemaking process, and ensures that rulemaking is guided by the public interest—not what's good for wealthy corporations."
The act would codify Chevron by providing "statutory authority for the judicial principle that requires courts to defer to an agency's reasonable or permissible interpretation of a federal law when the law is silent or ambiguous."
In addition, it would:
- Require anyone submitting a study as part of a comment period on a regulation to disclose who funded it;
- Only allow federal agencies to take part in the negotiated rulemaking process;
- Create an Office of the Public Advocate to increase public participation in the process of crafting regulations;
- Make public companies that knowingly lie in the comment period on a proposed regulation liable for a fine of at least $250,000 for a first offense and at least $1 million for a second; and
- Empower agencies to reissue rules that were rescinded under the Congressional Review Act.
The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, a group of more than 160 organizations mobilizing for stronger public protections, also called on Congress to pass the Stop Corporate Capture Act.
"The bill is a comprehensive blueprint for modernizing, improving, and strengthening the regulatory system to better protect the public," the coalition wrote in response to Friday's ruling. "It would ensure greater public input into regulatory decisions, promote scientific integrity, and restore our government's ability to deliver results for workers, consumers, public health, and our environment."
Jayapal also called on Congress to "enact sweeping oversight measures to rein in corruption and billionaire influence at the Supreme Court, whose far-right extremist majority routinely flouts basic ethics, throws out precedent, and legislates from the bench to benefit the wealthiest and most powerful."
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) similarly recommended congressional action to address court corruption. In a statement, she called the decision "a power grab for the corrupt Supreme Court who continues to do the bidding of greedy corporations."
"The MAGA Court just overruled 40 years of precedent that empowered federal agencies to hold powerful corporations accountable, protect our workplaces and public health, and ensure that we have clean water and air," Tlaib continued. "This unhinged Supreme Court needs to stop legislating from the bench, and we must pass sweeping reform to hold them accountable."
In the meantime, the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards said that the ruling did not strip regulatory bodies of their authority to pass new rules to protect the public and the environment.
"This decision is a gift to big corporations, making it easier for them to challenge rules to ensure clean air and water, safe workplace and products, and fair commercial and financial practices," said Public Citizen president and coalition co-chair Robert Weissman. "But the decision is no excuse for regulators to stop doing their jobs. They must continue to follow the law and uphold their missions to protect consumers, workers, and our environment."
Iranian Snap Elections Head to Runoff After Reformist Pezeshkian Takes Narrow Lead
A total of 24,735,185 people voted, representing a turnout of around 40%—the lowest turnout in an Iranian election since the 1979 revolution.
Reformist legislator Masoud Pezeshkian and conservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili will face off in a second round of voting after neither candidate secured a majority of the votes in Iran's election Friday.
Surprise elections in Iran were called after conservative President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash on May 19, opening what one expert called a "void in the Islamic Republic's leadership."
"None of the candidates could garner the absolute majority of the votes, therefore, the first and second contenders who got the most votes will be referred to the Guardian Council," Interior Ministry spokesperson Mohsen Eslami announced on Saturday.
"Pezeshkian appears to have done well enough to turn out a core base of support that gives him a plausible path to victory, but he will likely need to secure support from Iranians who opted to stay home yesterday in order to triumph."
Pezeshkian and Jalili will now advance to the runoff election on July 5.
After Friday's voting, Pezeshkian took a slight lead with 10.45 million votes over Jalili's 9.47 million, according to an initial tally reported by The Guardian. Both of them edged out conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf with 3.38 million votes and former Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi with 206,000.
A total of 24,735,185 people voted, representing a turnout of around 40%. That is the lowest turnout in an Iranian election since the 1979 revolution, according to Middle East Eye.
"This demonstrates that a majority of the Iranian public remains disaffected from participation in the Islamic Republic's restricted elections, which are neither free nor fair," the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) wrote in a statement on Saturday. "The Iranian people have suffered manifold outrages from their government and circumstances, including the brutal crackdown on popular protests in 2022 and earlier and the failure of past moderate and reformist figures to deliver lasting change."
"As a result," NIAC continued, "a majority appear to have concluded for now that they would rather stay home than risk legitimizing a government they do not believe in. The inclusion of a reformist on the ticket in Masoud Pezeshkian may have boosted turnout in some quarters, but did little overall to arrest the slide in turnout in the first round."
Reform leader Abbas Akhoundi said: "About 60% of voters did not participate in the elections. Their message was clear. They object to the institutionalized discrimination in the existing governance and do not accept that they are second-class citizens and that a minority impose their will on the majority of Iranian society as first-class citizens."
The outcome on July 5 could depend on whether or not turnout increases.
NIAC observed that Pezeshkian's lead was surprising, given that low-turnout elections usually favor more conservative candidates.
"Typically, reformists have only triumphed when turnout reaches near record highs with a vast majority of public participation," the group wrote. "Pezeshkian appears to have done well enough to turn out a core base of support that gives him a plausible path to victory, but he will likely need to secure support from Iranians who opted to stay home yesterday in order to triumph."
Because power in Iran is ultimately held by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the winner of the presidential election is unlikely to substantially shift policies such as Iran's nuclear program or its support for militant groups in the Middle East, according to Reuters.
However, NIAC said the difference between the two candidates was "about as wide a difference as the Islamic Republic's restricted elections would allow."
Pezeshkian, a former health minister who represents Tabriz in Parliament, advocates for economic and social reform. He expressed regret over the death of Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly—an event that sparked nationwide protests in 2022—and also criticized the Raisi government for lack of transparency during the protests.
"We will respect the hijab law, but there should never be any intrusive or inhumane behavior toward women," Pezeshkian said after voting on Friday.
In foreign policy, he supports direct diplomacy with the U.S. and has expressed interest in renegotiating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Jalili, who represents Khamenei on the Supreme National Security Council, supports even stricter hijab laws, advocates for internet restrictions, and opposes the JCPOA or any negotiations with Western countries.
Because Pezeshkian was the only reformist in the first round of elections, he may struggle in a second round unless turnout increases, as supporters of the other conservative candidates would vote for Jalili, according to The Guardian.
However, a reformist newspaper editor told the Middle East Eye that many people who had sat out the first round of elections may vote in the second round to prevent a win by Jalili. The editor also predicted that many people who voted for Ghalibaf in the first round would back Pezeshkian in the second.
"At least 40% of his supporters, who are moderate and pragmatic conservatives, would vote for Pezeshkian as they fear Jalili's domestic policies and dead-end foreign policy," the editor said.
Ahead of the election, Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft predicted that voters would ultimately decide based on a desire to improve "their increasingly dire economic situation in the medium term."
"They are looking for the candidate who will most likely be able to reduce the price of meat," Parsi wrote.
He did predict the winner could make a difference in Iran-U.S. relations, but only up to a point.
"Expectations for an opening between the U.S. and Iran should be kept low, even if Pezeshkian wins," Parsi concluded. "The problems between the U.S. and Iran are deeper today than they were in 2013, the trust gap is wider, reversing Iran's nuclear advances is going to be more difficult and politically more costly. On top of all that, Iran has more options in today's increasingly multipolar world."
68 'Summer of Heat' Activists Arrested in NYC Protesting Citgroup's Fossil Fuel Financing
"Citi's business model is frying our planet," said one campaigner.
Scores of activists were arrested Friday during a protest outside Citigroup's New York City headquarters, where demonstrators condemned what organizers called the megabank's "racist investments devastating Black and brown communities" and fueling the worsening climate emergency.
Around 1,000 people including environmental leaders from the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana gathered at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan's Financial District, where they rallied before marching to "demand that Wall Street stop funding the fossil fuel projects causing environmental devastation in mostly Black and brown communities in the Gulf South and across the globe."
The march ended at Citigroup's headquarters on the west side of Lower Manhattan, where organizers from New York Communities for Change said 68 people were arrested. The group said a total of 259 activists have been arrested during ongoing Summer of Heat on Wall Street protests, which it organized along with Stop the Money Pipeline, Climate Defenders, and Planet Over Profit.
"On Monday, climate activists from the Gulf South and allies held a roving speak out in front of financial institutions backing the fossil fuel industry, including KKR, BlackRock, and Bank of America," New York Communities for Change said. "On Wednesday, protesters held a civil disobedience action in front of the insurance conglomerate Chubb, which insures petrochemical projects destroying the climate in the Gulf South and around the globe."
One of the protest's organizers, Roishetta Ozane—who founded the Vessel Project of Louisiana—said that "projects that kill our communities like Freeport LNG (liquefied natural gas), Cameron LNG, Corpus Christi LNG, and others would not exist without the backing of financial institutions like Citigroup."
"Money made from them is blood money," Ozane added. "Since they destroy our homes, we're coming to pay them a visit. We will break this cycle of violence and exploitation now because later is too late. We want Citigroup to stop funding fossil fuels and to stop hurting our communities and our families."
As Stop the Money Pipeline coordinator Alec Connon explained in an opinion piece published earlier this month by Common Dreams:
Since the adoption of the Paris agreement in 2015, Citi has provided $204.46 billion in financing to the company's most rapidly developing new coal, oil, and gas fields. Remarkably, Citi has provided more money to those oil and gas companies than even JPMorgan Chase―the bank that climate activists like to call the 'Doomsday Bank.'
To be clear, I'm talking here only about the financing Citi has provided for companies developing new oil and gas reserves, not merely investing in infrastructure to keep the oil pumping from existing reserves. When we take into account financing to all fossil fuel companies, Citi has provided a little shy of $400 billion to coal, oil, and gas companies since 2015.
Citigroup contends that it is "supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy through our net zero commitments and our $1 trillion sustainable finance goal," and that its "approach reflects the need to transition while also continuing to meet global energy needs."
However, Climate Defenders organizing director Marlena Fontes countered that "Citi's business model is frying our planet."
"Every credible climate scientist says that we can't afford to put one more penny into fossil fuels, but Citi is the number one funder of fossil fuel expansion in the world," Fontes added. "Until Citi stops funding fossil fuels, they can expect resistance from everyday people like us who want our children to be able to play outside without coughing on wildfire smoke or getting sick from deadly heatwaves."