AFJ Applauds Senators’ Essential Oversight Of Federalist Society

WASHINGTON, DC, March 5, 2020 – Senate Democrats announced Thursday that they are investigating what role the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo played in helping President Trump select judicial nominees despite personally receiving massive sums of anonymous funding for his efforts surrounding that work. These arrangements raise serious legal questions about ethics, records retention, financial disclosure, and conflicts of interest.

Alliance for
Justice Legal Director Daniel Goldberg issued the following statement:

“We’ve always known that the wealthy and powerful have wanted to try to buy influence over our federal court system, and President Trump seems to have handed them just that. Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society may well have been selling judgeships to the highest bidders, and the result has been a barrage of extremely conservative ideologues that Senate Republicans have eagerly rubber-stamped. The Trump administration objects to transparency at every turn, and this investigation into the nomination process will shine a vital light on the disturbing way Trump has been reshaping our courts. We applaud Senator Whitehouse and other Senate Democrats for investigating these critical questions.”