Ernst has gotten over $7.6 million in support from outside groups, including dark money groups, pushing for conservative Supreme Court nominees
Conservatives have dedicated $250 million to packing the Court with radically right-wing judges
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings of Judge Amy Coney Barrett this week wouldn’t be possible without Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senator Joni Ernst and the Republican-controlled Senate’s loyalty to their corporate donors. Ernst has gotten over $7.6 million in support from radical and corporate interests determined to rig the courts, and now she is changing the rules to force through an extreme nominee to the Supreme Court.
For 50 years, corporate right-wing megadonors and dark money groups have been pushing the nomination of radically conservative judges in hopes of expanding the extreme right wing of the Supreme Court and further rigging the system in their favor. In total, they’ve dedicated $250 million to fund the Republicans’ court capture machine. This same network of donors has also spent millions of dollars in dark money to push voter suppression efforts in the 2020 election. Joni Ernst has actively aided these efforts, having received over $7.6 million in outside spending support, including dark money groups, over the course of her career at the expense of Iowans’ rights.
“In 2016, Mitch McConnell and Joni Ernst ignored their constitutional duty by blocking a mainstream nominee to the Supreme Court. Now, McConnell and Ernst are breaking precedent to push through a radical, pro-corporate nominee just days before an election. They’ve completely rigged the process to serve their biggest donors. It’s the epitome of what’s wrong with Washington,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “Joni Ernst doesn’t have a spine to stand up to party bosses or her corporate donors. The result is that an extreme Supreme Court is on the verge of taking healthcare away from Iowans.”
Coney Barrett’s record indicates that she would only give corporate special interests and mega-donors more power over our political system, allowing more money and less transparency into our elections and supporting voter suppression efforts. On the Seventh Circuit, Coney Barrett, a member of the Federalist Society, repeatedly sided against the rights of everyday people. In fact, Judge Barrett sided with corporations over the people 76% of the time on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, in 44 of 55 cases reviewed. Barrett has suggested that the right to vote was not an “individual” right, and said “that felons could be disqualified from exercising certain rights—like the rights to vote and serve on juries—because these rights belonged only to virtuous citizens.” She overturned a 30-year precedent and ruled to hamper the Federal Trade Commission’s ability to pursue restitution from companies that lied to consumers. Coney Barrett is on record criticizing the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act. She’s also fought efforts to ensure that all women have access to contraception, going so far as stating “that the ‘framework of Roe essentially permitted abortion on demand, and Roe recognizes no state interest in the life of a fetus.’”
Dark money groups’ influence over SCOTUS nominees:
Corporate executive billionaires and right-wing megadonors are behind the groups spending tens of millions of dollars on ads to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, in hopes of confirming reliable partners who will rule in line with corporate interests.
The Federalist Society, a conservative dark money group that has supported the disastrous Citizens United decision, has backed the majority of judicial nominees confirmed since Donald Trump took office. Top donors to the Federalist Society include the Koch network, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Devos family. In 2018, the Federalist Society’s Vice President, Leonard Leo, left his position in order to personally advise Trump on the replacement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Wellspring Committee, a dark money group, collected funding from a small number of anonymous donors to push a conservative Supreme Court, including Trump’s SCOTUS nominees. Wellspring funded groups like Judicial Crisis Network that have advocated for conservative judges and attorneys general.
The right-wing Club For Growth recently pledged to spend $5 million on ads to back Barrett. The group’s nonprofit arm received nearly $6.8 million from undisclosed donors from July 2017 through July 2018, according to tax documents.
The pro-Trump super PAC America First Action is also promising ad buys totaling $5 million to promote Barrett in national television, digital and direct mail. Its nonprofit arm, America First Policies, took in $22 million in 2017 from donors whose identities it was not required to publicly disclose.
Americans For Prosperity says it has sent 200,000 letters in support of Barrett to U.S. senators in the past week.
The Judicial Crisis Network’s has been funded recently through some $30 million received between July 2018 and June 2019, led by a $15.9 million donation from an anonymous donor. JCN is organized as a “social welfare” nonprofit and is not required to disclose the identities of its donors. In 2017, a secret donor behind a $17 million gift readied JCN for the Kavanaugh confirmation showdown, providing over three-fourths of the total amount it received that year. Together in the efforts to confirm Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch in 2017, JCN was estimated to have laid out $22 million.
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