Predicate facts underlying Citizens United were in play when Justice Samuel Alito accepted an expense-paid Alaskan retreat with Paul Singer, a billionaire fossil fuel investor, major GOP donor, and hedge-fund manager with cases before the court. The exclusive fishing junket was arranged by Leonard Leo, a Federalist Society activist who fights climate science and works to put conservative jurists with similar views on the federal bench.
At first blush, the Alito-Singer trip was covered as just another right-wing justice accepting gifts from conservative donors with interests before the court. On second look, however, it is apparent that the blossoming rot of dark money is what continues to cripple the U.S. response to climate change, even as forests burn around us and temperatures approach the uninhabitable.
