The rightwing activist Leonard Leo has helped fund a network of groups involved in a crucial US supreme court case that could fundamentally weaken the federal government’s ability to hold corporations to account, a leading watchdog said as the conservative-dominated court prepared for its new term.
“Leonard Leo spent years stacking the court with ideological kindred spirits,” said Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US. “Now he’s funding a dark web of special interest groups to push an extreme agenda.”
The case in question, in the term that starts on Tuesday, is Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v Community Financial Services Association of America, or CFPB v CFSAA.
The CFPB was set up under the Obama administration after the global recession of 2008 to 2009, to better protect ordinary Americans from predatory business interests. The CFSAA is an umbrella for a group of payday lenders.
Last week, writing for Scotusblog, Amy Howe, a law professor and counsel in supreme court cases, said: “The stakes in the case are high. The Biden administration … warns that a ruling for the challengers could call into question not only the payday-lending rule at the center of this case but also a wide swath of other regulations that protect consumers.
“And more broadly, the case is the first of several on the court’s docket this term in which the justices will weigh in on the division of authority between the three branches of government, as well as the power of administrative agencies.”
Leo is an immensely successful activist and fundraiser, vastly influential in the appointment of three conservative supreme court justices under Donald Trump and last year the recipient of the largest known US political donation, $1.6bn from the businessman Barre Seid.
Accountable.US is among watchdog groups increasingly scrutinising Leo’s activities. Now, it says, he is playing a central supportive role in a case that could severely damage the federal administrative state, a long-term target of conservative politicians, activists and donors including Leo.
According to Accountable.US research, entities backed by Leo have invested more than $9m in groups that have filed amicus briefs in support of the payday lenders in CFPB v CFSAA.
Sums donated by Leo’s network include $5.3m to the Foundation for Government Accountability, $2m to the New Civil Liberties Alliance, $1m to America’s Future and $737,000 to the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Other groups received smaller amounts.
State attorney generals who have received support from Leo and who have filed amicus briefs supporting CFSAA include Raúl Labrador of Idaho, Brenna Bird of Iowa, Mike Hilgers of Nebraska and Daniel Cameron of Kentucky, Accountable.US said.
It also noted links between Leo and Jones Day, the law firm that filed suit against the CFPB on behalf of the payday lenders. For the most striking instance, when Leo was formulating a list of conservative candidates for the supreme court that Trump went on to use, the first talks were held at a Jones Day office.
Leo did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2018, however, he told the New York Times rolling back the power of the administrative state was “the next step in the national debate about the proper role of the courts. The administrative state is 75 years old. It’s become a huge, glaring issue.”
In her statement ahead of CFPB v CFSAA, Ciccone, of Accountable.US, said: “If Leo has his way, the supreme court will toss American consumers overboard to loan sharks and predatory lenders hungry to line their pockets by any means necessary.”
