MP ep 7 rise of machine
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Nov 5, 2024 Master Plan podcast
1,980 views • Nov 5, 2024 • Master Plan podcast
After a series of setbacks in the push to legalize corruption, the master planners know they must take over the U.S. Supreme Court and halt the trend of Republican-appointed justices siding with campaign finance reformers. So in the early 2000s, they deploy their new judicial machine in an epic battle to try to permanently change the courts from the bottom up. This is part one of a two-part story about how the Roberts Court was built.
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Transcript
0:01
the conservative majority once again flexing its clout on the sharply divided High Court Supreme Court ruling that
0:08
significantly expands the right to carry a gun justices released their decision effectively overturning the
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constitutional right to an abortion that was a 6 to3 ruling blocking President Biden's student loan forgiveness program
0:21
I probably don't have to tell you that the US Supreme Court has been in the news a lot lately a defiant judgment
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from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alo today like a lot a lot conservative
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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas finally discloses one of his controversial trips at least 38
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destination vacations including a yacht trip around the Bahamas 26 private jet
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flights eight private helicopter rides paid for by Republican Mega donor Haron
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Crow and the news has been about some pretty shady stuff billionaires who are
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invested heavily in influence ing the Supreme Court have been caught giving
1:03
enormous secret gifts to individual justices when you doom scroll through
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story after Story it can be overwhelming by issuing subpoenas to conservative
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political activist Leonard Leo today 18 Democrats from the house Judiciary Committee signed a letter to Chief
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Justice Roberts sometimes it's helpful to step away from your phone and computer and
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dust off your old VCR and go back in time to when the Supreme
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Court wasn't such an obvious horror show of Scandal and
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Corruption let's take those some of those issues you mentioned a lot of interest check out this VHS tape it's a
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recording of capital conversation it was a public affairs TV program from the Clinton era you probably don't remember
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it unless you were one of the cool kids who spent Sunday mornings watching dry political talk shows on Channel 8 in the
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Dallas Fort Worth area this particular episode aired on July 2nd 2000 and the
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guest being interviewed was a 40-some lawyer dark suit sideart haircut
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standard aesthetic of a seasoned litigator who represents corporate clients before The Supreme Court looking
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back at the recently completed supreme court session what do you think were the most important things that it did taking
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this term as a whole I think the most important thing it did was uh make a compelling case that we do not have a
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very conservative Supreme Court now this lawyer he's a smooth talker he comes across as smart Cal maybe some would
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even say judicious but it's clear that Mr judicious is a conservative and from
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that perspective the Republican appointees on the Supreme Court of the late 1990s and early 2000s had been a
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huge disappointment take the three biggest headline cases you know Miranda School prayer
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abortion uh conservative view lost uh in each of them how can that be after we have nine justices of whom seven were
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appointed by Republican presidents and only two by democratic presidents well it's an old story that the uh appointees
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once they're on the court they tend to go their own way and and it was an old story at least among right-wing
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activists at that time squishy so-called conservative judges who just refused to
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get with the program but there was a glimmer of hope for the conservative legal movement at this particular moment
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after 7 years of Republicans being locked out of the White House the 200000 presidential race was in full swing the
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TV host asks what would it mean to have Texas Republican Governor George W bush
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win the election you know it's hard to tell because you never know if the nominees uh that they select are going
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to carry out any particular point of view or if as has been the case with many nominees in the past they chart a
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different course I'm not just playing this old tape from 2000 because I think VHS is a superior format and headed for
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a comeback I'm playing it because it gives a nod to the master planner's big problem at this particular moment they
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knew it wasn't enough to just win legislative elections or bring lawsuits
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they knew they had to change the judges or their agenda was doomed they needed
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judges who weren't casually conservative they had to install inculcated IDE law
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on the bench who would be guaranteed to deliver the rulings they want rulings
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that help big business disempower workers and of course deregulate the
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campaign Finance system and they needed to be ready to install their judicial picks when a seat opened up justice
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Stevens who's been one of the more liberal members of the court is the I think the oldest member of the court and
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there's some others also Justice oconor maybe Justice renquist sure and depending upon which ones of those step
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down and and who is appointed in their place it could well make a difference that would prove to be quite an
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understatement especially coming from this particular guest who would soon after disappear from the media and only
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pop up again a few years later this time in front of a much bigger audience we
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have 23 photographers in the well five more waiting we may revise our
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procedures to swear you went at the start of the proceeding if you would raise your right hand and that lawyer on
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Dallas TV was none other than John Roberts and 5 years after that
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television appearance he was nominated Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by George W bush during his confirmation
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hearing Roberts didn't reveal a desire to install conservative judges who would be guaranteed to deliver ideological
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rulings instead Mr judicious promised he would be completely impartial judges and
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justices are Servants of the law not the other way around to make his Point
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Roberts made a now famous baseball analogy judges are like umpires can we
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get some music here umpires don't make the rules they apply them the role of an
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Umpire and a judge is critical they make sure everybody plays by the rules but it
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is a limited role nobody ever went to a ball game to see the Umpire in our last episode you heard
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about how the master planners had a World Series level loss in the McCain fold campaign Finance case underscoring
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their political problem within the nation's highest court but they knew the old saying there's no crying in baseball
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so when the master planners lost the McCain fold case they weren't really shedding any tears that was just one
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court case by then they were already working on the bigger plan changing the
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courts and the law from the inside out this is part one of a double header
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about the creation of a new Supreme Court the Roberts Court in the first of
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two episodes we're going to show how a nerdy college campus Debate Club became
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an all powerful force in the American judicial system through a series of events and hundreds of previously
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unreleased emails we'll show you how the master planners gained power embedded
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their operatives in the White House and began permanently altering the Judiciary
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I'm David seroa and this is master
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plan what about the master plan [Music]
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huh up a [Music]
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master when John Roberts appeared on TV in 2000 and aired his lament about
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squishy Supreme Court Justices he was echoing a longtime grievance of conservatives that Republican appointed
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Supreme Court Justices tended to become less consistently conservative with age
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and in the early 2000s this became a glaring problem for the master planners especially on their pet cause of
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deregulating the campaign Finance system and legalizing corruption less than a
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year before Robert's TV appear in a case that would preview the McCain fold decision from last episode
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Republican apppp appointed justices helped block an attempt to destroy campaign contribution limits here's one
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of them Justice Sandra day o'conor spotlighting the problem of soft corruption during the oral arguments of
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that case I suppose the most likely scenario for a significant contribution
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would be the notion that I will give this money and expect in return that
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that if and when I ever call this particular official if the official is elected they'll pay attention to me
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they'll receive that call respond get in touch with me and take seriously what I
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have to say republican appointees David sudor John Paul Stevens and chief justice William renquist joined oconor
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to uphold the legality of campaign contribution limits at the state level Justice Stevens went even further in a
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concurrence declaring that quote money is property it is not speech those were
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fighting words to the master planners trying to legalize corruption as were all of the other rulings where these
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Republican appointees deviated from conservative Doctrine and the master planners they were pissed David Suter
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John Paul Stevens sandre de o Conor Anthony Kennedy all of them um had been
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appointed by Republican presidents and yet roie Wade was still the law of the land and that was a tremendous source of
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frustration on the right that's Jeffrey tubin a legal analyst and best-selling author of several books that cover the
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inner workings of the Supreme Court he says that conservatives were particularly traumatized by Justice
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David Suter who betrayed the cause by eventually taking positions that supported civil liberties Reproductive
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Rights and campaign Finance reforms by the early 2000s conservatives even had a
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mantra no more suitors we don't want want to appoint anyone other than sure
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things sure conservative votes to the Supreme Court and that was a major major priority no more suitors okay well that
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sounds catchy and all but how exactly do you prevent future suitors how do you
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start installing people like Roberts a conservative lawyer who seemed to be really frustrated with the situation on
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the surface Robert's warp speed Ascent from corporate lawyer in 2000 to Chief
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Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 2005 that might seem like a
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random fluke or an overnight success but as listeners probably know by now in
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this story nothing is random there was a plan that started decades earlier let's
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remember the pow Memo from 1971 the Judiciary may be the most
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important instrument for social economic and political
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change following the Memo's guidance conservative activists spent the 1980s
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and 1990s building a formidable network of well-funded think tanks and academic
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institutions one of those institutions would become extremely significant in the legal sphere a group that's been in
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the news a lot lately the Federalist
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Society this is Ronald Reagan in 1988 speaking to the Federalist Society the
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group first emerged as a college campus-based legal organization nurturing conservative law students the
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group championed philosophies like constitutional originalism that in the early 1980s was basically regarded as
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far-right nonsense within legal Academia but as the Federalist Society built
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hundreds of chapters at law schools around the country their once Fringe legal theories were soon championed and
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mainstreamed by Republican politicians How Far We've Come these last
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not only in transforming the operations of government not only in transforming the Departments and agencies and even
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the federal Judiciary but also in changing the terms of national debate
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and nowhere is that change more evident the rise of the Federalist Society on
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the campuses of America's law schools Reagan understood that the Federalist Society wasn't just some kooky lowbudget
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campus Debate Club this was a group funded by Master Plan ERS that we've mentioned before John Merill Olen
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Richard melon SCAife and the Koch brothers they took seriously the pow Memo's call
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to build a counterforce of smart young minds who could fight on behalf of free
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enterprise these oligarchs delivered millions of dollars to the Federalist Society to help provide a safe space to
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cultivate and promote conservative lawyers people like Ronald Reagan's Attorney General Ed me I'm very proud
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that the founders and leaders of this organization many of them are in fact serving with me in the Department of
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Justice me a longtime Reagan Confidant and an early adviser to the Federalist
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Society was obsessed with getting conservative judges onto the courts he'd
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succeeded with Reagan's 1986 appointment of anonin Scalia to the Supreme Court
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and when another seat opened up a year later Reagan offered it to another ideological Warrior the guy who fired
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the Watergate prosecutor the guy who subterfuge helped weaken post-watergate campaign Finance legislation a name
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we've mentioned many times in this podcast yes conservative legal icon
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Robert bork but bork's confirmation hearing wasn't exactly smooth sailing it quickly
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became a fiasco when Democrats did something unexpected they actually
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fought back and held bour accountable I said yesterday that I did not break the law on Water Gate there is no existing
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Court opinion that says I did I did not even know the principal characters in that I've never met them you said
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there's no existing opinion there certainly is there is there's not that was a vacated opinion Senator well but
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the opinion is there well it's in print it has been declared to have no legal force or effect whatsoever Mr chair
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citing bork's own writings on various issues Democrats made him look like a real life Dr Evil in Robert bork's
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America there is no room at the Inn for blacks and no place in the Constitution
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for women and in our America there should be no seat on the Supreme Court for Robert Bourke Bourke became the
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first supreme court nominee to be voted down by the senate in almost two decades
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and that rejection became a catalyzing moment for the conservative legal movement as recounted here by Ed M uh
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the Democrats had just taken over the Senate you had all of these very left-wing groups special interest groups
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that were spoiling for a scalp and so you had all of this come together to attack Bob bour at his Federalist
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Society speech in the wake of bork's defeat Reagan told the organization to redouble its efforts to pull the
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Judiciary to the right so this is my message to you today to hold the torch
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High to stay in the battle too much is left to do a battle is far from over and
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all is yet to win or lose
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bork's rejection would quickly become the Federalist society's villain origin story with its own iconic verb that
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entered the vernacular it's called being borked borking borked borking bork to be
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borked meant one who is unfairly attacked for their conservative beliefs
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Federalist Society leaders and other Master planners were incensed but they had a chance to avenge bour when only a
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few years later another federalist Society darling got his own nomination to the Supreme Court ladies and
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gentlemen the one you've been waiting for Clarence Thomas conservatives need
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to realize that Their audience isn't simply lawyers our struggle is not
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simply another litigation piece or technique this is a political struggle
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this was Thomas speaking at a federalist Society student Symposium in 1988 the
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political struggle he's talking about is part of his encouragement to his Federalist Society Brethren to use the
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courts as a vehicle for their conservative activism with Clarence Thomas's nomination in 1991 the master
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planners didn't just wait around to be borked they instead launched a preemptive attack conservative groups
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funded ads against Democratic senators who'd been questioning Thomas's ethics
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judge Clarence Thomas endorsed by the US Senate as a fighter for civil rights nominated to the Supreme Court this ad
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was sponsored Ed by a political action committee called citizens united yes the same conservative group that would
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prompt the infamous citizens united Supreme Court case 20 years later don't worry we'll get to that case in a future
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episode but who opposes Clarence Thomas the liberal special interests and the soft on crime crowd they call Clarence
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Thomas not qualified to sit on the Supreme Court just because he won't bow
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to their liberal litmus tests call your Senator and urge support for judge Clarence Thomas his values are our
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values another set of groups launched ads touting Thomas as a model American
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Clarence Thomas life has been exemplified by hard work discipline and
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self-reliance he is a role model to whom we can all look with pride by the time Thomas's confirmation hearings began
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scrutinizing Anita Hills allegations of sexual harassment an emboldened Thomas
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wasn't interested in answering questions he focused on portraying himself as another Bor being wrongly persecuted
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this is a circus it's a National Disgrace it is a high tech lynching for
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up blacks and it is a message that unless you cow toow to an old order this
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is what will happen to you the conservatives pressure campaign and strategy paid off the Senate which was
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controlled by democrats at the time narrowly confirmed Clarence Thomas on October 23rd 1991
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one of the conservative activists working on Thomas's confirmation team was an ambitious 25-year-old from New
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Jersey named Leonard Leo who had formed his own Federalist Society chapter at Cornell University around the time of
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the bork Fiasco and who would become friends with Thomas while clerking for a judge Thomas's brutal confirmation
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process left an indelible mark on Leo he immediately took a job with the Federalist Society to expand its assault
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on the Judiciary he focused on recruiting and nurturing lawyers for the conservative judicial machine I like to
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imagine a factory assembly line like in the movie Terminator this Factory was cranking out these conservative robots
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who could pass as regular humans during confirmation hearings but who would never deviate from their ideological
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programming once they're on the court here's Leo describing that assembly line in a federalist Society video we start
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with young talented law students move them to through our campus chapters
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integrate them into our lawyers chapters around the country upon graduation and provide a
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community that's the backbone for finding opportunities uh to Foster the
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application of our principles emboldened after successfully installing Thomas on the high court conservatives eyed new
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opportunities to install more Republican judicial nominees on the lower courts
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but Democrats who controlled the Senate at the time seemed to realize how ridiculous they looked in letting Thomas
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get on the high court so they put their foot down they halted almost all of Bush senior's other nominees in 1992
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including a young John Roberts whose first nomination for a judgeship didn't even get a hearing and then later that
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year Bill Clinton unseed bush in the 1992 election so the conservative legal
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movement played defense and began working with Senate Republicans to block the new Democratic president's judicial
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nominees while also moving young conservative lawyers into prominent clerkships jobs at Big DC law firms and
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conservative think tanks all of them poised to fill top government positions
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as soon as Republicans won another presidential election and retook the white house now they didn't pull off a
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win in 1996 and they lost the popular vote in 2000 but then something happened in the
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US state that keeps coming up in our podcast Welcome to our program here in
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Florida the presidential contest gets Tighter by the hour up next Florida and
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the cursed 2000 [Music]
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election in the 2000 presidential election the master planners seemed set
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for a twofer their campaign Finance Nemesis John McCain was defeated in the Republican primary and the party's
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nominee George W bush offered a chance to change the courts forever during his
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presidential campaign bush used dog whistle language to signal that he would
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do the conservative legal movements bidding when it came to judicial appointments I don't believe in liberal
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activist judges I believe in I believe in strict constructionists and those are
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the kind of Judges I will appoint all bush had to do was just win the election which well
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a big call to make CNN announces that we call Florida in the Al Gore column this
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is a state both campaigns desperately wanted to win but then standby standby
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uh CNN right now is moving our earlier Declaration of Florida back to the too
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close to call column and by too close to call we're talking photo finish 100
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meter dash everything on the line too close to call an action Squad of lawyers
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from Republican aligned legal firms descended on Tallahassee to scrutinize how the paper ballots were being
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processed by election officials the American public was begrudgingly introduced to technical terms like a
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hanging chad the final category is the pregnant Chad that is the Chad was
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pierced with a hole but not detached at all kids if you're curious what a pregnant Chad is ask a parent or a
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trusted adult now the Republicans here C seized on all of this confusion they said see we told you this is a deeply
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flawed process it must stop one of those lawyers who got the call was that cleancut judicious lawyer from the start
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of this episode John Roberts he assisted the Bush campaign with their lawsuit to
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stop the vote recount a case that went all the way to the top behind the scenes that the United States Supreme Court one
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of the most secret places in American public life in the end Roberts and other Bush lawyers secured the infamous Bush V
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Gore ruling in this particular case enough of the Republican appointees including the squishier ones like OK
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Conor and renquist they stuck together in a 5 to4 opinion that halted the vote
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count and installed popular vote loser George W bush into the White House the
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implications of that ruling for the future of the court itself were obvious from the moment the decision was handed
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down now that the court has jumped into the middle of presidential politics experts more questions about the Court's
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Independence and with George Bush perhaps nominating future justices Democrats tonight promise an even
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tougher road to confirmation once Bush was sworn in in January 2001 the master
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planners got to work Federalist Society vice president Leonard Leo focused on making sure that he and his fellow
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conservatives would be the loudest voices in the room when it came to choosing judges after 50 years of
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special status the American Bar Association a will no longer have a leading role in vetting candidates for
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federal judgeships the White House notified the ABA today that it will no longer get Advanced word on prospective
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nominees disempowering the American Bar Association had been a pet cause of the conservative legal movement ever since a
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handful of ABA officials had declined to endorse Robert bork's Supreme Court nomination there have been times in the
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past where I've wished that the ABA had no role in in this process because they've done such a lousy job they've
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done a partisan job that's Republican senator Orin hatch summarizing conservatives Grudge there are those who
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are complaining that one of the future presidents of the ABA is one of those who definitely uh did some real dirt to
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Robert bour but it wasn't just Petty revenge for doing Bor dirty conservatives had an additional reason
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to convince the Bush Administration to cut the ABA out of the loop they wanted to make sure Bush's nominees were
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ideologically pure the federal soci had spent years ATT haing the ABA trying to discredit the ABA uh in its role which
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is really about Merit selection that's Lisa Graves a former Senate Democratic Judiciary staffer who's now a researcher
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focused on exposing the influence of dark money on institutions including the Supreme Court and then instead of that
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Merit evaluation what got substituted in was are you a True Believer are you one
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of us are you uh you know are you going to basically Advance this extreme agenda on the court with that system changed
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bush officials developed their first list of new umpires to be installed on the lower courts President Bush
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introducing his first nominees for federal judg ships and that is increasingly a Battleground between the
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left right and middle in American politics now whose name do you think was on Bush's list of judicial nominees for
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the lower courts want to take a guess listen to me let me explain to you no no no hey I want you to stop talking nope
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not Judge Judy it was calm cool Mr judicious the guy from the Dallas TV
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interview complaining about Judges going soft the lawyer who had helped Bush stop the recount in Florida that's right John
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Roberts here's Jeffrey tubin again John Roberts had sort of judicial Stardust
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around him practically from the moment he graduated from law school like Lewis Powell before him Roberts came off as
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low-key and humble but underneath his affable smile was a master planner at
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heart he looked like and was um the perfect Republican judicial nominee at
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least of of the of the early 2000s he' worked in the Reagan White House he had
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worked in the solicitor General's office in the uh George Herbert Walker Bush Administration if Clarence Thomas was
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one of the Federalist society's original Terminators a conservative robot rolled
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off the assembly line back in 1991 in the wake of the borking Roberts was like
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the upgraded T1000 the shape-shifting liquid robot who looks all friendly
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while carrying out the master plan so this other guy he's a Terminator like you right not like me the d1000 advanced
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prototype Robert showed flashes of his ideological commitment early in his career in the 1980s he joined the Reagan
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Administration to help spearhead its effort to limit the Voting Rights Act Roberts penned a memo defending a push
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for judicial term limits on the the grounds that federal judges were engaging in behavior that quote usurps
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the role of the political branches what sort of crazy political Behavior
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protecting abortion rights and mandates for airbags and seat belts in new cars Robert's memo was important it showed
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that at an early age he was a conservative Soldier on a Relentless mission to challenge judicial liberals
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that Terminator is out there it can't be bargained with it can't be reasoned with
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and it absolutely will not stop ever by the turn of the Millennium Roberts had
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been sharpening his skills as a Cutthroat lawyer for corporate interests he had helped Toyota with its case
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aiming to weaken the Americans with Disabilities Act and he had also helped the US Chamber of Commerce try to
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dismantle a program that aimed to lower prescription drug prices for people without insurance and now here in 2001
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Roberts was on the White House list for a Lower Court appointment because as a former steering member of a federalist
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Society chapter he seemed like a sure thing for the conservative legal movement a jurist with a very bright
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future here's Jeffrey tubin again he was also in his late 40s you know the the
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perfect age to begin a a a long judicial career and unlike when Robert's First
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Judicial nomination was blocked in 1992 this time around in 2001 the
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political Dynamics were different a republican was president and Republicans controlled the Senate by one
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vote the master planners knew that if they could use this moment to place Roberts and other Arch conservatives
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onto the lower courts they'd be one step closer to their ultimate goal both
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Republicans and Democrats knew that he was uh likely to go up to the Supreme
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Court one day early on in 2001 Roberts seemed to be a shoe in for the powerful
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DC appeals court but two weeks after his nomination a bombshell went off in
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Vermont in order to best represent my state of Vermont my own conscience and principles
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I have stood for my whole life I will leave the Republican party and become an
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independent just four months after bush had been sworn in as president Republican senator Jim Jeffords shocked
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the political world and decided to leave his party declaring that the GOP had
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become too extreme especially on its push to change the courts I can see more
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and more instances where I will disagree with the president on very fundamental
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issues the issues of choice the direction of the Judiciary the move gave
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control of the Senate to the Democrats with his Newfound power Senate Democratic leader Tom dashel refused to
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process a bunch of Bush's Arch conservative nominees including Roberts
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here's dashel we have said from the very beginning that it is very critical that
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judicial nominees especially for the appeals in the Supreme Court uh positions are people of moderate
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philosophical temperament and have an impeccable past so what did this all mean with Roberts and other nominees
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stuck in limbo the master planners in 2001 had a big problem but they still
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had the White House and its bully pulpit heading into the midterm elections ours is a system that relies upon
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a independent court system and when there's vacancies the American people suffer and I call upon the Senate to
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approve at least give hearings to people we sent up to the Senate Vice
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President Dick Cheney and Republican Senators Amplified that message all of the others are still awaiting
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confirmation hearings including two superbly qualified nominees to the DC
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circuit John Roberts and Miguel Estrada to the casual ual observer in 2002 this
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must have seemed strange why in the leadup to the midterms not long after
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9/11 in the middle of the so-called war on terror why were the President and
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Vice President so laser focused on something as obscure as Lower Court
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judicial nominations why the obsession and why now because the call was coming
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from inside the house the White House hello Sydney although the public
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probably couldn't see it the Federalist society and the conservative legal movement had embedded itself inside the
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Bush Administration and they had a guy on the inside working the gears a master
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planner who went by the initials [Music]
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BK we've got that Whopper of a story after the break all right ready here it
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goes from Don do will it at usdoj.gov September 2002 quote bottom line there
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was much belly aing K da Leonard Leo particularly were giving me an earful
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this is master plan producer Jared Jang May who's reading wait Jared what the
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hell are you reading this is part of an email exchange between Don Willet an official in Bush's justice department
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and a very special crew of insiders within the administration who are in charge of putting conservative judges on
33:56
the bench and so this is around the time that bush and Cheney are trying to elevate the issue of Judges just before
34:02
the 2002 midterms right and at this point in 2002 Senate Democrats were continuing to stall Bush's nominees and
34:10
Willet was emailing his colleagues about all the pressure they were facing from Leonard Leo and the conservative legal
34:16
movement which was demanding an even more aggressive push for judicial confirmations Willl it wrote that these
34:23
activists backed by huge money were quote pleading for a high-profile file
34:28
jaw-dropping presidential Act of some kind not a gee we're really upset at how
34:33
all this turned out Willet also wrote that Leo and the activists quote want bash kneecaps and blood conservative
34:41
groups were angry that bush wasn't being angry enough one of the officials in this email chain replied that this
34:47
Coalition of conservative activists was ready for quote Defcon one retaliation
34:54
so this is what's going on behind the scenes this is why bush is so focused on
34:59
judges before the midterms yeah these guys were taking it very seriously the conservative legal movement had been
35:06
building up for decades ever since the pow memo and now these True Believers inside the Department of Justice were
35:13
helping transmit the movement's increasing demands and this is just one of hundreds of internal emails that you
35:19
dug up from this era right um yeah David it may surprise you that I probably went
35:26
overboard on the research again there was actually thousands of these emails released during Kavanagh
35:32
Supreme Court confirmation but some of these emails that we're looking at in this episode have never been released
35:37
publicly okay so when we say the conservative legal movement is operating
35:42
inside the White House what exactly are we talking about operate is the right word because the internal White House
35:49
Records that we reviewed come from the email account of one key political operative who often signed his emails
35:55
with his initials BK BK K BK BK wait a minute oh God you don't you don't mean
36:03
yes we drank beer my friends and I Brett Kavanagh the Supreme Court Justice appointed by President Donald Trump the
36:10
boys and girls we drank beer I liked beer still like beer ah yes who could forget Brett
36:17
kavanagh's memorable performance at his confirmation hearing but this is Young
36:22
Kavanagh way back at the turn of the Millennium he seems like a younger version of John Roberts with a similar
36:27
built in a lab pedigree you could say that they had a lot in common kavana worked on the Ken star investigation of
36:34
President Bill Clinton remember the star report and like Roberts young Kavanagh was among the horde of GOP lawyers that
36:40
helped litigate the 2000 election into a bush Victory after the Florida recount Roberts got a court nomination while
36:47
cavanos scored a sweet job in the White House council's Office his main focus judicial appointments working closely
36:55
with lawyers in a special division of the justice Department called the office of legal policy that's the office that
37:01
Reagan's Attorney General set up in the 1980s and was staffed with Federalist Society members right yeah Ed me one of
37:09
the OG conservative legal activists we heard his voice earlier talking about the Federalist society as attorney
37:15
general in the 80s me built this behind the scenes team of lawyers to push and defend Reagan's conservative policies
37:23
they also help pick and vet potential federal judges for Reagan to nominate so this office of legal policy it was like
37:29
the plumbers for the judicial pipeline that Leonard Leo was talking about sure and you saw it when the Bush
37:35
Administration first hired its staff for the first term journalists and officials and other Departments of the government
37:41
looked at people like Kavanaugh and offices like the olp and raised complaints that there were too many
37:47
Federalist Society members in key White House roles now officially Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society were still
37:54
insisting that there was nothing to see here that they basically had no political power and they're just a
38:00
friendly Debate Club yeah exactly in early 2001 Leo actually wrote a letter
38:05
to White House Council Alberto Gonzalez saying just that he stated quote the Federalist Society leaves political
38:12
agendas and political advocacy to other groups and individuals and he emphasized that the organization quote does not
38:19
recommend nominees or candidates for public office while acknowledging that Federalist Society members quote often
38:26
have tried to provide lists of people worth considering Leo made it clear that they're speaking for themselves not the
38:32
society but the emails we reviewed tell a different story right yeah I'd say
38:38
they tell the opposite story from the get-go Leo seemed to be on the White House speed dial and all over White
38:44
House officials correspondence about judicial nominations and one person who seemed to be in regular contact with Leo
38:50
and other conservative legal activists was BK right yeah Kavanaugh was at the center of all of it let me read you a
38:57
few few other Snippets from BK's emails in Bush's first term Leonard Leo is working on that I talk to Leonard
39:03
Leonard L will follow up seems like Leo is all over these emails from other Bush Administration officials too he
39:10
definitely made a lot of cameos quote Leonard Leo is finding a helpful conduit Leonard Leo might know some generous
39:16
donor Leonard Leo might have something helpful the day before Bush announced the nomination of Roberts and other
39:22
conservative judges in 2001 Kavanagh even asked to have the White House send Leo a binder of information eventually
39:30
an email to Kavanagh from another White House official said Leo and his staff would be quote helping coordinate
39:36
outside Coalition activity regarding judicial nominations and Leo seemed to be interested in how the Judiciary
39:43
affected big business yeah okay we found one email where Leo is pitching presentations to Industry groups about
39:51
business and courts the reply includes attachments focusing on quote business
39:56
interest business bus case examples and business certainty that email from Leo
40:01
is right around the time that one of the OG Master planners former Reagan and Bush Administration lawyer C boy and
40:07
gray was courting business support for a new group called the committee for justice to push conservative judicial
40:14
nominees and air ads attacking Democrats who were opposing them gray a federalist
40:20
Society stalwart reportedly launched the group in 2002 at the urging of Bush's
40:26
political adviser Carl Ro and Senate Republican leader Trent lot with the Supreme Court arbitrating so many issues
40:33
of interest to Big Business the new committee was filled with corporate lobbyists whose clients included Banks
40:39
Tech and Telecom Giants defense contractors and drug companies we reached out to Leo and spoke to some of
40:46
his associates to see if he'd be willing to do an interview for this podcast But ultimately we did not get a response but
40:53
it's important to note that while mapping out Robert's nomination in 2001 and 2002 Kavanaugh was plugged directly
41:01
into the wider conservative legal movement and media apparatus that had been constructed out of the pow memo
41:07
movement he wasn't just interfacing with Leo emails show he was having meetings
41:12
with people like Paul wrick of the Heritage Foundation and anti-tax Guru Grover norquist the White House led a
41:20
conference call with Talking Heads and conservative leaders about Judges with conservative media Big Wigs including
41:26
Sean Hannity and Rush limo and Kavanaugh received invites to more intimate
41:32
Gatherings like Ted Olsen's annual Federalist Society barbecue at his house
41:38
I bet Federalist Society dudes followed Ron Swanson's rules of barbecue barbecues should be about one thing good
41:45
shared meat there will be no fruy desserts and most of all there will be
41:51
no vegetables BK also had one-on-one calls with Ed M naturally and he
41:58
corresponded with jinny Thomas Clarence Thomas's wife who was working as a kind
42:03
of White House liaison for the Heritage Foundation man the master plan really is
42:08
like the Marvel Cinematic Universe of recurring characters Leo has likened running judicial confirmation campaigns
42:14
to more like running a war with troops tanks air and ground support but every
42:20
war costs money so with Roberts and other nominations stalled before the 2002 midterms where did the money come
42:27
from to try to amplify the campaign for his confirmation and the confirmation of all those other conservative judges that
42:33
bush wanted this is where it ties back to campaign Finance reform Bush signed the McCain fold act in March 2002 right
42:41
well even before this political operatives were scrambling to find workarounds namely using the tax code to
42:47
create tax exempt groups that could raise soft money as long as they didn't officially coordinate with parties these
42:54
were predecessors to what would become super Pacs and other shadowy advocacy groups right it was definitely the same
43:00
idea and one of the first groups that popped up was led by the former director of the Bush Cheney 2000 campaign called
43:07
progress for America I have a sneaking suspicion they didn't want actual progress for most of America well their
43:14
definition of progress was probably different progress for America was described by The Washington Post as a
43:19
group that has quote raised millions of dollars which it uses to promote Bush's agenda of tax cuts energy legislation
43:27
conservative judicial appointments and free trade the White House emails we reviewed show the group was tightly
43:33
integrated into weekly meetings and conference calls using their funds for PR campaigns op-eds talk radio
43:40
appearances mail campaigns and interviews to push President Bush's judicial nominations okay so now it all
43:47
makes sense why in the leadup to the midterms Bush was so focused on judges
43:53
he was responding to the conservative legal apparatus inside his own White House and this all bled into the fall
44:00
campaign I've worked hard to name well-qualified jurists and I can't get the politics of
44:06
the United States Senate to be set aside for the good of the Judiciary one reason we need to change the Senate is to make
44:13
sure the well-qualified judges I have named and nominated get approved to the benches all across America Bush devoted
44:21
his final radio address before the election to the judicial issue the New York Times headline summed it off up
44:27
Bush places Senate delays on judicial appointees at core of campaigning and
44:33
when the votes were finally counted in the 2002 midterm this was a day of celebration for most Republicans in
44:40
Tuesday's midterm elections they recaptured the Senate with at least 51 seats and added to their majority in the
44:47
house uh those judges will come out of committee and they'll be voted on the floor there'll be one or two that the
44:53
Democrats can find some excess somewhere real or imagined and and take one or two people down but 100 will be uh made
45:01
judges in the next year you know it's clear to me the Democrats were playing checkers and the conservatives were
45:08
playing 3D chess not chess laser tag laser tag yes right after the midterm
45:13
elections with Bush's judicial nomination still stalled Don Willet wanted to solidify the strategy of a
45:20
team called the judicial confirmation working group at a retreat a retreat so
45:25
imagine all these lawyers leaving the White House and driving about an hour north to this fancy place called The
45:31
Turf Valley Resort it's got a golf course a pro shop and a full service European Spa all in the bucolic
45:39
Backwoods of central Maryland Willet wanted the retreat to end with quote a
45:44
solid plan to flex their regained majority muscle in the judicial nomination process Kavanagh is there and
45:51
here's the detail I love the most check out this agenda look at what they did for a team building exercise wait you
45:59
were being serious they played laser tag oh man that's too perfect I see that
46:06
the guest speaker was future Homeland Security secretary Michael cherof you totally know he killed it at laser tag
46:13
yeah but while they were taking time off from laser tagging The Retreat produced a strategic document called the judicial
46:20
confirmation action plan though the document is still redacted what we can see is that it laid out a comprehensive
46:27
approach to push the bush administration's judicial agenda this plan went beyond picking candidates it
46:34
outlined an entire public campaign designed to pressure Congress to confirm
46:39
as many judges as possible all of this organizing and conniving resulted in a massive PR campaign from the White House
46:46
on down after Republicans big win in the 2002 midterms and back at Center Stage
46:52
was the Terminator himself John Roberts shortly after the midterm elections with
46:57
Republicans having regained control of the Senate Bush renominated Roberts and other Arch conservative judicial
47:04
candidates and this time Roberts got the confirmation hearing he'd been denied during Bush's first two years in office
47:11
at that hearing Republican lawmakers depicted Roberts not as a Terminator but
47:16
instead in baseball terms as an Umpire are you willing to uh commit to assuming
47:23
a new role and a different role and that is as an impartial umpire uh on the law
47:29
uh yes I am Senator there's there's no role for advocacy with respect to personal beliefs or views uh on the part
47:37
of a judge the personal views personal ideology uh those have no role to play
47:42
whatever Roberts faced opposition from Liberal groups who saw his nomination as more proof that the Bush Administration
47:48
was trying to pack the courts with Federalist Society extremists but the White House judicial machine was at
47:54
Defcon 1 Bush devoted a national radio address to hammering on the judge issue
48:00
we Face a vacancy crisis in the federal courts yet a handful of Democratic senators for partisan reasons are
48:06
attempting to prevent any vote at all on highly qualified nominees this Relentless campaign finally began paying
48:13
dividends on May 8th 2003 I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to Executive session
48:20
to consider the nomination of John Roberts to be a Circuit Judge for the DC circuit after Democrats had stalled
48:25
Robert's nomination for years he ended up being confirmed by the full Senate with nobody registering any opposition
48:33
on the final vote is there objection without objection so ordered John Roberts the judicial T1000 Terminator
48:41
was successfully deployed as judge Roberts on the DC circuit alas Robert's
48:48
confirmation to the DC court of appeals that was not the end of the judicial confirmation action plan that was
48:55
hatched by Brett kavan and other Federalist Society acolytes at that luxury resort in Maryland it actually
49:02
was just the beginning because while Democrats had given in and allowed Roberts and a slate of other judges
49:08
through the Senate they still were holding out on two other conservative Bush nominees and so the very next day
49:16
after Roberts was confirmed Bush and the master planners were in the Rose Garden making their most public show yet to
49:23
signal that they were back on the attack the bitterness and partisanship that have taken over
49:29
the judicial confirmations process also threatened judicial
49:34
Independence some Senators have tried to force nominees to take positions on controversial issues before they even
49:42
take the bench this is contrary to the Constitutional design of a separate and
49:48
independent judicial branch seated among the rose bushes were Leonard Leo Ed me
49:54
and a conservative lawyer named Jay sealo who was a legal activist representing the Christian right this
50:00
new Coalition bringing in the muscle of the Christian right aimed to build off Robert's confirmation to the lower court
50:07
and continue transforming judicial nominations from a niche topic into an
50:12
issue that the average voter would care about if this Coalition could replace more Senate Democrats with loyal
50:19
Republicans they could Ram through even more judicial picks and if they could punish one especially prominent Democrat
50:27
it might scare the rest of the opposition party into submission whether in fights over Lower Court nominees or
50:34
fights over nominees to the Big Kahuna the Supreme Court so in 2003 and 2004
50:42
where exactly could this conservative legal machine find such a big Democratic Target one place the home of credit card
50:50
companies the bad lands and Mount Rushmore there's so much South Dakota so
50:55
little time that's next time on master
51:04
plan [Music]
51:11
up
51:22
everything well I'm not a I earned everything
51:28
master plan is a production of the lever this episode was written by Jared Jang maror And Me David seroa our production
51:35
team includes Laura CR Ula kulpa Arjun Singh and Ronnie Rick aenny our editor
51:40
is Ron Doyle factchecking of this episode by Chris Walker original music is by Nick Byron Campbell mixing by
51:47
Louis weeks special thanks to Jeffrey tubin and Lisa Graves you can listen And subscribe to master plan on Apple
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