school freedom fund yass
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">=</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">this cd be disambig for BS educ philanthropy?</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">=</font></font></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 30px !important;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 30px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contact: Annie Stone, 703-217-1169<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><a href="mailto:astone@constitutioncenter.org" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">astone@constitutioncenter.org</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 30px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Philadelphia, PA </span>(September 19, 2022) - Through the <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">National Constitution Center’s</a> (NCC) <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Constitution Drafting Project</em>, teams of conservative, libertarian, and progressive scholars today revealed five proposed constitutional amendments they debated and drafted during a virtual constitutional convention held this past summer. At an event hosted by the NCC, <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Caroline Fredrickson</span>, senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice leading team progressive, <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Ilan Wurman</span>, associate professor at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, leading team conservative, and <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Ilya Shapiro</span>, senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, leading team libertarian, presented their proposed amendments, which include granting veto abilities to Congress, changing the impeachment process, and imposing term limits for Supreme Court justices. A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMqOWiP1ccs" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">recording of the program</a> is available on the Center’s YouTube channel, and <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/news-debate/special-projects/constitution-drafting-project" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">the amendments</a> are available on the Center’s website. </font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 30px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Below is a brief summary of each proposed amendment:</font></p><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 2rem; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Amendment XXVIII: Eliminates the natural-born citizen requirement by stating that a president does not have to be born in the United States but must be a citizen having resided in the United States for at least 14 years.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> elon musk?!</span></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Amendment XXIX<b>: Creates a legislative veto, whereby Congress can veto executive actions with majority votes in both the House and the Senate.</b></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Amendment XXX: Amends the current impeachment process by<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> raising the standard for impeachment in the House but lowering it for conviction in the Senate; </span>and clarifies that, in the six months after leaving office, a former officer can be impeached, and that the bar against future officeholding applies to both the presidency and vice presidency.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Amendment XXXI: Imposes term limits on Supreme Court justices, fixes the number of justices at nine, and makes appointments automatic if the Senate does not act within three months to approve or disapprove.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Amendment XXXII: Revises the process for proposing and adopting new constitutional amendments, making it easier by lowering the threshold for ratification from the current two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states to three-fifths of Congress and two-thirds of the states.</font></li></ul><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 30px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The teams convened via Zoom over two days this August, to debate and deliberate various proposals, agreeing on the five resulting amendments. Earlier this year, the same three teams had drafted and presented their ideal constitutions.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 30px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s so meaningful that three teams of scholars of different perspectives were able to agree on five proposed amendments to the Constitution,” said <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Jeffrey Rosen</span>, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center. “The surprising consensus of the NCC’s virtual Constitutional Convention is a tribute to the possibilities for Madisonian deliberation and compromise in a polarized age.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As part of the Constitution Drafting Project, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">team conservative i</span>ncludes <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Ilan Wurman</span>, <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Robert P. George</span> of Princeton University, <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Michael McConnell </span>of Stanford Law School, and <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Colleen A. Sheehan</span> of Arizona State University. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Team libertarian</span> includes <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Ilya Shapiro</span>, <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Timothy Sandefur</span> of the Goldwater Institute, and <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Christina Mulligan</span> of Brooklyn Law School; and <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">team progressive includes <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Caroline Fredrickson</span>, <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Jamal Greene</span> of Columbia Law School, and <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Melissa Murray</span> of New York University School of Law. </span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Constitution Drafting Project</span></b> was generously launched with support from<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Jeff Yass. </span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">report</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4224768">https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4224768</a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/jamal-greene-shows-how-rights-go-wrong">https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/jamal-greene-shows-how-rights-go-wrong</a></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">psycho anx vs will of ppl?!</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 2.5rem 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Where Rights Went Wrong</em> grew out of Greene’s longstanding interest in “founder worship,” the propensity of Americans to lionize the Constitution’s framers, and in the “anticanon,” the term referring to decisions now viewed as wrongly decided, such as <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1850-1900/60us393" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dred Scott v. Sanford</em></a><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">,</em> <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1850-1900/163us537" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Plessy v. Ferguson</em></a><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">, </em><a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/323us214" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Korematsu v. United States</em></a><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">, </em>and <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/198us45" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Lochner v. New York</em></a>, which in 1905 allowed a business’s “right to contract” to overrule a state law setting maximum working hours for bakers. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 2.5rem 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The book also reflects Greene’s expertise in comparative constitutional law. In other countries, when judges confront questions about rights, “not only are they not focused on [their] founders, they’re not even focused on rights disputes as a matter of lawyerly interpretation of text.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greene, who joined the Columbia Law faculty in 2008, served as a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Outside of the academy, he confronts free speech controversies as co-chair of the <a href="https://oversightboard.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Oversight Board</a>, an independent body set up to review content moderation decisions on Facebook and Instagram. </font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.acslaw.org/?post_type=podcast&p=63672">https://www.acslaw.org/?post_type=podcast&p=63672</a></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">American Constitution Society</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ACS > Media > Broken Law Podcast</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MAY 23, 2019</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ACS Research and the Post Exposé: Dark Money Reshaping Judiciary</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ACS President Caroline Fredrickson, Lisa Graves, and Jamal Greene discuss the new exposé by The Washington Post, which documents a well-financed network of wealthy donors who install judges sympathetic to a far-right agenda. The Post’s reporting builds on research supported by ACS; contributing researchers and experts will discuss the implications of the far-right’s strategy on the courts and for future nominations fights, and how to defend our courts from attacks to core freedoms and principles.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Featuring:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Caroline Fredrickson, ACS President</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Lisa Graves, co-founder, Documented Investigations</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law, Columbia Law School</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Resources on Dark Money</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Court Capture: The Right-Wing Takeover of the Judiciary</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Democracy Fix: How to Win the Fight for Fair Rules, Fair Courts, and Fair Elections by Caroline Fredrickson</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A Conservative Activist’s Behind-The-Scenes Campaign to Remake the Nation’s Courts by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ACS In Brief: Trump Continues to Reshape Judiciary at Breakneck Speed</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ACS Issue Brief: A Right-Wing Rout: What the “Roberts Five” Decisions Tell Us About the Integrity of Today’s Supreme Court by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Listen</font></p><div>
</div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">khan academy NCC legit pro ukraine?</font></font></p><h1 class="line-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: " algebra="Algebra" web="Web" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-weight="font-weight" line-height="line-height" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/yass-foundation-for-education-commits-9-million-to-free-civics-course" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; font-weight: 600;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Yass Foundation for Education commits $9 million to free civics course</font></a></h1><p><span class="publish-info" style="box-sizing: border-box; transform: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;" algebra="Algebra" web="Web" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="class_name" style="box-sizing: border-box; transform: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px 0.3em; border: 0px; font-family: " ll="LL" akkurat="Akkurat" regular="Regular" web="Web" open="Open" sans="Sans" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" background="background" rgb="rgb" width="width" fit-content="fit-content" display="display" table="table" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" important="important">News Item</span><span class="publish_date date" style="box-sizing: border-box; transform: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: " ll="LL" akkurat="Akkurat" regular="Regular" web="Web" open="Open" sans="Sans" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height">published November 7, 2022</span></font></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">=</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That suggests that Yass’ adult children, two of whom work at Susquehanna, stand to someday inherit multibillion-dollar fortunes — tax-free.</font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Over decades of TV appearances and speeches promoting his libertarian gospel, Milton Friedman often liked to say he was “in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible.” Friedman died in 2006. Today, Yass, who reveres the economist, is trying to bring Friedman’s ideas to fruition.</b></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Yass has not only worked assiduously to lower his own taxes but has poured millions into political efforts to eliminate them for his class.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <b>In recent years he has given $32 million to the anti-tax stalwart Club for Growth. This money paid for TV ads attacking candidates who were seen as wobbly on Friedman’s tax-cuts-anytime-anywhere philosophy.</b></span></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In Pennsylvania, where Yass is the richest person in the state and a kingmaker in local politics, his favored candidates have shaped tax policy</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> He is a longtime financial patron of a<b> Democratic state senator, </b>Anthony Williams, one of the creators of a pair of tax credits that allow companies to slash their state tax bills if they give money to private and charter schools. Susquehanna is, in turn, a major user of the tax credits. (Williams did not respond to requests for comment.)</span></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The programs limited the state tax credits a single company could receive, but Yass and the others found a way to sidestep the limits. Yass, Dantchik and Greenberg simply applied for the tax credits through individual companies each had formed, the Philadelphia Inquirer <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/politics/mayor/20150403_Mayoral_hopeful_Williams__hallmark_law_was_most_widely_used_by_his_supporters.html?c=r" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reported</a> in 2015. In all, the credits have saved Yass and the others at least $53 million in state taxes, records show.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Yass’ views on taxes, along with another stance inspired by Friedman, school privatization, seem to have informed his shifting opinion of Donald Trump.</b></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Yass had opposed Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, instead donating large sums to Rand Paul of Kentucky, the de facto leader of the party’s libertarian wing, and to Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson.</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A week after Trump won the presidency that November, Yass took the stage at a theater in Philadelphia. Even though Trump had not been his candidate, Yass seemed to relish the long-odds election win, joking that those who “didn’t like Tuesday’s results” could move to Canada.</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He used the rest of his remarks at the event, part of a local TED Talk-style series, to promote his passion for charter and private schools and attack Philadelphia teachers.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> “All we ever hear about is how underpaid they are and how abused they are,” Yass </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOVf5nHSOsI" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. “</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Well, the shocking fact is that the average school teacher in Philadelphia with benefits makes $117,000 a year.” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOVf5nHSOsI" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Yass</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOVf5nHSOsI" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"> acknowledged</a> that a large chunk of that figure was from pension and health care costs. (That year, Yass made $1.26 billion, before benefits.)</span></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Over the next four years, Trump delivered both a historic tax cut for the rich and an education secretary who was a champion of charter schools.</b></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Yass has since backed a range of pro-Trump candidates</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. In</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Pennsylvania, he has poured money into this year’s Republican effort to take the open gubernatorial seat, which many expect, if successful, will lead to an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/08/us/politics/midterms-abortion-pennsylvania.html" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">abortion ban</a> in the state. The Club for Growth also <a href="https://www.clubforgrowth.org/club-for-growth-action-launches-new-pa-sen-tv-ad-supporting-kathy-barnette/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">backed</a> a losing candidate for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, Kathy Barnette, whose campaign centered on her hard-line opposition to abortion, even in cases <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/995c1d44-dad5-4b6a-afcc-800ba33f79e0?curator=biztoc.com" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">of rape</a>. Yass is the second biggest donor to the Club (which did not return ProPublica’s requests for comment).</span></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He is also the largest donor to the Rand Paul-affiliated Protect Freedom PAC, </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">giving $2.5 million of his more than $12 million in recent donations just days after the 2020 election. The group’s </span><a href="https://www.protectfreedompac.com/stopthesteals" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">website</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> says of Democrats: “</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Of course, they stole the election.”</span></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yass is looking to harness discontent with public schools during the pandemic to push privatization of the system. H<b>e has given $15 million as the sole funder of a political action committee, the School Freedom Fund, that <a href="https://www.schoolfreedomfund.org/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">says</a> “school closures, mask mandates, critical race theory, and more” have created “a unique opportunity to promote School Choice as the structural solution to dramatically improve education in America.”</b></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>If Yass came to politics motivated by his libertarian ideology, he now has an acute material reason — beyond taxes — to have a voice in Washington.</b></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Late in the Trump administration, Susquehanna’s prize investment came under threat. President Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/07/31/tiktok-trump-divestiture/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">announced</a> on July 31, 2020, that he was considering banning TikTok in the United States. (Backers of the ban cited national security concerns over Americans’ private data being controlled by the Chinese firm behind the app, ByteDance.) Susquehanna's multibillion-dollar stake in ByteDance accounts for a major part of Yass’ fortune.</b></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">There’s no record of Yass having given to Trump before. But on Aug. 4, 2020, just a few days after the <b>president’s TikTok announcement, Yass gave $5 million to the Club for Growth. </b>Two days later, the group deviated from its normal practice of funding congressional races and announced an ad campaign in the presidential race: $5 million against Joe Biden. The group didn’t mention Yass, but <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/06/club-for-growth-anti-biden-ad-392109" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the ads</a> attacked Biden on Yass’ pet issue, charter schools. Later that month, Yass gave the group another $5 million, and more ads ran against Biden.</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the same time, Trump and other administration officials were personally involved in trying to broker a deal to avoid finalizing the TikTok ban. At one point in September, Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/19/technology/trump-oracle-and-tiktok.html" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">publicly announced</a> his support for a deal in which U.S. companies would buy stakes in ByteDance and a new board would be formed. </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Among the proposed members of the board: Dantchik, Yass’ partner at Susquehanna</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></b></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>It’s not clear if Yass or Dantchik talked to the White House about the deal, which ultimately fell through. Courts later blocked the proposal to ban the app.</b></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yass hasn’t spoken much publicly about how he thinks about his engagement in politics. A rare glimpse came after the Jan. 6 riot, when a Philadelphia political activist named Laura Goldman emailed Yass to question his donations to the Club for Growth. One of the candidates the group backed, <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/represent/members/H001089-joshua-hawley" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.</a>, had objected to certifying the presidential election results just days earlier.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“To be clear — I don’t think the election was stolen,” Yass responded in a Jan. 15, 2021, email, first reported by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/18/josh-hawley-billionaire-deceived-election-objections-capitol-attack" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Guardian</a>. “I gave the club money a year ago. Do you think anyone knew Hawley was going to do that? Sometimes politicians deceive their donors.”</b></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Yass appears to have overcome any doubts about the Club for Growth, which has continued to back candidates who say the election was stolen.</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since he sent that email, he has given the group another $5.5 million.</font></font></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
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