severino roger

see carrie main

PJT 2025

harv jd

CATHOLIC

LEO

Roger Severino

Material Contributors - What Does Project 2025 Say?

Authored the section about: Section 3.5: Department of Health and Human Services

Served in the Trump Administration: Yes. Severino served in the Department of Health and Human Services as director of the Civil Rights Office from 2017 until 2021.

In His Own Words

The son of Columbian immigrants, Severino has been described by the Human Rights Campaign as a “radical anti-LGBTQ activist.” As director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, Severino removed nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals⁴² established in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Removing the provision allowed health care providers to deny care based on a patient’s sexuality or gender identity.

On a far weirder note, The Atlantic⁵⁷ notes that his office is “sparsely decorated, with a crucifix and a Clarence Thomas bobblehead.”

Full Bio

Tracy Phillips • 3rd+

People Strategy Professional/Assistant Professor of Practice at The Busch School of Business

The Busch School of Business 3 yrs 6 mos

[Assistant Professor Full-time

Aug 2025 - Present · 11 mos

Washington, District of Columbia, United States · On-site](https://www.linkedin.com/school/40745766/)

Business Faculty Member overseeing the People and Organizations specialization.

A big thank you to Jonathan Berry for a captivating talk last Thursday as part of our Busch School of Business HR Speaker Series, co-sponsored by Legatus. His talk on incorporating Catholic Social Teaching into policy was greatly mission-aligned with The Busch School and with my approach to teaching best practice in Human Resource Management.

Thank you Collin Kourtz and Ben Roat for your assistance with the event.

Our next talk is scheduled for Wednesday, April 17th at noon with Roger Severino.

#HR #business #CST

YT 1 26

65,093 views Premiered Jan 25, 2026 #politics #lincolnsquare #democracy

Sam Osterhout and Andra Watkins

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS SUBSTACK

break down a newly released Heritage Foundation document that lays out a sweeping Christian nationalist blueprint for remaking American families, marriage, and personal freedom. This isn’t a conspiracy theory — it’s a published plan.

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Trump's transition team is actively rejecting a possible Department of Health and Human Services senior role contender, according to Politico.

CNN senior reporter Andy Kaczynski wrote via X, "wow: Donald Trump’s transition team has rejected a push to install a prominent Project 2025 author Roger Severino in a senior role at the Department of Health and Human Services over concerns that his strident anti-abortion views would prove too controversial."

Per Politico's report, "According to six people familiar with the situation, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations," some of Trump's team member "worried Severino’s nomination would further inflame fears among voters and moderate Republican lawmakers that Trump might widely restrict abortion access, distracting from the rest of the president-elect’s agenda, though they added that Trump officials remain open to appointing other anti-abortion officials at HHS."

The team's rejection of Severino comes as "anti-abortion groups had been lobbying" for the Trump ally, the report notes.

"Heritage was lobbying hard," a source told Politico.

However, "the internal feeling was that [Trump campaign manager Chris] LaCivita and that crew had spent a lot of political capital trying to kill Project 2025 and they didn’t want to do this because that would be going backwards."

*Politico's full report is available here

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the Washington Post and the New York Times have been providing in-depth, detailed reporting on Project 2025, Donald Trump and his allies' game plan for giving the United States' federal government a total MAGA makeover if he wins the 2024 GOP presidential primary and defeats President Joe Biden in the general election.

Project 2025, according to reporting in the Post and the Times, is designed to undermine the country's system of checks and balances and make sure anyone working in the federal government is an unquestioning Trump loyalist. And critics of Project 2025, from liberals and progressives to right-wing Never Trump conservatives, have been attacking it as a recipe for full-fledged authoritarianism.

In an opinion column published on December 13, MSNBC's Sarah Posner zeros in one of the troubling elements of Trump's Project 2025 agenda for a possible second term: an emphasis on "Christian nationalism."

Posner has had a lot to say about Trump's alliance with far-right white evangelicals; she's the author of the 2021 book "Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind."

"Whatever Republicans like Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota may claim," Posner warns, "Donald Trump was not 'being funny' about governing as a dictator. …. We know he meant it because we saw what he did in his first term, including after his 2020 loss. We also know he's not joking because he has an army of right-wing activists who are bent on carrying out their own authoritarian agenda for the Christianization of the federal government, especially at the Department of Health and Human Services."

Project 2025's "Christian Right agenda," Posner notes, is outlined in the Heritage Foundation's "Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise" — a document she describes as "the blueprint for a possible Trump second term." Some of its proposals for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) come from Trump ally Roger Severino.

"In the Heritage document," Posner explains, "Severino makes clear that punishing blue states remains a key goal. He proposes cutting off Medicaid funding to states like California that require coverage for abortion services in health insurance. Severino also promotes the right-wing trope that protection of LGBTQ rights is a malevolent ideology deployed by soulless bureaucrats to crush the freedom of religious Americans."

*Sarah Posner's full MSNBC column is available at this link.

pro pub trump town

Former Positions Outside Government

Campbell Family Properties, LLC Secretary
The Heritage Foundation Director

Employment Assets

Description Value Income

The Heritage Foundation $206,442

The Heritage Foundation 403(b) Plan

Vanguard SmallCap Index Fund Adm. $15,001 - $50,000 None (or less than $201)

The Heritage Foundation 401(a) Plan None (or less than $1,001) None (or less than $201)

Federalist Society Honoraria - 02/11/2016, 02/26/2016, 11/09/2016 $2,500

Alliance Defending Freedom Honoraria -06/22/2016 and 08/01/2016 $3,150

Other Income/Assets

Description Value Income

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Policies - Children's policies -- Whole Life (These are life insurance policies taken out in the name of several of our children) $1,001 - $15,000 $201 - $1,000

Bank of America Checking Account $15,001 - $50,000 None (or less than $201)

Bank of America Money Market Account None (or less than $1,001) None (or less than $201)

Employment Agreements and Arrangements

Employer or Party City, State Status and Terms Date

The Heritage Foundation Washington, District of Columbia 403(b) plan. I will not receive any further contributions to this plan after my separation. May 16, 2015

The Heritage Foundation Washington, District of Columbia 401(a) plan. he plan sponsor funds this plan once a year and will likely make a contribution to my account in May or June of 2017 and will make no contributions thereafter. May 16, 2015

Liabilities

Creditor Name Creditor Type Amount Rate Year Incurred

Navient Student Loan $50,001 - $100,000 2.625% 2003

Spouse's Employment Assets

Description Value Income Type Income Amount

Judicial Education Project (Media and Policy Consulting) bonus, consulting fees $166,698

Judicial Crisis Network(Media and Policy Consulting) consulting fees $37,766

Federalist Society - 10/13/16, 10/19/16, 3/7- 3/9/17 (Balance is currently zero. Employer will likely make a funding distribution around May or June, but it is discretionary and I do not know the amount. When distribution is made, it will take the form of the investment fund selection in the 403(b) plan, which is Vanguard SmallCap Index Fund Adm.) Honoraria $5,000

Utah Valley University - 9/14-9/16/16 Honorarium $2,000

Intelligence Squared - 7/8/16 Honorarium $1,000

Campbell Family Properties, LLC $5,000,001 - $25,000,000 Rent or Royalties Interest $100,001 - $1,000,000

3480 Broadmoor Rent or Royalties

3838 Broadmoor Rent or Royalties

3839 East Paris Rent or Royalties

3850 Broadmoor Rent or Royalties

3886 Broadmoor Rent or Royalties

3940 Broadmoor Rent or Royalties

2660 28th St. Rent or Royalties

2669 Leonard Rent or Royalties

2950 Wallkent Rent or Royalties

625 Kenmoor Rent or Royalties

630 Kenmoor Rent or Royalties

655 Kenmoor Rent or Royalties

710 Kenmoor Rent or Royalties

833 Kenmore Rent or Royalties

Riley Cancer Center Rent or Royalties

3854 Broadmoor Rent or Royalties

4251 Cascade Rd. Rent or Royalties

Michigan St. Medical Rent or Royalties

3737 East Paris None (or less than $201)

Muskegon Autopark, LLC $500,001 - $1,000,000 Rent or Royalties $50,001 - $100,000

Pleotint, LLC None (or less than $1,001) Capital Gains None (or less than $201)

Norhtwestern Mutual Life Insurance -- Whole Life policy $250,001 - $500,000 Dividends $5,001 - $15,000

bad code box size

https://glaad.org/gap/roger-severino/

Former Director, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/politics/trump-transgender-rights.html" ...issued a ruling that scraps protections for transgender patients against discrimination by doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies. The order was announced during Pride month and on the four-year anniversary of the massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub. Severino said the new rule was “updating our books to reflect the legal reality,” a view that protections against sex discrimination does not apply to transgender people.

—Criticized bans on scientifically-discredited “reparative therapy” and labeled being LGBT as being “against your biology”: “Unfortunately you’re seeing some states that are actually trying to criminalize any sex therapy that reinforces a person’s biology. They’re calling into question and passing bans on reparative therapy, is one name for it. And so it’s really an ideology that’s saying you can only go one way, against your biology, but if you try to do anything that reinforces it, then we’re going to criminalize it.” (clip begins at 20:18 in audio a link)

—Insists that anti-LGBTQ views are “actually decent and honorable beliefs based not on any sort of hatred but, in fact, out of love. It’s a vision of human flourishing, people who believe in marriage and believe in a biblical view of human sexuality, it’s out of love and because you believe this is the proper vision for human flourishing that leads to happiness and leads to societal success, and there’s a lot of social science evidence backing those statements up.” (clip begins at 7:15 in audio at link)

—In a column titled “Pentagon’s Radical New Transgender Policy Defies Common Sense,” he argued that the suggestion of transgender people serving openly in the military “dishonors [the] sacrifices” of “hundreds of thousands of veterans and current troops who were traumatized, wounded, or died fighting against Nazis, Communist aggressors, and terrorists, yet, believe that biological men should not be allowed into the same barracks and showers as women.”

—In a joint op-ed with former Senator and anti-LGBT activist Jim Demint,maligned the complexity of gender identity by insisting transgender rights supporters see sex as “‘merely a placeholder ‘assigned at birth,’ much like a Social Security number, only far easier to change.” In the same piece, he slighted trans teen Gavin Grimm as “a gender-dysphoric teen girl.”

—Said of LGBT rights: “Same-sex marriage was merely the start, not end, of the left’s LGBT agenda. The radical left is using government power to coerce everyone, including children, into pledging allegiance to a radical new gender ideology over and above their right to privacy, safety, and religious freedom.”

—Co-authored anamicus brief urging the California Supreme Court to reject civil marriage equality based on religious grounds.

The GLAAD Accountability Project catalogs anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and discriminatory actions of politicians, commentators, organization heads, religious leaders, and legal figures, who have used their platforms, influence and power to spread misinformation and harm LGBTQ people.

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roger Thomas Severino (born 1974/1975)^[1] is an American attorney who served as the director of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the United States Department of Health and Human Services from 2017 to 2021. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.^[2]

Early life and education:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Severino, the son of immigrants from Colombia, was raised in Los Angeles.^[3][4] He received a bachelor's degree in business from University of Southern California, a Master of Public Administrationfrom Carnegie Mellon University, and aJuris Doctor from Harvard Law School.^[5]

Career[

From 2008 to 2015, Severino was a trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Severino was also previously CEO and counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit law firm taking on cases related to freedom of religion. In 2015, Severino joined The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank geared towards public policy. There, he served as the director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.^[5] Severino has written several opinion columns for The Daily Signal. Severino has also written for Public Discourse: Ethics, Law, and the Common Good, a journal published by the Witherspoon Institute, a conservative think-tank.^[6]

Department of Health and Human Services:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

In March 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Severino as Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Health and Human Services.^[7][8][9] He left the position on January 15, 2021.^[10]

A social conservative and devout Catholic, Severino has often been criticized for being anti-LGBT.^[7][8] The Human Rights Campaign has described Severino as a "radical anti-LGBTQ activist."^[11] In 2018, Severino called the Obama administration's expansion of sex to include gender identity "radical gender ideology."^[12][13] In an op-ed co-written by former U.S. Senator Jim DeMint, Severino said that "transgender rights supporters see sex as 'merely a placeholder' assigned at birth."^[14]

As director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, Severino removed nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people established in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Removing the provision allowed healthcare providers to deny care based on a patient's sexuality or gender identity.^[15][16]

In July 2020, Trump nominated Severino for a three-year position on the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States.^[17] Severino was commissioned in January 2021, in the final days of Trump's presidency, and in February, filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming the Biden administration offered him an ultimatum to resign or be terminated.^[18][19]

Personal life[

Since 2004 Severino has been married to Carrie Severino (née Campbell), an attorney and activist who leads the Judicial Crisis Network.^[8][9][20]

References[

^ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/us/politics/severinos-amy-coney-barrett.html
^ "Roger Severino".
^ "Civil Rights Chief At HHS Defends The Right To Refuse Care On Religious Grounds". NPR.org. March 20, 2018.
^ Leonard, Kimberly (September 26, 2019). ":{'It should be treated just like every other civil right': Top Trump health official looks to enshrine religious liberty":(style="padding-left:0.2em"):}:. Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on September 26, 2019.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Severino#cite_ref-:0_5-1) "OCR Leadership". U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
^ "Roger Severino". Public Discourse. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Severino#cite_ref-:2_7-1) Brinlee, Morgan (March 27, 2017). "Who Is Roger Severino? Donald Trump's New Appointment Sparks Concern Among LGBTQ Activists". Bustle.com. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Severino#cite_ref-:1_8-1) ^c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Severino#cite_ref-:1_8-2) Green, Emma (June 7, 2017). "The Man Behind Trump's Religious-Freedom Agenda for Health Care". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Severino#cite_ref-Politico-Diamond_9-1) Diamond, Dan (January 22, 2018). "The religious activists on the rise inside Trump's health department". Politico.
^ "OCR Director Roger Severino Concludes His Appointment | HHS.gov". hhs.gov. United States Department of Health and Human Services. Archived from the original on 2021-01-20.
^ McBride, Brian (March 24, 2017). "Trump Appoints Radical Anti-LGBTQ Activist to Lead HHS Civil Rights Office". Human Rights Campaign. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
^ Green, Erica L.; Benner, Katie; Pear, Robert (2018-10-21). ":{'Transgender' Could Be Defined Out of Existence Under Trump Administration":(style="padding-left:0.2em"):}:. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
^ "Roger Severino, Author at The Daily Signal". The Daily Signal. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
^ "Roger Severino | GLAAD". www.glaad.org. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
^ Simmons-Duffin, Selena (June 12, 2020). "Transgender Health Protections Reversed By Trump Administration". NPR News. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
^ Sanger-Katz, Margot; Weiland, Noah (2020-06-12). "Trump Administration Erases Transgender Civil Rights Protections in Health Care". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
^ Seidman, Harry M. (July 24, 2020). "President Trump Appoints Three New Members to the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States". www.acus.gov. Administrative Conference of the United States.
^ Choi, Matthew (February 3, 2021). "Trump appointee sues Biden over alleged ouster from advisory board". Politico.
^ Holmes, Kristen; Subramaniam, Tara; Stark, Liz (February 6, 2021). "Biden administration works to clean house of Trump appointees". cnn.com.
^ Williamson, Elizabeth (October 15, 2020). "With Barrett Nomination, a D.C. Conservative Power Couple Nears Its Dream". The New York Times.

Categories:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/05/biden-trump-severino-trap.html

no lnx

Biden’s Justice Department Is Walking Into a Trap Set by Trump Appointees

A seemingly frivolous lawsuit could take down a pillar of the administrative state.

BY MARK JOSEPH STERN

MAY 28, 2021

From the day he assumed the presidency, Joe Biden has aggressively removed Donald Trump’s appointees from the executive branch to prevent them from sabotaging his administration. Biden’s termination of high-profile Trump holdovers, like the union-busting Peter Robb, has attracted the most attention. But the president has also fired holdovers who tried to “burrow in” to obscure agencies, many of whom were installed in the final weeks of Trump’s term. One such holdover, Roger Severino, promptly sued Biden after the president removed him and three fellow Trump appointees from theAdministrative Conference of the United States.

On the surface, Severino’s lawsuit is absurd. But he and his allies may know that. It appears that they have a grander plan: to destroy the very foundation of agency independence, giving the president power to fire any member of any agency—even those that Congress tried to shield from his control—permitting a future president to stack the entire executive branch with his own lackeys. That outcome would constitute a major blow to the modern administrative state. And bizarrely, Biden’s Department of Justice may be walking straight into the trap that Severino set for it.

Most Americans have not heard of ACUS, but the agency has considerable influence over federal regulations. Its council, a kind of board of directors, is made up of one chair and 10 other members appointed by the president. Only the chair must receive Senate confirmation; the other members do not. ACUS makes recommendations to improve the regulatory process across the federal government. Under Trump’s appointees, it laundered conservative anti-regulatory ideas approved by industry groups and Federalist Society leaders through the agency, giving them a false nonpartisan sheen.

It is no surprise, then, that Biden fired four of Trump’s ACUS holdovers. The termination of Severino, in particular, was predictable: A longtime anti-LGBTQ activist, Severino also worked in Trump’s Department of Health of Human Servicestrying (and failing) to legalize discrimination against LGBTQ patients. Trump first appointed Severino to ACUS in August 2020, then reappointed him on Jan. 16, 2021—a bid to burrow in Severino by restarting his three-year term just before Biden took office.

A series of clues indicate that Severino might have an ulterior motive.

Biden foiled this plan by firing Severino and three of his Trump-appointed colleagues in early February. Severino responded with a lawsuit alleging that his termination was illegal. That accusation is curious coming from a Federalist Society figure like Severino. The conservative legal movement has long supported the president’s constitutional authority to fire members of federal agencies. Under their theory of the “unitary executive,” the president may remove agency leaders at any time, for any reason. This theory casts doubt on the legitimacy of “independent agencies,” like the Federal Trade Commission, whose members can only be removed for cause, not at the president’s discretion.

In 1935’s Humphrey’s Executor, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of independent agencies. But that precedent has been on conservative lawyers’ hit list for decades. If the Supreme Court overturns Humphrey’s and adopts the unitary executive theory, then many powerful agencies that have traditionally operated independently from the president—including the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission—would become mere outposts of the White House. The president could fire their leaders and replace them with cronies who will obey his orders. (Progressives tend to support Humphrey’s because it promotes less political decision-making and protects experts from partisan pressure.)

Severino’s lawsuit, which contradicts a foundational pillar of conservative legal thought, thus raises a red flag.It seems unlikely that Severino simply wants his ACUS job back, which is, after all, a part-time, unpaid position. In response to Slate’s request for comment, Severino—who now serves as a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center directing its HHS Accountability Project—declined to say whether he intended to take down Humphrey’s. Instead, he gave four other reasons behind the suit. “I want to continue making valuable contributions to ACUS, the rules governing appointments should be consistent regardless of who is in power, current case law is on my side, and I refuse to be bullied by the President,” Severino told Slate.

A series of clues, however, indicate that Severino might have another motive: not getting his job back, but obliterating agency independence and enshrining the unitary executive theory into law. Severino is represented by Jonathan Mitchell, a conservative attorney famous for his union-busting litigation. Trump nominated Mitchell to chair ACUS, but the Senate never confirmed him. Given his deep ties to the legal campaign against independent agencies, Mitchell is the perfect candidate for an assault on Humphrey’s using ACUS as a vehicle.

Moreover, statements by Andrew Kloster, a Trump appointee to ACUS whom Biden fired along with Severino, point to a scheme designed to take down Humphrey’s. Public record requests reveal that when the White House requested Kloster’s resignation, he refused in a lengthy email warning of “legal headaches” to come. When the White House fired him, Kloster urged ACUS to deny the legality of the termination, demanding that his name remain on the official website. He immediately compared himself to a member of the FTC, the agency at issue in Humphrey’s. That same day, Kloster tweeted that “ramming Humphrey’s Executor” with “the unitary executive” was “the plan.” Similarly, Ed Whelan—who now works with Severino at the Ethics and Public Policy Center—wrote that his colleague’s lawsuit may lead to the reversal of Humphrey’s.

If “ramming” Humphrey’s is, indeed, the plan, then it is a terrible one. The fundamental problem for Severino is that ACUS is not an independent agency. Congress did not shield its members with for-cause removal protections. No law limits the president’s authority to remove them. Its members (aside from the chair) are not even confirmed by the Senate—unlike the leaders at true independent agencies, who are Senate-confirmed. And ACUS does not exercise the kind of regulatory or adjudication authority that often merits independence in the eyes of Congress. To the contrary, it exists to advise the president on executive branch affairs; it would make no sense to prevent him from removing his own advisers.

In its response to Severino’s lawsuit, filed on May 4, the Department of Justice eventually makes all these points to defend Biden’s actions. But it does not foreground them. Instead, the DOJ leads with a sweeping argument that strikes at the heart of agency independence. It argues that, due to the constitutional separation of powers, the federal judiciary lacks authority to issue “injunctive or declaratory relief” against the president.Put differently, the argument is that a federal court has no power to make the president reinstate a fired agency member. Under this theory, if a president illegally fired an FTC commissioner, for instance, no court could order him to give the commissioner their job back. The court could order back pay but couldn’t restore their employment.

This theory, if true, would end agency independence. A president could clear house at every independent agency, purging members without good cause, and no one could stop him. The sacked commissioners could sue for damages but not reinstatement. If the Supreme Court accepted this idea, it wouldn’t even have to overturn Humphrey’s. Independent agencies could remain on the books, but in reality, nothing would prevent a president from firing members he did not like.

Ronald J. Krotoszynski, an administrative law professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, told me that the DOJ’s theory “seems bogus to me.” Krotoszynski pointed out that if Severino’s removal violated the law, “his removal was without legal effect, void, and a court order should be sufficient to reinstate him to the ACUS governing council for the balance of his term of office.” He also noted that, in the landmark 1803 Supreme Court decision Marbury v. Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall held that a federal judge could order Secretary of State James Madison to deliver a judge’s commission. Marshall wrote that a writ of mandamus—a court order compelling an official to perform a legal duty—would be appropriate against Madison.

In light of Marbury, Krotoszynski speculated that a court could issue a writ of mandamus “against the president directly.” This order would compel the president to reinstate a fired agency member. But, Krotoszynski said, “that seems rather awkward and completely unnecessary.” Instead, a court could order the staff members at the Office of Presidential Personnel—who send out the actual pink slip—to acknowledge the member’s right to continue service. (The DOJ argues that a court order against the president’s staff is “tantamount to issuing relief directly against the President.”)

Krotoszynski’s argument is persuasive but contestable. In a 1997 law review article, Tracey A. Hardin examined this issue and arrived at the same conclusion as Biden’s Justice Department: The Constitution does not allow a federal court to order the reinstatement of an independent agency commissioner who was fired illegally. (Ironically, Tracey is now the assistant general counsel at SEC, an independent agency.) And the Supreme Court’s current conservative supermajority is extremely hostile to agency independence. It is all too easy to envision the conservative justices agreeing with the Justice Department, carving a huge loophole in Humphrey’s without risking the backlash of overturning it outright.

Which raises the question: Why is Biden’s Justice Department making this argument at all? It has a slam-dunk case against Severino on the merits; why try to duck the litigation with a far-reaching argument that could imperil independent agencies, which progressives and Democrats tend to support? The Biden administration may be walking straight into a trap that Severino and his allies set for it. It may only be spared by the feeble nature of the trap itself. New York University School of Law professor Sally Katzen, a senior fellow with ACUS who previously served as acting chair of the agency, told me she doubted the Supreme Court would seize upon this case to kill agency independence.

“It’s a plausible scary scenario,” Katzen says, “but I don’t see them going that far. ACUS is not a traditional independent regulatory commission. It has no authority to issue binding regulations nor does it have any enforcement powers.” If Severino and his allies wanted the Supreme Court to overturn Humphrey’s, “they should’ve picked a bigger fish. ACUS is a tiny little minnow—but a lovable minnow—in the world of administrative agencies.”

Severino, in other words, appears destined to lose this lawsuit one way or another. Through its own unforced error, however, the Biden administration has made it more likely that he will take down independent agencies with him.

an 7 23 no lnx tet

Heritage Foundation and its vice president, Roger Severino, are praising the Supreme Court’s decision last week favoring the First Amendment rights of a Colorado business owner and designer over the Equal Protection rights of the LGBTQ community as a “victory for tolerance.”

Heritage, the once-vaunted right-wing think tank that has melded into pro-Trump MAGA right-wing extremism, just weeks ago attacked President Joe Biden and his historic White House Pride Month celebration, declaring: “The ‘Pride Flag’ does not represent anything good and it certainly does not represent America. It should have never disgraced the South Portico of the White House.”

Now it is using the Supreme Court decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis to continue its anti-LGBTQ attack.

“The LGBT Left says they just want to live like everybody else. That’s a lie,” Heritage on Monday wrote. “If you don’t compromise your beliefs and kowtow to their demands, they’ll make an enemy out of you.The 303 Creative decision rejects their efforts to make Americans pledge allegiance to their flag.”

Roger Severino is a former Trump administration official who served as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights. He used that position as a sword to attack the LGBTQ community.

READ MORE: ‘Treacherous March of Normalization’: ABC News Slammed for ‘Puff Piece’ Profile on Moms for Liberty

In 2019, Severino was the Trump administration’s top official behind a new regulation offering special religious rights to medical providers while harming LGBT people.

“Patients want doctors who match their values,” he said, defending the policy, which would allow medical professionals to deny service to anyone for reasons of conscience.

In 2020, Severino, as The New York Times reported, “finalized a regulation that will erase protections for transgender patients against discrimination by doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies, a move announced on the four-year anniversary of the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando and in the middle of Pride Month.”

In an interview with Newsmaxposted on Monday, Severino called the Supreme Court ruling in 303 Creative v. Elenis, “a tremendous victory for free speech and tolerance and pluralism.”

“The Supreme Court opinion focused a lot on West Virginia v. Barnette, which is a case from World War II,” Severino said. “That said Americans cannot be forced to pledge allegiance to the flag. Now this opinion elaborated and essentially saying, you can’t force Americans to pledge allegiance to the pride flag as well.”

There is no indication anyone of any authority has ever tried to “force Americans to pledge allegiance to the pride flag.”

Watch below or at this link.

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:{ former United States Department of Justice trial attorney under ex-President Bill Clinton is probing Republican billionaire and ex-President Donald Trump donor Leonard Leo along with "his network of nonprofit groups," POLITICO exclusively reports.

Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb's investigation comes after the GOP billionaire and Federalist Society leader's trust fund, Marble Freedom Trust's latest Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filing revealed in June Leo's mission to control right-wing politics, according to a Truthout report.

Truthout notes the IRS filing obtained by progressive watchdog Accountable.US "shows the Federalist Society leader 'has dumped at least $411 million into fueling right-wing infrastructure in the U.S. since mid-2020.'"

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According to POLITICO, the probe also "comes after POLITICO reported in March that one of Leo's nonprofits — registered as a charity — paid his for-profit company tens of millions of dollars in the two years since he joined the company.'

The news outlet notes that "a few weeks later, a progressive watchdog group filed a complaint with the D.C. attorney general and the IRS requesting a probe into what services were provided and whether Leo was in violation of laws against using charities for personal enrichment."

POLITICO reports:

Best known as Donald Trump's White House 'court whisperer,' Leo played a behind-the-scenes role in the nominations of all three of the former president's Supreme Court justices and promoted them through his multi-billion-dollar network of nonprofits. Trump chose his three Supreme Court picks, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, from a list drawn up by Leo. More recently, Leo was the beneficiary of a $1.6 billion contribution, believed to be the biggest political donation in U.S. history.

"There are questions as to whether Leo-affiliated nonprofits have diverted substantial portions of their income and assets, directly or indirectly, to the personal benefit of Leonard Leo," the Campaign for Accountability's complaint said. "Such payments were generally listed as made in exchange for alleged consulting, research, public relations, or similar services. However CFA has reasonable questions about whether those alleged services were actually rendered at all or, if services were rendered, whether the payments made were substantially in excess of fair market value."

Per the report, "The news of the investigation comes as the nonprofit that was a subject of the complaint quietly relocated in recent weeks from the capital area to Texas, according to paperwork filed in Virginia and Texas," after "for nearly 20 years the nonprofit, now known as The 85 Fund, had been incorporated in Virginia."

The news outlet notes:

The Leo-aligned nonprofit The 85 Fund — which is registered as a tax-exempt charity — paid tens of millions of dollars to a public relations firm in Virginia which he co-chairs in the two years since he joined the firm, known as CRC Advisors. The watchdog complaintalleges the total amount of money that flowed from Leo-aligned nonprofits to his for-profit firms was $73 million over six years beginning in 2016.

According to POLITICO, attorney David B. Rivkin Jr., who represents the parties in the probe, "said in a statement that the complaint 'is sloppy, deceptive and legally flawed and we are addressing this fully with the DC Attorney General's office.'"

Politico's full report is available at this link.

HEIDI PRZYBYLA

08/22/2023

Washington

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb is investigating judicial activist Leonard Leo and his network of nonprofit groups, according to a person with direct knowledge of the probe.

The scope of the investigation is unclear. But it comes after POLITICO reported in March that one of Leo’s nonprofits — registered as a charity — paid his for-profit company tens of millions of dollars in the two years since he joined the company. A few weeks later, a progressive watchdog group filed a complaint with the D.C. attorney general and the IRS requesting a probe into what services were provided and whether Leo was in violation of laws against using charities for personal enrichment.

David B. Rivkin Jr., an attorney for the parties in the investigation, said in a statement that the complaint “is sloppy, deceptive and legally flawed and we are addressing this fully with the DC Attorney General’s office.”

The news of the investigation comes as the nonprofit that was a subject of the complaint quietly relocated in recent weeks from the capital area to Texas, according to paperwork filed in Virginia and Texas. For nearly 20 years the nonprofit, now known as The 85 Fund, had been incorporated in Virginia.

Gabe Shoglow-Rubenstein, Schwalb’s communications director, declined to confirm or deny the existence of the probe, including whether the attorney general took any action in response to the complaint.

Schwalb, who took office in January, has a background in tax law and served as a trial attorney in the tax division of the Department of Justice under President Bill Clinton.

Best known as Donald Trump’s White House “court whisperer,” Leo played a behind-the-scenes role in the nominations of all three of the former president’s Supreme Court justices and promoted them through his multi-billion-dollar network of nonprofits. Trump chose his three Supreme Court picks, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, from a list drawn up by Leo. More recently, Leo was the beneficiary of a $1.6 billion contribution, believed to be the biggest political donation in U.S. history.

He is also the co-chair of the Federalist Society, the academic arm of the conservative legal movement, for which he worked in various capacities for decades while building his donor base.

While Leo grants few interviews, in mid-July he was featured in a two-part podcast with the Maine Wire, a conservative news organization. Asked why he’s become a “lightening rod for criticism,” Leo cited his commitment to “defend the Constitution” and spoke about the “long history” of dark money in U.S. politics.

“It’s not to hide in the shadows,” he said. “It’s because we want ideas judged by their own moral and intellectual force.”

He did not address any allegations of potential misuse of nonprofit tax law.

Real estate and other public records illustrate that the lifestyle of Leo and a handful of his allies took a lavish turn in the course of the making of the current ultraconservative court, beginning in 2016, the year he was tapped as an unpaid adviser to Trump. Citing the report, a progressive watchdog group called on the IRSand D.C. Attorney General a few weeks later to investigate whether the groups may be violating their tax-exempt status by “siphoning” assets or income for personal use.

Anthony Burke, a public affairs specialist with the IRS, declined to comment. “Under the federal tax law, federal employees cannot disclose tax return information,” he said.

The Leo-aligned nonprofit The 85 Fund— which is registered as a tax-exempt charity — paid tens of millions of dollars to a public relations firm in Virginia which he co-chairs in the two years since he joined the firm, known as CRC Advisors.

The watchdog complaintalleges the total amount of money that flowed from Leo-aligned nonprofits to his for-profit firms was $73 million over six years beginning in 2016.

“There are questions as to whether Leo-affiliated nonprofits have diverted substantial portions of their income and assets, directly or indirectly, to the personal benefit of Leonard Leo,” read the Campaign for Accountability’s complaint.

“Such payments were generally listed as made in exchange for alleged consulting, research, public relations, or similar services. However CFA has reasonable questions about whether those alleged services were actually rendered at all or, if services were rendered, whether the payments made were substantially in excess of fair market value,” said the complaint, which covers the period between 2016 and 2020.

POLITICO reported that a total of $43 million flowed to Leo’s company over two years and that the bulk of it came from The 85 Fund, a nonprofit run by his allies which has spent tens of millions of dollars over the past decade to promote Trump’s Supreme Court picks, file briefs before the court and, more recently, used an alias to push for voting restrictions and of cheating in the 2020 election.

It is now run by Carrie Severino, an attorney and former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas listed as director in the group’s most recent IRS paperwork and is collecting massive amounts of anonymous funds: $117 million in 2021.

In discontinuing the group in the state of Virginia, the new address Severino listed is a virtual office suite in Fort Worth, Texas, shared by a “Two Men and a Truck”franchise. The office building advertises virtual and coworking spaces.

Further complicating the picture: in Texas, a new registration for “The 85 Fund” was filed on June 27 under yet a different address in a different city than the one listed on the Virginia paperwork. It is also registered in Texas as a for-profit entity.

This location is a UPS store in a strip mall next door to a restaurant called the “Snooty Pig Cafe.” As POLITICO previously reported, The 85 Fund had been using a UPS drop box in DC’s Georgetown neighborhood as its principal office address.

Beginning in 2016, Leo formed or helped reorganize two for-profit businesses — CRC Advisors and BH Group— to perform millions of dollars in services for his aligned nonprofits.

In those five years, BH Group brought in $15 million from the nonprofits. Yet unlike CRC, BH Group doesn’t appear to have advertised itself as a consulting or public relations firm, or even have had a website. During some of that time, Leo was employed full-time as a vice president at the nonprofit Federalist Society, raising questions about how he could have reasonably generated millions of dollars in consulting fees at the same time, the complaint says.

The 85 Fund’s switch to the Fort Worth office building came days after POLITICO inquired, on June 30, about certain Leo allies who may have personally benefited from millions in anonymous donations that moved through the 85 Fund over the past decade.

A number of the groups that receive contributions from Leo’s “dark money” network, in turn, hold sizable contracts with his firm, CRC Advisors. This includes the Federalist Society, the nation’s preeminent conservative debating society where Leo was executive vice president and still serves as co-chairman. Among payments the complaint flagged to the IRS and DC attorney general is $3.1 million which the Federalist Society paid to CRC between 2020 and 2021 for “media training.”

On July 7, a Leo spokesperson offered an initial response to inquiries POLITICO had made about The 85 Fund, previously known as the Judicial Education Project. That was the day paperwork with Severino’s signature was filed “surrendering” The 85 Fund’s charter in Virginia.

In the paperwork, Severino stated the plan to move to Texas was adopted by a majority of the board of directors on Dec. 8, 2022. It has three board members. In addition to Severino, they include treasurerGary Marx and chair Todd Graves,according to the latest IRS paperwork available.

It’s not the only major conservative nonprofit to have moved to Texas in recent years. The National Rifle Association, contesting multiple lawsuits from attorneys general in New York state and Washington, D.C., alleging violations of nonprofit law, announced in early 2021 that it would relocate to Texas.

Yael Fuchs, who was a senior lawyer on the New York case against the NRA, said Texas has limited regulation over charities, making it a more attractive legal environment for nonprofits.

“This gambit isn’t going to deprive the regulator [DC] of jurisdiction over past wrongdoing but it could create some hurdles,” she said. They include complications in gaining injunctive relief or obtaining evidence, “but there are ways of getting over those,” said Fuchs, former head of charities enforcement in the New York attorney general’s office.

It’s also not the first time a Leo-aligned group has shifted operations after media scrutiny.

A separate Leo-aligned group that appears to have been involved in the 2017 sale of GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway’s company was dissolved last fall,three days after POLITICO inquired about whether it helped to facilitate the multi-million-dollar deal while she was advising Trump on judicial candidates.

In his statement, Rivkin, the lawyer for the groups targeted in the CFA complaint, said CFA was connected to Arabella Advisors, a firm that was founded by former Bill Clinton appointee Eric Kessler. Leo has long compared his business practices to those of Arabella.

Both Michelle Kuppersmith, CFA executive director, and Steve Sampson, Arabella spokesperson, said their groups have no financial relationship. However, CFA was originally part of the Hopewell Fund, a nonprofit for which Arabella provides administrative support. CFA spun off from Hopewell in 2017, both groups confirmed.

Arabella is a for-profit company that provides administrative, HR and accounting services to largely philanthropic nonprofits which are largely independently run.

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Roger Severino - Wikipedia

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Carrie Campbell Severino

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Jul 13, 2022 — Carrie Campbell Severino is the president of the Judicial Crisis Network and a co-author with Mollie Hemingway of the bestselling book Justice ...

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Oct 15, 2020 — Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network and Roger Severino, a senior health and human services official, have worked to reshape social ...

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Jun 27, 2022 — Wade rocked the country, Carrie and Roger Severino celebrated the realization of decades of work that has been complicated in recent years ...

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Carrie Campbell Severino is the president of the Judicial Crisis Network, and co-author with Mollie Hemingway of the bestselling book Justice on Trial: The ...

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In 2020, The New York Times dubbed him and his wife Carrie, “a conservative power couple” to be reckoned with. Severino holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a ...

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Nov 2, 2020 — Carrie Severino is a legal scholar, practicing Catholic, and mother—she has six children—and is also married to a lawyer. Read more.

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Roger Severino

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