Billionaires Captured Ohio’s Supreme Court. Now They Want a Fully GOP Court.

Since mid-October, two right-wing super PACs have spent untold sums on ads portraying two of the four candidates running for seats on the Ohio Supreme Court as soft on crime. This campaign against judicial candidates supported by Democrats is a tried-and-true element of the attack playbook for special interests seeking to undermine judges that might hold corporations accountable.
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Leonard Leo-Linked VA Bishop Pushes Congregants to Vote for Regressive Agenda

On November 3, Virginians will vote on two ballot initiatives that have become the center of a well-resourced campaign led by Catholic Bishop Michael Burbidge. This campaign is urging congregants to vote “no” on two ballot measures. Ballot Question 1 would affirm abortion access as a constitutional right in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Ballot Question 2 would repeal a 2006 same-sex marriage…
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Kansas Amendment Battle Highlights Billionaires’ Efforts to Capture State Courts

The networks of two major players who helped capture the U.S. Supreme Court — anti-abortion lawyer Leonard Leo and oil billionaire Charles Koch — have also long targeted state courts to advance their regressive agenda. One of their tactics, influencing the way that state justices are selected nationwide, is being borne out in Kansas. On August 4, voters in Kansas will decide the fate of a…
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Right-Wing Bill Mill Meeting Centers Voter Suppression, Protecting Data Centers

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) faithful descend on the Sunshine State this week for the right-wing bill mill’s annual meeting at the four-star JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes. In addition to smoking stogies at a “late night cigar reception,” sipping drinks, and trying out Meta’s latest “AI-powered wearable technologies,” attendees are considering model policies designed to…
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Leonard Leo Doesn’t Need Trump’s Backing to Further His Anti-Abortion Agenda

At the end of August, Texas and Florida’s attorneys general asked to join GOP attorneys general from Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas in a yearslong lawsuit targeting mifepristone — breathing new life into the litigation attacking the most widely used method of abortion in the United States. Earlier this year, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice asked the courts to dismiss the suit — not based on…
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