We Don't Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right's Supreme Court Supermajority

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History revisited from 2023

The inside story of how Leonard Leo built a machine that remade the American legal system — and what he plans to do next.

by Andy Kroll, Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, illustrations by Nate Sweitzer for ProPublica

Oct. 11, 2023,

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THE PARTY GUESTS who arrived on the evening of June 23, 2022, at the Tudor-style mansion on the coast of Maine were a special group in a special place enjoying a special time. The attendees included some two dozen federal and state judges — a gathering that required U.S. marshals with earpieces to stand watch while a Coast Guard boat idled in a nearby cove.

SNIP:

If Americans had heard of Leo at all, it was for his role in building the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court. He drew up the lists of potential justices that Donald Trump released during the 2016 campaign. He advised Trump on the nominations of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Before that, he’d helped pick or confirm the court’s three other conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito. But the guests who gathered that night under a tent in Leo’s backyard included key players in a less-understood effort, one aimed at transforming the entire judiciary.

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