{"id":28423,"date":"2023-09-12T13:26:11","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T20:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=28423"},"modified":"2023-09-12T13:26:11","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T20:26:11","slug":"what-ginni-thomas-and-leonard-leo-wrought-how-a-justices-wife-and-a-key-activist-started-a-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/09\/12\/what-ginni-thomas-and-leonard-leo-wrought-how-a-justices-wife-and-a-key-activist-started-a-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"What Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo wrought: How a justice\u2019s wife and a key activist started a movement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thanks to the Supreme Court\u2019s Citizens United ruling, a trove of so-called \u201cdark money\u201d was about to be unleashed. Two activists prepared to seize the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Leonard Leo\u2019s role as the central figure in the conservative legal movement has long been known, culminating in his acquisition last year of what many believe to be the largest political donation in history. | POLITICO illustration\/Photos by AP Photo, Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By HEIDI PRZYBYLA<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

09\/10\/2023 07:00 AM EDT (politico.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heidi Przybyla is a Washington, D.C. journalist. You can find her on Twitter @HeidiReports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court\u2019s decision in the 2010 Citizens United<\/em> case transformed the world of politics. It loosened restrictions on campaign spending and unleashed a flow of anonymous donor money to nonprofit groups run by political activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the months before the ruling dropped in January of that year, a group of conservative activists came together to create just such an organization. Its mission would be to, at the time, block then-President Barack Obama\u2019s pet initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The activists included Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo and his ideological soulmate, a hard-edged activist named Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Leonard
Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo (left) and his ideological soulmate, a hard-edged activist named Virginia Thomas (right), who also happens to be the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. | Carolyn Kaster\/AP Photo; Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGinni really wanted to build an organization and be a movement leader,\u201d said a person familiar with her thinking at that time. \u201cLeonard [Leo] was going to be the conduit of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also had a rich backer: Harlan Crow, the manufacturing billionaire who had helped Thomas and her husband in many ways, from funding luxury vacations<\/a> to picking up tuition payments<\/a> for their great-nephew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, the Citizens United<\/em> ruling was widely expected, as the court had already signaled its intentions. When it came, it upended nearly 100 years of campaign spending restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conservative legal movement seized the moment with greater success than any other group, and the consequences have shaped American jurisprudence and politics in dramatic ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n