Title: A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that dark money undermines the integrity of the judicial system and damages the perception that all people receive equal justice under law.
Policy area: Law

Summary:
This resolution expresses the sense of the Senate that fair and impartial courts are essential to democracy and that people deserve to know who is behind monetary efforts to influence the composition of federal courts.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 759 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 759

   Expressing the sense of the Senate that dark money undermines the 
 integrity of the judicial system and damages the perception that all 
                people receive equal justice under law.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             October 24 (legislative day, October 19), 2020

 Mr. Whitehouse submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
                   to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of the Senate that dark money undermines the 
 integrity of the judicial system and damages the perception that all 
                people receive equal justice under law.

Whereas dark money organizations, funded by anonymous donors, have played an 
        outsized role in the selection of judges and justices of the Supreme 
        Court of the United States (referred to in this preamble as the 
        ``Supreme Court'') under President Trump and spent millions of anonymous 
        dollars on advertising campaigns supporting those selections;
Whereas the people of the United States have no idea who is funding these 
        campaigns and what business the funders might have before the courts;
Whereas, under President Trump, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy 
        Studies (referred to in this preamble as the ``Federalist Society'') has 
        played a central role in the selection of President Trump's judicial 
        nominees, including his 3 nominees to the Supreme Court, for example--

    (1) in 2016, then-candidate Trump said that all of his judicial 
selections would ``be hand-picked by the Federalist Society'';

    (2) in 2017, then-White House Counsel Don McGahn boasted that the 
judicial selection process had been ``in-sourced'' to the Federalist 
Society;

    (3) Leonard Leo, the Co-Chairman of the Federalist Society, twice took 
a leave of absence from the Federalist Society to work in the White House 
and advise President Trump on his Supreme Court nominations;

    (4) approximately 86 percent of President Trump's Supreme Court and 
appellate court nominees have been members of the Federalist Society; and

    (5) Judge Amy Coney Barret has spoken at 26 Federalist Society events 
since 2014 and, at the time of his confirmation in 2018, Justice Brett 
Kavanaugh had spoken at over 50 Federalist Society events;

Whereas the Washington Post reported that Leonard Leo has helped raise 
        $250,000,000 from mostly anonymous donors to promote conservative legal 
        causes and judges;
Whereas groups engaged in these activities do not disclose their funders, 
        meaning the people of the United States have no idea who is behind this 
        sophisticated operation to influence the selection of judges and 
        justices;
Whereas dark money groups like the Judicial Crisis Network (referred to in the 
        preamble as ``JCN'') have helped shape the composition of the Supreme 
        Court by spending tens of millions of anonymous dollars on advertising 
        campaigns opposing or supporting Supreme Court nominees, specifically--

    (1) JCN spent $7,000,000 to block President Obama's nomination of Judge 
Merrick Garland to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 2016;

    (2) JCN pledged to spend $10,000,000 to support President Trump's 
nomination of then-Judge Neil Gorsuch to be an Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court in 2017;

    (3) JCN also spent $10,000,000 to support President Trump's nomination 
of then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court in 2018; and

    (4) JCN has pledged to spend $10,000,000 to support President Trump's 
nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to be an Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court;

Whereas JCN is a dark money organization and does not disclose its funders to 
        the people of the United States;
Whereas JCN has received multiple massive contributions from the anonymous 
        donors, specifically--

    (1) a $15,881,000 anonymous contribution in tax year 2018;

    (2) a $17,100,000 anonymous contribution in tax year 2017;

    (3) a $21,464,995 anonymous contribution in tax year 2016; and

    (4) a $17,920,000 anonymous contribution in tax year 2015; and

Whereas the American people have no idea who made these massive contributions 
        and what business the contributors might have before the courts: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) fair and impartial courts are a bedrock of American 
        democracy and crucial to maintaining the faith of the people of 
        the United States in the justice system;
            (2) this massive dark money operation to influence the 
        selection and confirmation of judges and justices creates 
        significant conflict of interest concerns for the judiciary and 
        undermines the integrity of the courts and the justice system; 
        and
            (3) the people of the United States deserve to know who is 
        behind this massive dark money campaign to capture the courts.
                                 <all>