Democrats push for Supreme Court transparency as dark money swells

In their ongoing effort to enforce ethics standards on the federal judiciary, Congressional Democrats are now calling on one of the levers of power to step in: the Judicial Conference, which makes judicial policy. Two lawmakers with oversight over the courts—Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Hank Johnson—called on the conference to impose great transparency from special interest groups filing amicus briefs with the courts.

A recent investigation by Politico shows just how deep and influential the dark money network created by conservative activist Leonard Leo is on decisions from district courts all the way up to the Supreme Court. Politico found that “Leo and his network of nonprofit groups are either directly or indirectly connected to a majority of amicus briefs filed on behalf of conservative parties in seven of the highest-profile rulings the court has issued over the past two years.”

Whitehouse and Johnson are asking the conference to require that groups filing amicus briefs disclose who is funding them. “We urge it to take into account the impact that these and other examples have on public confidence in the judiciary,” Whitehouse and Johnson said, citing the Politico report.