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Published: June 5, 2009
Updated 2 hours ago
Rawstory
How corporations are buying the judiciary: Part I
Corporate interests posing as a grassroots conservative group are behind attacks on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, a RAW STORY investigation has found.
The Committee for Justice (CFJ), an astroturf group established by big business in July 2002 to create an appearance of popular support for President Bush’s judicial nominees, is now leading the effort to oppose the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court.
CFJ’s Executive Director Curt Levey has been sending out press releases and making media appearances to promote the theme that Sotomayor is racist and biased in her rulings, drawing his talking points largely from a speech in which she suggested that when it came to race and sex discrimination cases, it was possible that “a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences … would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
“It’s pretty disturbing,” Levey told The Hill. “It’s one thing to say that occasionally a judge will despite his or her best efforts to be impartial … allow occasional biases to cloud impartiality. But it’s almost like she’s proud that her biases and personal experiences will cloud her impartiality.”
CFJ was created at the urging of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) – who has himself been plagued by allegations of racism. In 2002, as Senate Democrats stalled the nomination of Judge Charles Pickering to the Federal Court of Appeals over Pickering’s alleged racial insensitivity and opposition to abortion, Lott recruited C. Boyden Gray to create a fake grassroots organization to drum up support for Pickering’s confirmation.
Gray had been White House counsel during the presidency of George H.W. Bush, who threw a fundraising party for the new organization. Former Bush White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was also involved in the group’s creation, and the lobbying firm of Barbour Griffith & Rogers — founded by Haley Barbour, who is now governor of Mississippi — took an active role in its fundraising.
Perhaps Gray’s strongest qualification to head CFJ was his background in the creation of “astroturf” organizations, such as the anti-tax group Citizens for a Sound Economy (now part of Freedom Works).
These groups routinely solicit anonymous corporate donations, which are used to promote pro-business candidates and issues by running advertising campaigns designed to appeal to cultural conservatives. They also use their influence to oppose judges whom they feel to be too populist.
For more read about how corporations have advanced an agressive agenda to try to remake Social Security and promote deregulation, a move that led directly to the subprime mortgage crisis. Click here.
