The king of dark money effectively controls the US supreme court now | Joel Warner

From its recent rulings to its billionaire donor scandals, this supreme court term has been defined by judicial activist Leonard Leo

Once again, the US supreme court has issued rulings triggering national uproar. This time, the court has ruled that universities' race-conscious admission policies are unconstitutional, that businesses can deny services to LGBTQ+ customers, and that Joe Biden can't move forward with his student loan forgiveness plan. And just like the justices' decision last year to end federal abortion protections and other troubling Scotus developments this term, the court's new decisions are all examples of how dark money reigns supreme.

That's because one person's fingerprints are all over these developments: the conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, the king of dark money. And based on Biden's preliminary response to some of these new court rulings, it appears the president isn't going to do anything to stop him.

In light of that, the money and gifts flowing to conservative justices can be seen not merely as cheap influence-peddling schemes to secure specific rulings in individual cases. It can also be seen as a grand plan to deter the ideological freedom that lifetime appointments afford.

In short, the largesse from billionaires and Leo - who helped assemble the supreme court's 6-3 conservative supermajority as Trump's judicial adviser - creates personal financial incentives for justices to remain doctrinaire ideologues and resist any deviation from the conservative line, even if they might once in a while have an inkling to dissent."

The article was co-published with the Lever, a reader-supported investigative news outlet

Joel Warner is the managing editor at the Lever