Senate Judiciary holds hearing on “dark money” and Supreme Court

Thanks to the group’s nominations maven Leonard Leo, “judicial confirmations are more like political campaigns,” said Lisa Graves, a senior fellow at the left-leaning watchdog Center for Media and Democracy. Graves emphasized the “amicus flotilla” in operation at the court. From 2015 to 2019, she told the subcommittee, four conservative groups donated $87 million to repeat amicus filers. Graves paired that figure with a Washington Post report that groups led or advised by Leo raised $250 million for efforts surrounding the courts over a similar period.