Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has remade the Florida state supreme court from a liberal majority to a hard right conservative, with the help of a “secretive panel” led by Leonard Leo. You know Leonard Leo, he is the guy behind the illiberal, undemocratic disaster that is the U.S. Supreme Court right now.
“DeSantis seized on the unusual retirement of three liberal justices at once to quickly remake the court. He did so with the help of a secretive panel led by Leonard Leo — the key architect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority — that quietly vetted judicial nominees in an Orlando conference room three weeks before the governor’s inauguration,” the Washington Post reported.
Court for $ale
Leonard Leo is the guy who helped Trump “choose” judicial nominees, or rather, told puppet Trump who to pick. It turns out the Leo did this with the help of Kellyanne Conway, whom Leo appears to have paid “between $1 million and $5 million…for the sale of her business while she was advocating for Leo’s list of preferred court nominees,” according to May 2023 reporting by Politico.
Leo did this through the Federalist Society, which isn’t supposed to engage in political activism, according to their tax status. But get this, Leo “obtained a historic $1.6 billion gift for his conservative legal network via an introduction through the Federalist Society” to manufacturing magnate Barre Seid, per Politico. They report this is believed to be the largest political donation “ever.”
What does someone buy with that kind of money? Leo is also accused of self-dealing, basically, which is par for the course for people who are greedy and selfish enough to want to destroy the promise of the United States as a liberal democracy.
Secretive panel
The Post reports that DeSantis bragged about this secret process on a podcast. In a democracy, the vetting of the justices on any court are supposed to be publicly vetted.
“DeSantis appointed three new justices in two weeks, flipping the court from what he described as a 4-3 liberal majority to a 6-1 conservative advantage” and then two justices appointed by past Republicans stepped down so DeSantis got to install judges more to his liking.
Power Grabs
How do you take over a democracy? You install judges who will rule in favor of your power grabs, you intimidate and silence critical media and whistleblowers, you ban books and use “education” to indoctrinate via selective history and teaching and in under ten years, you have what appears to be a democracy on its surface because people “vote” but it doesn’t function like a democracy.
After DeSantis got elected in Florida, he began using dubious legal means to grab power and then pass laws to make his seizures legal. He has encouraged the banning of books by enacting laws that make it easy for parents to challenge any book they don’t like (he’s spread this to other Republican states as well), he signed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, he used all of the power at his disposal to bully Disney into submission (an ongoing fight). DeSantis is effectively implementing the Viktor Orbán rules for how to achieve the autocratization a democracy without apparent force.
Yes, this already happened to a degree under former president Donald Trump, who gave us this corrupt Supreme Court. But Trump was messy. He is full of drama. He was not able to instill the confidence that an effective soft authoritarian needs to achieve their goals. Ron DeSantis could, if he can just push enough propaganda to get himself elected and not get destroyed by criminal defendant Donald Trump in the Republican primary.
Warning Shot
Florida is a warning shot to the country about what’s at stake.
There are several antidotes to encroaching authoritarianism, one of which is to use government to show the positive things it can do.
This knowledge might help put the obstructionism and nihilistic tendencies of the Republican House in sharper focus. Republicans aren’t just trying to obstruct President Biden from accomplishing the things the people want; they are actively demonstrating that our government doesn’t work.
Of course, the reality is our government works – albeit imperfectly – when the people elected actually want to do the jobs for which we pay them.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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