Revealed: Judicial activist’s campaign to 'push America even further to the right'

As a key figure in The Federalist Society, far-right judicial activist Leonard Leo spent decades trying to get Roe v. Wade overturned. And he got his wish when, in 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its controversial, widely criticized 5-4 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

Leo, for many years, aggressively lobbied to make hardline social conservatives dominant on the High Court. And he supported all of the justices who now comprise the Court's far-right supermajority.

The New York Times' Thomas B. Edsall, in his September 18 column, details Leo's plans to "push America ever further to the right."

READ MORE: Right-winger Leonard Leo pledges $1B to 'crush liberal dominance'

"In the world of political fundraising, there is hard money, soft money, dark money — and Leonard Leo money," Edsall explains. "Political advocacy and charitable groups controlled by Leo now have far more assets than the combined total cash on hand of the Republican and Democratic National, Congressional and Senatorial Committees, $440.9 million."

Although a major ally of far-right white Protestant evangelicals, Leo isn't an evangelical himself but rather, embraces a severe and strict form of Catholicism — not unlike Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. And Leo, Edsall notes, has railed against Americans he views as "secularists" and "barbarians."

"Leo is determined to wrest the levers of power from 'the grasp of liberals' and restore them, permanently if possible, to what he sees as their rightful owner: social and economic conservatives," Edsall explains. "Leo has most famously used his network and personal influence to establish a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, and to win appointment of deeply conservative justices throughout the federal and state court systems."

The Times columnist continues, "At the same time, Leo has provided essential support to the full gamut of right-wing advocacy and lobbying organizations, including the Federalist Society, Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America and the Faith and Freedom Coalition…. The most likely outcome of the controversies surrounding Leo is that he will continue, unabated, in his drive to make America great again by devoting vast sums, relentless pressure, and every kind of imaginable financial ingenuity to alter the balance of power and push America ever further to the right."

READ MORE: Why the conservative activist behind SCOTUS' right-wing supermajority set his sights on Maine

Thomas B. Edsall's full New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).