CAPTURED COURTS

Between Leonard Leo’s $1.6 billion slush fund to prop up norm-breaking judicial nominees and groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom orchestrating alarming legal tactics to push pivotal cases, right-wing extremists are driving President Trump’s efforts to take over our federal judiciary and remake the United States in their image. 

So far, their plan has worked. In 2023, Leonard Leo’s decades-long challenge to abortion rights culminated in the end of Roe v. Wade; in 2024, the Supreme Court made it even easier for corporations and the well-connected to write their own rules by overturning decades of precedent, including what is known as Chevron deference. 

In this upcoming Supreme Court term, the stakes are high. Justices will rule on several cases that could directly impact Americans’ wallets, safety, and freedom— likely setting conservative legal precedents for decades to come and having broad implications on public policy and the health of our democracy.

But the stakes are even higher as President Trump pushes through dozens of radical judicial nominees, many of whom are propped up by conservative legal networks. Trump’s invasion of the judicial system has been made easier by Republicans in the Senate who have changed the Chamber rules to mass-approve the most extreme judicial picks. 

NOTABLE ACTORS BEHIND THE FAR-RIGHT COURT CAPTURE

Leonard Leo

The Federalist Society

Judicial Crisis Network

Alliance Defending Freedom

America First Legal Foundation