The Rhode Island Senator delivered some remarks about his latest book, The Scheme.

On Monday, Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island gave a speech to discuss his new book, The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court. The event was hosted by the Climate, Law, and Public Health schools, and was divided into a brief speech followed by a Q&A—both were shortened, however, so the senator could make it to his train in time to get down to DC.

Senator Whitehouse’s remarks began by him recounting a major focus of his for the last decade: climate change. Every week, he would deliver a speech to the Senate floor urging action; after some years was taken he began to look into the ways that right-wing interests managed to stymie any action. This research led him to uncover how dark money connects right-wing interests and lobbying groups to Congress and the Supreme Court. Interest groups have captured regulatory bodies previously. As he argued, these right-wing groups have found a way to capture the Supreme Court with the same techniques. He even linked them to the way covert operations are done against foreign governments. In this case, however, it is a private group of American citizens exerting undue influence, spending over $580 million to shape the composition of the court.

After providing this higher altitude look, Senator Whitehouse traced how conservative interest groups use organizations. This process begins with the Federalist Society acting as a “venue” for interests to talk with one another, and to compile lists of acceptable judges. Once picked, a new organization–or, as new as an organization that is headquartered just down the hall can be–takes over. The Judicial Crisis Network spends millions on lobbying and ad buys to ensure their chosen candidate can be confirmed. Once the court has its chosen members, then, interest groups send a “flotilla” of amici to the court that ensures they are listened to. In the 62 cases that ended with a 5-4 split in recent years, every case which had such amici was decided in favor of the right-wing activists.

While the remarks were relatively troubling, Whitehouse did provide a few potential steps forwards. The first was an appeal for universities and academics to work to counter some of the damage done through the countless amici submitted by right-wing think tanks. Many fabricate or distort facts, with these new fictions ending up in Supreme Court decisions—Whitehouse gave the Dobbs and Bruen cases as examples where these fictions were relied on. Whitehouse ended his remarks on this slightly optimistic note and turned the time over to questions.

While the event was short, it was certainly a highlight of the day. Senator Whitehouse has given many similar talks before, and as such his points were clear and well-organized. His remarks highlighted specific issues of corruption within the courts, which provided a clearer sense of what solutions could be offered to tackle them. These solutions may not be enacted in the near future, but it is nevertheless important to begin to discuss them now, to provide as much time as possible to work out the details of the solutions. While overall, the event took a bleak tone, there were still moments of hope. One question, for example, was what steps policymakers should take on climate change legislation to make sure it will not be struck down by the courts. Whitehouse’s response was that when considering such legislation, one cannot be timid. Rather, it should be as strong as possible, to take the fight to the Supreme Court. Some extreme interest groups may have corrupted parts of the government but the fight is not over.

While this event was a one-off special talk, similar events crop up all the time in BWOG’s Every Event of Campus. Make sure to check it out to not miss the next one!

The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court is available wherever you can get books and is also available as an Ebook through Clio.

Senator Whitehouse via Columbia Climate School’s Twitter