Leonard Leo’s Lessons for Pro-Democracy Nonprofits and Philanthropies
The Powell Memorandum of 1971 is a detailed playbook that still guides right-wing politics today.
Written for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by Lewis Powell one year before he became a Supreme Court Justice, the memo lays out a plan to roll back the New Deal and its "attack on the free enterprise system." The genius of the memo lies in its sociological approach: Powell recognized the interlocking nature of political, educational, cultural, and media institutions - and the social circles that powered them. He envisioned a means of infiltrating and capturing each of these institutions.
Leonard Leo is the archetypal disciple of the Powell Memorandum’s holistic vision. Justice Clarence Thomas has dubbed Leo the "Number 3 most powerful person in the world." The orchestrator of the Conservative Legal Movement (CLM), he has changed the culture of law schools, career pipelines within the legal profession, basic understandings of America’s founding documents, and of course the trajectory of state and federal court rulings.
His primary organizational home, the Federalist Society, is today a shorthand for the CLM. All six right-wing Supreme Court justices are affiliated with it. More than a campus-based debating society - still its primary incarnation at some law schools - FedSoc plays many roles. It’s a platform that publishes rationalizations of right-wing governance through its “originalist” reading of the nation’s founding documents; a public evangelizer for originalism, and amplifier of originalists; a leading professional network for and convener of the legal industry; and a supplemental human-resources capacity for right-wing law firms, judges, and elected officials seeking vetted, reliably conservative lawyers.
As he built FedSoc, Leo cultivated funders - high-net-worth individuals, foundations, and to some extent small-dollar donors - and directed their funds across a vast network of related organizations. Some of these are 501(c)(3)s, some are 501(c)(4)s, and some are political action committees (PACs). He directs funds based on the interests of funders, but also their appetite for funding political, non-tax-deductible, and riskier work.
Key characteristics of the Leo Model are patience and long-term vision, a willingness to keep failing until something works, and a concern for taking care of people in the movement.
Ominously, in recent years he has turned his attention to influencing culture through his new vehicle, the Marble Freedom Trust.