A former religious right activist told Congress Thursday how he took advantage of the lack of a code of ethics on the United States Supreme Court to wage an intense lobbying campaign with its conservative justices.
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Prayers, dinners, trips… Pastor Robert Schenck outlined his efforts during a House Judiciary Committee hearing devoted to ethical issues surrounding the high court.
Unlike their federal court colleagues or elected officials in Congress, the nine Supreme Court Justices are not permitted to disclose gifts made to them, the lobbyists they encounter, and are under no obligation to resign in the event of a conflict of interest.
Pastor Schenck, who claimed to have discovered late in life that politics corrupted religion and now wanted to tell “the truth,” said he used that vacuum to animate a 20-year influence campaign called Operation High Court .
It “involved recruiting wealthy donors who befriended like-minded judges,” he explained, notably citing judges Samuel Alito and the late Antonin Scalia.
The aim is to “increase their desire to make sound, impartial judgments, especially on abortion”.
Some of his donors, referred to as “stealth missionaries,” prayed with the judges, others invited them to dinner with their wives, even while on vacation at their homes, and were invited back, he continued.
Unlike Congress, for example, where gifts are limited, “we knew the Supreme Court had more leeway, so that made our campaign easier,” he said.
At one of those dinners in 2014, Judge Alito revealed to a couple the contents of an upcoming birth control decision, said Pastor Schenck, who had previously reported the “leak” in a letter to the court president.
Those involved denied everything, and the Republican-elect accused the witness of being a “liar” during the hearing.
Judge Alito is the author of the ruling that destroyed abortion rights in the United States in June, which was also leaked before it was published, sending a shockwave across the country.
These events have reignited efforts to increase transparency within the court, and a bill has passed the House committee, but is expected to be abandoned by the Republican majority, who will take office in January.