Leonard Leo’s Honest Elections Project “Sets the Stage for the Supreme Court to Rig Future Elections”

(Washington, D.C.) – Ahead of Supreme Court oral arguments in the Moore v. Harper case, Mother Jones published a new report highlighting Accountable.US’ research on Leonard Leo’s efforts to undermine American democracy. If the court sides with Leo’s Honest Elections Project, Moore v. Harper would place the redistricting process under the sole discretion of gerrymandered state legislatures.

Widely disregarded by legal scholars and judicial experts, the “Independent State Legislature Theory” entered the mainstream of the Republican party through Leonard Leo, according to the new report.  Leo and the Federalist Society have “worked for years to place a notion that was once considered fringe and extreme before the highest court in the land.”

Reporter Ari Berman cited research from Accountable.US in his reporting, “The Honest Elections Project has aggressively litigated against efforts by state officials to make voting more accessible during the pandemic and has filed more than a dozen amicus briefs supporting a wide range of voting restrictions… That includes supporting a ban on mail ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin, a prohibition on allowing voters to receive food and water while waiting in line in Georgia, and a law disenfranchising people with past felony convictions in Florida who have not paid off all fines and fees resulting from their sentences.”

The new report highlights how Moore v Harper fits into Leo’s overarching strategy to remake American democracy, “After Leo and his allies stacked the courts with radical conservative judges, they now want to use the courts to engineer Republican dominance of state and national politics.”

Accountable.US recently launched Monitoring Influence to provide Americans with information about Leo, the Honest Elections Project, and the constellation of other right-wing activists attempting to undermine our democracy.