Opus Dei's Influence on the U.S. Judiciary

[dixiegrrrrl]

“Leonard Leo can take credit for installing four Supreme Court justices”- John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. As executive vice president of the Federalist Society, Leo has been the quiet architect of a pivotal shift to the right throughout the federal judiciary” including “dozens of lower court federal judges across the country.”

It was Leo who prepared Trump’s “list of judges and the people that he’s put on the bench.”

Leo is on the board of directors of Opus Dei’s Catholic Information Center located at 15th and K Street, two blocks from the White House. The Center is “a rallying point for ultra-conservative Catholics eager for a voice in the secular halls of government power” and “advances a hard-right political agenda,” according to Church and State, Americans United for Separation of Church and State’s magazine.

Other members of the Catholic Information Center’s Board of Directors include:

Pat Cipollone – Trump’s White House counsel, the president’s principal legal adviser. Cipollone is a partner in Stein Mitchell Cipollone Beato and Missner LLP.
Gerry Mitchell – another partner in Stein Mitchell Cipollone Beato and Missner. Their attorneys have “unparalleled expertise” in the federal courts and “before the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice” according to the firm’s website.
Brian Svoboda – partner in Perkins Coie. The firm’s “Areas of Focus” include “Political Parties, Campaigns and Committees; Corporate Political Activity and Campaign Finance Compliance.” Its attorneys are admitted to the “Bar and Court” of the “District of Columbia, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.”
Thomas Yannucci – partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Brett Kavanaugh’s former law firm. Yannuci “has acted as trial and appellate counsel” in suits involving “the DOJ, FDA, EPA, FTC, SEC, ITC, FEC, CIA, NLRB” and RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act).
Cindy Searcy – another vice president of the Federalist Society. The Federalist Society is a “hugely powerful, nationwide organization of conservative lawyers” instrumental in developing candidates for federal judicial roles.

https://opentabernacle.wordpress.com/2018/11/13/opus-deis-influence-on-the-u-s-judiciary/

The article has lots more names and organizations, including top US military figures. Very much worth read.

[FakeNoose]

1. Wait ... there's a connection between Opus Dei and the Federalist Society?

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. That's how I read it.

something about politics and strange bedfellows, I do believe.

[DURHAM D]

8. More like a marriage made in hell. nt

[oasis]

3. Next Dem admin must move to push SCOTUS number to eleven.

[Honeycombe8]

10. Maybe we'll win the W.H., and a miracle will happen and we'll get the Senate.

Then we can start correcting the damage.

[DFW]

4. I learned about Opus Dei's evil work 51 years ago, and it was already old news

When I went to live in Spain, it was under the dictatorship of the last standing member of the Axis, who cleverly discovered "neutrality" when his buddies Hitler and Mussolini looked like they were not going to win the war. I read up a lot about how Francisco Franco came to power (partially because the designated leader of the Fascist uprising, Sanjurjo, was a vain general who overloaded his private plane with uniforms, and it crashed). The Spanish fascists were enthusiastically supported by Opus Dei (Latin for "the work of God" ). They have been quietly supporting extremist right-wing Catholic activism for a LONG time now. This didn't start with Roberts and Alito.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. I remeber as a young teen when "catholic" was a bad word

and thrown around a lot during Kennedy's campaign.

Maybe the adults knew about Opus Dei back then.

they obviously have a long time line plan.

[DFW]

16. Oddly enough, I never associated anything at all negative with the term "Catholic"

UNTIL I got to Franco's Spain, that is. Just before I left, I read up on what kind of a place I was moving to, and THAT is when I found out about all this stuff.

[emmaverybo]

5. Barr reportedly an Opus Dei fan:

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/barr-out-of-control-villain-william/18213/

[DURHAM D]

9. Scalia was a member.

Clarence Thomas is a member. Louis Freeh, FBI Director is a member. Richard Hanssen, FBI and spy for Russia is a member. Actually, the above were/are member of the same chapter.

[emmaverybo]

13. Did not know about Scalia or Freeh. nt

[UTUSN]

6. K&R

[teamster633]

7. Kind of makes you long for the old days when Catholics and Fundies didn't get along.

[Kurt V.]

11. how many sc justices have no real religious connection. thats the question we should be asking

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

12. I think Robert Hanssen was a member. n/t

[smirkymonkey]

14. Read "The Family"

"They insist they are just a group of friends, yet they funnel millions of dollars through tax-free corporations. They claim to disdain politics, but congressmen of both parties describe them as the most influential religious organization in Washington. They say they are not Christians, but simply believers.

Behind the scenes at every National Prayer Breakfast since 1953 has been the Family, an elite network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful. Their goal is "Jesus plus nothing." Their method is backroom diplomacy. The Family is the startling story of how their faith—part free-market fundamentalism, part imperial ambition—has come to be interwoven with the affairs of nations around the world."

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS828US828&ei=CdzpXMDvLM_t5gKjh5_oCA&q=the+family+book+amazon&oq=the+family+book+am&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0l2j0i22i30l8.8599.11487..13861...0.0..0.98.284.3......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71j0i20i263j0i67.qTV9eR70mmc

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. I remember stories about The Family surfaced during Shrub's reign.

There certainly seem to be a number of groups working together to bring about a right winger's wet dream.

[Mc Mike]

17. Good, in depth article. Rec, thanks.

Last edited Tue May 28, 2019, 06:20 AM - Edit history (1)

It could add info that the catholic part of the ratline, which aided nazi war criminals, acted through opus dei and spain.

JP II was a chemical salesman for IG Farben, before the war ended.

The Federalist Society are bircher founded and funded, in '82. (see sourcewatch: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Federalist_Society_for_Law_and_Public_Policy_Studies ) The birchers had been virulently anti-catholic, up til that time. Ask JFK.

The opentabernacle article points out that "In 1982, Pope John Paul II designated [Opus Dei] as a “personal prelature,” that is, they are under the sole jurisdiction of the pope and no other prelate." ... "Non-Catholics are welcomed as “cooperators” who “assist the educational and social undertakings promoted by the Prelature.” "


The question I have is when the non-Catholic cooperators clause was added to the opus dei program. 1983 is when JP II and his Doctrine office head deputy Ratzinger altered canon law to let catholics join protestant freemason groups (which the birchers certainly sprung from and utilized) --

"Unlike the abrogated 1917 CIC canon 2335,[27] however, 1983 CIC canon 1374 does not name any groups it condemns; it states:

A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty;[k] one who promotes or takes office in such an association is to be punished with an interdict.[83]
This omission led some Catholics and Freemasons, especially in America, to believe that the ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons might have changed..." (because it had changed.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholicism_and_Freemasonry


In '74, 'ex'-nazi, new klan leader Dave Duke started allowing catholics in the klan, which resulted in some other klan groups allowing them in. The klans also certainly sprung from and utilized the US protestant freemason groups.

(On edit: Duke first ran for office in LA in '75, and LA had a uniquely large % of the electorate that was catholic, for a southern state. Probably explains his reversal on the catholic issue. Can't find info about when the decentralized mason orgs changed their policy and started from their end accepting catholics as members, because as secret societies they don't put that kind of info out there.)

The biggest backer for Duke's idol, tRump, is Robert Mercer. So, what is he, bircher or opus dei?

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. Thank you for that helpful info.

I really appreciate you taking the time to share it.

Ratzinger is a name I remember from reading about this stuff some years ago.

[Mc Mike]

20. Ratzinger is Benedict, the 'retired' pope who's squatting in Vatican city, today.

There was a lot of good info on OD in your OP that I didn't know, thanks again.

[malaise]

21. What is their role in covering up for the pedophiles

at all levels of the church?

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. That is the one thing these various groups have in comon.

Obsession about controlling other people's sex lives while supporting pedophiles and marriage to 12 year old girls.

Where were they when Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13 y/o bride?