It’s safe to assume that few readers of this page will have heard of the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) or the Climate Judiciary Project. But many will be aware of the story “broken” last week by the left-wing activist group ProPublica about a fishing trip Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito took with a hedge fund manager.
Why is that?
The latter story has benefitted from widespread pickup by the mainstream media and commentariat, part of what Dan McLaughlin of National Review called an “obviously coordinated progressive assault on the Supreme Court’s public legitimacy.” And it will no doubt have a long shelf life with conspiracy-mongering senators like Sheldon Whitehouse and Dick Durbin, whose pinboard-aided ramblings on the Senate floor have decried the alleged influence of "dark money" on conservative judges for years.
Yet similar networks of spending and influence exist on the judiciary's left. But their overtly ideological spending is treated as entirely unremarkable, even salutary, when it is mentioned at all.
The ELI and Climate Judiciary Project examples are illustrative. They’re part of a story about a handful of unaccountable billionaires who have for years quietly funneled massive sums to activist groups, law firms and even news outlets—all working to push unpopular leftist climate policy through the courts.
Hawaii’s activist Chief Justice
In May, Fox News reported that Hawaii State Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Rectenwald participated in a course with an obscure legal nonprofit called the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), as part of its Climate Judiciary Project. The project is ostensibly designed to educate judges around the country about climate change litigation; its real purpose seems to be biasing judges who preside over lawsuits against oil companies.
During the institute’s training sessions, "judges can ask questions and discuss topics openly without maintaining the neutrality required in court,” ELI’s Robin Craig said of the Climate Judiciary Project. Rectenwald’s presentation for one such session was titled "Rising Seas and Litigation: What Judges Need to Know About Warming-Driven Sea Level Rise."
The problem? Chief Justice Rectenwald is currently presiding over a significant climate lawsuit between the City of Honolulu and several energy companies. Meanwhile, as Fox News reports, ELI has worked closely and shared personnel with the law firm Sher Edling, which represents the City of Honolulu in climate litigation. Put another way, the plaintiff's lawyers are training the judges tasked with adjudicating their cases.
A “non-partisan” program
ELI paints the Climate Judiciary Project as “neutral, objective” and “non-partisan,” but this is clearly false. ELI belongs to the vast network of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) that litigate climate lawsuits and advocate for harsh environmental rules and progressive court reforms.
EarthJustice, a pro bono law firm that has been involved in numerous climate lawsuits, is a member of ELI’s Public Interest Program. Its past clients include hundreds of ENGOs: the Sierra Club, NRDC, Greenpeace, and League of Conservation Voters (LCV) being the most prominent.
Vickie Patton, General Counsel to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), sits on ELI’s Leadership Counsel. Harvard Professor Richard Lazarus sits on EDF’s board and chairs its Litigation Review Committee, “which oversees all proposals for engaging in litigation, including on climate change.” He also recently gave a keynote address at a conference sponsored by ELI on pending Supreme Court climate change litigation.
Several left-wing donors provide the bulk of ELI’s funding, including the Hewlett, MacArthur, Walton Family, Robert Wood Johnson (RWJF) and Sloan Foundations. Since 2016, these organizations have given ELI nearly $2 million, and their IRS filings reveal overlapping funding for prominent ENGOs such as EDF and EarthJustice.
Even Sheldon Whitehouse, the Senate’s supposed judiciary watchdog, is a beneficiary of this largesse: one of his top donorsis the League of Conservation Voters. Several ELI donors, including MacArthur, RWJF and Hewlett, contribute to LCV. In turn, the League has supported the campaigns of Democratic attorneys general, many of whom are involved in active climate lawsuits. The Hewlett Foundation also gives to progressive groups that push for judicial reforms like court-packing, including Alliance for Justice and Fix the Court.
The real dark-money scandal
Several of ELI’s donors also contribute to the nonprofits managed by the dark-money Arabella Advisors group, described by the Wall Street Journal as “a for-profit consulting firm founded by a Clinton administration alumnus who previously worked at the League of Conservation Voters.”
Arabella Advisors receives consulting fees to manage five left-wing nonprofits, including 501(c)3s and 501(c)4s that support a myriad of progressive organizations. These include the New Venture Fund, Hopewell Fund, and Windward Fund, all of which receive significant contributions from several of ELI’s donors.
And, as Capital Research Center has shown, Arabella Advisors plays a shell game to pass money around from the 501(c)3s to the (c)4s to lobby for “ambitious” climate action. Arabella-backed groups contribute to many of the same activist outfits, including EDF, LCV and Union of Concerned Scientists.
So while reporters obsess over a 15-year-old fishing trip, there is a real scandal in progress that has grave implications for environmental policy and our legal system. Billionaire-backed activist groups are trying to force their fringe climate agenda through the courts, because voters have already rejected their scaremongering. If the media really want to expose judicial corruption, they should start there.
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, EarthShare, the Linden Trust for Conservation, McKnight Foundation
The group has also received funding from the litigious ENGONatural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Other ENGOs that have overlapping donors with ELI include Oil Change International, Union of Concerned Scientists, Greenpeace, Earth Island Institute, Friends of the Earth, and the Environmental Working Group.
Both the North Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund are 501(c)4s that can lobby and back political candidates.