[Billionaire’s web of rightwing groups works to bring cases to
court that could undermine core functionings of the US government ]
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‘GET THE RIGHT CASES TO THE SUPREME COURT’: INSIDE CHARLES
KOCH’S NETWORK  
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Ed Pilkington, Nick Surgey
October 26, 2023
The Guardian
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_ Billionaire’s web of rightwing groups works to bring cases to
court that could undermine core functionings of the US government _

Charles Koch’s $5.3bn in donations to various groups ensure that
the Koch influence will push the US to the right for years to come.,
David Zalubowski/AP

 

The Koch network, a web of rightwing groups cultivated by billionaire
businessman Charles Koch and his late brother David Koch, is
spearheading the attack on federal agencies and government regulations
that dominates the US supreme court
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The network has been working behind the scenes to bring cases before
the court that, if successful, could undermine many of the core
functionings of the US government. At least two of the biggest cases
to be considered by the justices this term have been spurred by groups
bankrolled and coordinated within the Koch universe.

Footage of an internal panel discussion between senior operatives from
Koch entities held in the summer of 2022 reveals that the network has
been quietly planning the current assault on the “administrative
state”. The groups are seeking to exploit the supreme court’s new
six-to-three rightwing majority secured by Donald Trump
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dismantle vital executive powers.

Regulatory controls in their sights include environmental standards to
combat pollution and the climate crisis, consumer protections against
predatory lenders, and safeguards for workers’ rights. At stake is
what the Strict Scrutiny podcast
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“the future of government as we know it”.

The footage, which is made public here
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time, was obtained by the investigative watchdog Documented
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37-minute panel discussion, legal strategists with several
Koch-related groups expressed excitement that the new hard-right
supreme court supermajority had created the potential for a concerted
attack on the functions of federal agencies.

Jorge Lima, an economic policy strategist at the Koch network’s
central coordinating group, Stand Together, said that the new
composition of the court amounted to a huge “landscape opportunity,
particularly on the administrative state. We’re doubling down on
this strategy.”

Lima added: “Every dog has its day, and it’s a big day for the
administrative state.”

Casey Mattox, a legal strategist at the main Koch advocacy group,
Americans for Prosperity, argued that the supreme court was now
“primed for a real change in the law” on federal regulations which
he said amounted to a “paradigm shift”. Mattox said: “That’s
why we are partnering with organizations that can get the right cases
to the supreme court.”

The effort appears to have borne fruit. Two of the most significant
cases before the court in the 2023-24 term, brought with the backing
of Koch-linked organizations, attempt to rein back the government’s
power to impose regulations on corporations.

The prominence of the cases underlines how the libertarian empire
created by the Kochs is still a force to be reckoned with within US
politics. Since David Koch’s death in 2019, and the Koch network’s
decision to come out in opposition to Trump
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of next year’s presidential election, the network has receded from
public attention.

[Charles Koch’s] business operations have a substantial
self-interest in assailing regulations that impede his profits

Lisa Graves

But the scope of Charles Koch’s reach remains formidable, as was
demonstrated earlier this month when the 87-year-old told Forbes
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he had given $4.3bn of his Koch Industries stock to Believe in People,
a newly created group named after his book of the same title. He has
transferred a further $975m to another new entity, CCKc4, which
carries the initials of his son Chase Koch.

The huge combined $5.3bn in donations, one of the largest acts of
giving to non-profits in US history, will ensure that the Koch
influence will continue to push the US to the right for years to come.
Undermining government regulations is central to those ambitions.

Lisa Graves, the executive director of the progressive watchdog True
North Research [[link removed]] who is a longtime
Koch watcher, said that Charles Koch has shown a “fundamental
hostility to government regulation” since his early political
writings in the 1960s. “This is the through-line of his career. His
business operations have a substantial self-interest in assailing
regulations that impede his profits.”

Koch Industries is a conglomerate of energy and chemicals companies
that stand to benefit if controls on pollution, workers’ rights and
other aspects of public governance are rolled back. The firm is the
second largest privately owned company in the US.

Among the big administrative state cases that the justices will be
considering this term is Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo
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which seeks to overturn a 40-year precedent set by the supreme court
itself. Known as Chevron
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the ruling allows federal agencies the flexibility to reasonably
interpret laws without interference from the courts as they regulate
critical parts of public life, such as the environment and public
safety.

Experts have warned that if Chevron is struck down, it could be a
recipe for legal and administrative chaos. “We are talking about
rules that protect us in so many ways – truckers who are too tired
to drive on the highway, unsafe workplaces, and pollution of our water
and the air we breathe,” Graves said.

The case was nominally brought by a New Jersey herring fishing company
that objected to being charged by a federal agency that monitors its
catch to prevent over-fishing. Behind the challenge is a conservative
group called Cause of Action [[link removed]], which is
intricately tied to the Koch network.

The chair of Cause of Action’s board, Brian Menckes
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counsel of the Charles Koch Foundation. Cause of Action’s executive
director, James Valvo
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as one of the fishing company’s lawyers in the case, is the former
head of policy of Americans for Prosperity.

A second lawyer representing the company, Eric Bolinder, holds dual
roles [[link removed]] as a
counsel for Cause of Action and Americans for Prosperity.

In 2021 Cause of Action’s entire income of $375,000 came from Stand
Together, the Koch network’s coordinating group, Bloomberg reported
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The groups are also physically close: Cause of Action
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Prosperity
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only share the same address in Arlington, Virginia, they occupy the
same office – suite 700.

Bolinder was one of the panel speakers at the 2022 Koch discussion on
the administrative state. He framed the plan to use the supreme court
to launch a legal attack on regulatory government as a states’
rights issue.

“As the federal government grabs more and more power, particularly
to the regulatory state, the states become less and less important,”
he said.

The Guardian contacted Stand Together and Cause of Action for comment.
Cause of Action did not immediately reply.

Gretchen Reiter, Stand Together spokesman, said that the Loper Bright
case was seeking “to restore one of the core tenets of our
democracy: that Congress, not the administrative agency, makes the
laws. Cause of Action Institute – which filed the lawsuit in 2020
– is representing family-run fishing companies that the federal
government is forcing to pay a tax that Congress never authorized, and
that violates our constitution’s separation of powers.”

Last week, the supreme court accepted a second case also challenging
the Chevron precedent, which has now been consolidated with the
fishermen’s petition. Relentless v Department of Commerce
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also filed by a group with intimate connections to the Koch network,
the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA).

The organization, which claims to “protect constitutional freedoms
from violations by the administrative state”, was founded in 2017
with seed money from the Charles Koch Foundation. Over five years, it
has received more than $5m
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the Koch network.

NCLA’s president, Mark Chenoweth, previously served as in-house
counsel for Koch Industries.

NCLA submitted an amicus brief
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week supporting another major challenge to regulatory agencies that
will be heard by the supreme court this term. Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) v Jarkesy
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to gut the enforcement power of the SEC by curtailing its ability to
fast-track cases of securities fraud through its own in-house
administrative law judges.

A ruling against the SEC could drastically reduce the ability of
numerous government agencies to enforce environmental and other
standards.

The footage of the Koch panel discussion obtained by Documented
reveals that the NCLA has been secretly lobbying for the Jarkesy case
to reach the supreme court. Mattox said that “NCLA brought a lot of
value to that case”.

He went on: “You won’t see them actually directly litigating on
that case, but they’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes, and
that speaks to the way that our community adds value here, because
when we partner with people we look for results, not necessarily for
headlines and attention-grabbing.”

There is a further twist to the issue of Koch influence on the supreme
court’s docket this term. Last month, ProPublica revealed
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part of its exposé of ethical breaches by some justices, that the
right-leaning Clarence Thomas had attended at least two Koch donor
events where funds were raised to advance the Koch network’s mission
– which includes bringing cases before the court.

The attack on the administrative state is central to the work of
Americans for Prosperity, which boasts of its years-long campaign to
challenge what it calls the “out-of-control regulatory environment
imposed by Washington”. It organizes bus tours around the country,
directly relating “red tape” on energy infrastructure projects to
the high cost of fuel at the pump.

This has taken place while oil and gas giants such as Exxon, BP and
Shell have posted record profits
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and the world has increasingly felt the impact of climate change.
Americans for Prosperity calls itself “the nation’s premier
grassroots organization”, but according to an independent audit
report from 2021, 94% of the $112m in cash it received that year came
from just two donors.

_This article was produced in partnership with Documented
[[link removed]], an investigative watchdog and journalism
project. NICK SURGEY is Documented’s executive director_

_ED PILKINGTON is chief reporter for Guardian US. He is the author of
Beyond the Mother Country. Twitter @edpilkington
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Ed's public key_

_THE GUARDIAN is not owned by a billionaire or shareholders: we’re
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at a time when powerful people are getting away with more and more.
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* Koch brothers
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* U.S. Supreme Court
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* government regulation
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* Chevron
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