Leftist Pro-Court Packing Group Pushing Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for SCOTUS Got Soros Money

A leftist dark money group funded by liberal billionaire George Soros is closely connected to efforts to push for confirmation of President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee.

Demand Justice, which has advocated for radical left-wing reforms like packing the Court, has aggressively pushed for the nomination of District of Columbia Circuit Court Judge Ketanji  Brown Jackson for at least two years. Demand Justice’s shortlist for Court nominees includes Jackson.The group even included her on a shortlist as far back as September 2020. Open Society Foundations’ records show that Soros contributed at least $1,337,000, possibly even $3,837,000 to Demand Justice, between 2018-2020. 

Demand Justice has a reputation for pushing extremism. They pack the Court and attack conservative justices while fighting to keep the pro-abortion constitutionally questionable ruling. Roe v. Wade (1973). The group even railed in 2021 that packing the Court would be a necessary measure to continue the government-sanctioned killing of unborn children: “Anyone who cares about the bodily autonomy of pregnant people in the country – and about the legitimacy of our judiciary – must support Supreme Court expansion.” 

Perhaps even more concerning is White House Press Secretary Jen PsakiPrior to being appointed to the Biden presidency, she was a senior adviser to Demand Justice. Paige Herwig was previously Senior Counsel to The President and deputy chief counsel of Demand Justice. The group is “slated to lead the fight on the left” to secure Jackson’s confirmation, according to Axios. 

Demand Justice announced it was launching a $1 million ad campaign to support Jackson’s nomination and is reportedly “prepared to spend much more.” This is par for the course. They pledged $10 million and $5 million respectively to support Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It is a crucial fact that top staff members from radical Demand Justice currently hold high-ranking positions in the Biden government. It underscores the significant influence the group wields on Biden’s choice to nominate what former clerk for late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Ed Whelan referred to as the “apparent favorite” of Demand Justice to sit on the high court. As Americans for Public Trust Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland reportedly said of Herwig’s White House position in 2021: Demand Justice now has “an insider in the White House to help usher these judicial nominations through that fit Demand Justice’s criteria.” The group tweeted in March 2021 that Americans should “Learn her name. It will be repeated a lot. Ketanji Brown Jackson is just getting warmed up.”

Know her name. It’s going to be used a lot.

Ketanji brown Jackson is only getting started. pic.twitter.com/Rw2rHUN5Kl

— Demand Justice #ConfirmKBJ (@WeDemandJustice) March 31, 2021

Soros’s Open Society Policy Center (OSPC) directly funded Demand Justice to the tune of $1,337,000 between 2018 and 2020 through the left-wing dark money group Sixteen Thirty Fund, according to Open Society Foundations records. OSPC records indicate that the OSPC may have donated $2.5 million more to Demand Justice via this fund in the period between April 1, 2018, and June 30, 2018. The billionaire also spent at least “$29 million in funding” through his “personal network of political action committees (PACs)” to help elect at least 23 leftist district attorneys spread throughout the country. Jackson’s confirmation to SCOTUS would fit right in line with the overarching leftist goals of Demand Justice and Soros.

Demand Justice’s actions to reshape the Court into a pro-abortion bulwark and its connections to Soros have gone largely ignored by the liberal media. A Nexis search revealed that the group’s involvement in Jackson’s nomination received no coverage by the ABC, CBS and NBC broadcast networks from her Feb. 25 nomination to March 20. 

Demand Justice is very leftist. The organization’s “‘charitable’ arm” Demand Justice Initiative supported the pro-abortion extremist “Rise Up for Roe Tour” in 2018 with leftist NARAL Pro-Choice America and the radical Planned Parenthood Action Fund. 

In a press release headlined “Badass Feminist Leaders And Activists Across The Country Rise Up For Roe! Through National Tour,” Demand Justice celebrated: “Handmaids, Celebrities, Senators, feminist thought leaders and thousands of women Rise Up For Roe through 10-City, 14-Day national tour to call out Brett Kavanaugh’s threat to abortion rights.” In addition, the group fawned how “the more than 200 events in all 50 states made this dayThe largest protest in history against the Supreme Court nomination.” [Emphasis added.]

Demand Justice’s support for Jackson coincides perfectly with Jackson’s history on abortion-related cases. Jackson was the “lead attorney” for one of abortion advocacy group NARAL’s “state chapter[s] and a consortium of other self-styled women’s and reproductive health groups filing a friend-of-the-court brief in favor of a Massachusetts state law” against pro-life protestors, according to a Washington Examiner analysis. “The law prohibited anti-abortion protesters, but not pro-abortion counselors, from coming within six feet of someone near an abortion clinic ‘for the purpose of passing a leaflet or handbill to … or engaging in oral protest, education, or counseling’ — presumably to dissuade that person from securing an abortion.”

Demand Justice was launched in 2018 by the Sixteen Thirty Fund. This fund spent $410 million to unseat former President Donald Trump, and win the 2020 Senate election for Democrats. Sixteen Thirty Fund “financed attack ads against Trump and vulnerable Republican senators and funded massive get-out-the-vote and issue advocacy campaigns amid the coronavirus pandemic,” according to a tax filing obtained by Politico. Soros also funded the Sixteen Thirty Fund with $33,523,483 between 2016 and 2020, revealing the depth of Soros’s connection to Demand Justice efforts to influence the fabric of the American judiciary system.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund is “part of a massive dark money network managed by D.C.-based consulting firm Arabella Advisors, which was founded by Eric Kesser, a former Bill Clinton appointee and member of the Clinton Global Initiative,” according to Fox News. “In 2019, Arabella was paid nearly $34 million for administrative, operations and management services to manage the four funds in Arabella’s vast dark money network.”

Demand Justice to be officially separated from Sixteen Thirty Fund, so that it can become its own entity starting May 2021. 

Demand Justice took part in a campaign that pressed Justice Stephen Breyer for his retirement. “On a book tour last fall, he promoted his belief that politics should not intervene with the judiciary,” The Washington Post reported. “During one stop in early October, held at the Smithsonian in Washington, Demand Justice organized a small group of hecklers to disrupt the event and hold signs calling on him to retire.” 

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a press release on Jackson’s nomination that she was “the most radical judge ever nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court,” adding: “Her limited judicial record reveals that Jackson has consistently ignored the Constitution, twisting the law to favor certain outcomes.”

Demand Justice’s funding comes directly from Soros, who also ran his campaign to elect extremist district attorneys in the United States to transform the law of the USA into a socialist manifesto. 

If that’s not bad enough, one of Demand Justice’s reported board members as recently recorded attacking the U.S. constitution as garbage.

Reported Demand Justice board member Elie Mystal recently made headlines for excoriating the American constitution as a relic of racism on ABC’s The View. “It’s certainly not sacred. Let’s start there. The Constitution is kind of trash,” Mystal griped. “It was written by slavers and colonists and white people who were willing to make deals with slavers and colonists.” Demand Justice Executive Director Brian Fallon, who is also a CNN and MSNBC contributor and former Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman, appeared to cheer Mystal’s comments, tweeting: “Give Elie a show.” The group reportedly did not respond to either The Daily Caller’s or The Daily Wire’s requests for comment on whether Mystal’s views on the constitution represent the views of the organization.

Mystal is a proponent of court packing. As he stated during a December 2018 Demand Justice event following the confirmations of Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, “The reason why we need to think about having more than nine justices is because we only have seven legitimate justices on the Supreme Court as it stands.”

Reported Demand Justice member Mystal went on the March 19 edition of MSNBC’s Cross Connection to bash Hawley as “trying to get [Jackson] killed. He is trying to get violence done against a Supreme Court nominee.” 

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) recently slammed Jackson for “‘letting child porn offenders off the hook.’” Legacy media fact-checkers attacked Hawley for his claims. However, a hack opinion piece from leftist Vox correspondent Ian Millhiser admitted Hawley might have been right in one respect. Millhiser suggested in Jackson’s defense that the issue of judicial experts being soft on “child pornography offenders” is more widespread. Millhiser seems to have spoken the loud part.

KBJ: With one click you can reach tens of millions [of child porn]. This can take you 15 minutes, and suddenly, your options are 30, 40 or 50 years imprisonment.

Graham: “Good!” pic.twitter.com/znnVcyWNoO

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 23, 2022

Demand Justice appears to have so many supporters that Congress members are trying to disengage themselves from it. Politico reported that “Democrats are distancing themselves from a Important outside support for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji brown Jackson.” [Emphasis added.]

In particular, Sen. Cory Booker (D.NJ) reportedly downplayed the extent of his ties with the group in a statement. Politico. “I honestly don’t know that much about them,” Politico The senator quoted him as having said this. “If you pick the ACLU, or the [Center for American Progress] those are groups that we’ve worked with.” But Booker’s history contradicts his statements. Demand Justice shared a 2018 video of a joint event with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples. Both Booker and then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) featured as key speakers at the event to rail against former Trump judicial nominee Thomas Farr with a large “Demand Justice” banner standing behind them.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) Speech at 2018 Demand Justice Event Attacking Trump’s Judicial Nominee Thomas Farr (689 seconds)

Former Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) Speech at Demand Justice Event Attacking Trump’s Judicial Nominee Thomas Farr (361 seconds):

Demand Justice Fighting to Transform SCOTUS into a Left Wing Political Machine

For Justice head Fallon called Jackson a “slam-dunk pick.” Jackson’s nomination and the group’s vigilance fit right along with the Soros leftist agenda to transform the American  justice  system. 

Demand Justice joined seven other groups in 2020 to form a left-wing coalition called “Unrig the Courts” to galvanize progressives to support packing the Supreme Court:

In order to undo the damage that Republicans have done — from stealing a Supreme Court seat in 2016, to confirming a credibly accused sexual assailant, to ramming through Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement just eight days before the end of the ongoing presidential election — progressives must get serious about expanding the number of seats on the high court.

Demand Justice tweetedAd promoting the destruction of SCOTUS just a day prior to the November 3, 2020 election. The ad said “[w]e need to add seats to un-rig the illegitimate majority on the court.” The ad even accused: “[W]You might also like: [the conservative majority]If given the opportunity, be ready to assist Republicans in stealing elections. They already have.”

“[T]oday there is … huge news to celebrate,” Psaki, a former Demand Justice advisor, tweeted Feb. 25. “We are excited to meet you at the Supreme Court – Judge Kentaji Brown Jackson.” Government oversight group Americans for Public Trust (APT) noted in an April 2021 Twitter thread that Biden made Herwig his “point-person on judicial nominations.” It gets worse: “Then, without warning, the Biden Admin told the American Bar Association that it will not allow the ABA to have [a]to vetting any potential nominee for judicial office. Herwig remarked this would allow the White House to ‘have a freer hand to consider a wide range of nominees.’”

This was yet another. eye-opening part of APT’s thread: 

[U]Under the leadership of Page Herwig the Biden Administration published their first slate for judicial nominees. All with a Demand Justice seal of approval, saying: The nominees are ‘exactly the kind of judges we need to rebalance our courts.’

Under the guidance of Page Herwig the Biden Administration released their first list of nominees for judicial office.

Each item comes with the Demand Justice seal, which means:

Nominees represent “exactly what kind of judges are needed to rebalance the courts.”

(6/7)

— Americans for Public Trust (@apublictrust) April 27, 2021

Jackson, who was first on the Biden administration list of judicial nominations was considering Jackson for the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals judgeship. This was a position she would be later confirmed.

Soros Cash was paid to Demand Justice for Barrett and Kavanaugh Nominations

Demand Justice was aggressive in fighting against Trump nominations Kavanaugh & Justice Amy Coney Barrett, as it received Soros funds between 2018 – 2020. Politico reported in 2018 that Demand Justice “projected a video of Christine Blasey Ford accusing Kavanaugh of assault on the side of a truck outside a Washington gala where Kavanaugh was speaking.” In a press release on its public relations attack on Kavanaugh, Deputy Chief Counsel Katie O’Connor called Kavanaugh a “‘credibly accused sexual predator.’” Politico noted that “Demand Justice spent millions of dollars on TV ads as Democrats tried to prevent Kavanaugh from being confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2018.” 

A 26-page May 2019 Demand Justice document headlined, “The Case for a Kavanaugh Investigation,” demanded Congress launch a full-scale investigation into the dubious “sexual assault allegations” hurled at Kavanaugh during his tumultuous confirmation process. The Demand Justice document called the FBI investigation of Kavanaugh, which failed to corroborate “sexual assault” allegations against him, a “[s]ham.” The document’s full premise surfaced in the first paragraph, decrying Kavanaugh’s “deep-seated hostility toward Roe.” The wording might suggest that liberals’ political concerns about Kavanaugh’s position on the Roe v. Wade (1973)) The group was motivated by the SCOTUS ruling to request the probe. 

Demand Justice also launched a seven-figure ad buy in October 2020 in an attempt to slam Barrett’s nomination. One ad painted Barrett as a “threat” to in vitro fertilization. Fallon even reportedly threatened to “ensure Republicans pay a price if they move forward with this nomination before the election, not just this cycle but in the years to come.”

Following Barrett’s confirmation to SCOTUS, Demand Justice tweeted that it was “outraged” at the action and used the event as a pivot point for an anti-Trump propaganda ad calling for expanding the Court. Demand Justice railed that the “illegitimate far-right majority” on SCOTUS was appointed through “hyper-partisan political schemes.” Demand Justice’s pontificating is hypocritical given its ties to a notorious left-wing billionaire trying to turn the American justice system into a hub for left-wing activism.

MRC Business reached out to Open Society Foundations three times and Demand Justice for comment about Soros’s funding, but received no response as of the publication of this article.

Conservatives under attack Contact your congressional lawmakers and demand they call out Demand Justice’s involvement in Jackson’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.