MASTER PLAN, Ep 8: Shock And Awe At The Supreme Court

While President George W. Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier in 2003 and declared “Mission accomplished” in the Iraq War, his administration was quietly engaged in another battle to reshape America’s court system. The following year, after deposing Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and winning reelection, Bush got what he and the master planners were dreaming of: two open Supreme Court seats.

Operatives like Leonard Leo and Brett Kavanaugh aimed to seize the moment and dramatically shift the balance of the Supreme Court, which was still upholding at least some campaign finance laws — and they had their perfect candidates in mind. But when Bush went off script and nominated Harriet Miers, a trusted lawyer from his inner circle, the conservative legal movement launched an insurgency. The result was the creation of the Roberts Court.

By the end of 2005, the master planners’ legal movement, which had been building since the Powell Memo era of the early 1970s, had managed to largely stack the Supreme Court. But one big question remained: Would the last remaining swing-vote justice join the master planners in their quest to deregulate the campaign finance system and gut anti-corruption laws?