Tag: Judicial Crisis Network

Campaign finance experts told ABC News that while precise figures may be hard to tally, the level of outside spending from deep-pocketed groups on both sides this year appears to be unprecedented. Both sides are spending well into the millions of dollars, the records show. Kavanaugh himself decried the spending campaign targeting his nomination during his most recent testimony, saying he believed “millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups” were behind the effort to sink his court bid. Other groups opposing Kavanaugh, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, have also poured in money. ABC found that since August, Planned Parenthood spent about $110,000 in airing ads just on a local television station in Anchorage, Alaska, and about $33,700 in a station in Portland, Maine, according to an analysis of political ad buy records filed to the Federal Communications Commission. Overall, NARAL has spent at least $2.5 million on campaigns against Kavanaugh, including $1.25 million on television and social media ads, according to a NARAL spokesperson. “Women and allies won't forget this fight- not now, not in November, and not in 2020,” NARAL spokesperson told ABC News in a statement. The conservative-leaning nonprofit Judicial Crisis Network has pumped $12 million into television and digital ads targeting the key states since Kavanaugh’s nomination, according to JCN Chief Counsel Carrie Severino. America First Policies has spent at least $105,000 on television ads in Indiana, and more than $153,000 in North Dakota, FCC records show. Like their opponents, the pro-Kavanaugh efforts have focused attention on key swing senators, pressuring vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in red states in November, including Sens.

Daniel Goldman and Jon Meacham discuss why it still isn't too late for an FBI investigation into misconduct allegations and why the eight undecided senators -- three GOP and five Dems -- have the chance to write a new chapter…

Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network joins Morning Joe to discuss Thursday's hearings and why the non-profit, which has raised funds for Kavanaugh's confirmation process, continues to support the SCOTUS nominee. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is…

Both of the candidates seeking to unseat Justice Courtney Goodson for a spot on the Arkansas Supreme Court say they'll work to stamp out "judicial advocacy" on the high court -- even though neither cited examples of such activism at work. "Honestly, I think that people are looking for a change," Sterling said, before adding, "I have not heard specific criticisms of certain cases or specific judges." [FULL LIST: Statewide contested races in May 22 primary] The election for the court seat, along with other judicial races, will be held May 22. The Judicial Crisis Network, an out-of-state conservative group that has spent big money in campaigns of recent years -- including Goodson's failed 2016 bid for chief justice -- revealed last week a six-figure ad purchase attacking Goodson. As for the accusations of "activism" on the court, Joshua Silverstein, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law, said the term was first used in a non-derogatory way by political scientists and has lost much of its usefulness after being adopted by political campaigns. "I have not seen any indication that the Arkansas Supreme Court is any more influenced by politics than courts anywhere else," Silverstein said. Two administrative aspects of the court that are of interest mostly to attorneys with cases before the court have become issues in the campaign: oral arguments and the high court's abstraction requirement. In April, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the court was holding fewer oral arguments over the past two years than it had in previous recent years. The other issue, abstraction, has to do with the court's requirement that attorneys with appeals before the court meticulously summarize the important portions of the original trial transcript. Goodson and Sterling say the requirement is antiquated, and that it adds time and costs to the trial work.