Between The Lines - Common Cause's Bob Edgar on demands that the Justice Department investigate Supreme Court conflict of interest in Citizens United (Week Ending 2/4/11)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

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JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

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Conflict of Interest Charge Triggers Effort to Vacate Supreme Court Ruling in Citizens United

Posted Jan. 26, 2011

Real Audio MP3

Interview with Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause, conducted by Scott Harris

citizensunited Jan. 21 was the first anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission case that, by a 5 to 4 decision, ushered in an era of unlimited and unaccountable spending by corporations and labor unions in U.S. election campaigns. The court upheld the doctrine that money is equivalent to speech protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. As a result of this ruling, campaign spending in the 2010 congressional mid-term election increased by 330 percent over funds spent in 2006.

The group Common Cause alleges that Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia had what appears to be serious conflicts of interest in the Citizens United case, which should have forced them both to recuse themselves from hearing the case and voting on the ruling. In formally asking the U.S. Justice Department to conduct an investigation into the matter, Common Cause cited Thomas and Scalia's attendance of one or more closed-door political strategy meetings sponsored by Koch Industries, a major funder of conservative campaigns and a primary beneficiary of the Citizens United ruling.

Another possible conflict in the case cited by Common Cause was Justice Thomas' nondisclosure of his wife's employment with the Heritage Foundation, a right- wing thinktank -- and her role as CEO of Liberty Central. a conservative group politically active in the 2010 election. Thomas has since filed amended federal documents acknowledging that he had omitted his wife's employment from annual financial disclosure forms for 13 consecutive years. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Bob Edgar, president and CEO of Common Cause, who explains why he believes the Citizens United case ruling should be vacated.

BOB EDGAR: So, on the first anniversary of the Citizens United case, we did a little investigation and we discovered that two of the Supreme Court justices that voted on the side of the majority -- the conservative side -- two of them had been going and attending a meeting hosted by the Koch brothers, who run the second largest business in the United States. And, for the last 30 years, the Koch brothers have been trying to elect House and Senate members in Washington who will serve the corporate interest and not the public's interest.

We discovered that Justice Antonin Scalia went in 2007 and Justice Clarence Thomas went in 2008. And suddenly in 2009, the Supreme Court took a very narrow case around Citizens United and they expanded that case dramatically, and not only indicated that corporations have freedom of speech, but said that corporations are persons and should in fact have many of the rights that individuals have, therefore, they should be able to spend all the money that they want.

On (Jan. 20), we sent a letter to the attorney general asking the attorney general to investigate our allegation that Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas had a conflict of interest. We're specifically focused on them having intimate relations with an awful lot of conservative partisan political organizations. But in Justice Thomas' case, it goes even further. His wife headed up a group called Liberty Central, and in our investigation and research we discovered that Justice Thomas, for 13 years had failed to report his wife's income on a mandatory financial statement that all justices and federal judges were supposed to report on. And Justice Thomas went back and resubmitted corrected 13 years' of false statements where he checked the box on his financial statement that his wife had no income.

One of the interesting things today is, he said, the problem was he didn't understand the form "financial disclosure." It made me laugh to think that a Supreme Court justice couldn't fill out a simple financial reporting form, and yet has to deal with so many issues that impact on all Americans across the country. We hope that this will put a little chill in the hearts of the justices to recognize that they're justices for all the people.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Bob Edgar, talk a little bit, if you would, about the role of the Koch brothers, these multibillionaires who funded the Tea Party groups and other right-wing organizations across the United States. What is their involvement specifically with Justices Thomas and Scalia?

BOB EDGAR: Charles and David Koch, these two multibillionaires have for 30 years funded much of the conservative thinktanks and conservative efforts to elect public officials who are really representative of corporate interests. These two gentlemen have seminars out in Palm Springs; they're having one (the weekend of Jan. 28-29). What they've done is they've put their money into secret efforts to campaign against elected officials; they have put their money behind candidates that support oil interests and coal interests and health care interests and insurance interests, and we just think that much of that money because of Citizens United could in fact be money that comes from foreign governments, it could be money from defense contractors, and it's clearly a lot of money that they themselves have put in as industrialists here in the United States. And we just want to expose that.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Bob, legally, what kind of hurdles do you have to get over to prove the idea that there was indeed a conflict of interest here with these two justices in the Citizens United case? The next question: What happens if the Justice Department does find that there was indeed a conflict of interest and the decision in that case is vacated?

BOB EDGAR: Well, it gets very complicated. First thing that has to happen is that Attorney General Eric Holder has to agree to do the investigation. Then he will assign some of the Justice Department folks to investigate the connection, check out the information that we've shared, and we have an invitation from the Koch brothers that brag about having Scalia and Thomas appear before their workshops and seminars. These are secretive events, closed to the general public, closed to the press. And we'd like to know what was discussed at those events. Maybe they were simply innocent meetings. But, if there's any evidence found that there was conversation about how the justices' decision on Citizen United could have been impacted both before and during the course of the Supreme Court's action, then the solicitor general would present that to Chief Justice John Roberts and call upon Chief Justice Roberts to pursue remedies within the Supreme Court. If the finding is true, then they would vacate the Citizens United case.

Contact Common Cause by calling (202) 833-1200 or visit their website at www.commoncause.org