Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this series of ``Scheme'' speeches is designed to chronicle a long-running, covert scheme to capture the Supreme Court. Regulatory Agencies have often and notoriously been captured by regulated interests. There is a whole doctrine of regulatory capture found in economics and administrative law that revolves around this history of the regulatory capture of administrative Agencies. So, if you can capture administrative Agencies to serve special interests, why not capture a court? The trajectory of these ``Scheme'' speeches has been through time, beginning with the Lewis Powell strategy report to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and then his enabling of that strategy as a Justice of the Supreme Court and then how the rightwing fringe was brought into organized alignment by the Koch brothers and then, of course, the link to this regulatory capture apparatus and its willing band of mercenary lawyers and witnesses. Tonight, I interrupt that time trajectory to discuss two decisions just delivered by the Supreme Court, decisions that clearly reflect the patterns and purposes of the Court capture effort. Let me start by saying that the single most important goal of this covert scheme is to protect itself. The apparatus behind the scheme may be put to innumerable political uses, but none of those political uses will be effectuated unless the underlying apparatus protects itself and stays operational.…”