Group Requests DOJ To Investigate Scalia and Thomas Involvement With Koch Corporate Fundraisers. By Lee Fang "Group Requests DOJ To Investigate Scalia and Thomas Involvement With Koch Corporate Fundraisers" Last October, ThinkProgress published a memo from Koch Industries detailing a secret meeting in June of 2010 organized by David and Charles Koch. The event brought together executives from Wall Street, the oil industry, and other large companies along with officials from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Glenn Beck, and longtime political operatives like Eric O’Keefe, who organized a network of Tea Party-planning groups. Yesterday, the good government advocacy group Common Cause filed a letter, citing ThinkProgress’ report, asking that the Justice Department investigate Scalia and Thomas for a potential conflict of interest in supporting the Citizens United decision while being involved with the Koch fundraisers. Notably, litigants in the Citizens United decision were also attendees of the Koch meeting.
Political activities of the Koch brothers. The political activities of the Koch brothers include the financial and political influence of Charles G. and David H. Koch on United States politics. This influence is seen both directly and indirectly via various advocacy and lobbying organizations in which they have an interest.[1][2] The Koch brothers are the sons of Fred C. Koch, who founded Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held company in the United States, of which they own 84%.[3] Having bought out two other brothers' interests, they remain in control of the family business, the fortune which they inherited from their father, and the Koch Family Foundations.
The brothers have heavily contributed to libertarian and conservative think tanks and campaigns. Background[edit] David H. David Koch has voiced support for gay marriage and U.S. military withdrawal from the Middle East. Interested in maintaining their privacy, they prefer to spend on donations to non-profit groups who do not disclose donors.[17] Impact[edit] Koch-backed political network, built to shield donors, raised $400 million in 2012 elections. The resources and the breadth of the organization make it singular in American politics: an operation conducted outside the campaign finance system, employing an array of groups aimed at stopping what its financiers view as government overreach.
Members of the coalition target different constituencies but together have mounted attacks on the new health-care law, federal spending and environmental regulations. Key players in the Koch-backed network have already begun engaging in the 2014 midterm elections, hiring new staff members to expand operations and strafing House and Senate Democrats with hard-hitting ads over their support for the Affordable Care Act. Its funders remain largely unknown; the coalition was carefully constructed with extensive legal barriers to shield its donors. But they have substantial firepower. The left has its own financial muscle, of course; unions plowed roughly $400 million into national, state and local elections in 2012.
The donors The money The structure. Political activities of the Koch brothers. Group Requests DOJ To Investigate Scalia and Thomas Involvement With Koch Corporate Fundraisers. This is Not Democracy. What the Koch brothers' spending tells us. Now the Kochs Are Coming After Your Solar Panels. December 18, 2013 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Now the Koch brothers are coming after my solar panels. I had solar panels installed on the roof of our Washington, D.C. home this year. Our electric bills fell by at least a third. What’s not to love? According to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative network better known as ALEC, our solar panels make us “free riders.” Yes, according to ALEC, an organization that specializes in getting the right-wing agenda written into state laws, people like me who invest in energy-efficiency and shrinking our carbon footprints ought to be penalized.
Why does ALEC want us punished? That’s no conspiracy theory. John Eick, the legislative analyst for ALEC’s energy, environment and agriculture program, confirmed to The Guardian that the organization would support making solar panel users pay extra for the electricity they generate. ALEC calls for penalties on 'freerider' homeowners in assault on clean energy | World news. An alliance of corporations and conservative activists is mobilising to penalise homeowners who install their own solar panels – casting them as "freeriders" – in a sweeping new offensive against renewable energy, the Guardian has learned. Over the coming year, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) will promote legislation with goals ranging from penalising individual homeowners and weakening state clean energy regulations, to blocking the Environmental Protection Agency, which is Barack Obama's main channel for climate action.
Details of Alec's strategy to block clean energy development at every stage – from the individual rooftop to the White House – are revealed as the group gathers for its policy summit in Washington this week. About 800 state legislators and business leaders are due to attend the three-day event, which begins on Wednesday with appearances by the Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson and the Republican budget guru and fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan.