BEST OF: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on How Dark Money Captured SCOTUS

In this Best Of episode, we revisit our 2023 conversation with Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. We talked to Sen. Whitehouse about his book, “The Scheme,” which examines how dark money and radical right wing activists worked tirelessly to gain control of the Supreme Court. Sen. Whitehouse lays out all the key players in this effort, including The Federalist Society and Leonard Leo, the main architect of this mission. By filtering dark money through dozens of agencies and blocking Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland, the right wing has a chokehold on the SCOTUS majority. As a result, we've seen rulings that are horrible for abortion rights, climate change, voting rights, and so much more. Sen. Whitehouse also explains some of the ways that the extremist takeover of the judicial system can be reigned in, but it's going to be a fight. READ Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's book, “The Scheme”:

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BEST OF: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on How Dark Money Captured SCOTUS is an episode from The Al Franken Podcast by Audioboom.

This episode is 45:46 long.

This episode was published on Jan 4, 2026.

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