#edward blum

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A Powerful Right-Wing Activist Is Secretly Funding Attacks On Trans Rights

Documents obtained by HuffPost show that Leo, a powerful figure who helped Donald Trump select Supreme Court justices, has funneled money to

Molly Redden at HuffPost:

A group at the center of conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo’s network funneled $750,000 to an influential new lobbying operation that pushes anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the country, new tax records show. Do No Harm presents itself as a grassroots association of doctors against gender-affirming care and diversity efforts in the medical profession. The group, which was founded in 2022, does not disclose its donors. But newly disclosed tax filings provided to HuffPost by Accountable.US, a progressive watchdog, show that the Concord Fund, the funding arm of Leo’s network, donated $750,000 in 2022 to Do No Harm Action, the group’s official lobbying effort. Do No Harm also received more than $1.4 million from a nonprofit, the Project on Fair Representation, run by conservative activist Edward Blum, new records show. Blum, a conservative activist who helped engineer two Supreme Court cases that struck down affirmative action and major sections of the Voting Rights Act, is now a Do No Harm board member.

HuffPost previously revealed that Do No Harm received $1 million in seed funding from Joseph Edelman, a billionaire hedge fund CEO, and his wife, Suzy Edelman, who has said she considers “transgenderism” “a fiction designed to destroy.” Leo is best known as the kingpin of a decades-long effort to pack the federal judiciary with conservative judges. As the leader of the Federalist Society, Leo assembled a vast and secretive network of wealthy donors and nonprofits to amplify the power of the conservative legal movement, culminating in Leo handpicking the list of former President Donald Trump’s potential nominees to the Supreme Court. While some of his efforts are highly public, others, like the funding of Do No Harm, occur with little fanfare. The medley of conservative groups channeling money to Do No Harm underscores the growing belief on the right that attacking trans rights is “a political winner.”

[...] After Trump left office, Leo vastly expanded his efforts to target a wide spectrum of conservative policy goals and hobby horses. Powered in part by the largest known political donation in U.S. history — a $1.6 billion gift from a reclusive electronics mogul named Barre Seid — Leo’s network is now fueling political attacks on issues including abortion access, voting rights and critical race theory. Since 2022, the Concord Fund has received at least $55 million from the nonprofit that houses Seid’s gift, the Marble Trust. Do No Harm’s goals dovetail neatly with Leo’s expanded mission. The group has helped pay for activists and expert witnesses to travel the country, testifying in favor of bans on gender-affirming care for minors. On top of fighting to restrict transgender care, Do No Harm is suing Louisiana and Montana over modest efforts to diversify their state medical boards and trying to dismantle a Pfizer fellowship designed to put more Black, Latino and Native American medical professionals in leadership positions.

Concord Fund, the funding arm of right-wing megadonor Leonard Leo, is funding anti-trans and anti-DEI extremist group Do No Harm to push bans on gender-affirming healthcare for trans youths (and adults in some cases) and diversity initiatives in the medical profession.

[whitesinhistory]

@thegrio:

At a New York news conference, the attorneys also announced that prominent civil rights lawyers, including Ben Crump, would join the defense for the Fearless Fund, which was founded in 2019 by three Black women.

The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, was brought by a nonprofit founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, the man behind the Supreme Court cases that led to the dismantling of race-conscious college admissions programs across the U.S.

The venture capital firm was established to address barriers that exists in venture capital funding for businesses led by women of color. It runs the grant contest four times a year. To be eligible, a business must be at least 51% owned by a Black woman, among other qualifications.

“Today, the playing field is not level — that is beyond dispute,” Alphonso David, a civil rights attorney who serves as president & CEO of The Global Black Economic Forum, said at the news conference. “Those targeting Fearless Fund want to propagate a system that privileges some and shuts out most. They want us to pretend that inequities do not exist. They want us to deny our history.”

Attorney Ben Crump said he was grateful to be able to defend the women who run the Fund against “the enemies of equality.”

Click on the 🔗 to read more.

Attorneys for an Atlanta-based venture capital firm being sued over a grant program for Black women vowed Thursday to fight back against the

Head to FearlessFreedomNow.Org to learn how you can support the cause.

🎥 @cbsmornings, @fearless.fund

@dhaaruni

[macdailynews]

Apple backs Harvard on use of race in college admissions

Apple backs Harvard on use of race in college admissions

In a legal battle that could shape the use of race in college admissions for decades to come, Apple, Intel, and Amgen are among more than a dozen companies supporting Harvard University which is fighting a challenge by Edward Blum, an opponent of affirmative action who seeks to stop the university from using race as a criterion in race in college admissions.

Patricia Hurtado for Bloomberg:

Having…

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The public voice of Harvard’s legal foe is Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, the group that sued.

Blum, 66, who is white and lives in Florida and Maine, is known for organising legal challenges to affirmative action policies and voting rights laws.

He championed the claim that the race-conscious admission policy of the University of Texas was unconstitutional, through a lawsuit on behalf of a white woman named Abigail Fisher whose application had been denied.

A group called Asian American Coalition for Education and others rallied Sunday afternoon in Boston in support of the lawsuit. But critics question Blum’s agenda.

“Is he concerned about discrimination against Asian-Americans?” said Janelle Wong, a professor of Asian-American studies at the University of Maryland, who supports the Harvard policy.

“My answer is no way.”

Nicole Ochi, supervising lawyer at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, a group helping defend Harvard in the trial, told Politico: “Ed Blum is just trying to use Asian Americans as a cover for his true agenda of changing policies that will ultimately benefit white students who already have the most advantages in the admissions process and in life.”

(continue reading)

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University of Chicago agrees to pay $13.5 million to students after being accused of participating in a 'price-fixing cartel' with other pre

After nearly two years of litigation, UChicago settled claims it conspired with top colleges including Brown and Yale to limit financial aid

[whitesinhistory]

@itskimberlyrenee:

Follow @itskimberlyrenee for more.

Would you like to send a letter to Blum about how you feel? The NY Times says he lives in South Thomaston, Maine, in a grey house that overlooks Penobscot Bay.

🟡 To support my independent storytelling and keep this content accessible to everyone, please consider subscribing or visiting my bio link (@itskimberlyrenee). All of my socials and $ apps are there.

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