James Bopp Jr on the Bill Meyer Radio Show
James Bopp Jr on the Bill Meyer Radio Show
Blog
‘The Dark Money Game’ Review: Alex Gibney’s Two Feature-Length HBO Documentaries Tackle Urgent Issues in Uninspired Ways
Prolific documentarian and HBO nonfiction lodestar Alex Gibney‘s last project for the premium cable network was Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos. The 2024 two-parter was a puppy dog-eager piece of fan service in which Gibney was the biggest fan of all, peppering David Chase and much of the surviving cast of The Sopranos with all of his questions. It was, in the grand scheme of things, perhaps Gibney’s least urgent or essential project to date, but it was light on its feet and, if anything, the rare HBO documentary that felt too short.
Bill Makes It Easier to Silence Those Speaking Out on Public Concerns
Texans for Lawsuit Reform’s mission statement says it was founded to “fight back against job-killing, abusive lawsuits” and “shut down new abuses of the legal system.” But the so-called tort reform group makes an exception when it comes to one kind of tort: the kind that lets the powerful silence their critics through lawfare.
GOP 'super-lawyer' backs Marion County appeal of Oregon State Hospital case to 9th Circuit
Adrienne Nelson, the federal judge who’s taken over a case overseeing the Oregon State Hospital, is a former public defender who’d become the first Black justice of the Oregon Supreme Court before receiving a federal appointment from President Joe Biden. Her predecessor on the case until March, Michael Mosman, was a former prosecutor who was appointed by former President George W. Bush. What the two have in common? A failure to be persuaded by Marion County's efforts to steer management of the state’s primary psychiatric institution in a different direction — one that county officials contend would better address public safety as well as the care of people experiencing mental illness. Continue reading article here.
Notre Dame Catholic Newspaper Asks Court To Award $178,000 for Legal Costs after Victory
CV NEWS FEED // Following their victory in court, student-run newspaper the Irish Rover has requested for the pro-abortion Notre Dame professor who filed a “frivolous” defamation lawsuit against them to pay $178,000 to cover their attorney fees. In early January, the St. Joseph Superior Court in Indiana dismissed the lawsuit that Dr. Tamara Kay filed against student publication the Irish Rover after months of legal proceedings. Kay filed the initial lawsuit in July of 2023, accusing the pro-life newspaper of defamation for publicizing Kay’s public pro-abortion advocacy on campus. On January 26, “The Irish Rover, independent, non-profit, student publication ‘devoted to preserving the Catholic identity of Notre Dame’ asked a court to force Dr. Tamara Kay… to pay $178,000 in legal fees for a frivolous defamation suit she brought against The Irish Rover and lost,” stated a January 29 email press release from the Irish Rover’s legal representative, the Bopp Law Firm.
Tamara Kay v. The Irish Rover Dismissed
The defamation lawsuit brought against the Irish Rover by Prof. Tamara Kay in June 2023 was dismissed by St. Joseph County, Indiana, Superior Court on Jan 8, 2024, under Indiana’s Anti-SLAPP law. The court’s ruling, issued by Justice Steven David, held that, “the alleged defamatory statements were true, within the meaning of the law, not made with actual malice, did not contain a defamatory inference, and there were no damages that were causally linked to The Irish Rover Articles, Dr. Kay’s defamation claim fails and the statements in the Articles were lawful
Roe v Wade falls. Indiana overturns a 50-year law. See how it happened in 'First to Act'
Indiana lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1 in 2022, prohibiting all abortions except in the cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormalities, or when the mother's life is at risk. On Aug. 21, more than a year after Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the bill into law, most abortions in Indiana officially became illegal, following a decision by the Indiana Supreme Court to deny a request from the ACLU and Planned Parenthood to rehear the case. Read the full Indy Star article here.
Long Battle by Foes of Campaign Finance Rules Shifts Landscape
washington: It was Thanksgiving break of 1998 at Capital University Law School in Ohio, and Senator Mitch McConnell was on the phone for Prof. Bradley Smith. Mr. McConnell aides had already approached the conservative law professor about a spot on the Federal Election Commission, but Mr. Smith was hesitant. Now the senator himself was calling, and he was not going to be turned down. Long Battle by Foes of Campaign Finance Rules Shifts Landscape
Court Challenges Await Controls on Soft Money
If Congress enacts any part of the campaign finance legislation being debated in the Senate this week the sponsors may exult in their victory, but James Bopp Jr. will be waiting for them at the courthouse door.
The Big Bopper: Exploding the Canons of Judicial Ethics
James Bopp Jr. is driving his six-year-old Lincoln LS past the Vigo County Courthouse in Terre Haute, Ind. The huge limestone neo-Baroque structure looms over much of an otherwise sparse area at the edge of downtown. Bopp frequented the building when he augmented his fledgling general practice as a part-time prosecutor in the late 1970s. Along with personal injury cases, he handled welfare fraud. He is believed to have gotten the first murder conviction there against a woman; he also put away the youngest murder defendant, age 16. Bopp’s practice has mostly outgrown the old courthouse, now only an occasional venue for him in state election law matters. Read the full ABA Journal article here.
Jim Bopp's Fight to Liberate Political Money
No sooner had we noted that conservative attorney James Bopp seemed to be setting up to sue the Federal Election Commission over an anti-abortion, anti-Obama ad, we got this news: Bopp sued the FEC Friday over an anti-abortion, anti-Obama ad. Read the full NPR article here.
James Bopp: The 'Country Lawyer' Shaping U.S. Campaign Finance Law
A new loophole is being pried open in the campaign finance rules. It would enable federal candidates to once again solicit corporate money to finance organizations that promise to help them get elected. The idea comes from a lawyer who has done more than anyone else over the years to upset the status quo in America's political money laws — James Bopp Jr., of Terre Haute, Ind. Read the full NPR article here.
The Counter-Reformation: The Fall of Campaign Finance Reform
WASHINGTON -- In the first two weeks of January 2006, the Senate Judiciary Committee held confirmation hearings for President George W. Bush's second nominee to the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito. By replacing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor with Alito, Bush was replacing the Court's swing vote with a reliable conservative. This move would affect countless issues, but one that never came up during those confirmation hearings, campaign finance reform, would wind up the defining issue of Alito's early years on the Court. Read the full Huffington Post article here.
The New Price of American Politics
Not since the Gilded Age has our politics been opened so wide to corporate contributions and donations from secret sources. And the new era of big money has just begun. Jim Bopp, its intellectual architect, believes this is a good thing—the more money, the better, he says. Reformers (and most voters) disagree. Their battle is over the most-basic ideas of our democracy; at stake—according to both sides—is either the revitalization of politics, or its final capture by the powerful.
Campaign finance system is broken says GOP super-lawyer Jim Bopp
For decades, conservative attorney Jim Bopp has fought on the front lines of a regulatory war over how political campaigns are financed. As a staunch proponent of deregulation, Bopp has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on multiple occasions, including during the 2008 Wisconsin Right to Life v. Federal Election Commission ruling that overturned the ban on corporate-funded issue ads ahead of an election — what federal regulators call “electioneering communications.” Read the full Center for Public Integrity article here.
Super lawyer Jim Bopp takes on McCain-backed tax act that targets Americans overseas
Jim Bopp, the hard-charging lawyer who persuaded the Supreme Court to strike down crucial elements in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, has a new target in his legal sights: a bank and taxation statute that hits Americans overseas. Read the full Washington Times article here.
Indiana's deep historical conservative roots
BLOOMINGTON – R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. found himself alone backstage at the Indiana University Auditorium April 25, 1968. Before him stood U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, campaigning before a full house in the midst of the frenzied Indiana Democratic presidential primary. Behind him was an open door leading to RFK’s waiting car, and no one else. Read the full Greensburg Daily News article here.
How anti-abortion activists laid the groundwork for rollback of Roe v. Wade
Last month, a leaked draft opinion showed that the Supreme Court may soon overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that provided a right to abortion across the country. That decision is not yet final, but as special correspondent Cat Wise reports, the work by abortion-rights opponents to arrive at this moment has been decades in the making.
The Christian Right Mastermind Behind Citizens United Says It’s Good for Democracy
When you think of the Christian Right and politics, probably you think of abortion, homosexuality, and religious exemptions. You probably don’t think of campaign finance. James Bopp does. Although you’ve probably never heard his name before, Bopp was one of the leading minds behind Citizens United and other efforts to deregulate political spending. He’s also been the lawyer for leading Christian Right organizations including the National Right to Life Committee, National Organization for Marriage, the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family.
Bellwether's local history includes prominent figures from left and right
Just a few blocks from conservative activist lawyer Jim Bopp’s downtown Terre Haute law office sits the former home of labor icon Eugene Debs. Even closer is the statue of Max Ehrmann, whose poem “Desiderata” reminded people worldwide that each of them is “a child of the universe.” On the western edge of the downtown district, in the 300 block of old South Second Street, acclaimed and provocative novelist Theodore Dreiser was born. All four are native sons of America’s presidential bellwether, Vigo County. The place where a majority of voters have cast ballots for the winning presidential candidate in 30 of the past 32 elections, swaying back and forth from Republicans to Democrats, would seemingly possess ideological diversity. The differences between Bopp and Debs, Ehrmann and Dreiser reflect such an array of thought.
The Supreme Court might overturn Roe. It took decades of scorched-earth conservative politics to get here.
The Supreme Court might overturn Roe. It took decades of scorched-earth conservative politics to get here. Upholding Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban could severely damage American belief in the court’s legitimacy.
How Jim Bopp engineered the right’s (likely) successful crusade against Roe v. Wade
When Jim Bopp graduated from law school in 1973, overturning Roe v. Wade was fresh in his mind. He came up with a plan and hit the stacks, he recalled on Today, Explained, Vox’s daily news explainer podcast: “I would go to either the law school library or the Supreme Court Library at the State Capitol. I had to go find the books about the Supreme Court, the history of the Supreme Court, and particularly, overturning precedent.”
An Anti-Abortion Campaigner on the Movement's Historic Win
After Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, a group of conservative lawyers embarked on what would become a decades-long mission to reverse the ruling. One of those lawyers, James Bopp, explains how they succeeded and what comes next.
Four with Terre Haute ties among 250 'most influential' Hoosiers
Four with Terre Haute ties among 250 'most influential' Hoosiers
James Bopp, Jr. Recognized as Among the “Elite Cadre” of Supreme Court Lawyers
Among lawyers who practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, James Bopp, Jr. has been recognized as one of “an elite cadre of lawyers (that) has emerged as first among equals, giving their clients a disproportionate chance to influence the law of the land.” So concludes a December 8th Reuters Sp...