Appendix 4 of "The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law"
Examples of the Involvement and Funding of Right-Wing Organizations That Advocate Tort Reform
Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)
Washington Legal Foundation (WLF)
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA)
Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy
Citizens For a Sound Economy (CSE)
George Mason University School of Law Law and Economics Center
George MasonUniversity Foundation, Inc.
Heritage Foundation
Website: http://www.heritage.org/
Statements from the Heritage Foundation website:
"Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute ö a think tank ö whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense." [108]
"We believe that ideas have consequences, but that those ideas must be promoted aggressively. So, we constantly try innovative ways to market our ideas." [109]
Example of Heritage Foundation tort-reform product:
"The Urgent Need for Civil Justice Reform" by Edwin Meese III and Paul Rosenzweig. [110] A sample from this commentary:
"These lawyers, with the complicity of creative judges in a few states, routinely create new rights and obligations where none had existed before. The tobacco cases are merely the blueprint for a strategy of systematically transferring political power to a select few. [. . .] The next set of targets for predatory lawsuits has been identified: With the assistance of state courts, tort lawyers next intend to reform the health-care system in America. And beyond the health-care system looms the specter of other "creative" suits. [. . .] In short, if the trial lawyers can't change America through the courts, they are seeking to buy the Congress they need to enact the agendas they support.
And every American, conservative or liberal, should fear the prospect. Because if we don't fix the civil justice system, we risk all that is precious in the American system -- democracy and self-government most of all."
Heritage Foundation: Examples of recent major right-wing foundation funding: [111]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 1,375,000 | No comment provided | ||
| 15,000 | No comment provided | The Carthage Foundation (SCAIFE) | |
| 200,000 | General support | Castle Rock Foundation (COORS) | |
| 925,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 200,000 | General operating support. | ||
| 1,500,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 780,000 | No purpose given | ||
| 412,500 | To support the Domestic Policies Studies Program, Bradley Resident Fellows, and State Relations Department | ||
| 825,000 | Continued support of the Domestic Policies Studies Program, Bradley Resident Fellows, and State Relations Department | ||
| 200,000 | General support of think tank providing free-market answers to national public policy issues |
Heartland Institute
Website: http://www.heartland.org/
Example tort-reform product:
Publication "Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly," available at website. [112]
Example of corporate funding source, according to Friends of the Earth: [113]
Funding from ExxonMobil $90,000 in 2001
Example of interconnectedness:
From Heartland's Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly:
"Information on lawsuit abuse can be found on these Web sites:
- www.heartland.org -- Heartland Institute
- www.alec.org -- American Legislative Exchange Council
- www.atra.org -- American Tort Reform Association
- www.fed-soc.org -- Federalist Society
- www.halt.org - HALT
- www.manhattan-institute.org -- Manhattan Institute
- www.overlawyered.com - OverLawyered
- www.wlf.org -- Washington Legal Foundation"
Heartland Institute: Examples of recent foundation funding: [114]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 10,000 | Educational Programs | ||
| 15,000 | Intellectual Ammunition magazine | ||
| 10,000 | Educational Programs | ||
| 10,000 | Educational Programs | ||
| 25,000 | To support general operations | ||
| 25,000 | POLICY NETWORK SUPPORT | ||
| 10,000 | General Program |
Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)
ATR is not directly tied to the tort-reform movement, but is included here because it funds Grover Norquist, who leads the weekly right-wing coordination meetings, and who has written that the real goal of tort reform is to "defund" trial lawyers as a step toward defunding "the left."
Web address: http://www.atr.org
Some examples of recent foundation funding: [115]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 100,000 | No comment provided | ||
| 50,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 50,000 | Public education efforts on cutting taxes and reducing the cost of government | ||
| 50,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 75,000 | Public education efforts on reducing taxes and reducing the cost of government | ||
| 50,000 | no description given | The Carthage Foundation (COORS) | |
| 100,000 | No purpose given | ||
| 50,000 | No description available | ||
| 100,000 | Public education efforts on reducing taxes and the cost of government | ||
| 75,000 | PROGRAM SUPPORT | ||
| 12,500 | To support general program activities | ||
| 12,500 | To support general program activities |
Washington Legal Foundation (WLF)
Website: http://www.wlf.org/
Statements from the WLF website:
"WLF's broad-based communications outreach program disseminates our free enterprise message through print and electronic media, public education advertising campaigns, and on-site seminars and briefings. WLF also publishes its opinion editorials "In All Fairness" in The New York Times, which reaches seventy major media markets and is read by ninety percent of America's major newspaper editors.
WLF publishes timely legal studies in seven highly regarded formats written by expert authors. Through target marketing, our publications reach judges, federal and state legislators, executive branch officials, business leaders, the media, students, professors, and national decision-makers. To date, we have produced 1,470 publications." [116]
"WLF is a unique institution with three essential cornerstone programs:
- shaping public policy through aggressive litigation and advocacy
- publishing timely legal studies
- educating policy-makers and the public through extensive communications outreach" [117]
Example tort reform product:
Civil Justice Reform, Online Journal. [118]
WLF Publishes the Legal Opinion Letter, a pro- tort reform publication.
Washington Legal Foundation: Examples of recent foundation funding: [119]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 50,000 | No comment provided | The Carthage Foundation (SCAIFE) | |
| 65,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 100,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 500,000 | Litigation and legal studies programs. | ||
| 100,000 | WLF's Civic Communications Program. | ||
| 75,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 250,000 | A bi-weekly series of op-ed articles published in the New York Times | ||
| 250,000 | Litigation and legal studies programs | ||
| 125,000 | No description available | The Carthage Foundation (SCAIFE) | |
| 150,000 | General Operating Support |
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
Civil Justice Task Force
Website: http://www.alec.org/am/template.cfm?section=home
"Established in 1973 by Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, among others, ALEC's purpose is to reach out to state office holders. In the words of ALEC's executive director, Sam Brunelli,
ÎALEC's goal is to ensure that these state legislators are so well informed, so well armed, that they can set the terms of the public policy debate, that they can change the agenda, that they can lead. This is the infrastructure that will reclaim the states for our movement.'
ALEC has the financial support of more than 200 corporations including Coors, Amway, IBM, Ford, Philip Morris, Exxon, Texaco and Shell Oil." [120]
- Media Transparency description of ALEC
ALEC: Examples of recent foundation funding: [121]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 70,000 | No comment provided | Allegheny Foundation (SCAIFE) | |
| 50,000 | General support | Castle Rock Foundation (COORS) | |
| 75,000 | General operating support | ||
| 75,000 | No purpose given. | Allegheny Foundation (SCAIFE) | |
| 85,000 | General Operating Support. | ||
| 50,000 | General support. | ||
| 75,000 | No description given | ||
| 50,000 | Provides policy leaders in the 50 states with research, model legislation general support for 1998/1999 | ||
| 50,000 | Agency provides policy leaders in the 50 states with research and model legislation. General support of 2000 activities | ||
| 13,000 | General Operating Support. |
Federalist Society
Website: http://www.fed-soc.org/
Example tort reform product:
Publishes Class Action Watch. [122]
Federalist Society: Examples of recent foundation funding: [123]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 300,000 | No comment provided | ||
| 100,000 | No comment provided | The Carthage Foundation (SCAIFE) | |
| 92,500 | To support general operations ($160,000) and a matching grant for the State Constitutions Project ($25,000) | ||
| 60,000 | General operating support | Castle Rock Foundation (COORS) | |
| 100,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 25,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 45,000 | Student Education | ||
| 100,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 206,000 | The administration of the John M. Olin Fellows in Law program | ||
| 225,000 | The John M. Olin Lectures in Law Series, the Citizen-Lawyer Project and the state constitutions project | ||
| 92,500 | To support general operations ($160,000) and a matching grant for the State Constitutions Project ($25,000) | ||
| 80,000 | To support general operations | ||
| 80,000 | To support general operations | ||
| 206,000 | The administration of John M. Olin Fellows in Law program. | ||
| 20,000 | The administration of the John M. Olin Fellows in Law program. | ||
| 180,000 | The John M. Olin Lectures in Law Series, the Citizen-Lawyer Project and a conference on tort liability. | ||
| 200,000 | No purpose given. |
National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA)
Website: http://www.ncpa.org
Statement from NCPA's website:
"The NCPA's goal is to develop and promote private alternatives to government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on the strength of the competitive, entrepreneurial private sector. Topics include reforms in health care, taxes, Social Security, welfare, criminal justice, education and environmental regulation."
From National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy's study, "The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations":
"The NCPA's goal is to develop and promote private alternatives to government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on the strength of the competitive, entrepreneurial private sector. Topics include reforms in health care, taxes, Social Security, welfare, criminal justice, education and environmental regulation."
"The National Center for Policy Analysis prides itself on aggressively marketing its products for maximum impact by "targeting key political leaders and special interest groups, establishing on-going ties with members of the print and electronic media, and testifying before Congress, federal agencies, state lawmakers, and national associations." [124]
Example tort-reform product:
"Doctors Face Soaring Malpractice Premiums" [125]
Examples of corporate funding sources, from Science in the Public Interest: [126]
National Center for Policy Analysis Board of Directors
- Thomas W. Smith, Managing Partner of Prescott Investors, Inc.
- John C. Goodman, President, NCPA
- Pete du Pont, Richards, Layton and Finger
- James Cleo Thompson, Jr., Chairman of the Board, Thompson Petroleum Corp.
- Jere W. Thompson, President, The Williamsburg Corporation
- Dan W. Cook III, Senior Director of Goldman Sachs & Co.
- Robert H. Dedman, Chairman of the Board, ClubCorp International
- Virginia Manheimer, Trustee, The Hickory Foundation
- Henry J. "Bud" Smith, Chairman Emeritus, Clark/Bardes, Inc.
Supporting Foundations include:
- DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund
- El Paso Energy Foundation
- ExxonMobil Foundation
- Eli Lilly and Company Foundation
- Lilly Endowment Inc.
- Procter & Gamble Fund" [127]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 175,000 | No comment provided | ||
| 50,000 | To support general operations | ||
| 50,000 | To support general operations | ||
| 75,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 50,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 30,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 50,000 | To support general operations | ||
| 50,000 | To support general operations | ||
| 50,000 | To support general operations | ||
| 150,000 | The Center's research and education programs, including a study on national health insurance. | ||
| 50,000 | General Operating Support. | ||
| 150,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 150,000 | No purpose given | ||
| 100,000 | To support general operations | ||
| 50,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 150,000 | The Center's research and education programs | ||
| 125,000 | no description given | ||
| 75,000 | No purpose given |
Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy
Website: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/clp.htm
Statement from their website:
"The Center for Legal Policy (CLP) is a leading voice for reform of America's civil justice system. Founded in 1986, hundreds of news reports have cited the CLP's civil justice work, with The Washington Post going so far as to call Senior Fellows Peter Huber and Walter Olson the "intellectual gurus of tort reform."
The CLP's mission is to communicate thoughtful ideas on civil justice reform to real decision-makers. The Center fulfills this mission by publishing general-interest books and academic volumes; white papers, reports and op-eds; and a forum series on civil justice issues. The CLP also holds conferences and seminars for policy-makers, judges and journalists; CLP senior fellows make frequent radio, television and public appearances and have testified before both houses of Congress; and Senior Fellow Walter Olson manages a website, overlawyered.com, with daily updates and incisive commentary on the effects of "overlawyering" on American business and society.
CLP Books such as Liability and Galileo's Revenge, written by Senior Fellow Peter Huber, and The Litigation Explosion and The Excuse Factory, written by Senior Fellow Walter Olson, have permanently changed the legal landscape in the field of tort."
Example tort-reform product:
Walter Olson's Book: "The Rule of Lawyers ö How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America's Rule of Law." [128]
"A Spanking for the Trial Lawyers" Wall Street Journal, 5-23-03 [129]
Manhattan Institute: Examples of recent foundation funding: [130]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 150,000 | No comment provided | ||
| 30,000 | No comment provided | The Carthage Foundation (SCAIFE) | |
| 75,000 MONTHLY | To support general operations | ||
| 75,000 | To support general operations | ||
| 35,000 | General operating support | Castle Rock Foundation (COORS) | |
| 150,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 100,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 62,500 MONTHLY | To support general operations | ||
| 15,000 | No purpose given. | The Carthage Foundation (SCAIFE) | |
| 400,000 | City Journal; fellowships for Heather MacDonald (Heather Mac Donald), Tamar Jacoby and Abigail Thernstrom; and the Jeremiah Project directed by Prof. John DiIulio. | ||
| 183,449 | Gaining Ground? Measuring the Impact of | ||
| 175,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 30,000 | To support a fellowship for Charles Murray | ||
| 150,000 | General support and publication program | ||
| 150,000 | General operating and publication support |
Cato Institute
Website: http://www.cato.org
From Media Transparency's report on the Cato Institute:
"Founded in 1977 by libertarian activists, the Cato Institute moved to Washington, D.C. in 1981 in a bid to become an influential player in Washington policy circles. Today (1997), Cato is a multi-million dollar, multi-issue research and advocacy organization with a staff of 40-plus senior managers, policy analysts, and communications specialists. It is also assisted by the work of over 75 adjunct Cato scholars.
Cato's mission is to "increase the understanding of public policies based on the principles of limited government, free markets, individual liberty, and peace. The Institute will use the most effective means to originate, advocate, promote, and disseminate applicable policy proposals that create free, open, and civil societies in the United States and throughout the world." [131]
Examples of corporate funding sources:
"The Cato Institute has also received funding from the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Petroleum Institute, Amoco, ARCO, the Armstrong Foundation, Association of American Railroads, Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, Coca-Cola, Eli Lilly Endowment, Exxon, Ford Motor Co., Golden Rule Insurance, Grover Hermann Foundation, JM Foundation, Liberty Fund, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Monsanto Co., Pfizer Inc., Philip Morris, Phillip M. McKenna Foundation, Procter and Gamble, Sarah Scaife Foundation, Sears Roebuck and Co., Sun Refining, T. Rowe Price and Assoc., and theVernon K. Krieble Foundation." [132]
Example tort reform products:
Cato's Tort Reform issues web pages. [133]
Cato Handbook for Congress, on tort reform [134]
Cato Institute: Examples of recent foundation funding: [135]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 60,000 | No comment provided | ||
| 50,000 | General Operating Support | Castle Rock Foundation COORS | |
| 500,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 250,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 750,000 | General Operating Support. | ||
| 250,000 | General Operating Support. | ||
| 125,000 | No purpose given | ||
| 100,000 | To support the Project on Social Security Privatization | ||
| 500,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 250,000 | Program Operating Support. | ||
| 100,000 | Support of Domestic Studies Program |
Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE)
Website: http://www.freedomworks.org/
Website second division: http://www.americansforprosperity.org/
Statement from their website:
"An elite group of greedy trial lawyers is exploiting our legal system and turning it into "jackpot justice." Over $163 billion is paid each year in damages and lawyers' fees related to tort lawsuits. We want to give back our legal system to honest, decent Americans. Our grassroots army has fought and won legal reforms at the federal level and the state level in Florida, Alabama, Texas, and Illinois. We educate citizens on how frivolous lawsuits affect them personally - impacting their pocketbooks, businesses, values and way of life. CSE activists are spearheading efforts to enact real tort reform across the country. What you can do: Attend our town meetings on lawsuit abuse. And tell your elected officials that you want our legal system returned to decent, honest Americans with real grievances."
From Media Transparency's report: [136]
"...Based in Washington, D.C., CSE describes itself as an organization of "grassroots citizens dedicated to free markets and limited government." However, it is commonly known as what Public Relations Quarterly has called a "corporate front group." The publication explained that "the use of such 'front groups' enables corporations to take part in public debates and government hearings behind a cover of community concern [in order to] oppose environmental regulations, and to introduce policies that enhance corporate profitability."
Example tort reform product:
Lawsuit Abuse : Issue Homepage [137]
Examples of corporate funding sources: [138]
"Philip Morris (>$1 million), US West ($1 million), Hertz ($25,000), DaimlerChrysler AG ($25,000), Exxon ($175,000), U.S. Sugar Corp ($280,000), Florida Crystals (sugar industry; $280,000), Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida ($140,000), Microsoft ($380,000)."
CSE: Examples of recent foundation funding: [139]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 175,000 | No comment provided | ||
| 175,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 450,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 250,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 750,000 | General Operating Support. | ||
| 700,000 | Educational Program Support. | ||
| 175,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 75,000 | no description given | ||
| 200,000 | No purpose given | ||
| 1,000,000 | General Operating Support | ||
| 600,000 | General Operating Support. |
George Mason University School of Law's Law & Economics Center
Website: http://www.gmu.edu/departments/law/lawecon/
The Law & Economic Center · "treats federal judges to all-expenses-paid, two-week seminars held at tony resorts. At these conferences, judges are drilled in advanced legal and economic theories that advocate a hands-off approach to the Îfree market.'" [140]
"The Law and Economics Center mission is to educate judges in how to apply principles of economic analysis to the law. By 1991, the Center had provided such training -- with seminars held at resort locations to enhance their attractiveness -- to over 40 percent of the federal judiciary.
"Like the Center for the Study of Market Processes, the LEC is run independently of George Mason, with corporate and foundation sponsors covering "all travel, lodging and meal expenses for the most powerful players in the legal system -- judges."- "Moving a Public Policy Agenda," National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy [141]
"Put simply, this "Center" is a right-wing propaganda mill masquerading as a purveyor of academic "economics."Ê The "teachers" have been Harold Demsetz and others from the University of Chicago and its major academic outposts (paid at an hourly rate commensurate with the up to $600 per hour commanded by George Stigler and the others as antitrust "experts" in court).Ê No opposing economists have ever been allowed to appear before the judges.Ê When I asked the Center's people why they didn't permit distinguished non-Chicago economists to share the podium at these judicial teach-ins, they laughed and said, "Let them go start their OWN seminars for the judges!"- Charles Mueller, Editor, Antitrust Law & Economics Review[142]
Some examples of recent foundation funding: [143]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 100,000 | LAW AND ECONOMICS CENTERS FOUNDED BY HENRY G. MANNE (AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, EMORY UNIVERSITY, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY) | ||
| 125,000 | LAW AND ECONOMICS CENTERS FOUNDED BY HENRY G. MANNE (AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, EMORY UNIVERSITY, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY) | ||
| 125,000 | LAW AND ECONOMICS CENTERS FOUNDED BY HENRY G. MANNE (AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, EMORY UNIVERSITY, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY) | ||
| 100,000 | LAW AND ECONOMICS CENTERS FOUNDED BY HENRY G. MANNE (AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, EMORY UNIVERSITY, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY) | ||
| 100,000 | LAW AND ECONOMICS CENTERS FOUNDED BY HENRY G. MANNE (AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, EMORY UNIVERSITY, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY) | ||
| 110,000 | LAW AND ECONOMICS CENTERS FOUNDED BY HENRY G. MANNE (AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, EMORY UNIVERSITY, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY) | ||
| 100,000 | LAW AND ECONOMICS CENTERS FOUNDED BY HENRY G. MANNE (AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, EMORY UNIVERSITY, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY) |
And:
George Mason University Foundation, Inc.
Some examples of recent foundation funding: [144]
| Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 325,000 | No comment provided | ||
| 400,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 3,030,250 | Educational and Research Programs | ||
| 20,000 | Law and Economics Center | ||
| 2,080,000 | Educational and Research Programs. | ||
| 550,000 | No purpose given. | ||
| 10,000 | Law and Economics Center | ||
| 450,000 | No purpose given | ||
| 10,000 | Law and Economics Center |
And:
George Mason University
Some examples of recent foundation funding: [145]
|
Date | Amount | Comment | Provider |
| 20,000 | School of Law | ||
| 200,000 | The programs of the Law and Economics Center | ||
| 200,000 | School of Law | ||
| 20,000 | School of Law | ||
| 45,455 | School of Law | ||
| 200,000 | School of Law. | ||
| 200,000 | School of Law. | ||
| 200,000 | School of Law. | ||
| 185,000 | School of Law. | ||
| 185,000 | School of Law. | ||
| 150,000 | School of Law. | ||
| 150,000 | School of Law. | ||
| 150,000 | School of Law. | ||
| 100,000 | School of Law. | ||
| 100,000 | School of Law. | ||
| 5,000 | School of Law & Law and Economics Center | ||
| 100,000 | Economics program for federal judges | ||
| 63,550 | Support the Law and Economics Center's 1987 Summer Economics Institute for Law Professors. | ||
| 100,000 | Law and Economics Center. | ||
| 63,000 | Law and Economics Center. |
|
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